Jordan

We arrived in Amman the capital of Jordan on Thursday evening and after checking into the hotel went from a walk. After the unrelenting flatness of Dubai it was quite a surprise to be walking up and down hills. It was so quiet walking round in the evening, not too many cars on the road. We were aiming to reach the Citadel which is a Roman ruin near the centre of Amman but in an example of my dubious navigation skills (my kids reckon I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag even if I had a map and a torch) we ended up in the souq area. We seemed to be the only non-locals around. Main thing I noticed was that there were so many shoe stalls that it should have been called The Shouq also lots of knock off DVDs including most of the IAMED series and plenty of WWE discs for 1/2 a Jordanian dinar each which is about $2.50 AUD.

Next day on to Jerash to see the Roman ruins there. The heyday of Jerash was in the third century when it had a population of around 20,000. Emperor Hadrian (he of Hadrian's Wall in England) visited and an imposing arch was built his honour. The arch is the first thing you see on entering Jerash. We walked through the site up to the theatre where stage shows were held 'back in the day'. Much restoration work has been done on the theatre and we could walk right up to the back row, very steep stairs and not a good place for anyone with vertigo! The acoustics in the theatre were amazing and even from way up in the "Gods" things said at stage level were quite audible. A bagpipe and drums trio came out and played, yes they play the bagpipes here, but they're playing Arabic music. The musicians really got into it and, as is typical in the Middle East, where there's music there is a 100% chance of an outbreak of dancing - God, I love it here - almost immediately a group of local schoolkids got up to dance debke. One of the kids' mum who was doing escort duty with the school group (some things are the same the world over) got up and joined in. She was in full hijab, her face covered with a burqa but she was having a ball and the kids formed a circle and danced round her. The band then played "Scotland the Brave" and "Amazing Grace" for the tourists, all with a baladi rhythm! Then in a great musical irony, they played "Jesu joy of man's desiring" with a masmoudi rhythm, a surprising piece of music to hear I thought. Interesting dispute, the Scots say they invented the bagpipes and that the Arabs stole the idea (bagpipes are played in Jordan and Egypt and probably other countries in the ME) but the Arabs say the opposite. Why anyone would claim responsibility for such a thing baffles me!

We moved on to the amphitheatre where we watched a recreation of the sort of show that ancient Romans would have seen. We were sitting on the same seats that the Romans sat in nearly 2,000 years ago, watching guys from the Jordanian Army or Police going through their paces as gladiators, legionnaires and chariot racers. An actor dressed as the Roman governor walked round being the MC and explained what was happening. I had my photo taken with a couple of the legionnaires before the show (baksheesh had to pass hands of course). The chariot races were good to watch, got some good photos. Unfortunately we only had time to walk through a small part of what is a huge site.

On to Madaba to see the mosaics. Madaba is mentioned in the Bible as "Medeba" and has been inhabited for 4,000 years. It was ruled by just about every major civilisaton including of course the Romans but was abandoned in the 7th century after an earthquake and not reinhabited until the late 1800s. The mosaics were rediscovered when the new inhabitants were digging foundations for their houses. The mosaics themselves date back to when Madaba was an important Byzantine centre. The major mosaic is a map constructed around AD500 which shows all the major biblical locations in the Middle East with 157 captions in Greek. After seeing the map we went to see other mosaics in the Church of the Apostles and the archaeological park which displays mosaics recovered from various sites around the Madaba area. By that stage I have to confess to being "mosaiced out" so we sat at an outdoor table at a local coffee bar and ate toasted sandwiches.

From Madaba we drove up to Mt Nebo where, according to the Bible, Moses saw the Promised Land (Duet 32:49-50 for those who are interested). There is a church on the hill that Pope J-P II visited in 2000.

We stayed the night at Hammamat Ma'in which is a hot springs resort. Legend has it that King Herod used to go there. The hotel we stayed at is called Janna which is the Arabic word for paradise and it certainly lived up to its name; total luxury. There are water falls tumbling down the cliffs by the hotel, the only unusual thing is that the waterfalls are hot and so is the river they fall into. There's a river pool by the hotel for the use of guests and its completely natural, stones on the bottom, the hot river flows through it and its just great to soak in it. It was like the natural pools in Rotorua before they found out about meningacocal! We sat on the outdoor terrace in the evening, had a few quiet ales and watched the sun setting behind the hills.

Next day we passed the Dead Sea. I didn't go in for a float as the beaches we passed were all stones, quite a way off the road, covered with rubbish and really quite unappealing. On to Karak to see the huge Crusader castle, then to Petra arriving in the late afternoon. We spent all of the following day walking round Petra which was everything I hoped it would be plus some. Petra was the major city of the Nabateans, a nomadic tribe originally from Yemen who settled in Jordan around 600BC. Over the following 600 years they carved temples and tombs as well as an intricate system of water channels ('falaj') out of the solid sandstone rock of Petra. The Nabateans abandoned the Petra around 400AD but nobody really knows why. A truly magnificent site. The rock is a pink colour which changes shade as the sun moves, not without reason its known as the 'Rose-red City'. After a long day of sightseeing and being a good little Kiwi and Aussie, we naturally looked for the nearest pub. We found one close to the site entrance called the Cave Bar which really is in a cave. The first beer went down so fast it didn't even touch the sides. It was followed by a few more and a very smooth shisha, then back to the hotel for a hammam (Turkish bath and steam) and a massage of the tired feet. A fine way to end a wonderful day.

After two nights at Petra we moved on to Wadi Rum out in the desert. We stayed at Beit Ali which is a desert camp and did a 4 hour trip in a landrover with a local Bedouin guide to see some magnificent scenery. We also stopped at a couple of places used by TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) during his time in Jordan. No sand dunes like the desert in the UAE, all flat sand with step craggy rock hills jutting out but wonderful colours that change according to the angle of the sun. Really cold though.

Big police and military presence here, quite high profile which is totally different to Dubai. There are armed guards outside all the hotels and major building and on the roads there are Army checkpoints where all cars are stopped and they check IDs and ask where you're going. Sometimes they asked to see our passports and sometimes they didn't, I think a few of the Army guys pulled us over because business was slow and they just wanted a chat. Seemed to be a very conservative society compared to Dubai which seems like Sin City in comparison. However young women were very much in evidence and seemed to be active participants in education and tourism. Majority of ladies wear hijab but rather than wearing abayas like in the UAE most seemed to wear jelbab which is like a long trench coat in style but made of fabric. Everyone, female and male, young and old, appears to own a black leather jacket. Wael, what's with that? Is every Jordanian issued with a leather jacket at birth or something?

Pictures of the Jordanian monarch King Abdullah are everywhere, some show him wearing various military uniforms, some with Queen Rania, one with him on a motorbike for the younger generation, often the pictures are beside a portrait of his late father King Hussein who is almost revered in Jordan.

The next day we drove back to Amman on the desert highway to catch the plane back to Dubai. We could have spent a couple of weeks in Jordan just exploring, there is so much to see, particularly if you're interested in Crusader history, castles, forts and the desert. The people were friendly and hospitable, I've drunk more sweet, hot mint tea in the last 6 days than I have in the last 6 months! Music is great too.

The flight back went quickly and I knew I was back in Dubai when the taxi driver tried to rip Colin off for the trip from the airport to where he'd parked the car. Back to reality!

Lots of photos here.