Jordan - a very good trip, more or less
 

On March 6, four of us took off from Ottawa (Canada) to fly to Frankfurt. The purpose of the trip was to meet our daughter in Jordan. She left home (oldest child, first time leaving home) in late January to attend school in Turkey. There, that’s four countries I have mentioned in my opening paragraph. Poor writing at its best.
Before our daughter left home it became apparent that we could only handle her departure for Turkey emotionally if we arranged to meet her a month or two after she left. As we have all been to Turkey we decided to meet in Jordan, somewhere none of us had been. And we could see Petra – another place we could tick off on our list of amazing places to see before family members stopped talking to each other. I am from the Lounge and it seems all families stop talking to one another eventually.
So we (me, wife, two sons aged 17 and 14) would fly from Ottawa to Amman and our daughter would fly from Ankara to Amman at about the same time. One of the flight options from Ottawa offered a 12 hour stopover in Frankfurt. This seemed like a good idea at the time as it would allow the boys to see a bit of Germany. They could tell their friends that of course they have been to Germany. I mean, who hasn’t?
We arrived in Frankfurt on a Thursday morning at 6:30. Our luggage had been checked through to Amman so we only had a backpack each. The train into town was indeed easy to find as had been promised by millions of people on the Internet. In fact I have been to Frankfurt a few times so knew the routine. What was harder to find was something to do in Frankfurt. Some of the tours that are offered in the summer aren’t offered in March. So we walked around a bit, bought some pastry, went to a church and then stared at one another. What to do?
Time to admit defeat, find a hotel and sleep for a few hours. Cheaper hotels are usually near the train station so we wandered back that way and spotted a Best Western. Nothing like a familiar brand name when you have been away from home all of 14 hours. We walked into a lobby that was oddly constructed. The woman behind the counter could only see me and not DW and the boys. She was not smiling. This is not the woman I have spotted in Best Western commercials who seems happy to see everyone. I asked her in German if she spoke English. Of course she did. Okay then, we are looking for a room for 4-5 hours. Was that possible? Her response was of course not. “We don’t do that here.” Well, I asked, do you know anyone here who does do that here, whatever that is? “Check at the train station” we were told. Long story short we returned to the tourist office at the train station and asked about what had just happened. The smiling woman there told us that the area around the train station was the red light district and that the woman behind the desk thought I was looking for a bed not to sleep on but well you know.
So with that we hopped back on the train and returned to the airport. Given that this was only a ten day trip but over quite a distance, we decided not to exhaust ourselves on day one and ruin the first few days. So we paid our way into a lounge to kill the remaining time before our flight. For only $160 we got orange juice and some peanuts, wifi and leather chairs. For the last few years we have decided not to add up the cost of our trips. We don’t want to know. Peanuts consumed, we boarded our Lufthansa flight right on time (about 7:30 pm) and we were on our way to Amman.

My goal for this trip report is to generate 50 posts. Assuming 45 of them will be mine, I am hoping 5 people will be supportive enough to post something. Criticism is fine.

Well that's kind of irritating. It looked like there were spaces between the paragraphs AND I tried to preview my post. But preview turned into submit. That happens a lot to me lately, not sure why.

Don'r worry about the paragraph spacing. Your loyal fans will read it anyway. Where was it you were going, again? Just kidding. Am looking forward to hear about the rest of your journey to Petra.

#2 of the necessary 5....love Jordan so looking forward to it!

Hello 5alive and Elizabeth. Elizabeth please do not read this part of the report.

Our flight arrived in Amman at 1:15 am on Friday March 8. Our daughter’s flight was to arrive three hours later. The plan was that I would stay at the airport and wait for her while the other three took a pre-arranged car to our hotel in Madaba. Madaba is south of Amman, as is the airport. I had read it would be a good place to stay if visitors were not eager to stay in Amman.

But first we had to purchase our Jordanian visa. Which came before the immigration desk, which of course came before luggage. The Internet really is an amazing place. I had read several accounts of people buying their visas, or more accurately trying to buy their visas. You have to pay in Jordanian Dinars. No US dollars or Euros here. There was to be a currency exchange booth right near the visa desk as well as an ATM apparently hidden behind the currency guy. And all of these accounts turned out to be accurate.

But one criticism I had read was that the currency booth was often empty and that the ATM didn’t work. This convinced us to get some Dinars before we left Ottawa. So we were ready. Unlike the people two groups in front of us who were trying to use US dollars to purchase their visas, though I don’t think they were American. They couldn’t understand the visa official who it must be said did not appear overly interested in his job. He was just shaking his head and mumbling no at their offer of dollars. The nice fellow right behind them was trying to explain to them “they don’t take dollars. You need to go over there to the currency booth and get Dinars”. WE NEED WHAT?!?! said the lady. “What’s the matter with dollars?” “No” said the nice man, “you really need to go over there and get some Dinars.” “Some what?” said the lady with her even more confused husband standing beside her looking like he would rather be anywhere else. To make another long story short, they eventually drifted away to the currency guy to get their Dinars. I hope they got in.

