Amman /Jerash

Saturday, April 04, 2015
Amman, Jordan
On the way to Amman, we stopped at Mt Nebo. This was declared a holy site by Pope John Paul II a couple years before his death. It is believed to be the place of Moses' death. I got mum a couple of postcards. I bet $20 bucks she'll kiss the postcards.
Mike and I along with Sharon and Julia opted to go to Jerash . It's a very large site that contains the ruins of a roman city. We dropped everyone else off at the hotel and headed off. The bus ride was hell for Mike. He really was in a lot of pain. There is not much I or anyone can do but it's hard to see him suffer. He tries to hide it. We've visited a couple of pharmacies for advice. They have been really helpful though a bit scary.....one pharmacist was going through some options and had a box of Celebrex. She said she wouldn't recommend it because it causes "sudden death"! We gave it a miss.
Gerasa was really, really good. It's huge! Lots of columns that are still standing. It is on a fairly equal footing with Ephesus, it's just lacking "The Library". There is likely to be one at the site somewhere, but they cannot afford to excavate on the scale required.
On our way back through the ruins we saw a guy being dragged away from some columns.....unsure if he fell off a column or whether he had a seizure. The guy was unconscious, looked about 18 - 20, and had been incontinent. The family was quite distressed . A police officer eventually arrived, called another who eventually arrived, who called another until there were about four of them. By this time the guy had regained some but not all of his senses and the police walked him over to a seat. He was being tended to by a tourist (I'm assuming a doctor), so we were reassured that he would be OK.
After returning from Jerash, we headed to the mall nearby and found a Gloria Jeans. Don't especially love the coffee but definitely love the WiFi. The internet in Egypt and Jordan has been pretty bloody crappy. Hey boys, don't complain anymore, OK!
That evening we went out for our last group dinner. It really has been a terrific group. Lots of really different personalities but generally no major problems, everyone has been super nice. There's only been the occasional dickhead behaviour, and that's probably been us!
For dinner I had chicken sagiiyh. It's served kind of like a sizzle plate. Very enjoyable.
Not sure how and why but I ended up doing the thank you thing again. Zuhair has been a really good guy . I liked him. After that the group inevitably began to splinter. Some were leaving in a few hours so headed back to have a snooze and to get organised. A few of us went to a bar based on "Coronation Street" to have a drink....even me. I had black sambucca with an espresso shot, thank you very much, Helen!
The next day Leena, Anne (a random New Zealander that Leena found), Mike and I headed off to do a self guided walking tour of Amman. We started at the Citadel which is on top of a hill and has loads of Roman ruins. The archeological museum is there. It is small but very well ordered. After some up hill and down dale walking we stopped at a coffee shop and I had a really good Turkish coffee. We continued along the route past the amphitheatre and Nymphaeum, then went into the fruit and vegetable souq. Leena says there are very few markets like this with the fresh produce. So Melbournites, you are very lucky! We found our way to the women's souq. There is a lot of racy lingerie. The strange thing is, it was men selling all the ladies clothes! We also saw some of the beautiful embroidered dresses that some of the women wear . We went in to one of the shops and they range from about $80 AUD to about $300 AUD. We finished up at Hashem Restaurant. This is fast food, and there is no menu. You wait until you are seated then the food starts coming. There is fresh flat bread, fresh hummus, babaganoush, fries, felafel, stuffed felafel, beans, tomato, onion and mint and tea, cola or sprite. We could not eat it all. It cost us $4 AUD. So cheap and so fantastic. You could not possibly make it for that money.
We then caught a cab back to our hotel. Later Leena, Mike and I headed to Lebnani Snack for dinner. Had an amazing avocado smoothie and chicken 'sandwich' there. After that it was our final goodbye to Leena and Julia. Leena and I had become quite good buddies, supporting each other on the arduous hike up Mt Sinai, and to a lesser extent on the hike to the Monastery at Petra. It was a lot of fun!
Today has been a transit day. We didn't do much this morning. Went for a walk to try and find some stamps. The people in the hotel had no idea, so we asked the guy in a mini market . He rang his son to ask. Does no one post letters in Jordan?? The mini market man gave us directions to go the bank street as his son said there was a postbox there. We found it. A battered post box but no post office. My postcards from Petra will be getting sent from Malaysia! We were getting a bit anxious about our lift the airport but our driver arrived and was a pretty cool dude. He asked if we wanted to stop and get a sandwich. I think he was pretty hungry, lol, but we declined. We were just anxious about getting to the airport on time. On the way we saw a really bad accident. A food van had gone straight up the back of a truck. The cabin was pretty crumpled. A large group of men were trying to get the guy out, ambulance had just arrived and there were cars parked all over the place along the freeway. Initially I thought it had been a multi-car pile up, but it was all people who had stopped to help. The driver said if he didn't need to get us to the airport that he would stop and help too!
So today is a transit day, currently at Dubai airport waiting five hours for our connecting flight to KL. Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan was really nice. We thought it would be smaller but it is a new building and is a very nice airport. We are trying to not get too narky with each other here in Dubai while we wait. Could be a challenge, lol!
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