Visiting Jan in Amman

I departed Paris on 7 September and overnited in Dubai (in a very uncomfortable chair at the airport) before heading to Amman on 8 September where Jan collected me at the airport with her driver!\r

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$ 1 US = .714 Jordan Dinar\r

$ 1 US = 53 Syria pound/lira\r

$ 1 US = 3.674 UAE dirham\r

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7 September - A gorgeous day in Paris. Waited for the plumber to show up at my brother in law's to replace the valves for the bathroom. Then walked with all my luggage to the Air France bus pick up stop near the Hotel La Fayette near Porte Maillot (10 euros to the airport). A bit of drama at the airport as they said that they had cancelled my Dubai Amman flight (I found reduced fare with airtreks by stopping in Dubai on Emirates). The problem was that the travel agent had booked it as a separate ticket so finally got that settled. Then they said I was only allowed one bag at 7kg as carry on so had to rearrange some items....a bit more time at checkin than I had planned but I was there early so all worked out (so far anyway). Only about half full flight Paris to Dubai on Boeing 777-300. Sat next to an Aussie named Mike who was visiting friends in Dubai before returning home to Noosa. The Dubai airport is quite an experience....very new and modern with heaps of shopping and clean toilets and a Starbucks (so had grande mocha at 1am)! Plus because I was an Emirates transfer, I got a free buffet dinner. They do have a hotel here (like Singapore) which I did not realize so would have spent a few hours snoozing since you pay by the hour (about 20 US dollars per hour or less if more hours). Decided to spend the 5 dollars on doing internet instead since I cannot really sleep and if I do, I may not wake up and would miss my flight! The flight over the Swiss Alps were beautiful. The movies were not that great so spent time reading DaVinci Code and snoozing and talking to Mike about travelling. In addition to films and music, you can also watch either the front or down view of the airplane....kinda fun for take off and landing!\r

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8 September - Emirates flight from Dubai to Amman was not as full as they had said. An Airbus with two seats on the outside and I was in seat 18K with no one next to me. Jan was at the airport with a driver to pick me up which was wonderful. Expedited the queue process by getting Jordanian dinars ($1 US = .71 JD) in Dubai and went straight to obtain visa and luggage. Very hot here. Jan's place is great with all the amenities! Now for a bath and a snooze and catchup on the internet and a walk to the grocery store for another cultural experience! I have to pack the shorts and singlets as the proper attire here is to cover the legs and shoulders. This should make for very warm walks about the city.\r

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Jan(et) is Chief of Party for the Jordan Poverty Alleviation Program; some websites of interest:\r

http://www.nathaninc.com/news/index.asp?bid=536388\r

http://www.jordanembassyus.org/11032003005.htm\r

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9 September - Up early with the call to prayer before 5am! We have decided to join friends of Jan's that are visiting here on business with her for a trip to Damascus Syria. We are busy today getting our Syrian visas (at 82.50 JD...over $100 US!)and then leave this afternoon via taxi to drive to Damascus (about three hour drive) for three days and plan to stay at the Sheraton Hotel which is a bit out of town so will end up taking taxis or doing heaps of walking. Much different from when I was there five years ago and stayed at the Al-Rabie which is right in town (a converted Damascene home). I did take an afternoon walk today to the local Safeway where our truck had stopped in 1999 to stock up and do internet! A bit different today on a Thursday versus in 1999 as we had stopped on a Friday (which was very quiet) and today was quite busy. Also stopped at a local restaurant for one of their wonderful fruit smoothies here! It was about a three hour drive to Damascus with the sun setting on the desert....just gorgeous! Most of our time driving were the stops at the border: first to change money, then to leave Jordan, then for the drivers to buy duty free smokes, then customs, then into Syria! Checked into the Sheraton and had great chat and snacks until about midnite.\r

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10 September (Damascus) - A $15 buffet brekkie at the Sheraton...these other ladies (Jan, Leila, and Sue) are working girls and on expense accounts so I will give that one a miss tomorrow. Then a taxi to the old town before first stopping at three ATMs to finally find one that works....Friday is a nonworking day here (Friday and Saturday are the weekend rather than Saturday and Sunday). We walked the Souq al-Hamidiyya (which was a bit emptier due to the holiday), visited the Umqyyad Mosque and the Azem Palace, had turkish coffee at Club des Journalists (many restaurants here on renovated Damascene homes), walked Sharia Medhat Pasha (Straight Street) enjoying the shops (fresh nuts, spices, local sweets) and the sights such as the old Roman Arch and a wedding at the Greek Orthodox church. An early supper at the Casablanca Restaurant of all the local foods such as mezze which is a variety of dishes in which you dip the Arabian bread. We are travelling with Leila whose mother is from Palestine so she speaks Arabic very well and is really helpful in getting around. We are such an international group! Leila recently married a man from Peru and just moved to Lima and Sue is British (but lived many years in Zimbabwe) with homes in Africa and France and now lives in Georgetown Washington DC working.\r