We had no problem getting our visa, immigration was easy and down we went to the luggage carousel. One of the reasons I have not rushed to write this report is because there are a few uncomfortable comments I will make and I really don’t like to be negative. And here is one of them. We were a bit shocked at the arrival terminal, which might better be called an arrival room. Very small and pretty dark. It was separated from the outside world by what looked like a large curtain. We have been to Peru and Egypt recently and feel great empathy for those with less than we have. We knew that Jordon by many economic measures is less well off than both Peru and Egypt. But still, this was surprising. To be fair, a new terminal was to be opened this month. I am not sure if it has been.

The good news was that our hotel driver was waiting just outside the arrival area and off they went without me. And then ten minutes later the arrivals board showed that our daughter’s flight was delayed in Istanbul. It wouldn’t arrive until after six – four hours later. I was texting our daughter who was telling me that Turkish Air was blaming Amman airport. At Amman airport they were blaming Turkish Air. We came to learn during our trip that Jordanians and Turks like pisssing on one another. As there was really nothing to do at the airport I called the hotel and they sent the guy back to get me. We then drove to the hotel, and then returned to the airport at 6. We paid for three car rides to get five of us from the airport to the hotel. I am not adding the cost up. Nope.

The route from the airport to Madaba looked like it was on a normal road on all of the maps we had looked at. In reality it was about 15 miles of very beat up road, through what looked like crumbly unused buildings. There were also lots of dogs running at the car. My wife reported that during their drive to the hotel the driver got up to 147 KPH, or about 90 mph. Again I hate to be negative, and most of this report will be extremely positive, but after about 30 hours of travel, the airport, the landscape and the driving were all a bit of a shock.

cold - I should have been more specific. Our love of Jordan is tempered only by our experiences in the Amman airport.....which culminated in our opening a bottle of wine (given to us by our dear guide as a going away present) and opened in the Ladies washroom (by using our unique Canadian talent of being able to open a bottle of beer or wine in any room with stainless steel - you know what I'm talking about) and drinking said wine from cups provided by the cafe (unwittingly, in their case).

Madaba! Looking forward to hearing about it.

A very good trip report, more or less . . . try to bring out the Canadian identity of the travelers. Maybe they are anxiously checking the curling scores, or debating the best snowshoe or canoe routes to the in-laws. At least, throw in the occasional and gratuitous French word or phrase!

Loving your report! You will not have any trouble meeting your "quota" of 50. :)

Hello Fra Diavolo and Jane. I will now say something in French. En effet nous avons été surpris de voir combien nous avons parlé français lors de ce voyage. There were a lot of French tourists in the area.

My daughter and I walked in the door of the Black Iris hotel at about 6:30 am on Friday March 8. Some fella jumped off a couch in the lobby where he had been sleeping in a sleeping bag. My first thought was here is the poor bugger who lost the coin flip and has to work the night shift. In fact this guy turned out to be the hero of our trip. I think his name is Odeh and his family has owned the place, and a few other hotels by the sounds of it, for quite a while. The reason he was on the couch was because he can’t find a person to work the night shift that speaks good English and can give tourists directions and advice when they arrive overnight. And for some reason many of the flights into Amman now arrive in the middle of the night.

Anyway, Odeh was a great help to us on many occasions. Some of it was just good business practice on his part but part of it was because he is a good guy. The Black Iris is a pretty basic place, but is highly recommended on Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet. Don’t go there if you are looking for luxury. It was a touch cool, the breakfast was simple but nice, and a dog barked nearby in unison with the early call to prayer. And then kept barking. But we would stay there again just because of the help and advice we received from Odeh.

We had planned to spend much of the day touring Madaba, and in particular the mosaics in the nearby St Georges Church. Odeh warned us when we left about 10 am (after three hours sleep) that we would be back in 90 minutes. In a way that seemed to be a swipe at his own town. And in a way it was. And he was right. We were back in 90 minutes asking him how to get to the Dead Sea and to Mount Nebo, where Moses is apparently buried nearby. Ten minutes later we were off in another of the hotel arranged cars. Five of us plus driver were in a car smaller than a Honda Accord. We are always fearful when the five of us are packed into these cars on vacations that our families will spend the rest of their days wondering why (after our fatal accident) we were stupid enough to pile into a small car in a strange country with an unknown driver. But it seems like fun when we do it.

The driver took us to a place called the Panorama which is a lookout about 1000 feet over the Dead Sea. This spot now ranks up there with our first views of the Great Wall and the Pyramids. We’re looking out over the Dead Sea and that is Israel over there. The Promised Land. The beautiful rolling hills. It took a few minutes to gather it all in. The view, the history, the things we learned in our Catholic school as five year olds, the current tension in the region. A real wow moment.

How do you follow up a wow moment? With another one. The driver took us down to the Amman public beach, which Odeh had told us was the cheaper way to float in the Dead Sea (as opposed to the expensive beaches at the hotels). Well it may have been cheap compared to the hotels but it wasn’t cheap. We were greeted by a sign that said something like “Jordanians free, others two Dinars, non-Arabs 16 Dinars”. Yikes. Sixteen Dinars is about $25. That was $125 for the five of us. When I asked our driver about charging non-Arabs so much he said that Jordon has no natural resources, no manufacturing and that it must make money off of tourists. Reflecting upon the trip now one of our observations is how inexpensive some things were and how expensive others were. And not just involving tourists activities. It was always a bit of a guess how much something was going to cost.

