Climbing mountains and -400m in 1 day

My second time to Petra was more interesting than the first. Me and Frederik covered the same amount of sights in half the time compared to my last visit, and we took some amazing climbs up the various hills around the hidden city. For example, we headed up the stairs to the High Place of Sacrifice. From this mountaintop and destroyed temple, we had a beautiful view of the whole city. Amazingly, as we were up there, a windy front rolled in and caused a sand storm in the valley below. Very weird sight. Poor tourists. We also climbed to the top of the theater, which was awesome. I didn’t do it last time because it was closed by fences, but this time I just followed the Berserker Viking on his quest for ever higher heights. And man, was it great. From up high, it gives you another great view of the city and you can imagine the roar of 8,000 Nabataeans.

This last Thursday, I also visited the Kerak and the Dead Sea for the first time. The first part of the day was spent at Kerak castle, a Crusader caste from the 1200s. It’s mostly rubble on a hill, but the walls still stand. The most amazing parts are hidden deep underground and constituted the stables and living quarters of the Crusaders; they are magnificant multi-level halls, going down as far as four different levels. Later on the day, as Frederik and I drove down from the mountains to the lake’s shoreline, we could see a weather front roll in from over the hills in Israel. Just our luck. We were in time for the sunset, but alas, the clouds rolled in and that was it. We went to the Dead Sea Marriot Hotel, mistakenly bought 2 dinner vouchers thinking they were entrance tickets for the spa (which is the only way to go into the Dead Sea and enjoy a needed shower afterwards), but got in anyway thanks to a nice security guard. The feeling of not being able to sink is very strange. I got the hang of floating after one panicky help-I’m-going-to-sink-like-a-rock arm splash, getting the salty water into my eye –- not a recommended experience. The trick is to just stretch to keep your balance. After having been in the water for a while, I dutifully rubbed the last bit of mud from one of the jars at the beach on my body. Then I just sat back and enjoyed the view over the lowest part (400 meters below sea level) of planet Earth.

 

al Makdonaldz

Amman is quite the American franchise. Not that this is anything peculiar of course. It fits in a line of other countries all having adopted the American brands of fast food, coffee bars and wholesale stores. But to me, as a Dutchman, it’s a feast of brand recognition (from American television shows! ;)) and a lot of brand discovery. In Holland, we only have McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Subway. Correct me if I’m wrong, readers.

If you know me just a tad bit, you’ll know that I love Starbucks. Everytime I’m abroad, I visit a Starbucks. They have a great one here near Abdoun Circle, with excellent facilities. Actually it’s the best one I’ve ever been to. And yes, the coffee and food are overpriced, but it’s the overall experience that counts. Nevermind this marketing babble. Furthermore, Amman houses ChiliWays (mmmm great chicken burgers), Hardee’s, Popeye’s, American Bakehouse (fantastic bread), and all the obligatory stuff like McDonald’s, BK, KFC, etc. Other market segments are also represented. I saw a Radioshack near 6th Circle.

Yet, there are also the great local and regional franchises. I’m a big fan of the Lebanese chain of Casper & Gambini’s. They make great fajitas for lunch. And yesterday, my all-time favourite icecream parlour (van der Poel IJs in Hengelo and Enschede, Holland) was thrown back into second place by a local Amman parlour. Nutella ice cream. WOW.

 

My Saturday is your Sunday

Today’s weather: clear blue skies, pretty warm (16C), with a light breeze. Eeeexcellent. Yet, I’m inside right now with a great wireless connection at Books@Cafe, spending my Saturday — last day of the weekend. Books is a restaurant and a bar in the heart of Amman, on Bin Omar al-Khattab street, also known as Mango Street. Note that this last bit of information does not matter to any of the taxi drivers around. Basically, these guys only know how to drive to shopping malls and major hotels. This can be a bit of a pain, as you have to guide them yourself (not a viable option when you’ve been in the city for 2 weeks) or you have to call one of your more knowledgeable Arab friends to allow for an explanation of the route over the phone. Sometimes, I wonder if the taxi drivers just play ignorant to buy time and distance and with that, some extra Dinars. During the day they’re stuck to meters (getting you around the city for 1 or 2 Jordanian Dinars) but during the night they use their own prices. Welcome to the wonderful world of haggling.

