Loved Jordan! Would love to head back some day and travel around Jordan and maybe Syria too. Could be a while, although I am planning to win a packet in Tattslotto soon, so we'll see!
We flew into Amman in the evening and caught a bus and taxi to our hotel. We had been told that the taxi should cost about 2 Jordanian Dinar (JD), but by the time we got to our hotel the meter read 19 70. First thought was "great, another taxi driver ripping us off - pretty standard really". But when Simon handed over a twenty the guy said 'No, no, it's only 1.98 JD' (The dinar can actually be broken into hundreths, piestres, or thousandths, fils - confusing when you have no idea what is going on!). I think this dude was the first honest taxi driver we have met so far in all our travels!
The world's greatest taxi driver was quickly topped by the owner and staff of our hostel. Incredibly helpful and lovely people. They helped with anything and everything, from organising tours to helping our friend Rob try to find his wallet when he left it behind in another city. On our second last day we asked to have our room cleaned and the cheeky buggers decided to play a joke on us. When we came back and opened our door the lights were off, TV cranked up and a lifesized guy made from towels and clothes was sitting on the bed holding the remote. I absolutely shit my pants and the guys who did it giggled every time they saw me for the next few days. Nice bunch of people.
Amman itself isn't particularly impressive. It's crowded and pretty dirty. But outside the city there are a million and one beautiful things to see and do. We hired a car with a few others we met at our hostel (a Canadian, an American and another Aussie - fantastic guys) and spent a day hooning (literally - the traffic there is absolutely ridiculous!) around Jordan. It started of beautifully when we headed out to our car in the morning parked on the street behind the hotel to find a bird market had sprung up overnight around it. Jordanian folk as far as the eye could see, with car boots full of pigeons and carrying paper bags with live birds in them. When we had joked around the night before about the dangers of leaving our rental car on the streets of Amman overnight, getting stuck in a bird market, suprisingly, was not on the list! It took us about a half hour (during which time Simon actually ran over some poor sucker who got in his way!) to clear the market. Good times!
That day we visited Kerak, an old crusader castle and visited Wadi Mujib, which was, hands down, the best thing we did in Jordan. We walked along a river (actually in the river) that wound through a canyon and climbed up and down several waterfalls along the way. Predictably, I sustained a couple of minor injuries along the way, but it was absolutely worth it. It was incredibly beautiful and a lot of fun. On the way home we stopped to have a sunset swim in the Dead Sea. It is a weird feeling, floating no matter how hard you try not to. Kind of cool, but the water itself is kind of oily feeling. Not refreshing at all, but a cool experience.
The following day we caught the bus with the gang out to Jerash, an old Roman city, and spent the day there looking around. It was well worth a look, although we had to take refuge in a restaurant at lunchtime (tough life!) when a sandstorm rolled in.
Simon and I headed out to Petra on our last day. Three hours there and three back, with five or six hours hiking around in between. We saw as much as we possibly could in our time there and didn't even see half of it. I'll admit I was a bit ignorant and had no idea how huge the whole area was, having only really ever seen photos of the treasury building. The treasury is probably the best kept, but there are lots of other buildings, some bigger, some smaller and all incredible. I don't think I can really describe it and our pictures certainly don't do it justice, but take a look anyway :)
I could rave about Jordan more, but Simon keeps telling me I'm writing too much, so I'll leave it there and you all need to leave some comments telling him to pipe down!