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11 September (Damascus) - We took a taxi again to the old city and had brekkie at Beit Jabri (another old Damascene home) and then I split from the ladies as they wanted to shop for rugs etc. I visited the Leather Souq, the Bird Market, Martyr Square for a fresh fruit juice, the Cultural Center Francais for an art exhibit and french coffee, the Al Rabie Hotel where I had stayed in 1999, fifteen minutes on the internet at Fast Link (for about 1 cent a minute; costs about 60 Syria Pounds for one hour (51 pounds = 1 US dollar)).\r

, the Avicenne Bookshop, the Omayad Hotel (where we had wanted to stay as it is closer to town but it was full...great old renovated hotel and cheaper), the souq Sarouijah, the Hejaz Train Station (which they are in the process of renovating), the Artisanat Market next to the National Museum (in the Takiyya-as-Suleimaniyya) and a stop at the Le Meridien on the walk back to use the loo. We had a buffet dinner at the Umayyad Palace and enjoyed the dervish dancer.\r

A shop with a great website:\r

http://www.anat-sy.org/home.html\r

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12 September(departed Damascus)- Today is the Isra wa al-Miraj holiday which is the Prophets Day of Ascension or Night Journey. We took a taxi to the Bab Sharqi (one of the gates) to visit St Paul's Church where Paul escaped in a basket then coffee at Via Recta restaurant. The ladies did shopping and I did more walking and enjoyed a kebab and fruit drink at Martyrs Square. Great drive back to Amman, departing at 2pm, and enjoyed the beautiful desert views. Home for salad and views of the sunset on the veranda.\r

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13 September - Jan's maid arrived early to clean the apartment so I decided to walk to the Intercontinental Hotel(about half hour walk) where Jan has a membership and lay by the pool. It still costs for guests though...10 Jordan dinars. On the way, I stopped at Emirates to confirm my flights and they had cancelled my flight from Amman to Dubai thanks to the woman who screwed it up when I departed Paris...they claim that I was a no show since the woman in Paris had double booked me! So spent a few hours at the pool then walked back to Jan's to retrieve my tickets and return to Emirates to get it straightened out. Decided to return to InterCon to use the gym since I had already paid for use of the spa so worked out while watching and listening to Arabic MTV!\r

Amman is not very pedestrian friendly as the roads/sidewalks are not designed to accommodate those walking. There are either no sidewalks or holes in the sidewalks or very steep curbs to climb up and down or they are marble and you feel that you may slip and fall or the trees are so low that you need to walk hunched over. In addition, there are not many parks here either. It is continuous sunshine with a very dry heat although the breeze is great and in the evening it does get cool.\r

Per the Lonely Planet, one of your greatest challenges in Amman is making it safely from one side of the street to the other. Contrary to what you may think, Amman drivers have no desire to run you over, they just want to get to their destination as quickly as possible. In slow moving traffic, the name of the game is brinkmanship-whoever yeilds last will win and a car missing you by inches may scare the hell out of you but is actually a normal and precisely calculated course of events. Some travellers have even been known to hail a taxi so that it will block traffic and give them a lane's head start! I just find a local that is crossing and followup him/her.\r

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14 September - Another morning to drink coffee and watch the sheep feeding in the field below Jan's veranda with their shepherd on a donkey. I am not sure what they are eating though as it looks mostly like dirt...very dusty city here so it is difficult to keep the house always dust free. Early morning errands like catching up on internet/email (this is great to have high speed internet available around the clock) and washing of the clothes. A long walk to downtown Amman which is about one hour away (Amman is a sprawling modern city). \r

