Reunited with our Worldly Possessions

  Amman, Jordan
Monday, April 30, 2007

And the peasants rejoice!

We got our bags back safe and sound! 
and the border guys didn't even go through them.  It took us 3 hours of
sitting in the bus station, being told they were going to arrive in the
next hour... every hour.  Fortunatly we made friends with a local guy
who was waiting for his wife, and apparently is an international
football (soccer) referee, and referee'd a world cup game 20 or so
years ago.  So that kept us entertained.


As an added bonus, the other woman on our tour, who also lost
luggage, didn't come to the station with us, but repaid us for picking
up her bag with back massages... and shes a proffesional massage
therapist from Australia!  It was Heaven!!!  Three weeks worth of long
bumpy bus rides gone from our backs and shoulders. 

The area that we are in in Amman is still pretty junky.  It
is right in front of the biggest bus station in the city, and is
surrounded by travel agents, so we get mobbed by taxi drivers and bus
drivers asking if we want to go to Syria... and there is almost no food
around here!  But we tomorrow we head off for the Dead Sea and Wadi Rum
- the city closest to Petra!!!  our prime reason for hitting the middle
east.

View over Amman

Today involved a morning walking tour of Amman, including a roman theatre and the Citadel, which was not as Citadelish as past Citadels.  I think our expectations of ancient ruins are a little spoiled after Syria.  One cool aspect of the citadel here in Amman is the museum, which despite being tiny houses some amazing artifacts.  The museum includes the earliest known statues, dating to about 6000 B.C., and the Dead Sea Scrolls!  which were displayed in this tiny, uneventful room.  We were suprized to see there was no particular climate control or special measures taken to preserve them given their historical value, but that's the middle east for you.  Apparently Egyptian museums contain even worse stuff, like Papryus documents stuck to the wall with nails.  After that we ate massive amounts of food for very cheap and headed back to the hotel for some R & R.  Seems funny that you'd need a break on holiday, but the pace is pretty busy, and it's gonna pick up in the next few days.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Another downer (Jordan seems to have a lot of downers, but
we're optimistic it's gonna pick up tomorrow) Is that two months ago
Jordan stopped letting students have discounts... so Petra is now
double the price it would have been... about sixty NZ each for entry
(... we have student cards... we're... world students!... yeah, that's
it.)  So Jordan is pricey, but Egypt sounds like it should get a bit
cheaper.  Fortuantly we're only in Jordan for five days, and we're
eating on the cheap again - better for the waistline - so we should
save some cash.  Falafel anyone?

Gabrielle and Amman

We'll sign off here, internet is really pricey.  It should be
about four or five days before we can write again, but we're keeping
written entries of our journey, so those should go up blog wise as soon
as possible.


Thanks heaps for everyone who offered sympathy and support,
and to those constant emailers.  We really appreciate you keeping in
touch! 

All our best from Jordan