Redefined Timeline

Two months prior, while in Peru for the GX Summit, I met a new Canadian friend named Kaylee. She told me about her upcoming trip to Jordan and invited me to join. Of course my travel addiction, coupled with my enabler husband, prevailed and I slipped into the single remaining slot on the G Adventures tour with Kaylee. I joined her, her best friend (and name twin), as the third wheel on an eight day tour beginning and ending in Amman. Yes, I traveled to Jordan. Yes, there was a war raging across the border in Israel. No, I don’t regret it. Kaylee did bring me Canadian maple leaf pins, and I identified as a Canadian while I was there. Americans are generally disliked in that part of the world.

We happened to be traveling to Jordan right when the tensions in the area became insanely tumultuous in November 2023. Hezbollah and Hamas were regularly shooting rockets at Israel, which happened to be right across the border from Jordan. I was warned by countless people to cancel my trip, my sanity was questioned (I do this every day, so no shocker there). Much like my fellow blogger, my defiant psyche prevailed, and I flew to the volatile region of the Middle East. On the bright side, Jordan had closed all of its land borders, only allowing air traffic within. I felt extremely safe almost the entire time – there were a few concerning moments when we were in the Red Sea, looking at Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel flanking us on all sides. Iraq, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza made up the other borders. It’s fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine…

The theme of the trip quickly became “lots of old rocks”… it won’t take long to understand why viewing my photos. Jordan is extremely arid, drought laden and mostly flat. Desert surrounded by more desert, without the benefit of their Saudi neighbors oil-rich territory. The population of Jordan is 11 million, with 40 percent of those living in Amman. Amman was also referred to as the “White City” since the buildings are clad in white limestone. The city was regularly plagued by shortages of water – they use cisterns in often failed attempts to gather water, then relying on water delivery trucks when the collections run dry. Israel boasted the best desalination program in the world to compensate for their lack of accessible H2O.

First full day in Amman, the Kaylees and I headed out to peruse some of the Roman ruins in Jordan. On Museum Street, Jordan’s Archaeological Museum and the Amman Citadel were perched atop a large hill in the center of the city. Included on said hill was the Roman Temple of Hercules, Umayyad Mosque and Palace. So. Many. Old. Rocks. Lyft was alive and well in Jordan, we hailed a driver and made our way to another part of the sprawling city. Uber, mind you, was not a thing in the small country.

Since we were not going to pay the creepy gentleman that approached us begging to be our guide upon arrival at the citadel, we decided to make our own conclusions as to what each (former) building once was. Sacrificial pit popped up a few times… a prison… insane asylum… our imaginations were alive and well! Then we looked at an eclectic display of art and pottery mixed with the skulls of children buried in boxes in a museum-type-building. Many of the relics were over 500,000 years old. One of the placards read: “This skull shows three trepanned holes. Trepanning… intended to release the brain or mind the evil spirits which were believed to cause mental problems.” Moral of the story, they drilled three holes in the top of the skull and removed the brain for those with mental deficiencies around 6000-4000 BC. It was an uplifting day…….

Few of the monuments or ruins were truly repaired like anyone in North America would be used to, except this one religious building that had a restored roof. The Umayyad Palace was used by the governor to receive visitors and had religious significance, including repaired crosses.

When your travel partner makes the command decision on lunch, which bleeds into dinner, and you eat enough carbs for a month in the form of flatbreads. So many flatbreads… None of us spoke or read Arabic, so guessing was the name of the game. The graphic’ed menu helped, but only so much. Oh, and don’t forget pitchers of Long Island Iced tea and fried pickles. I cannot for the life of me remember where we ate while in Amman. Mostly because all the names were in Arabic. Oh, and Jordan is known for its olives. I don’t normally like olives, but the ones I had in this country were quite tasty.

This was my first solo small group travel trip, and solo was pushing it since I met Kaylee and Caily over there. They roomed together, while I was initially partnered with a stranger (who will hence forth be known as Roommate). Let the childish drama commence! It started on night two. The first night I stayed alone in a hotel close by in order to join the group on time the following day. I jet lag crashed HARD that night after securely locking myself in my room without daring to hunt for dinner in the area. I may have chosen poorly on those accommodations.

Since traveling with weapons is frowned upon by TSA in most cases, I was unarmed in an area of Amman that I can only describe as menacing. The gentlemen lurking in alleys were watching me wander around trying to locate my hotel, envisioning only depraved acts I imagine. The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and the little voice in my head screamed, “Search faster, you idiot!!!” Finally finding my hidden lodging, I ascended the stairs to my clean-ish room. It’ll do for a night, I suppose. Meat stick from the bottom of my pack for dinner it is!

The second day the tour officially kicked off. Exiting my motel was less distressing in the light of day. Later that afternoon, I retrieved my room key from the much improved second hotel’s concierge. Roommate had beaten me to the punch and was already taking over most of the abode prior to my arrival. Initially, things went off without a hitch. Until Roommate decided working on her laptop a mere foot away in her bed was in order. Until almost 0200. Without dimming the screen. Once she closed the computer, I exhaled a sigh of relief. My elatedness was short lived… Roommate snored. I am the farthest thing from a sound sleeper, so this was shaping up to be a long eight days if I failed to get adequate shut eye. The next night sharing a tiny hotel room with her, the murdery thoughts crept into my brain as she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning again.

The temper tantrums would continue the following day, but trying to make the most of the trip, I stuck with my Canadian friends as we departed Amman for Jerash and the Dead Sea next.

إلى اللقاء … Which allegedly means ‘toodles’ in Arabic according to Google. Amman, we shall return in a week.

November 2023