Farah Hotel Amman

Mike is here at last! Mike is my good Kiwi buddy and we share an affinity for world politics and challenges. We are doing absolutely fantastic (at least now that he has finally arrived, he missed his plane and I was stranded in rainy Jordan for three days...) We spent the first two days in Amman doing tours of the area. First day was mostly a Roman ruins day, with the highlight being the city of Jerash, which is very well-preserved. Massive columns, cardo maximus, decumanus, temples, theatres...

I have just returned from spending 10 days traveling around Jordan with two fellow Aussie girls. With a brunette, a redhead and a blonde, we made for an unusual sight in Jordan, especially in the non-tourist season. Although one of my work colleagues was sure I would be kidnapped and placed in a harem, the best I got was an offer of 5 camels for my hand in marriage from a lovely elderly bedouin! Although we had a fairly busy itinerary planned, Jordan decided it would foil our plans by hitting...

Time to embark on our travels around Jordan - first stop, Petra!! Or so I thought. Our first attempt to reach Petra saw us head off to Wahadat service depot filled with anticipation of seeing the "rose red city" and with little idea of what was in store for us. After haggling a reasonable price for the journey, we settled back to enjoy the never ending desert landscape. The route to Petra is along the Kings Highway, which is the main north-south highway in Jordan. The area around the Kings Hi...

Never underestimate the power of the media. How else would a taxi driver from Damascus sending me to Amman have exactly the same way of addressing me as the obnoxious Venezuelan family with whom I had to climb Mt Roraima with. Its the same three-syllable, brazenly stereotypical, blunt ephitet that seems the most logical, appropriate and immediate - "Ching-Chong-Chung" How can two people on opposite sides of the Atlantic, come up with the same annoying sound to describe an entire region of peo...

Right from the start, Jordan had a lot to answer for. First, its expensive (for the Middle East), secondly, visting there meant leaving Syria and Lebanon - the scene of some of our favourite travelling, and thirdly, going there meant leaving Dave.... Dave, who hails from the mean streets of Washington DC, has been our adopted son for the past few weeks. We're proud of how we have raised him and how he's grown during his time with us - he can now order his food in the Middle East without recou...

Greetings from Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Our Middle East Adventure continues. This morning I spent many hours uploading my Nepal pictures to the blog. They are not all yet weaved into entries, but you really should check them out. I repeat NEPAL PHOTOS ARE UP! Anyway, we set off for Amman with our first stop being the Doha airport, of course. The roads in Doha are by and large empty. Well not really, but they are wide boulevards and are empty in stark contrast to ...

So I admit, the last entry was written after the fact. I was going to try to "break up" my entries because some of the three people other than my parents who have ever seen my blog complained. Unfortunately I just can't do it, not this time, it's just not the way I think.

So greetings from Amman, Jordan, again. Tomorrow we fly to Cairo. Jordan has been just terrific. The scenery and the people have made it great. Jordanian hospitality is, for the most part, unmatched. It's amazing to ...

Leaving the truck, I paid the driver and jumped on a bus into the center of Amman, the capital of Jordan, where I would stay only one night before crossing the border across the West Bank into Jerusalem. One night was enough to walk around the old center of the city and sample some of the kebab and sweet cheesse desserts on the streets. In the morning, I left for the King Hussein/Allenby border on a bus, thinking it would take some time to enter. Because of my passport full of visits to the '...

Ankunft am Queen Alia Airport von Amman früh am Morgen gegen 1:30 Uhr.
Erste Station am Flughafen ist eine Wechselbude, an der ich die ersten 50 Euro in Jordanische Dinar (JD) umtausche. Wechselkurs fast 1:1. Direkt nebendran dann Schlange stehen bei der Einreise. Einer stempelt den Reisepass, ein anderer macht ein Foto und fragt nach einer Adresse in Jordanien. Einreisesteuer beträgt 10 JD, ich gebe 20 JD und vergesse mir das Rückgeld geben zu lassen. Von alleine verzichten natürlich auc...

So since our last entry we have been back to Cairo and are now in Amman, Jordan. After my last entry Cory and I walked with our packs in the brutal Egyptian sun to the Old Market in Sharm El Sheikh. We made it, probably a pound or two lighter, in about 20 minutes. One of our inside jokes has become, "Taxi Dahab". Many taxi drivers in Sharm asked us if we go to Dahab, which is another resort town up the coast, maybe 150 or 200 km. So just out of curiosity, when we were asked, I asked him how m...