Le Meridien (Standard) Amman

... for Heli) and so far we aren't sick of it yet! <br><br>Fighting the evening boredom (it usually gets dark around 5pm) Manuel &amp; Heli even played a game of chess at the Eco Tourism cafe where you get tea for 50 Euro cents and a shisha for 1,25 Euros (although we refused the latter due to our cold)... Heli won :) <br><br>Helman's next stop will be famous Petra, Jordan's biggest attraction. <br>

... group would be leaving or if they would have room for me. Basically I wanted to avoid a 3 am drunken cab ride with me, myself, and the driver so I decided I would try to wait until the group was leaving and see if they could fit me in one of their cars. That was my plan BeFoRe I decided to take a bathroom break. In the bathroom it was quiet and I was standing still...well attempting to stand still...and as I tried to steady myself without touching the bathroom walls which ...

... gaining 10 pounds in one sitting, we lounged in the beduin tent with tea and just chilled, chatted, and rested. Good times. I learned lots of words to call servants but (1) I can't remember any of them, and (2) I probably would only use them with Mohamad anyway since he is the original Little Man Servant ("Hamad!....ahwah!"). <br><br>On our way back to the city area of Salt we stopped by Mohamad's grandparents' gravesites, may they rest in peace. It was my first time in a Muslim ...

... of the bounty before them. ::Inhale inhale inhale, swallow swallow swallow, smoke smoke smoke:: All culminating in a happy food coma over nargileh,<br>cards, and sweets that lasts until the cows come home. Sigh.<br><br>Fine, no one kicks old women out of the way. Actually considering that everyone really drained from not eating or drinking, the process of getting the food from the platters to the plates and from the plates to the mouths is ...

... called Fitness First Platinum. Devin had inherited a membership from someone she knew who recently left Amman and she is allowed to bring a guest which is how I ended up spending a couple hours at what I later learned is the most expensive gym in Amman. It was definitely an experience. They have squash courts, a cafe, personal trainers, and free internet. Devin is a swimmer so she stayed in the Olympic-sized pool most of the time. I wandered between floors and ...

... However, other things have really been bothering me. For instance, nothing&#8217;s easy here. There&#8217;s always something wrong with my cell phone, or the internet, or the TV, or the shower, or the toilet, or anything else you can imagine. What&#8217;s worse is the customer service. You call the customer service hotline and will either wait on hold for hours and eventually give up, or the company will say they&#8217;ll come help and then they won&#8217;t show up, or ...

... like wikitravel said you could fine. The store owners were pretty candid...there really aren't many antiques downtown. <br><br>I was struck by what was downtown. There really weren't any other tourists around to speak of. We saw three foreigners on our walk, and they were all in the same store. But the good just didn't seem all that marketable to a Muslim audience, especially the women's clothing. There were traditional shops selling robes and hijabs, but there were ...

... watched the two European Champions League Semi Finals in this working mens club equivalent. It was a really cool place to watch the games, as the whole place had an air of mystery about it (probably due to the amount of sheesha being smoked), as rowdy football fans mixed it with old men playing chess and backgammon and drinking fruit juices. The most engaging moments of Amman came through walking the endless narrow streets interacting with the locals, and this was no more enjoyable ...