Easy Visa

The visa for Jordan was incredibly simple. As a Canadian you just fly in and buy your visa upon arrival. The cost was $80.00 each. There was no paperwork, we just handed over our passports and that was it. The other option for entering Jordan is to purchase a “Jordan Pass”. We didn’t know this was an option until after we arrived so we were out of luck. You need to purchase the pass prior to arriving and need a digital copy accessible to show immigration officials. Wifi at airports can be hit and miss so I always take screenshots just in case. The pass covers the visa fee plus admission to around 40 of its most popular tourist sites, including Petra.

Next up was immigration. The first question they asked was where we had come from. India.

“For How Long?” – One month.

“Before that?” – Sri Lanka.

“How long?” – Just under a month.

This line of questioning continued until we reached Thailand which was back in the begining of December, about three months prior. His response was raised alert eyebrows followed by a much louder than necessary, “You were in Thailand!” Again we emphasized that we had been there over three months ago. Then we were asked if we had had any symptoms and such. We had not. Then he got up and went to discuss the matter with someone else. All restrictions or issues we had come across had been limited to whether you had been to certain countries in the last two weeks. We had not anticipated any problems. He came back all smiles, stamped our passports and said warmly, “Welcome to Jordan.”

We also got set up with SIM cards before leaving the airport. They were a lot more expensive than India which was no surprise. While a 30 day plan in India came in at about fourteen dollars for the two of us the options for similar plans in Jordan would cost us around eighty bucks. We settled on a promotion that gave us two SIM cards and a shared plan for just over sixty dollars.

Waiting outside the airport for our Uber driver I watched a man rolling his suitcase into the airport with a falcon on his arm. You know, just a typical guy traveling with his falcon. It took a while for our driver to arrive. Uber is legal in Jordan, but they are not allowed to pick up from the airport. So in order for him to collect us he had to print off a sign with our names and pretend he was a private car hire.

He was a very lovely man, his English was decent and he was extremely friendly. We got to know all about him on our way to the hotel and took his number in case we decided to hire a driver to take us around Jordan. Public transport is not an option for touring around Jordan. You need to either hire a driver or rent your own car. 

Old Amman

We stayed at the Layaali Amman Hotel in an area known as Old Amman. Right across the street from us was the 6000-seat, 2nd-century Roman Theatre. It was a great place to be situated and the hotel was lovely. The room was spotless. The shower was the best one we had encountered in months. It had a step down so water did cover the entire bathroom floor. There was a shower curtain. The actual shower head was attached to the wall so you didn’t have to wash with one hand while holding the shower head with the other. Most of my showers over the last eight months have involved turning off the shower multiple times in order to open bottles and shampoo my hair. It’s either turn off the water or try to hold the shower head under your arm, or cradle it with your neck and shoulder like a phone, but inevitably it slips and water goes everywhere. This shower was a welcome change. Oh, and it was great pressure and a consistent temperature. So good. 

Old Amman was full of busy streets. It was apparent that there was a culture of outdoor living here, with an abundance of seating outside for cafes, restaurants and plenty of market areas. Local shopping on the streets was interesting. In Old Amman shops consisted mostly of women’s traditional dress shops with a shoe store interspersed. For some reason they were almost all named Bata. One stretch alone had probably half a dozen Bata stores, it seemed like overkill. The traditional dresses are beautiful and very ornate. I popped into one shop to take a closer look. The weight of some of the dresses were incredible due to their heavy beading.

There were also shops that sold dried goods and Incense. The guy running the place was so lovely. He kept asking us to try samples of things he was selling and although they look delicious  we declined. We didn’t feel right about picking out goods from open barrels and eating with our hands considering the current situation with coronavirus. We explained that to him, but he insisted that there was no coronavirus there. I felt bad, but we just continued to shake our heads, smile, and say no thank you. It’s so Canadian to want to please people and it was uncomfortable not accepting his offer to try things, but I wasn’t willing to risk it just to be polite.

“Welcome to Jordan!”