I had always doubted that people actually float in the Dead Sea. It didn’t seem possible. It was a mirage. A YouTube trick. But by gosh there were the five of us floating like boats. The salt wasn’t too bad until you noticed where it was still hiding five hours later. Going into deeper water was where the real fun was at. You could try and stand up straight without your feet touching the bottom. But it was like trying to hold an inflated ball under water. The salt water pushed you up and spun you around. I have always said that going down a couple of thousand feet into a mine was the neatest thing I have done. I would now put the Dead Sea at the top of the list.

The other interesting thing about the beach was the array of dress. There were plenty of niqabs, which other considerations aside, look a little odd on a beach. There were astronaut outfits, invariably worn by older women as protection from the sun and salt. There were normal beach goers. And then there were the nearly naked. There was a sign at the entrance to the beach that requested people to dress modestly, or perhaps appropriately. But some people were wearing whispers of bathing suits. We saw one lifeguard asking a woman to please pull her bathing suit up, or was it down? It didn’t seem to make much difference which way she pulled it. What appeared to be a solution only led to another problem.

We ignored the $14 Dinar lunch and headed off to Mount Nebo. We paid for a guide there though there wasn’t a heckuva lot to see. Moses is buried there somewhere apparently but scholars disagree on where. Great views of the Promised Land. The guide should have paid us as he was fascinated that our daughter is studying Arabic. He kept asking her if she knew certain words and giving her his correct pronunciation. He kept saying “call me Moses and stick with me. You’ll do well in life.” Okey dokey. Very entertaining. With that we crammed back in the car and returned to the hotel. Cost of the tour was 35 Dinars or about $55.

Glad you had a (mostly) enjoyable trip to Jordan! I've been going there frequently lately and you are right about the airport and I'm hoping the entire new terminal is open for my next trip in April.
Those mosaics are pretty faded in Madaba and not a must see IMHO so good that you went to Mt Nebo and the Dead Sea. Family travel is always an adventure in it's own right!

Loving your report. I have a vision of your wife riding in a vehicle at 90 mph on that beat up road, hitting her head on the ceiling.... but you are much to kind to mention details like that. Must be a Canadian thing.

I love your wow moments.

Moremiles your comments about St Georges make us feel better. In fact we wondered if we had missed some of the mosaics as what we saw was barely discernable. It didn’t help that ten minutes after we entered a stern faced gentleman kicked everybody out, promising us that we would be allowed back in in a few minutes. When that didn’t happen we just wandered off.

5alive when we first looked out from the panorama it was very hazy and the Dead Sea and Israel were barely visible. Then over the span of 20 minutes everything became crystal clear. It was like our own personal revelation. Very memorable.

The original plan had been to only spend the one day in Madaba before heading to Petra. But we suspected we might still be fatigued from the travel and lack of sleep so we had added another day. Now what to do with it? We understand many of the travellers here plan these things well in advance but we’re more of the show up and ask around for advice types. We knew we wanted to see Jerash but that could wait until the end of the trip. Well actually it couldn’t said Odeh. We should skip Amman entirely and head right to Jerash via the Jordon River Valley he said. He found us a slightly larger car and off we went.

We are still not certain what we were supposed to see in the Jordon River Valley. It has a nice sound to it, and there was some beautiful vegetation. But mostly it was heavy traffic through what appeared to be one very long market. People were everywhere transporting and selling tomatoes and cucumbers. Indeed we have probably never eaten a more healthy diet on any of our trips. So many fresh and tasty vegetables.

Finally we turned off the main road towards the east and starting climbing quite steeply into the surrounding hills. Now it really was beautiful. Our destination was the Ajloun castle, which we could see from many miles off. Now this is a castle:

http://nabataea.net/ajloun.html

You had to feel for the poor guys trying to attack these castles. We visited three castles in Jordon and they were all perched up very high. This castle was in very good shape and offered stunning views north to Syria. We went without a guide on this visit as the boys in particular like to move around quickly and find a guide somewhat restraining. And they are not beyond whispering how bored the people with a guide look. Of course we miss out on a lot of information but so be it. Speaking of Syria it was striking how fondly many Jordanians spoke of Syria and how upset they were at the unrest there now. Everyone seemed to have visited Syria at least once and hoped to return again. I find people in many countries give a quiet sneer to their neighbours. Not here.

From the castle we drove on to Jerash. Our driver told us we could save a few bucks by eating at a restaurant near but not in the site. We have been through this routine before. The restaurant turned out to be at the front entrance to Jerash. The driver had clearly been there a thousand times and was warmly greeted by the owner. I wonder if he receives some cash for bringing tourists in or just a free lunch? In any event what can you say about Jerash? The Corinthian columns, the hippodrome and especially the absolutely stunning amphitheatre. We are not sure how much of the amphitheatre has been restored. It looks like it was built yesterday. Strangely enough there were two musicians playing in the amphitheatre – one playing the drums and one playing the bagpipes. Yes the bagpipes. Together they made beautiful music but the whole scene was a bit odd. And the sound of the bagpipes drifted across the entire site. Somewhere off in the distance we could imagine St Andrews hosting the Open. All a little surreal.

Ten years ago we would have complained about the touts trying to sell us all sorts of stuff both at the entrance and on the grounds. But either we are mellowing or the touts have changed their style. There were some really funny people trying to sell us stuff. Maybe we just caught a good day.

