A Quick Break in Amman

Crossing the border into Jordan was pretty straight forward. We did our homework, had our 2 required currencies and emergency USD and before you know it we were there. As per usual signage is not very clear, but we were the only independent travellers of the day so we were given great service by both the Israeli and Jordanian sides. The other people were all on organised tours and were taken care of. Israel charges a nice little fee to leave their country and Jordan stings you with a pricy visa. We are the last people to get on the shuttle bus across the border after the tourist groups have all got on. There was no room for our luggage on the bottom of the bus, so we board the bus packs on and all the seats are taken. Talk about taking the spotlight. No one offers their seat to the people carrying heavy things and we squish into the isle as people push our packs (and therefore us) as we invade their personal space unintentionally. It must be tough with their tour guide, someone managing their luggage and organising them, and with their comfy seats. Sorry to whinge but we talked to some of the people on the bus and they are doing a 10 day tour and they all have massive suitcases that there isn’t even any room for our packs left. People need to learn to pack light. *END RANT*

Thankfully the taxis are fixed price which meant we didn’t have to negotiate. It was meant to be a 2 hour journey, but today it was 3, traffic was bad. We were quickly introduced back into the world of Arab nation driving. Our cab driver one minute is on his phone, the next he has no hands on the wheel, then he is having a cigarette in one hand and a coffee in the other, honestly this is just a regular day. He decides to overtake, along with several other cars, only he doesn’t have enough time before a car comes his direction. He goes to get back into his lane, but a truck is in the way so we pull all the way over to the other side of the road to avoid a collision. This is pretty typical. No point in stressing, we are stuck in here, and no other driver will be better. 

There was an instantly visible difference between Israel and Jordan. The architecture styles and the quality of construction are loose and usually left looking unfinished (though we find out why later in our trip). The quality of the roads is not of western standard, lots of soft edges, random holes and speed bumps for no clear reason. The chaotic unmanaged traffic is hilarious if it wasn’t unsettling at times, for example we drove past one person on a 100km highway that was just reversing in a long straight line…? On the way to Amman we see utes with 20 people squished up in the tray and drive past people selling their fresh produce on the road with huge piles of cabbages and utes full of apples. It’s obvious we aren’t in Kansas anymore, welcome back to the developing world.

You know you’re in Amman because the traffic situation is out of hand. There is constant beeping, and stalling of traffic. In some places there are no lines on the roads to indicate lanes and people just sort of make their own. Horns take the role of indicators, when you want to cut in your just beep a lot. We cant figure out how people can distinguish between the beeping. It is pure chaos, and it doesn’t seem to be of the organised kind.

Our hotel is similar to the riads of Morocco in its construction, inwardly facing windows giving no natural light. It makes it awful when you wake up in the morning, natural light helps so much. It does have a great view over the city of Amman.

Another day of no fixed plans we decide to make a last day of chilling out before our organised tour starts the next day. We get a cab ride out to the nicest, newest shopping mall in Amman and spend the day shopping, dining at western restaurants, watching movies in the cinema and go on a wild goose chase looking for a beauty place. We did get to walk past the US embassy which is like a fortress. There are a lot of expats and money in this neighbourhood which is clean and modern. Later we find out we were in the Beverly Hills of Jordan. In the mall no one looks twice at us, the complete opposite of the old town where we are openly stared at.  Girls here show their body and wear no headscarf, and within these modern mall walls it is nothing out of the ordinary. 

On our way into Amman we had passed a massive outdoor souk that we had seen plenty of footwear and clothes for sale, this seemed the perfect place to search for local style clothes to beat the heat. Unfortunately no one at the hotel seemed to know what we were talking about and better yet when someone did say they knew and wrote it down in Arabic for us to give the taxi driver we ended up at a generic suburban mall that was half shut.

After a brief search we decided it wasn’t worth pursuing here and took another cab to Rainbow street, the somewhat gentrified westerner street in the old town. After stopping for coffee and lunch and failing to get the wifi to work on both occasions we walked back to our hotel to start from scratch. Locating a Birkenstock outlet in another fringe super mall we once again got a taxi to the edge of Amman and after a brief whip around finally found Simon some sandals. We enjoyed another western mall sitting down for some Haagen-Dazs our favourite ice creamery in the world. 

Once back at our hotel we double checked where our meeting point for the group tour was, a hotel 30 minutes walk or a 10 minute drive. Given our bags and cheap taxis we decided a cab was easiest. It was not.

Our driver had absolutely no idea where the hotel was, looking at the map on the smart phone whilst driving around he still could not find it. The traffic in the centre of Amman is terrible and you move at a glacial place. Sitting in a hot cab with no AC and a driver literally taking us in circles and our time withering away we become increasingly impatient. Eventually we end up exactly where we started after nearly 40 minutes of driving. We insist on getting out and finding a new driver but he assures us he knows the way after a lengthy phone call. We try again, crawling through traffic and eventually we crack it and demand he pull over and we get another taxi. By now we are late for our first group meeting which we had given ourselves an hour to get to. The next cab driver finds the place but the drama is not over.

Our hotel has no idea who we are or what an Intrepid group is. Fabulous. Sure enough our hotel was changed at the last minute and no one updated us, luckily the two hotels are affiliated and they get in touch with our guide and arrange a taxi for us to get there, it’s only five minutes away. Phew!

Even though the hotel owner broke down the directions turn by turn to the driver he gets lost. We are well and truly over it by now with being in the back of baking taxis for near on two hours. Our cabbie signals another and gets directions to our hotel and finally arrive. 30 minutes late after two hours driving, all for what should have been a 10 minute ride.

We meet our group which is a mixed bunch of Americans, British an Australian and an Italian. Our guide takes us through the trip in Jordan day by day and explains everything to us so we’re all clear. We’re both feeling good about taking our hands off the organisation wheel for the next three weeks and being guided around. Our group is only small, just eight people so we’re not in a massive coach ‘herd’ which is nice too.

Our guide has arranged dinner for us at a really local place and we have mixed grill meat, baked kofta and dips with pita for dinner. It’s a really small back street restaurant but the food is good and we get to know one another over a meal.

In the morning we’re up early for an 8am departure to Wadi Rum in the south of Jordan to go through the desert in jeeps, meet Bedouins and stay overnight in a desert camp! Exciting!

We are coming back to Amman before we fly out to Cairo so we don’t feel bad about not really doing anything ‘touristy’ whilst here. It was nice to have some ‘normal’ time before kicking off our next leg.

Lessons Learnt

• Despite cultural differences everyone is equal in a shopping mall
• Always have the hotel’s name, number, full address and owners blood type to give taxi drivers.
• Finding nice sandals in the Middle East was way harder than expected – seriously they all wear them, but where do they buy them. Probably at that outdoor souk that we couldn’t find.

Parting Thoughts

The cultural difference between the old town and new edge is almost chalk and cheese. The old town is very conservative, men openly stare at Amy and you need to cover up. In the new town its basically like home, there’s everything we have and more and you can dress a lot more freely, not provocatively or show a lot of skin but still more relaxed than to old town.

Prices in Jordan are a little confusing given the currencies strength (its $1.50 to 1 Jordanian Dinar) but what you can buy for that, eg: 20 minute cab ride is 2 JOD. Food is not too cheap though.

Simon & Amy xoxo

Really exciting photos of Jordan to come next blog!