This is a phrase we heard everywhere. Almost every person we spoke to would at some point say enthusiastically, “Welcome to Jordan!” The people were so incredibly friendly, happy, and good humored. People would stop us and ask us where we were from and what our plans were. We had many offers for drivers, but if we told them we already had a driver then they didn’t bat an eye and would continue to tell you what you should see and do.  

As we explored Amman we found ourselves in front of a little book shop. Andre had been wanting to get his hands on the newest edition of the Lonely Planet for the Middle East. There were two older gentlemen in the small shop and they happened to have a copy… from 2012. It was twenty-two Jordanian dollars (44CA). Andre asked him if he could get a copy of the new edition which was published in 2019, but because so many people use the internet now they told us that it wasn’t worth them getting in the newer edition. Besides, he said, “Nothing good happened after 2012 anyway.” He continued on while shaking his head “Iran, Syria, Egypt… they’re all a mess. You don’t need the new book.” Andre and I burst into laughter. I loved this guy. Andre eventually negotiated the price down to 10 JOD (Jordanian Dinar).

I also found a book that I wanted to get.

 

We stumbled upon this umbrella art installation on King Faisal St. It was a cool little spot although the umbrellas looked like they had seen better days. A young girl stopped us and asked us to take her photos so we took the opportunity to get her to do the same for us. It’s not very often we get a photo together.

There weren’t a ton of street cats compared to what we had seen in other places, but the cats here are quite unique looking. They have really short legs and tails making them quite stout looking. Someone had left food and water out for this little one eyed scrapper.

Food and Fashion

Hashem Restaurant came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. The food was sensational. The place was packed with families and friends and the tables were loaded. There was no menu and no frills. They just slapped down a thin plastic table covering and brought out the works. Falafel, hummus, pita, pickled vegetables, babaganoush, tomatoes, greens, fries, tea and cokes. All of this cost around 7 JOD. The family seated next to us were all smiles. They seemed quite curious and kept looking over at us, encouraging their little ones to wave and smile. Finally one gentleman asked where we were from. When we said Canada he lit up and replied, “Canada is an amazing place!” Andre then asked if he had been there. He had not. It’s astounding to me the number of people who go crazy when they find out we are from Canada and speak about it with such love and enthusiasm without ever having visited. It’s a pretty nice reputation to have.

We hit up a similar joint closer to home a few days later but this time we asked for take away. They packaged everything up except for pickles. We both love pickles so we asked them if they had any. They had pretty much no English so it was basically a back and forth of the word pickles in various tones and volumes. There were about 8 guys in the place and they were all trying to figure out what this word ‘pickle’ meant. We tried describing the colour, pointing to other green things, and the size. We could see we weren’t getting anywhere so we told them not to worry about it. But they weren’t having it. We knew we weren’t leaving there without pickles. Finally a guy came running into the shop. We hadn’t even noticed him leave. Apparently he had gone out to find someone who knew what a pickle was and he came back triumphant. He beamed and said something we couldn’t understand and then everyone yelled “pickle” with nods of understanding. They grabbed a small bag of pickled vegetables from the the back and tossed them into our bag. We paid our 2.50 JOD and headed home to feast.

So food was very inexpensive everywhere we had eaten, but shopping for clothes was another matter. We had arrived in Jordan a good month before we had originally planned and knew the weather would still be very cool, but we didn’t have much choice since we had to start moving our dates up. We figured we would just buy some warmer clothes once we arrived. Well, let’s just say that Jordan is not the place to go shopping. There are many popular chain stores there like Zara, and H&M, so to get an idea for pricing you can buy a pair of pants from Zara in Canada that cost 50.00 and they will cost you 40 JOD or 80 CAD. Oh, and they have a 16% sales tax as well.

One rainy day we headed to the Taj Lifestyle Center to burn some time and see if there were any local retailers that were reasonably priced.

On the way to the shopping mall we passed by one of the larger mosques. There were tons of people outside and our taxi driver told us that people were still going in droves even though they had been advised to stay away from large gatherings.

The mall was massive and gorgeous, but there were no deals. I fell in love with a pair of sunnies at one shop and looked them up online. I could order them from the USA for 50 dollars or pay 75 JOD (174CA with their tax). Andre actually managed to find a pair of runners for a decent price. I was jealous. I am always cold and had only sandals. I was happy we would only be staying in Jordan for about 10 days. Shopping, I knew, was much cheaper in Turkey.