After a few hours we climbed back in the car for the trip back to Madaba. The roads around Jerash were very good. I am not sure if that is due to the tourist money in the area or just the timing of road improvements. I was interested in the roads as the next day we were receiving our rented car. From what I had seen so far driving in Jordon would be a challenge. Odeh called it a jungle. We were about to find out.

The cost of the day’s drive was $100 including tip. Odeh had asked us not to over tip the drivers. He said it was crazy how much some people tipped them. So we gave our guy $15. He did not look happy.

Aljoun is indeed a wonderful castle but if peace ever comes to Syria, try to see Krak des Chevaliers as it's the castle of all castles(if there is anything left of it). Yes, the people of Jordan consider themselves "brothers and sisters" of the people of Syria and have been gracious to host so many refugees.

Sorry you didn't care for the mosaics in Madaba. Did you see the ones in the Archaeological Park? I spent an entire morning following the LP walking tour round Madaba looking at mosaics, and while I thought the map was pretty cool, the mosaics in the park were just as good, if not better. It was hazy when I was at Mt. Nebo, so I was not at all wowed by the view.

It is true there's not a whole lot to do in Madaba after you see the mosaics (I wasn't overly impressed by the Bronze Age dolmens discovered by the owner of the Mariam Hotel), I did find a place for a Turkish bath, and then I hung out at the Ayola Cafe and Bar.

I was lucky - I saw Syria before the current disaster and Krak is everything moremiles said. Plenty of French tourists in Syria, too.

Hi coldy, I'm really enjoying your report. I also try to write positive things in my reports but the one bad thing about Jordan was the Amman airport. It was dirty, filled with cigarette smoke, and the ladies room only had nasty holes in the floor for toilets.

The Dead Sea was a highlight for me and you are correct that it's very hard to stand up in that salty water. Mt. Nebo is very inspiring indeed. Petra was out of this world, but of course you know that. And next time I want to see more of Wadi Rum.

Jordan was a fantastic place to visit and I would go back tomorrow if I could.

Count me among your readers. How big a wow moment was it to reconnect with your daughter? Popping in on my daughters' study abroad programs has been some of my best experiences. So independent and"worldly" they had become!

I'm trying to remember my arrival in Jordan and all I can think of is the huge smile and the "Welcome to Jordan!". The airport was dinky but not awful.

My fondest memories of Jordan were when so many people stopped me on the street to thank me for coming to Jordan. That doesn't happen in very many countries.

Thursdaysd - in fact we didn't see a whole lot of Madaba except on our last day when we got stuck driving around most of it. Lost would be a nice way to put it. We did see a Turkish bath but after some discussion decided not to go in. We had visited one in Istanbul and while it was very pleasant it chewed up four hours. This was too short a trip. Now having said that we spent a lot of time in the Ayola Cafe. The older kids like smoking shisha pipes.

Grassshopper this was one of the occasions in life when you realize how much things are changing. Not only did our daughter find her own way there from Turkey, she was the only member of our group who spoke passable Arabic. So she really took a leadership role on the trip. It was just yesterday she was frightened on the merry go round at Disneyworld. Next she will be moving us into the retirement home. Oh well.

PM as I wrote somewhere else our car got stoned on our last day by some young kids. They could not have known we were tourists. But everyone was truly horrified this happened to us. The rental car guy look like he was going to cry telling us how sorry he was.

We had this happen recently also on the way to Ma'in Hot Springs. There were a bunch of children(gypsy, I was told) standing in the road so we had to slow down and they threw some rocks and had some large sticks-luckily, no damage to the car and one of the men in our car got out and yelled at them but they weren't too frightened-quite young children too. This has only happened once to me in 6 trips, with lots of driving, in Jordan.

<My fondest memories of Jordan were when so many people stopped me on the street to thank me for coming to Jordan. That doesn't happen in very many countries.>

<The rental car guy look like he was going to cry telling us how sorry he was.>

The people sound incredible there. I had no idea. Thank you both for that insight.

Moremiles your comments about St Georges make us feel better. In fact we wondered if we had missed some of the mosaics as what we saw was barely discernable. It didn’t help that ten minutes after we entered a stern faced gentleman kicked everybody out, promising us that we would be allowed back in in a few minutes. When that didn’t happen we just wandered off.

5alive when we first looked out from the panorama it was very hazy and the Dead Sea and Israel were barely visible. Then over the span of 20 minutes everything became crystal clear. It was like our own personal revelation. Very memorable.

The original plan had been to only spend the one day in Madaba before heading to Petra. But we suspected we might still be fatigued from the travel and lack of sleep so we had added another day. Now what to do with it? We understand many of the travellers here plan these things well in advance but we’re more of the show up and ask around for advice types. We knew we wanted to see Jerash but that could wait until the end of the trip. Well actually it couldn’t said Odeh. We should skip Amman entirely and head right to Jerash via the Jordon River Valley he said. He found us a slightly larger car and off we went.


Moremiles your comment about the kids not looking too frightened make me laugh. The first time I used an ATM machine in Madaba I entered the lobby of a bank. A very young girl (maybe 7) followed me in and put her hand out, but not like can I have a Dinar please but more like gimme the cash bud. Our daughter said no you have to leave and the little girl basically told our daughter to take a hike. She was getting her cut of the cash. It wasn’t bothersome, in fact it was kind of cute, but you could tell (when combined with some other incidents) that many of these kids don’t grow up shy.

