Jordan – 2011

Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a small middle-eastern Arabic country with the geological misfortune of having Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel as neighbors, not exactly a peaceful quintet.  It’s not blessed with any oil and is landlocked, except for access to the Red Sea through the southern city of Aquaba. 

Originally called Transjordan, Jordan was created as a nation in 1921 by the British, who ruled the country until it got its independence in 1946.  Over the past century it has been caught up in the Palestinian/Israeli partition and migration travails.  In 1947 when the United Nations created the state of Israel, many Palestinians relocated from the newly formed Israel to Jordan. Currently, about a third of Jordan’s ten million population is Palestinian. While more than half a million live in refugee camps, most are actually not refugees from the 1947 relocation, but rather descendants of those refugees.

Why go to Jordan?  Misti and I are fascinated by the Arabic culture, the people, language, food and customs.  We’ve visited other Arabic counties and always have had good experiences and often a touch of adventure.  So here was an opportunity to explore a small and manageable Arabic country and tie the trip in with a middle-eastern cruise to Israel, Greece, Rhodes and Turkey.

At the time we visited, in 2001, Jordan was still quite peaceful, and the Syrian civil war had only just begun.  There were military roadblocks and lots of fifty caliber machine guns mounted on armored cars, but there wasn’t any feeling of danger or concern.  We had no reason to worry and we didn’t.  We had checked with the State Department before leaving and there were no tourist advisories.

The country is small and we used our trusty Lonely Planet, along with a good map, to plan our route.  We flew Air France to Paris and then another four and a half hour flight to Amman where we spent one night at the Bristol Hotel.  Amman is Jordan’s capital, and with a population of four million is by far the largest city.  It’s considered one of the most liberal and westernized Arab cities and ranks with Doha in Qatar and Dubai as being business-friendly. 

We had planned to spend only one day in Amman before heading out to see the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley, Petra, Wadi Rum and other Jordanian highlights.  There’s lots to see and do in Amman, and several days would have been better, but we did have some great meals, strolled the downtown and saw the Roman amphitheater.

We picked up our rental car and headed north toward Jerash, about twenty miles from the Syrian border.  We got lost on the way out of Amman, no GPS, and picked up a hitchhiker who got us out to the highway.  He was a local but spoke good English, was delighted to talk with two Americans and invited us to his home for dinner.  We were tempted to accept his offer, and probably should have, but it was getting late and we wanted to get on with our journey.

We arrived Jerash early evening and decided we’d stay in the city center.  That was a mistake because there were only two hotels; one looked absolutely terrible and the other, where we stayed the night, was OK but weird.  A very Arabic experience, no Western tourists, no English spoken, small rooms, a tiny dining room with Arabic food, but what do you expect for twelve dollars a night. 

Jerash has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and its main attraction is the Greco-Roman ruins, including Hadrian’s Arch and the Corinthian columns of the Temple of Artemis (the Greek goddess of Hunting).  Behind the arch is a hippodrome which, in ancient times, hosted chariot races for 15,000 spectators.  As we often do, we easily found someone who could be our guide.  The ruins are vast, in excellent condition, no tourists other than us and, as ruins go, they were quite impressive.  A highlight was a guy in Arabic dress playing Yankee Doodle on a bagpipe. 

We left Jerash and headed south for a four-hour drive to the Dead Sea.  As we approached the Dead Sea we realized this was the hotspot in Jordan, with several American and European resort hotels.  After the funky, cheap hotel and restaurant in Jerash, we were ready to go first class. 

The Dead Sea, at almost 1300 feet below sea level, is the lowest point on the planet.  It’s a landlocked body of water that is ten times saltier than the ocean.  Because of evaporation and rivers being dammed, it’s estimated it will essentially dry up by the year 2050.  Its name derives from the fact that its extreme salinity prevents any organic growth, thus the “dead sea.”

We decided we’d have lunch at the Marriott, which looked to be the best of the lot.  Not surprisingly, the entrance was fortified with sandbags and a formidable barrier, as well as machine gun toting guards.  They asked if we were guests and when I said we were just stopping for lunch, they said we couldn’t enter.  This was an American owned hotel, and we were American citizens, which I quickly told them, and I didn’t think we looked much like terrorists.