The Citadel

Despite the cold weather we ventured out one afternoon to explore the Amman Citadel. On the upside the cloud coverage made for beautiful colours.There are several different ruins within the site. The Umayyad Palace with its restored domed entrance was my favorite.

The area also contains the remains of a sixth-century Byzantine church, the Temple of Hercules, and caves that were used as burial sites that date back to 2300BC.

Next to the Temple of Hercules was what remained of the fingers of a statue from the Roman period. The statue is thought to have been 12 meters tall.

We met a few other Canadians during our visit. They had just flown into Jordan a two days prior. Andre and I were shocked that someone would choose to leave the country at a time like this. It’s one thing to already be on the road and entirely another to decide to pick up and leave when the government had already discouraged non-essential travel. As we chatted with them it seemed obvious they were unconcerned and at one point one of the two women said that it was clearly a bio weapon… that’s when we decided to move along with our self guided tour.

I don’t mind a good conspiracy theory now and then but we were already so sick of hearing people voice their expert thoughts and feelings on the matter. I wasn’t even going on social media much anymore because it was all people were talking about. I felt like every update I read, even the jokes meant to uplift or lighten, put me in a negative headspace. I have loved Facebook as a platform where I can feel connected with my friends from overseas. I love seeing their photos and reading their funny stories about life and their families. I like my Facebook light and positive. I’d love to see another platform come out for people to spout their views on politics, vaccines, and conspiracy theories. I have followed many people lately, family members included. I’m very over it.

Anyway, back to the citadel. We also met a mother and daughter from London. They were so lovely and by the end of our conversation the mother told us that if we got stuck for flights and couldn’t get home we were welcome to come stay with her in her separated secondary suite.

I really enjoyed exploring the area but the wind was picking up so we didn’t stay as long as I would have liked. The view was amazing.

 

That evening a wicked storm came in. It went through the night with the winds so strong we both woke up around 3am to watch. The rain was sideways and the trees looked like they were ready to leave the ground. 

 

Time To Fly

Saturday March 14th the adventure came to an end. Everything happened really fast. Friends in the medical field who had encouraged us to keep going now messaged us to tell say we should look at coming home. We were already online looking for flights. Andre popped downstairs to the lobby to get some hot water for tea as we searched through airline sites. He returned back to the room with hot water and a slight look of panic. While he was down in the lobby the owner told him that they had just announced on the news that the airport would be closing on Monday. We had already booked a flight out for the following day (Sunday), taking us into Ankara, Turkey. From there we would land and catch a flight into Istanbul where we would stay the night and fly out the next day (Monday) to London. Our London flight would take us to Toronto overnight and then on to Edmonton the following morning (Tuesday). If all went according to plan we would get into Edmonton on the afternoon on March 17th. With airlines changing their policies by the minute and new restrictions being implemented daily, we kept our fingers crossed.

It took a while to get all the flights sorted out. We had to forfeit the flights we had booked in the weeks earlier because all the phone lines were jammed. We could have made a change to one of our bigger WestJet flights. They were offering free flight changes, but only by phone. I have a Skype account so we could call the number provided but the wait time was 1356 minutes and 47 seconds. Not so useful. Luckily we got new flights home for a reasonable price. Now was not the time to concern ourselves with recouping any lost costs on existing itineraries. That would have to wait.

We are not once in a lifetime thinkers so we weren’t crushed, but of course we were disappointed. I was the more disappointed of us. We loved our first taste of the Middle East and knew we wanted to return. But at the moment we knew we had to go home. We really didn’t feel we had much choice because whether all the fear was warranted or not, the reality was that the reaction to it was real. The closures and restrictions were real. We didn’t want to get stranded somewhere for an unknown amount of time, especially if we were going to be restricted to a hotel room. We felt terrible for the owner of the hotel. He was clearly distressed about the news. No flights meant no business. He said he couldn’t just shut the place down either because he feared looters would come. He walked us out to our taxi the next day, wished him well and told him we’d be back.

254 days in…

Winter is coming! Let’s hope all our flights get off the ground.