Jordan: Jerash, Aljoun, Amman

Spring Break Day Five (continued from part four)

I took the early morning bus from Wadi Musa to Amman. When I arrived back at the hostel, the owner mentioned was worried about me since I did not come back last night. I had left my bag there while I stayed in Wadi Musa. It seemed the owner cared a lot about the travelers that stayed at his place. I would recommend the Cliff Hostel to anyone staying in Amman.

I had breakfast at Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Restaurant a few times that week. There aren't too many restaurants in Downtown Amman, but this one is pretty good. Afterward I bought my ticket to Istanbul from a travel agent and then went to North Station for my last day trip in Jordan. I took the bus to Jerash, a significant city in northern Jordan about an hour from the Syrian border.

Road to Jerash.



Jerash is famous for its well-preserved Roman ruins, which was my destination. Upon getting out of the bus, the first thing that struck me was the smell; the flowers in Jerash were in bloom everywhere so the whole city smelled like a florist's shop.

A camel at the bus station?


Before the entrance to the ancient city there was a small marketplace where vendors sell their goods. At the hippodrome, you could purchase tickets to see reenactments of chariot races, though I opted not to.

The ancient city of Jerash is well worth the visit, as many of the structures and the original Roman roads are still intact. The ancient city and the modern city of Jerash are set against a nice background of green, rolling hills. There was a large group of schoolchildren probably from somewhere in Jordan who were visiting, but besides that there weren't too many tourists. The area around the ancient city isn't overly commercialized either, so it made for a pleasant visit.


Gate to the ancient city.


Forum of Jerash.



The bigger theater.


The small theater.


The Hippodrome.



Various pictures from Jerash. I don't remember the names of all the structures.





The modern city in the background of the ancient city.




Some of the flowers, whose scent pervaded the air.



Afterward I had lunch in Jerash and then wandered around the city a bit before locating the bus station. After waiting for a bit, the bus to Aljoun arrived. I was the only one to board the bus, but since it was a multiple-destination route and picks people up along the way, it left with just me on it. The ride from Jerash to Aljoun is perhaps the most scenic road of all that I traveled.

Aljoun is a tiny, quiet town with perhaps a few thousand, and its main (and only attraction) is the castle that sits atop it, known as Qal'at al Rabad. The castle was built in the 12th century by Arabs fighting the Crusaders. I took a taxi to the top and I arrived just before closing time. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, but I spent enough time to say that it was probably my favorite thing I saw in Jordan. Karak Castle was a close second, but the quiet town of Aljoun really beats out Karak.

Pictures from Aljoun Castle.







View of the castle from the other side of Aljoun.


After visiting the castle, my taxi driver told me there were no more buses from Aljoun, so he drove me to Jerash. He set me up with a guy who was giving servecee rides in his car to Amman for only 1 dinar, which was a good enough deal for me. After back in Amman, I had dinner at one of the outdoor diner-style places, wandered around Downtown a bit more, checked out of my hostel, and took a taxi to the airport. The only flight I could find from Jordan to Turkey for that day was a 3:30AM flight to Istanbul from Queen Alia Airport, so I had to stay up the whole night.

Jordan: General impressions

The trip to Jordan was a good visit, I think, since I felt I learned a great deal and enjoyed myself in the process. I visited some of the more obvious tourist attractions but also saw some of the more obscure parts of the country, so I think I got a fair impression of Jordan.

Here are some comparisons to Egypt, from my perspective as a foreigner to both:

• Before I arrived in Jordan, I read about the basic differences between Jordanian and Egyptian Arabic, such as the pronounciation of the jim as a "j" rather than a "g" and the pronounciation of the qaff as a soft "q" instead of silent. This was easy to adjust, since Jordanian follows the same rules as Modern Standard Arabic. Many of the basic words such as "what" and "where" were different, but I picked these up quickly. It seems that everyone I talked to in Arabic was able to understand me quite well, but I had a lot of trouble understanding others. Part of this was due to the fact that a lot of the Jordanians I spoke with talked at a blazing fast speed. A few people who were interested in having a conversation with me, however, spoke slowly and clearly so I could make out what they were saying, and it helped.
• I had expected that many Jordanians would know English, since it's a more educated country than Egypt. This was not the case, and it seemed Jordanians knew even less English than Egyptians. Most surprising was that some couldn't speak a word of English.
• In general, Jordan seemed wealthier than Egypt. I did not see as many poor people as in Egypt (though I'm sure they exist) and the average Jordanian seemed to have a decent standard of living.
  
• The whole country moved efficiently compared to Egypt, where things move at a slow rate. Rules were followed on the road and elsewhere, and it actually felt like the government had control over the country. Police officers and other officials were professional and took their jobs seriously.
• Amman does not approach the noise levels, nor the pollution levels, that Cairo does.
  
• The country was a bit cleaner than most of the places in Cairo, but not by much. Even in Jordan, littering is not an enforced crime, so people will simply drop their bag of chips or cigarette box after they are finished with it.
• Islam did not seem to have the same dominating role over Jordan as it does in Egypt, though it still plays a significant role.
  

