Definitely shouldn't have had those beers last night. Not that it was a rough one, after all, I was too busy trying to master the ins and outs of getting this blog up to speed. No, the problem was I'd budgeted for the cab ride to the airport with my last 65 Dirhams. Thought that would be plenty, but when the meter starts hitting 55, and the airport's in the far distance, I was beginning to panic a little. My driver was hardly the sociable type - when I asked if we could have some pop music (a la radio), he looked as if he'd never listened to the radio in his life (and no, this isn't me be a condescending twat and not allowing for the language barrier). So we had the radio on, really static-y, and he shows no interest in changing it to a better reception. Yes, I guess the radio could've had it, but he showed no interest in pointing this out to me. In any case, made it to the airport with 75 fils to swear, so no dirhams to take home, I'm afraid.
So, flight to Abu Dhabi had arrived 45 mins early, flight to Amman, abut 25 minutes late. Funnily, no word about this from the cabin. Not a huge drama. Despite whizzing through immigration relatively quickly (I can strongly recommend getting your visas beforehand, rather than cueing up on arrival for ages), my luggage was probably the last to leave the plane. I'd arranged for the Hotel to pick me up, and I'd told them my flight was schdueled for a 10.25 arrival, but by the time I left the carosel with luggage in tow, it was an hour later. No nice man waiting with a Mr Richard sign sadly. Not that I can blame them, its a 40 minute trip each way from the airport to Downtown Amman, so I'd be a bit peeved and take off as well.
In any case, I put a quick word to the men who were waiting for specific passengers. "Palace Hotel?" I asked. No response. I walked off waiting to be swamped by dodgy taxi drivers when one of the gentlemen chipped in, asking if I'd be heading downtown, and indicating that he'd be happy to take me in for 20 Dinar. Since I was supposed to be paying 17 for the Palace Hotel pickup, and for the stress levels taken down, I jumped at it. So my self and a softly spoken Indonesian gentlemen were speeding out of Queen Alia Int'l Airport in the company of two delightful men. Very little English, but they were pleasant company nevertheless When I asked for some pop music, they asked if I'd prefer Western or Arabic. I went with the Arabic option, which seemed to impress them no end, and they promptly played whichever latest Swedish penned autotuned pop sensation was flavour of the minute. No Arabic then...
The drive to Amman was through a desolate but beautiful landscape, dotted with orchards growing who knows what, and grazing camels (exactly what they were grazing on was difficult to determine). Soon we'd hit downtown Amman, everything you'd expect a Middle East city to be. Heaps of stalls, markets, selling everything you could imagine, except for the stuff you really needed.
Palace Hotel - what can I say? Having stayed in nice Hotels the last couple of days, this one proved to be...different. Look, for 18 Dinar a night, you're getting what you paid for. If one was really unkind you'd call it a dump - I nearly wet myself with hysterics when I saw my room. And the bathroom!!
But the place has a cool hostel feel to it, and the staff are super cool WIFI is free, though a bit flaky. But for tonight, it's home!!
Later...
Just been out for a walk, had heard that there were the remains of a Roman amphitheater in Amman, but didn't realize it'd be so close. Took some shots, but by that stage the light was pretty bad, but this is what I'm talking about (Wikipedia to the rescue).
Took a side street up the hill, took a shot of the town. Up top is the remains of the Roman Citadel overlooking downtown, thought those columns up top at sunset was a lovely image.
Amman is such a world away from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This part of town is very rundown and in need of some TLC. Work is being done, there is what's called the Hashemite Restoration Project (or something like that) where it's planned to incorporate the Roman Theatre with a modernish public meeting area. Problem is I haven't read enough of the history of the area at this stage, but the place has certainly seen some hard times - to the point where one gets self conscious about taking photos
For what its worth, here's what I came back with. Enjoy. Tomorrow I'm off to Petra!!
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