5alive I think what we will remember along with their friendliness is how amazed and proud they were that someone (daughter) was studying their language. I realize that thousands do, but these people acted like they had never heard of a North American actually studying their language in university. They kept asking “where, where are you learning to speak Arabic?” Our daughter would say Canada and they would just shake their heads. They really did seem proud that someone was studying their language.

So Sunday was the big day. Rental car day. We have given up renting cars on vacations the last few years. When it was just the two and then three of us we would rent. But with the arrival of two more kids, the need to rent a van and the fact that we would often be driving on some pretty narrow roads had resulted in us relying on public transit. So in many countries where people rent (Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain, South Korea etc.) we relied on public transport. But the Jordon route we were taking was a pretty simple triangle. Plus public transport sounded challenging (the bus from Petra to Wadi Rum doesn’t run unless there are enough passengers) and I kept reading that driving in Jordon was a breeze. So much to the surprise of the family I rented a mid-sized car from Monte Carlo rental car. They had been recommended by Odeh in our pre-arrival correspondence.

The car was delivered to our hotel in Madaba at 8 am on Sunday. Odeh had a map of Jordon beside the counter that I had spent significant time with him reviewing. I am guessing he did this for hours a day as everyone had the same question. What is the best route to get from Madaba to Petra? This would be like answering how do to get from Newark airport to Philadelphia six time a day. To Odeh only one route made sense – the King’s Highway. There was the Desert Highway which was faster but boring. There was the road along the Dead Sea which was a bit out of the way. My concern was that the King’s Highway went through a couple of towns that might be difficult to navigate and that in total it would take much longer than the Desert Highway. And it would take longer, Odeh would point out, because there were things to look at. “Like what are you here for dude, to look at things. Take the King’s Highway. Do you hear me – take the King’s Highway.” Okay he didn’t quite say that but you could tell he was thinking it.

Fine then, we would take the King’s Highway. And then with ten minutes to departure, a light went off in Odeh’s head. He had arranged for a car to drive a couple from the hotel to Petra, stopping at a few of the sites along the way. We could just follow that car. Personally if I were the couple I would not be too crazy about our driver having to pay attention to the car behind us for 200 miles. But I approached her and said in French that I hoped it wasn’t a problem if we did this. She replied in French “oh no that is fine and perhaps it will slow our driver down a bit”. Then I approached the man and said in French the same thing. Except he didn’t speak any French. He was Hungarian and spoke English. She spoke very, very little English and he spoke no French. They had just met a few weeks previously and were now touring Jordon together, without talking much apparently. That sounded like fun.

Sorry about that I am having a real problem with the preview and submit buttons here. I hope this works.

Oops I see it was just the first three paragraphs I repeated. My cutting and pasting fault.

Really am loving your report. Not glossing over the more "real" bits is fascinating.

My mom and I had an interesting experience after our float in the Dead Sea where the bathhouse was locked up with our clothes still inside. Our driver negotiated through the door to get the boy mopping to open it for us -- it took a LOT of heated discussion. And when he finally opened up he threw out the bucket of dirty water, partially dousing our guy. Not good. We were quick to get in, rinse off and change and VERY thankful we had someone there to help us in that situation. Maybe it would've required some dinars to get the door open if we were alone or maybe we'd still be there shivering in salty bathing suits ;)

Great you got to follow someone who knew the route as, in my experience, the signage is not good and my Arabic friends were always asking directions too! People in the mideast really do appreciate our attempts to speak Arabic and I find, are quite surprised and entertained by it(or maybe that's just my feeble accent) so your daughter probably got a lot of attention with her more professional language skills.
Hope you enjoyed the King's Hwy!

Leslie I have always enjoyed reading your posts. You really are a traveller. I see your next trip is to Iceland. We are going there in August.

Ah the signage Moremiles. First I appreciate that they have some signs in English. But so many of the signs were washed out and not readable. We were not sure whether it was the sun, or sand or age or what. But many of the critical signs were not helpful.

For both personal reasons (I was an orienteerer – the sport where you find your way through the woods with a map and a compass) and professional reasons (I am a communications consultant and know that what you say is not as important as what the other person hears) I have always been interested in how people offer directions. What the direction giver says sounds so simple to them but can be overwhelming to the recipient. So as we were leaving the hotel, Odeh says he will tell us how to find our way to the edge of town and from there we can follow the other car. He wants to do this as he knows we will lose the other driver in traffic. So here we go. His directions were “up the street to the left, turn left, down two lights to the light that isn’t working, turn right, right at the next light that also isn’t working, left for quite a while and then right on to the highway”. I’ve got a better idea Odeh, we will follow the other car. Which as predicted wasn’t easy as the driver was driving as a local and we were driving like terrified tourists. But we managed to keep up with him and soon found ourselves on the highway.

The first part of the King’s Highway was pretty simple. And I have to say that overall we found Jordanian drivers to be pretty good. The pavement is not divided into sides like it is at home where this side is ours and that side is yours. People drive all over the pavement. And there is a lot of honking. Traffic circles are lawless. But generally people drove more slowly and calmly than I have seen in Egypt for example. It was like Cairo but everyone has swallowed two valium.