I suggested a call to the hotel manager who quickly appeared and said it was fine for us to enter, after mirrors were used to make sure there were no bombs under the car.  I don’t like acting the “ugly American,” but in this instance I felt it was appropriate.  After lunch we decided we’d spend the night at the Marriott so checked in and got a nice room overlooking the water, and were able to see the lights of Jerusalem across the sea.

From the Dead Sea we headed south to Petra, also called the Rose City because of its pink sandstone cliffs.  Petra is a world famous archeological site dating back to the 4th century BC when it was established as the capital of the Nabataean Kingdom.  The Nabataeans were nomadic Arabs whose wealth came from trading, particularly frankincense, which at the time was much in demand.  

Petra has been a World Heritage Site since 1985 and UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious properties of man’s cultural heritage.”  It was recently featured on a PBS documentary, “Civilizations.” It’s Jordan’s most-visited tourist site with more than one million visitors annually.   

We were advised to arrive early in the morning to avoid the intense afternoon heat.  Access is through a narrow gorge called “Al Siq” - more than one km in length, flanked by 200 foot cliffs with tombs and temples carved in the sandstone.  At the end of the Siq is the Treasury (Al-Khasneh), a temple with an ornate Greek-style façade, the most important structure in Petra.

We spent several hours exploring the myriad of architectural wonders, including the many temples and homes carved into the hillsides.  The city has been mostly taken over by the desert, but one can imagine it as a thriving city of 20,000 people in its heyday 2,000 years ago.  It’s estimated that only about one-twentieth of the structures have been unearthed.  When the mid afternoon heat became oppressive, and it was time to head back, we decided to take a horse drawn carriage back to the entrance, a good decision because the heat reflecting off the narrow Siq walls would have done us in.

We stayed the night at a small hotel in the Mousa Valley (Moses Valley), just a few kilometers from the entrance to Petra.  When we were checking into the hotel we heard what sounded like gunfire from a machine gun.  Even though Jordan was quite peaceful in 2011, the sound we heard sounded like a war zone.  I asked the receptionist what was happening, hoping the hotel wasn’t under terrorist attack, and he said not to worry, it’s just a wedding and it’s the custom to fire AK-47’s into the air.

After Petra we drove to Aqaba and spent one night at the newly built, completely empty and very inexpensive Intercontinental Hotel, and got a room facing the Gulf of Aqaba which empties into the Red Sea.   Aqaba was on our route to Wadi Rum, and I always remembered the name from Peter O’Toole’s portrayal of Lawrence of Arabia, in the movie of the same name, when he led his Arabic army against Turkish forces and said “On to Aqaba.”

The next day we drove about one hour from Aqaba to Wadi Rum, a protected desert wilderness in Southern Jordan, considered one of the world’s most outstanding desert landscapes. Wadi is Arabic for dry riverbed.  Wadi Rum is one of Jordan’s main tourist attractions, home to people of Bedouin origin, who traded their nomadic goat-herding lives to become jeep driving tourist guides. 

We decided we’d pass on an authentic camel ride, opting instead for one of the covered jeeps, with driver, to explore the picturesque sandstone mountains and desert terrain, including the watering hole of Lawrence Spring, named after Lawrence of Arabia who washed there.   Being virtually alone in this vast desert area, with only a few Bedouin tents and camels as neighbors, against the mountainous backdrop, was a magical and memorable experience.  The night sky, filled with zillions of stars, was one of the most brilliant we had ever seen.

We spent the night in Rum Village at a place called Bait Ali Camp, on the outskirts of the village and the only tourist accommodation in the area.  It’s built with both traditional Bedouin style tents as well as more conventional rooms, and is surrounded by a security wall.  Because of the heat, we chose the air-conditioned room for a good nights sleep, although the tents did look like fun.  There was a central dining area and bar where we had dinner and drinks and met up with several interesting European travelers.  We loaned one my laptop, which he used to download his photos to send home.

After a night in Wadi Rum we drove to the Amman airport for a flight we had booked to Beirut, Lebanon, where we planned to spend two nights.  Unfortunately, the flight had been cancelled so Beirut would have to wait for another time.  Instead we drove back to Amman where we spent another two nights before flying to Athens to meet up with our cruise ship, the Azamara Quest, for an eleven day cruise to Israel, Rhodes, Marmaris, Turkey, Mykonos and finally back to Athens and our flight home.

Art Faibisch

July 17, 2018