Jordan 2014

20140515 – 20140521
Amman -Jerash – Wadi Musa/Petra – Adaba & Dead Sea
1 Jordan Dinar (JD) = approx. 0.7 USD

Lack of sleep and a cross-boarder call from a senior colleague who berated my poor handover, had sapped my enthusiasm for the travel at the outset.
Landscapes and hustles and bustles in an untravelled area is always worthy of witnessing, but the exhausted body was more fond of reaching the place to crush and sleep in Day1. Thanks to the well tendered nature of Jordanian, scammers are rare to be encountered, but frequent bystanders who are willing to help, but have no clue, have more exhausted me though.
As (East) Asian is nowhere to be seen, I also got used to be thrown the phrase of “Ni Hao”, or occasionally “Konnichiwa”.

Jerash:
City located north from Amman, and accessible by approx. 30 minutes car-ride (1-3 JD). Famous for the archeological site from Roman era.
Entrance Fee: 8JD (which I thought a bit too pricey)
It was impressive enough just to walk through remains, but it would have been certainly more memorable and educational had I retained what I crammed into my head for university Entrance exam back in 6 years ago.

 

Petra:
Bus ride from Amman to Wadi Musa (Valley of Moses): 7 JD/one way.
Treasury – High Place of Sacrifice – Royal Tombs – Monastory
Entrance 1 day: 50 JD, 2 days: 55JD, 3 days: 60JD
1 day should suffice, but 2 days would allow more leeway in schedule.
Petra at Night: 12 JD, is to be better experienced than captured, especially for those who don’t have a posh camera. The night view was categorically stunning.

Dead Sea:
Amman – Madaba – Dead Sea (Amman Beach) – Amman: 20 JD.
2 hours is good for floating on Dead Sea. Again, it’s better to be felt on firsthand than captured in pictures.

Places visited:
Roman Theater
Rainbow street (where all well-offs and ang mo’s flock to)
Temporary souk (Souk JARA)
Sydney Hotel (Amman)
Sabaa Hotel (Wadi Musa)
Amman Citadel (whose sunset view is quite nice

Amman