After not too long a drive we came to Wadi Mujib. I would love to know how many North Americans and Europeans have heard of Wadi Mujib. The number must be very low. But if this isn’t one of the most beautiful places on earth, I don’t know where is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Mujib

We drove down one side and then up the other side. The other driver stopped at a roadside tent where they offered us chairs and tea. The view was out of this world. Of course we purchased something and negotiated very little as the tea and the view were worth the 10 Dinars for the ahem “high quality stone” in the ring my wife purchased. We then continued on to the famous Karak crusader castle. According to the online map I had studied, the castle was to the east of Karak. The other driver headed to the west part of town and of course he was right. Despite the castle being very visible from the highway approaching town (as most of them are) we never would have found it on our own. We stopped there for about an hour. We had read that headlamps or flashlights were helpful in some of underground passageways of the various castles. So we all brought the headlamps we had used on the Inca trail in 2012. They proved quite helpful as promised. The castle is very large and very high up, protected by valleys on three sides. It has an interesting history as most castles do.

We then drove a good distance before arriving at Shobak castle. This castle was built in 1115 to protect the road from Egypt to Damascus. And you could see how this would be possible. What a commanding position over very barren landscape. I wish they could have protected the final 100 meters of the road up to the castle gate. It was not in good condition and on the edge of a cliff. We did not enjoy that. Without being asked a guide gave us a tour of the place. At the end he brought us to a very elderly gentleman who played what appeared to be a rusted out muffler with a string across it. He also sang, rather horribly I would say. But it was enjoyable nonetheless. We left him a few dinar as well as something for the guide. I noticed the other visitors left nothing. I wish the rules on tipping were clearer but I suppose that isn’t how tipping works.

Our final stop before Petra was Little Petra. We had decided beforehand that we would not visit Little Petra, not knowing that we would be following another car. But we are glad we stopped. If you see Little Petra before Petra itself it is quite stunning (this probably wouldn’t work in reverse). By then it was five in the afternoon. It was then a short drive to Petra (or Wadi Musa) where our driver seemed to get lost. We went around in circles for some time. Then he opened his window and pointed at the hotel where we were staying. The French/Hungarian couple were staying elsewhere. So we waved goodbye and offered our eternal thanks. We would not have made it without the other driver.

The website for our hotel mentioned reserved parking at a nearby lot. Hee hee. The reserved parking was nowhere to be found. We parked on the street with kids and cars whizzing inches by our car. A man saw me looking at our parked car with a worried look on my face. He came over and said “don’t worry about your car. It will be perfectly safe here. You can leave the windows open if you want. No one will take anything.” This fellow was clearly a sharp cookie. I asked him what he did. He said he was a guide bringing clients to Petra. And in fact I spoke to him the next day at Petra, telling him he was right. Our car was just fine.

That's a beautiful drive isn't it? (said by someone who was a passenger not the driver) We loved both Karak and Shobak - when we saw the latter it was shrouded in fog which instantly transported me back to the middle ages.

We saw Little Petra the day after Petra and thought it worthwhile.

Great report!

Wadi Mujib is indeed beautiful! I'm glad you thought Little Petra worthwhile as I even thought so after seeing "Big" Petra. Showbak is also quite an impressive setting and you were right to tip the man playing the muffler-he lives in that tiny room at the entrance(most of the time) and earns his living(partly) on tips.

What lucky lucky kids you have! I can't wait to read your trip report about India!

Loving this, especially because you haven't glossed over the not so great parts.

Thanks a lot colduphere.

I have to say I'm very wimpy about renting a car and doing the driving. We default to hiring a driver usually. So I appreciate reading about other people's experiences -- and especially when they admit to challenges -- so I don't feel like such a loser!

I'd forgotten about those bagpipes at Jerash - it was surreal!

Looking forward to more of your fabulous writing.

Elizabeth please come on our next trip and take the pictures. That is a skill we don’t have. Moremiles, you really know that area. This is a terrible thing to admit but one of our kids, while listening to the guy playing the muffler, said “Is this Gordon Lightfoot (a famous Canadian singer who probably performed a year or two longer than he should have)? So we were all trying to stifle laughter and be respectful while listening to this fella.

Grassshopper, India is a big question mark. We are not sure we can take the poverty. I appreciate comment’s like Femi’s about including the good and not so good in this trip report but they are raising a moral dilemma for me when I get to reporting on the second day of our desert stay. We had a fabulous time but a few things were screwed up by our camp. I am debating whether to mention their name as apparently even a couple of bad references on the Internet can hurt business. But I will get to that.

We were staying at another modest place in Wadi Musa/Petra called the Al Rashid. Nice place. But it was almost empty, even though they were moving into peak season. By most accounts the area is still suffering a drop-off in tourists going on 4-5 years now. This leads to a story that will sound self-congratulatory but I really don’t mean it to be.

The cook/server at the hotel was a young Egyptian man. Unfortunately there was no one to cook for. We were the only people in the restaurant. That can’t be good for his income or job security. He made us the most amazing meal, so amazing we asked if we could take a picture of him standing behind all of the food he had prepared for us. At first he didn’t understand what we were asking but finally he did. We took a picture and showed it to him. He was so, so happy. He asked the owner to come in and look at the picture. We definitely feel a little guilty about being able to travel to countries where people work so hard just to get by. It is such a great feeling when we can generate a little happiness for them.