Visited the Citadel which sits atop a hill (about 850m) with great views of the city and the Roman Theatre (very impressive as it is cut into the side of a hill with seating capacity for 6000 in three tiers), the Odeon (smaller amphitheatre), Forum/Temple of Hercules (a row of columns is all that is left) and Hashemite Square below. The first inhabitants of the area lived at this highest point of Amman with artefacts dating from the Bronze Age. The entire complex is surrounded by walls with the most impressive series of buildings inside being the Umayyad Palace. It was built by the Umayyad Arabs about AD 720 but destroyed by an earthquake in AD 749. There is also an enormous cistern, the Byzantine Basilica, the Temple of Hercules and the National Archaelogical Museum with examples of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran in 1952, a copy of the Mesha Stele and various artefacts from Petra and Jerash. All this for only 1 JD! The Souk Ukaz is happening this week at the Citadel as they were setting up the stage while I was there. More info at:\r

http://www.jordanictforum.com/jordanictforum2004/program-eng04.pdf\r

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15 September - Early morning meditation sitting on the veranda and listening to the birds sing and staring at all of the buildings of Amman that are all the same color....various shades of beige! There is a building and color code to which you must adhere...monochromatic! \r

Hotmail appears to have problems as messages that I have sent are not being received....I hope that they fix it soon.\r

Another walk around the city, this time in search of the Jordan Tourism Board office, which I found but it is being renovated so they had no information! Loo stop at the Sheraton and water stop at the Four Seasons before heading back to Jan's. Also stopped at King Abdullah Square which has a tram that goes up the (small) hill supposedly for a view of the city. The man at the booth said that it was 1 JD and then the tram stopped working and he told me that I would have to wait. Looking a bit more closely, I found that you could walk up via the small shops and rental car agencies along the sidewalk. After my walk, I concluded that this place was not very busy or maybe it is with the locals on the weekends as it also has children's rides...all part of the experience!\r

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16 September - Another gorgeous sunny day in Amman although both the nights and early mornings are quite cool and the leaves are falling from the trees so autumn is arriving. Walked to visit Jan at her office about twenty minutes away. She is Chief of Party for the Jordan Poverty Alleviation Program that is a USAID funded Project for the Ministry of Social Development led by Nathan Associates Inc out of Arlington Virginia. We had dinner this evening at Fakhr el-Din, a highly recommended Arabic food restaurant in a classy setting behind the Iraqi Embassy in Jebel Amman. It is a going away gathering for some US visitors that have been visiting and working here for the project. The typical Arab meal has enough starters (mezze, usually vegetarian) to make the meal and when the main dish (usually meat) arrives,you are too full to eat it! Typical starters are Arabic unleavened bread to dip in hummus (chickpea paste) or baba ghanoug (mashed eggplant and tahini) and the salad tabouleh (parsley, cracked wheat, tomato, sesame seeds, lemon and garlic). And dessert is a favorite amongst the Jordanians as they love sugar! The basic formula is pastry drenched in honey, syrup and/or rose water (like baklava). We are definitely not going hungry!\r

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17 September - Friday (or Saturday as those in the USA know it) is the first day of the weekend here so we will enjoy the sun and explore. We did an early morning drive through the city as no one is around until noon...amazing how there were hardly any cars at 9am and then at 1, it was a traffic jam. We stopped at Wild Jordan Center which is a coffee shop that overlooks the city and the citadel and sells local products as a fund raiser for the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature.\r

http://209.41.172.238/newsandevents/readnews.cfm?id=469\r

We drove by the US Embassy here which is a bit out of town and looks like an armed fortress....very big with a wall around it and a tank out front! We spent late morning by the pool at the Intercontinental Hotel and then by 1pm, it became too crowded. We stopped at a local food stand on the way home and bought some shwarma to have for lunch. Shwarma is the Middle Eastern equivalent of the Greek gyros or the Turkish/Syrian kebab---strips are sliced from a vertical spit of compressed lamb, sizzled on a hot plate with chopped tomatoes and garnish (yoghurt,onions,pickles), and then stuffed in a pocket of pita-type bread...yummy...something we lived on during my last visit in 1999.\r

In the afternoon we drove to Wadi as-Seer and Iraq al-Amir (Caves of the Prince) and the Qasr al-Abad (Palace of the Slave). This is a very fertile valley near Amman where they are growing pomengranates, olives, figs....quite a change to see green! In the spring you can also see the black iris which is the Jordanian national flower. We walked around the caves which are on two tiers; very deep and big and used as stables in years past. The views of the valley from their location were wonderful from which we could also see the palace below. We then visited the ruins of the palace which some scholars believe to have been built in the second century BC by Hyrcanus of the powerful Jewish Tobiad family. The place is unique because it was built from some of the biggest blocks of any ancient structure in the Middle East-the largest is 7m by 3m. The blocks are only about 20cm thick so it makes the whole edifice flimsy and susceptible to earthquake which flattened it in AD326. It has been partially rebuilt and the highlights were the beautiful setting in the valley and the animal carvings on the walls. As we were leaving, a young girl from the village was selling pomengranates and grapes so we bought a few from her to take home. We looked for the Handicraft Village where 61 women produce pottery, carpets and paper products for sale but it was closed for the Friday.\r

