Wednesday 4 October
After a 3 hour flight from Dubai to Amman with Emirates we are singing the praises of Qantas.  Honestly, the service on both is chalk and cheese.  And we prefer cheese.

We were met at Amman airport and transferred to our luxurious hotel.  We are staying at the Four Seasons and it’s probably a good idea to stay in luxury in a city such as this.  The airport is quite a long way out of town, 30kms, and the drive made me feel like a foreign correspondent.  Except for the journalistic skills.  We are clearly in a different culture and very different landscape.  There is nothing western about that drive at all.  It looks like the television images we see of the Gaza Strip.  Desolate, sandy, barren hills, some with olive groves, some with camels (farmed for their milk) but most with nothing.  Then there are the ones with houses, all the same.  Square, just off white, with square windows cut in.  The scene reminded me of a design presentation at day one of rehearsal, with a white cardboard set model.  Little boxes on the hillside.

As we neared the city the density of the buildings obviously increased and from our hotel window we see just buildings.

 

Entry to the hotel included a full security check.  Mirrors under the car, open the boot to check for unsavoury things or people and then a friendly wave through.  All luggage and people scanned and xrayed on entry to the foyer.  But then we were met by a surfeit of friendly, welcoming and ever so slightly intrusive (but very well intentioned) staff wishing us a happy stay and ensuring us of their undying attention.  We may test that yet…..

We are exhausted but its only 6pm and so we go down to the 151 bar on the ground floor for a drink and snack (at eye watering prices!).  Lots of the patrons were smoking hookahs, the vessels with hose pipes, lots of smoke and flavoured tobacco.

Cherrie complained of passive hooking and so we retired to the room.

Thursday 5 October
This morning we meet our tour guide (Murad) and driver (Raed) for the next five days.  It takes us all of today to learn the pronunciation of their names.  How handy it would be for the travel agency to advise us the day prior as to the phonetic pronunciation of those we will spend much time with.  It would save embarrassment  for both parties.

We set off for a full day tour of Jordan’s capital, Amman.  It is a modern, bustling city full of cars with apparently non functioning indicators.  Or drivers who have not yet discovered what that little stick to the side of the steering wheel is for.  We visit the Citadel which sits on the highest of the 7 hills in Amman (actually it used to be 7 hills but the city has expanded to such an extent that there are now more than 20!).  The Citadel is a historic site dating back to the Bronze Age.  There we see the Temple of Hercules (built by the Romans)

The palace, built in 720AD stands against the modern skyline

The Archeological Museum is a simple affair but its here that we saw the oldest figure made by man in 8000BC

And even Tony Abbott is represented (no doubt because of his ancient views on most things)

From there we moved to the Amphitheatre, built by the Romans in the 2nd Century and which has perfect acoustics.  A small house though, resembling many of those of Christine Dunstan Productions in the past

We also visit a private art gallery of Khalid Shoman, whose family founded the Arab Bank.  It’s set in a wonderful house and is an eclectic and interesting collection

After lunch, during which our tour guide indulges in a hookah

we head north, within 20 kms of the Syrian border (yikes) to the ancient city of Jarash.  We take the road to Damascus, but you will no doubt be disappointed to learn that I remain the same troublesome woman I always was.  No conversion for me.

Jarash is a walled Greco-Roman settlement, again dating back to the Bronze Age.  It’s a large site with lots of archeological works still happening.  It has, like so many sites in Jordan, been severely affected by earthquakes over past centuries and so lots of columns etc are no longer standing.  However Hadrian’s Arch is there still, dating back to 200AD and the huge colonnade around the oval shaped forum.

Back to the hotel at the end of a long day, we eat early and simply and retire to prepare for tomorrow when we head to Petra.