Amman and Jerash, Jordan

Daily, we are fed negative reports in news programs about conflicts in Middle Eastern countries that have arisen due to religious or political or social factors. These stories make tourists think twice about visiting and safety concerns also led us to cancel a booked tour to Egypt. But when the opportunity arose to visit Jordan/Israel/Palestine, we decided to proceed despite Government travel warnings. And we are glad that we did. Behind all the bad press, there are friendly local people relying on the tourism industry to survive and we (tourists) should be visiting these places and giving them a chance to tell their side of the story.


Trip Planning
Packaged group tours that include transport, accommodation, some meals and a local guide, are often the simplest way to visit a country or region with many key tourist sites. Selecting the provider (discounts and deals can be found at travel shows), paying the deposit and sorting out flights (including visas) are the key pre-travel steps. Mei had prior experience with group touring (Contiki in North America, almost 10 years ago), so for this trip we chose TopDeck, a similar company that targets the 18-30+ year adventure travel market.

Arriving in Amman
We flew with British Airways into Amman, Jordan's capital city and arrived in the evening at Queen Alia International Airport. We had purchased Jordanian dinars in advance in order to pay for the visa on arrival and the taxi to the hotel. But despite all the planning, Mei forgot her toothbrush and almost unbelievably we found that you can purchase almost any bottle of spirit or perfume in the world at the arrivals hall but not a toothbrush.

Amman - view from near the Citadel

Guidance from Tripadvisor had warned us not to accept a car ride from touts at the airport entrance as they were likely to charge exorbitant prices for the transfer to the hotel. Instead we pre-agreed our taxi fare with a man at a booth who pointed us to one of the cabs in the rank. Our driver played the expected role of trying to extract money from us by advising that our hotel destination was (a) no good; (b) he knew a better, cheaper one. After being turned down by our numerous responses of "no it is pre-paid, cannot go to another hotel"; he eventually got bored and spent the rest of the journey smoking whilst yelling down his mobile phone and navigating the crazy traffic.

Corp Amman Hotel
As we had arrived a day earlier than the tour meet-up, we had booked one night's accommodation at the Corp Amman Hotel, a modern building on the busy Queen Alia highway that had a security scanner at the front entrance (a common sight in most Jordanian buildings). Our check-in coincided with a wedding party full of drums and dancing men in traditional dress. The festivities continued until midnight when we finally were able to get some sleep.

The irony of a used ashtray and no-smoking sign

Exploring Downtown 
With a free day to ourselves, we walked (crossing the road requires strong nerves and a belief that cars will go around you) to the main tourist sites in Amman, stopping off at a small shop to buy a toothbrush (1 dinar) and a local SIM card with data roaming.

Amman Citadel
The Citadel is the number one attraction in the Old Town and we overlooked our tour's itinerary that we would be visiting this site on Day 1, so in fact we ended up here twice.  We also took an interesting route to the site, heading down a narrow laneway and ending up being led by local children up a back-entrance where houses had been built into the ancient ruins. When they started asking for money, we felt a scam coming on and decided to part ways, 'rescuing' a Japanese tourist on the steps who looked equally lost and confused.

View from the back-entrance of the Citadel

Stunning view over Amman from the Citadel

The 'official entrance' was located near the lookout to the Roman Theatre and up some street-art decorated stairs.

First posed photo of the trip

The stairs the led to the official entrance

The Citadel has been the site of occupation by many civilizations that have conquered the area now known as Amman. With such a rich history, we hired a local guide to take us on a private tour of the site. This was worthwhile, as he explained the significance of many ruins and assisted with photo-shots. 

Our guide loved to assist with taking photos

At the entrance, stone panels outline the history of the area by the names that it was known during antiquity - such as Philadelphia (during Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine era), Mman and Rabbath-Ammon. 

The site has been excavated by archaeologists from around the world and the main buildings include the Temple of Hercules, the Byzantine Church and Umayyad Palace.

Bronze Age Cave

Cave used by Bronze Age inhabitants of the Citadel

Temple of Hercules

Umayyad Palace

Gate house or waiting room

Paved walkway of the palace, destroyed by earthquake in 749AD

Jordan Archaeological Museum

The museum houses a collection of artifacts discovered at sites across Jordan.

Most well-known in the collection are the Ain Ghazal statues, regarded as the oldest statues ever made by humans, dating from the period 6000-8000 BC.

Hashem Restaurant

From the Citadel, the next stop was 'Old Town' Amman with an intention to visit the Souk (covered market). However thoughts of eating dinner came up as a higher priority than shopping; and after some quick Google searching (thankful again that we bought a local data plan) on what was good in the area, we found one of the most well known falafel restaurants in town  - Hashem.

Open since 1954, the decor is basic - plastic seats and tables with newspaper clippings of famous celebrities that have eaten here. Everyone seems to order the same dishes - fresh pita bread, mashed fava beans, hummus, a plate of falafel and a daringly hot chili sauce; all eaten with hands.  