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18 September (Saturday) - We drove to Ajloun Castle where the French have done heaps of restoration:\r

http://www.tourism.jo/HistoricalSites/Ajloun.asp\r

http://www.see-jordan.com/ajloun.html\r

http://www.asinah.net/jordanajloun.html\r

and then had a great lunch at al-Esra Restaurant overlooking the Jordan Valley and the Jabbok River and the King Talal Dam and the Dibbin Forest. We had also stopped at the Rumman Tourist Resort which is a restaurant that caters to locals especially during Ramadan which starts in October; they serve a big meal after sunset on an open veranda that overlooks the valley.\r

We have seen very few western tourists at the tourist sites, mostly just the locals travelling for the weekend.\r

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19 September - I spotted a lone dog this morning which is not very common to see. Compared with Western society, Arab culture has a different relationship with some animals. Dogs, for example, have a status on a level with rats in the Quran (meaning 'the Recitation' in Arabic and that which represents God's words revealed through the Prophet Mohammed), so you do not see many dogs, especially as pets (although the many expats that live here do have them as pets); dogs are used primarily for herding the sheep and goats!\r

Today is a day to start getting ready for the next bit of my journey such as washing clothes, doing accounting on the internet, repacking and trying to reduce (which is next to impossible for me). Jan has an apartment in a building where each floor has two units (similar to the one that I visited at my brother-in-law's in Paris). It is always a race to her door as I turn on the light on the entrance floor and run to the next level in order to be able to see the lock in the door before the timed lights go out! The owners of the building also own the restaurant where we had dinner on Thursday. Most of the building houses the family as is common in Jordan.\r

A late afternoon, early evening dinner at Wild Africa Center that overlooks the city and the citadel....a break from Arab food for a spinach salad!\r

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20 September - Since Gina is cleaning house today, it was a day by the pool for me at the Intercontinental Hotel and then a workout at the gym! Another hot day but it is supposed to cool off later this week for Jan's sister Maureen who will be arriving on Thursday so Jan will continue to be the tour guide.\r

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21 September - Early morning to pack and watch McLeod's Daughters for the last time. Jan will have her driver pick me up for our drive to the airport and my flight to Dubai UAE. Jan has all the amenities here with a driver and maid! Jan is now planning a similar trip to Africa in January for nine weeks with Exodus.\r

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22 September - I will have a day in Dubai UAE where they have 18 Starbucks (and none in Africa)! Staying at the Hilton Dubai Creek. The temperatures are over 100 degrees F!\r

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21 September - All went well with my heavy luggage at the Amman airport. I went in the Amman airport, used the loo, returned to the departure area where they just opened the gates for checkin and I was first in line. I usually prepare more by removing everything from my pockets but did not realize that all was xrayed in the beginnning so a bit of fumbling! Then upstairs for a moccachino. A really full flight and the movie (Day after Tomorrow) ended prematurely cos the tape broke or something! Heaps of walking at the airport after getting off in Dubai and found that Arabian Adventures did not have my stopover booking. Finally got that rectified then long queue for passport and waiting for agent to take tea break. Another long queue for car but it was just me and a driver in a very a/c car to the Hilton which is very nice hotel. \r

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22 September - Just had my free breakfast and viewed the pool at the top of the building with good views (but very hazy) of the city. Now walking to look for Starbucks. I was going to take the Hilton shuttle to their other location at the beach but it is 40 km away so will just explore Dubai. Found internet for only 2 dirham (they wanted 50 at the Hilton). Walked the old town and the souqs (including the gold and spice souqs). Found the alarm clock that I had seen on my last trip to the Middle East: it has the call to prayer as it's wakeup call and it is a lime green mosque! Also visited some of the original old buildings that have been restored to a museum depicting life in the past. Spent the afternoon in the aircon mall (Deira City Centre) and had a Baskin Robbins....this city is really a shoppers heaven with malls everywhere. The population is primarily expats (over 70%) and of that almost half are from India.\r

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23 September - Fly to Nairobi Kenya. Staying at the Hotel Boulevard. The temperatures are down to 80!\r

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26 September - Commence overland to Cape Town with Kumuka\r