I continued my preoccupation with driving directions by asking the man at the front desk to draw me a map of the route to the Petra site. He was chuckling at me as the route couldn’t have been easier. Mind you he did tell us there was free parking which it turns out there wasn’t. And we followed a sign for the site entrance which led us to the back of a construction site where we were turned around by some workers. But all of this was happening early enough in the day that there was little traffic and it was easy to get reoriented. The good news was that we did not have to pay the rather steep entrance fee to Petra for our 14 year old. They’re not kidding around with an entrance fee of 50 Dinars.

I am sure most people reading this have been to Petra. Is there a more spectacular scene anywhere than the Siq leading to the Treasury? It reminded us a bit of the (admittedly much longer) lead in on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. When you get finally get there (the Treasury/Machu Picchu) you just stand in amazement. Is this real?

After 20 minutes of standing and staring we took the advice of our Lonely Planet guide and began climbing to the High Place of Sacrifice. This is slightly off the main route that most visitors take. Unfortunately half way up the climb my wife fell and hurt her knee, but she insisted on making the rest of the climb. At the top we could hear a young woman yelling “Fine then, go wherever you want. Who cares if you get lost? I don’t.” It turns out the young woman was a local sitting on the side of the trail selling trinkets. She was yelling at our son who was blindly following some people in front of him who had wandered off the trail. This was a feisty young woman. She was 15 years old and spoke seven languages, all learned from tourists. Her English was perfect. She entertained us for a few minutes but then returned to selling to the next set of climbers. In Spanish. The ability some people have with languages.

After wandering around the top for a bit we had to make a decision as to which route we would take to the monastery - a back route or return to the main area and take the more common route. We decided given my wife’s knee that we better return to the main area and see how she felt. In the end we did not make it all the way to the Monastery, despite 100 offers of donkey rides. A bit of a disappointment but with three days coming up in the desert there was no reason to push things.

Two notable events. There was a place you could sit down and buy a drink. The guy in charge of attracting customers was very entertaining. He had every passerby laughing at his lines. He came over to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, in an ultra serious voice loud enough for people to hear “Sir, in this your daughter?” When informed that yes it was, he said “I’ll give you five camels and two donkeys. Please think about it for a few minutes. I’ll come back. Please, it is a serious offer.” Once again, everyone was laughing. The levity was appreciated as it was very hot and very dusty.

After several hours we started walking back up the Siq on our way out of the site. From around the corner we could hear two men really screaming at one another. It was the driver of a horse and buggy and a German tour guide going at it. The German guide had told his 30 or so clients to form two long lines, side by side. Everyone had closed their eyes and put their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. It was kindergarten revisited. They were doing this for the last 200 meters or so before they reached the Treasury. I guess he would eventually tell them to open their eyes and the Treasury would be revealed in front of them. Except that with their eyes closed they had wandered in front of a horse and almost caused an accident. It was kind of hard to believe that 30 adults were going along with this game. And even with the screaming match going on, no one was opening their eyes. They were standing in the middle of the Siq, blocking traffic, waiting for the march to recommence.

Love the Petra stories! Sorry to read about your wife's knee, as the rock colors on the back route are spectacular (see http://kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/C...ast-2009/Petra ) - I hope it healed fast.

Congratulations on driving yourself. After I gave up on public transport for Jordan I wound up on a tour, but I travel solo which makes driving expensive and (more) difficult. I did make sure to sit at the front of the bus for the King's Highway, although I wasn't as wowed as you by Wadi Mujib.

Don't give up on India. It is all the superlatives you can think of, good and bad. The poverty is in-your-face bad, as are the beggars, although some people insulate themselves by having a car and driver everywhere. I give money to a charity (for girl's education) before I leave home so I don't feel so bad about refusing to give to (most) beggars.

Don't you love the comical things that happen while traveling, or the comical things that come to mind(ie G.Lightfoot). Sounds like you certainly had an entertaining trip!

I hope your Wadi Rum camp wasn't as basic as the one I stayed at but from what I've heard and read, all of those within the reserve aren't great-but the scenery makes up for it.

I totally agree with thursdaysd re: India. It's well worth the trip and will bring out many emotions from you.

Excellent use of cultural reference (Gordon Lightfoot) to develop the narrator's character. I think "Sundown" marked the beginning of the end.

Seriously, very much enjoying your report. We hope to visit Jordan within the year.

Our son is a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, and encounters the same sort of astonished delight when people realize he speaks Arabic -- or at least the Moroccan dialect.

We've also been questioning whether we want to visit India -- same reservations.

Looking forward to "the desert."

Wow what great pictures Thursdaysd. I wish we had managed that route. And I am sure you and Moremiles are right about India. What may happen is we spend a few days in Delhi on our way to Kathmandu someday. If that goes ok we will return. Of course who knows how things will play out when you get into your fifties and older. Fra Diavolo good for your son. We suspect our daughter is heading down the same path. By the way I am trying to work Wayne Gretzky and polar bears into this story. It isn’t easy.