Yesterday I met up very early in the morning (07:30 – early, considering I had a rough night with little sleep on Thursday) with a colleague, Layla. We were both inspired by last week’s bike tour of the Jordan Valley and decided to tag along with a few more. Yesterday’s route covered the same part of the Jordan valley as last time, but the wind had picked up considerably and made the trip a bit harder. Again though, the scenery was mind boggling. Pictures to come. While cycling through the agricultural parts of Jordan, you’re looking back at the mountains hiding Amman and at the West Bank with the city of Jericho in the middle. The farming people you encounter are very simple, speak no real English and live in Bedouin tents on the land, surrounded by their livestock and well-dressed children (Layla: “My God, is that kid naked?”).

Today’s an easy, relaxing day. I think I’m going to check out one of the walking routes mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide to Amman, taking me through the gold souk (the traditional Arab marketplace) and the downtown area.

 

Night time highlights

Work hard, play hard.

Every weekday begins with an 8 hour working day, followed by an evening packed (19:00 - 00:00) with social activities. It’s a blast though. I’ve been traveling around the city a lot in order to see all the different hang outs, such as Nai (world famous, Oriental, royal, luxurious lounge club), Vinaigrette (a wonderful restaurant in the penthouse of the Howard Johnson hotel in Shmeisani, with an amazing view over Amman), Blue Fig (a very original restaurant/club in Abdoun), Starbucks (for those of you who know me, this makes absolute sense), Books@Cafe (great cappuccino and wifi, guaranteed easy Saturday morning), Fakhr el Din (luxurious restaurant with great Arabic dishes) and Kanabaye (gayest salsa club in town, serving a very mediocre amount of whiskey in a lemonade glass). All great hang outs with their own taste in music and clientele.

The bad thing is that a lot of the upper class clubs require early reservations for a table, because everything is based on the fact that you would really really want to sit down – and enjoy the narguila, the hubbly bubbly. Everything here is loungy. I haven’t been to a club yet that only had just a bar, a DJ booth and a dance floor.

Tomorrow is weekend. Let’s have a drink and dance. I’ll make the reservations!

 

Arrival, part 2

I’ve added some pictures from my phone, click on the Flickr link on the right hand side of the screen. Once I get the chance to head out for some proper photography in the weekends, look for better stuff!

So, after having loved those sheep brains, I went to work the following morning. It was absolutely pouring down rain and of course I couldn’t explain to the taxi driver where exactly the office would be. The problem with taxi drivers in Amman is that they only know the landmarks, and very very few street names. On top of that, street names have the strange habit of changing every year.

I told the taxi to stop and I got out, calling the office. I took shelter in someone’s carpark for a few, when it turned out that I had actually gotten within 50 meters of the office: I could see Imad Marji, financial and administrative manager, waving at me from afar. I ran down to the office dodging deep pools of water in treacherous holes in the road, and got there right on time. Nine o’clock sharp.

I met everybody gradually during the day, while I was settled in the office of Faisal Hakki, my supervisor. At 4 I attended a short meeting where I saw everybody together and I got a proper introduction. Fun exciting day! I headed home, and went to bed early. Monday consisted of more meetings and talks with people in the office. Everybody has been very friendly and helpful, so I couldn’t have wished for anything better.

Oh, and on Tuesday, the girls from the embassy prepared a superb hutspot dinner, followed by wine, Old Amsterdam cheese and dropveters. Mmmm. Almost as good as sheep brains. I met Ala’a (because everybody called him Allah, he decided his nickname would be Alexander or Alex), a Jordan-Canadian and his cousin Osama. I also met Francisco, an Italian who had studied in Enschede at my university, and believe it or not, had actually lived next to me for half a year in 2001. Small world, huh?

Finally, yesterday night was football night. Holland played Russia so we went down to the Champion bar near the Kemplinsky hotel, but sadly we were too late. Some English fans had already requested the England - Spain match on the big screen. So we headed down to the Bristol Hotel, which turned out to be absolutely shady and smelling of toilet refreshener. Nevertheless, a 4-1 victory for the boys in orange did me good. Oranje boven!