More taxi fun

We had a clear plan to catch a taxi back to the Corp Amman hotel, grab our bags and then catch a taxi down the road to the Al Fanar Palace Hotel where our tour would commence. However, we made the mistake of hailing the first cab we saw (driver parked opposite Hashem Restaurant) and not being firm on the price of the fare in the beginning. We ended up paying (as the meter was suspiciously turned off) an overpriced 5 dinar to our hotel (should have been less than 3). And when we thought we could escape this driver, as our luck would have it the hotel bellboy hailed him to be our second ride to the next hotel (he was hanging around the cab rank).

Now confident that he could extort more money off us a second time, he had the cheekiness to ask for 10 dinar on a fare that should have been 2 dinar. Olie and him ended up having strong words outside the hotel; and in the end we paid double what we should have just so he would go away.  

Al Fanar Palace Hotel

On check-in, we learnt that our evening tour briefing had been postponed to the next morning and we had the night free to relax. Opening the door to our hotel room, we immediately realized things weren't quite right. The toilet didn't have the pressure to flush properly; the shower collapsed when touched and room smelt like cigarette smoke. Olie rang reception to complain and was told 'someone would come up'. Twenty minutes later and no response, we packed our bags and walked to reception to ask for a room change (first time we had needed to take this action in almost 4 years of hotels and travelling). To the hotel's credit, they responded immediately and gave us a better, cleaner room. 

Wanting the night to end on a happier note, we ordered tea and a cake and sat in the covered outdoor terrace where other hotel guests were watching football and smoking shisha. Then a noise erupted from the lobby and about a hundred wedding guests turned up, danced in a circle in the main hall and escorted themselves to a party in one of the reception rooms - wedding season was here!

A traditional dessert

Meeting our tour group
The next morning, we made it into breakfast with just 10 minutes before our tour briefing was due to start. We quickly identified the candidates for our tour group and we re-grouped on the terrace to meet Tour Leader Ali. Our initial group had 8 members and other than ourselves included: Lucy (France), Kiyoe (Japan), Sarah C (New Zealand), Sam (New Zealand), Genevieve (Australia), Sarah K (Australia). After the admin side was finalised (local payments, contact details etc), we boarded the mini-bus for a quick tour of the city. Ali stressed that as our tour itinerary coincided with the King's opening of Parliament, we would expect to see an increased military presence along the highway and possible traffic road blocks.

Roman Theatre
Our bus journey was enriched by historical and cultural facts by our Tour Leader. After visiting the Citadel, we stopped at the Roman Theatre, constructed approximately 169-177 AD and a capacity to seat an audience of six thousand.

View of the theatre at street level

View of the stage with the Citadel in the background

View from the top of the theatre

King Abdullah I Mosque

Our next stop was the King Abdullah I Mosque, open to non-Muslim visitors and contains a number of miniature models of other religious sites around the world. To enter the site, all the girls (ie. everyone except for Sam and Olie) had to robe up in a special black gown that completely covered our hair to feet.  

The dome of the mosque

The lighting and decorations inside the mosque

Change in the itinerary

The original tour itinerary had us visiting two further sites that afternoon - the Roman city of Jerash and the Crusader period Ajloun Castle, built by a nephew of Saladin. However, due to the clocks changing for winter-time and earlier sunset, we ended up missing out on the Castle and spending a lot longer in Jerash.

Lunch was eaten at the Green Valley restaurant, a popular coach rest-stop in Jerash that served pita bread, falafel, tabbouli and grilled meats - the standard meal for the entire tour.

Our lunch destination

Jerash 

Jerash is located in north-west Jordan towards the border with Syria and contains the preserved ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa. In our opinion, the ruins were of better quality than what we saw in Pompeii, having been preserved in the soil after the earthquake of 749AD. And in contrast to the Forum in Rome where modern buildings dot the skyline with ancient pillars; the site of Jerash is relatively isolated with very few tourists. 

Ruins with the modern city in the background

Goats keeping the grass under control

Arch of Hadrian

The entrance to the site is guarded by the large triumphal arch of Hadrian, who visited in 129-130AD, as the city was a member of the Decapolis - group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Palestine and Syria.

Arch of Hadrian

The Hippodrome
Beyond the archway lay The Hippodrome, used for chariot racing in the early 3rd century AD and could accommodate up to 17,000 spectators. It reminded us of the iconic scenes from period films like Ben Hur and the other Roman arenas we had visited in Istanbul, Delphi and Rome. 

The archway where the competitors would enter from

Other iconic buildings of Gerasa that we visited were:

The South Gate

The Forum

Nymphaeum

Temple of Artemis

Temple of Zeus

Views of the Cardo (Main Street)

The South Theatre

Hydraulic stone saw machine
Dating from 550AD, this is thought to be the earliest machine in the world. It was used to cut large blocks of stone with two saws (each with four blades) and powered by a water mill. A modern replica has been installed nearby.

General scenery

Heef and Reef

After a long day walking around sightseeing, Day 1 of the tour came to a close and we were exhausted on returning to the hotel. Staying local for dinner, we ventured to the nearby supermarket for supplies of water and snacks, before heading to Heef and Reef, a popular takeaway restaurant that served tasty fried chicken and chips.

 

Next blog post:

Madaba, Wadi Rum and Petra

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