Jordan: Amman

Spring Break Day Three (continued from part two)

The third day I decided I had enough of the Faris Wings Hotel, and I would find another. I went to the place where I was originally going to check out when I arrived in Amman, called Cliff Hostel. It was right in the middle of Downtown, above a bakery and and a coffee shop. The change in atmosphere was marked. The previous "hotel" was dreary, depressing, and dirty, and I was the only one staying there. Cliff Hostel had some character, and was run by a very knowledgeable Palestinian man who spoke fluent English. The price was only 4JD per night (around $6) to split with two other roommates. I couldn't believe that I paid 60 dinars to stay in that other hotel for three nights. There was a lounge with all sorts of information about Jordan, and there were a bunch of other young backpacking travelers who were staying there. My roommates that night were Argentinian and German, respectively, so it was interesting to hear of their travels.

I spent Sunday visiting the sites in Amman, first heading up to the Ummayad Palace atop the Citadel. The Ummayads build their palace here before the medieval times, and much of it still remained. The view from Jabal al-Qalaa (Citadel Hill) was probably the best view in all of Amman. You could clearly see from the Citadel the hills upon which Amman is built.

Views of Amman from the Citadel.






The ruined Ummayad Palace.




For some reason, a US Air Force plane over Amman.


There was also an impressive archaeological museum atop the citadel, with artifacts dating as early as the Bronze Age up until the Islamic Age. A few of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran were housed there.

Artifacts from the archaeological museum.




After the Citadel, I headed to what is known as Roman Amman, where several structures from the Roman occupation remain. The most impressive of these is the Roman Theatre, which is almost entirely intact after two millennia.

Views from the Roman Theatre.




Next to the Roman Theatre is the Odeon, which is essentially a smaller theater which could fit a couple hundred people perhaps.

The Odeon.


On the site of the Roman Theater are the Folklore Museum and the Museum of Popular Traditions, which had some interesting displays of Jordanian culture.

Exhibits in the Folklore Museum


A few blocks away is the ruined Nymphaeum, a Roman shrine to the Nymph goddesses. There isn't much left of it to see.

Nymphaeum.



Afterward I wandered around Downtown for awhile, though that doesn't take very long. Amman has been inhabited for many millennia, and it is known in the Bible as the land of the Ammonites. However, the city of Amman only emerged as a significant city in the 20th century. Therefore, the Downtown area is quite small and doesn't compare to Cairo or from what I've read, any of the other major Middle Eastern cities. There are a number of shops, mostly selling modern goods like DVDs and fashionable clothing. The one thing that is distinctive is the Gold Sooq, an area of shops which sell quality gold jewelry at some of the lowest prices in the world.

That night I went to church in the Shmeesani district of northwestern Amman. The church, Sacred Heart, was located on the site of the French Catholic school Freres College. Although it was Easter elsewhere in the world, it was Palm Sunday here because they wanted to show togetherness with the Greek Orthodox Churches in the country. Interestingly, almost the entire parish was Filipino, with some Indian parishioners, which suggests there is a large Asian population in Amman. I talked to the priest after Mass and it turned out he was a Jesuit from Boston.

Sacred Heart Church at Freres College in Shmeesani.


By the end of the third day, I felt I had gotten enough of an impression of Jordan to make a comparison to my experiences in Egypt. On the whole, Jordan seemed much calmer, more liberal, and more civilized than Egypt. The most noticeable difference was the traffic situation. There are actually traffic lights, stop signs, and traffic officers in Jordan, and cars obey them. Taxi drivers actually use a meter rather than the "however much you want to pay me" system in Egypt. In many respects, Egypt has a sort of lawlessness about it, whereas adherence to the laws in Jordan makes for an entirely different atmosphere.

In terms of clothing, it seemed most people dressed according to Western standards, at least in Amman. I did not see anyone wearing the jalabeyya (traditional robe) in Amman, though I did see a few when I went to the less populated areas of Jordan. Only about half of the women in Amman were veiled, compared to nearly all women in Cairo. It seemed like there was more freedom for Jordanian teenagers to have a variety of haircuts and clothing styles, whereas in Egypt there seems to be boundaries for what is acceptable. I even saw many teenagers wearing shorts.

It also seemed that Jordanians are far more patriotic than Egyptians, though whether it was genuine or not, I can't really determine. Many cars and buses were decorated with Jordanian flags and other sorts of memorabilia. What was particularly entertaining was the fact that you can't go anywhere in Jordan without seeing a giant picture of King Hussein. He can be seen in the pictures wearing his military uniform, traditional Jordanian clothing, a suit, or some other attire, but in each picture he always has a big smile. It seems like every street and institution in Jordan is named after the king or the queen.

The major irritating thing that was no different from Egypt was getting change for bills. Some people would refuse your payment unless you had exact change, or at the very least would get irritated if you presented large bills. Even giving a 1 dinar bill for a 45 piaster charge irritated people. The key, I found, is to get your change at restaurants and large stores, where they are more likely to have lots of bills, and save them for buses and other places where they are unlikely to have change.