When we returned to the hotel we spotted two vans parked nearby with a full array of camping equipment loaded on their roofs. And they had English licence plates, which of course meant their steering wheels were on the other side. I met the woman in the hotel lobby. She and her husband and two year old were driving from London to South Africa over a four month period with his parents. They had just driven through Israel. She described that as a real nightmare. They were constantly asked to, or watched as, their vans were taken apart for security checks. Now that they had arrived in Jordon they were being refused entry to Egypt because of security concerns in the Sinai. And once they arrived in Africa they planned to drive during the day and find a place to camp each night. Apparently if you sleep on top of a van the animals will walk underneath you but not bother you. I have their email address. I should check in to see how well sleeping seven feet above the hyenas is working. In any event, their driving challenges put ours to shame.

One major problem we were having was getting enough money out of ATMs to pay our upcoming Wadi Rum bill, which was to be paid in cash. Sometimes the machines welcomed us, but more often than not we couldn’t get any money out of them. Our challenge was compounded greatly when the Al Rashid hotel owner told us he took MasterCard but not Visa. The three of us with bank and credit cards headed out and tried various machines until we rounded up enough cash to pay him and almost enough to pay at Wadi Rum. We found another ATM about 20 miles outside of Petra that gave us the last few Dinars we needed. I should mention that when we were scrambling to find sufficient cash the hotel owner said we could just send him the money upon our to Canada. I thought that was pretty classy.

The drive from Petra to the Wadi Rum Visitor Center was quite scenic. It took about 1:45 hrs. We called our guide from the Visitor Center to let him know we were only 5km away from his location – the Wadi Rum Village. We were happy to escape the Visitor Center without incident as our lead guide Mehedi had emailed me the following warning a few days previously:

“PLEASE NOTE ** Please don't listen to the people who are waiting outside the building (at the Visitor Center) as they spend the whole day waiting to 'catch' tourists and they will lie with you quite happily and tell you they are me or work for me! They can be convincing but don't believe them. I will not wait for you there, and a guide that works for me will not wait for you there. We will wait in the village. Also don't give them the money for your ticket as they will keep it & not give it to the Visitor Center.”

Wow this sounded like scam central. Chinese Rolex watches all over again. We were going to have to be on guard. In the end we arrived at WR Village without incident and Mehedi was waiting for us in the parking lot. We had a pleasant tea together, reviewed our plans for our three day visit and off we went into the desert on the back of an open 4x4. We had a large map with several spots marked on it highlighting where we would visit. The total drive for the day was to be about 27 kilometers with 8-9 stops. The first stop was right around the corner from the Village. It was a hike up to a pond sitting a few hundred feet above the desert floor. Our first stop did not go well for my wife. There was really no path and most of the “route” involved scrambling between and over large rocks. The teenagers had no problem and enjoyed the hike. I was a little surprised at how rough the route was and stayed back with my wife. No big deal at this point.

We then proceeded to drive past some very large sand dunes. The driver was telling us not to worry - he would find us the biggest dune in the area. And he did. I am guessing it was about 250 feet high. Our youngest son basically sprinted up the whole thing. Then the other two kids and I struggled up at a much slower pace. It was one step up and then slide back down. It was very, very difficult and very, very hot. My wife gave up at the half way mark and waited for us at the bottom. Coming down was a blast and took less than a couple of minutes. Overall I would not recommend sand dunes for anyone with heart problems.

We then enjoyed a really tasty yet simple lunch cooked by our guide. The afternoon consisted of stopping at other spots, usually interesting rock formations where we could climb up as high as we wanted to and then enjoy the view. On average we would see other visitors every half hour or so. It was a very pleasant afternoon. At 6:15 we found a high spot and watched the sun set over a nearby mountain. Very peaceful. It was also fascinating to sit and listen to a Bedouin talk about the desert and what his life was like. After sunset we drove the remaining mile or so to our campsite.

At the campsite we were shown to our own very large tent. We were surrounded by 100 foot rocks. There was also a toilet facility and a large dining tent. After settling in we entered the dining tent and were immediately offered some tea. There were other guests from France, England, Germany and Spain. Dinner was excellent (chicken cooked in a sandpit), as was the music. It was an amazing atmosphere. I believe the Spanish couple were on their honeymoon. They could not take two steps without taking a picture of one another. And not just any picture. They would take turns posing in front of a tent, a toilet, a rock, a fireplace etc etc to get just the right picture. It was very humorous. Someday when they divorce they are going to have millions of pictures to divvy up.

The German man was a scientist with the EU in Brussels. He was also an expert on constellations and offered us an excellent overview of what we could see. And there were a lot of stars as the night was clear and there was only a sliver of a moon. With that we retired for the night to the soft sound of a Bedouin playing a lute.

Your wife deserves a medal. :-) She sounds like a great sport.

Glad you liked the photos! Those rocks were awesome.

The only way I (mid-sixties) get up dunes these days is with someone pulling. Or pushing...

Please don't use Delhi as a proxy for India - that would be even worse than using New York as a proxy for the US. Worse because the main "sights" are from either the British or Mughal Empires.

Another person reading along and enjoying! We leave for Israel on Thursday and plan to spend a night in Petra. Wish we could do more in Jordan, but the going may be tough with my husband's torn miniscus and the pulled muscle in my back today.

I agree that you must keep India on your list. It was one of the most fascinating places we have ever been. If you go, be sure to include Varanasi. Thursday - We liked Delhi, but perhaps that was because we spent time there at the end of the trip and it was a nice change spending time in a city.