[sairamboko]

What do you do when you are divorced, mentally fatigued and stressed out, need some new views and air?? Drive, right?? I did drive but not in India , it was in Jordan! Let me take you through this journey that I did in August 2019.

Why Jordan

I was desperate for a solo gateway! Searched for Leh, Ladakh and the usual destinations! Nothing seemed satisfying! Then I started exploring international destinations. Ruled out the usual South east Asian countries, Europe and Dubai.

Then as i browsing tripadvisor, came across many trip reports from Indians visiting Jordan. This intrigued me and I started exploring. Jordan is a small country with a sizable population. Mainly chose this country because it offers:

1. Visa on arrival for Indians
2. Rent self drive cars using our Indian DL
3. Emirates A380 fly here ( more on that later )

Note: 1 Jordan Dinar is close to 100 INR

Preparations

I started researching and planning around May. I also have a 5 yrs old son and I have his custody. So I had to make up myself to do this trip solo, as I needed a "Me time"for myself. Post divorce, I started house construction. After completion of my house, I was literally exhausted physically and mentally!! So I planned to include some comforts during my trip. Also I renewed my passport with deletions and address updates. Once I got the passport I started booking the tickets. I was very particular about flying Emirates, because I have heard of their services and the Dubai Airport. So I chose Emirates. Flights booked, hotels booked and I planned my itinerary too. Please note, I didnt book using any travel agents or portals. I did my research in Tripadvisor and based on that I did my planning.

Planned Itinerary

This was my planned itinerary. Things did go mostly according to my plan. however depending on the situation I made some changes.



Google Maps came in handy and I used it without any issues using the local SIM.

Edit : As i am preparing this trip report, I realized that this is becoming more of a photo journey. I will update the post with relevant links for more reading on the sites i visited.

I just finished uploading the photos. This has become a 3 page report, which I didnt expect!! Hence here is the links to each day and the sites.

Day 0 - BLR to DXB layover


Day 1 - Part 1 - Dubai to Amman Flight


Day 1 - Part 2 - Taking the rental car


Day 1 - Part 2 - Madaba


Day 1 - Part 3 - Mount Nebo


Day 1- Experience of the drive in Amman City


Day 1 - part 4 - Amman Citadel & Roman Theater


Amman Citadel & Roman Theater - Continued

Roman Theater


Roman Theater - Continued

Day 2- Part 1 - Ajlun Castle


Ajlun Castle Continued

Jerash Ruins

Jerash Ruins - Continued

Jerash Ruins Still Continued

Jerash to Petra Drive

Petra by Night

Petra

Petra - part 2

Petra - part 3

Petra to Wadi Rum Drive and Wadi Rum!

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum - part 2

Wadi Rum - part 3 and drive to dead sea

Dead Sea

Departure Day!!

Emirates A380 experience

Finally landed in India!!

Final Thoughts

[sairamboko]

Day 0 - BLR to DXB layover

Flight from Bangalore was scheduled at 8:45pm IST. It reaches Dubai at 23:05pm Dubai Time. My flight from Dubai to Amman (Jordan Capital) was scheduled next day at 7:30am Dubai time. Since the layover was more than 8 hrs, I was offered an accommodation to stay and rest. I started from Hosur at around 4pm itself. Reached airport by 6:15pm. Check in and immigration was completed in 10 mins since there was no crowd. I spent close to an hour in the lounge and then boarded the flight. This was economy class and it was full. Standard Emirates experience. I was surprised by the time taken to reach the plane gate once it landed! Dubai airport is huge. I reached the Emirates counter for the accommodation. They guided me to a place where more such travellers were waiting. Post that a bus came and we were taken to the hotel. Dinner was available. I had to wake up at 4am next day to catch my flight to Amman. Overall Day 0 was a pleasant and smooth sailing. Some clicks.

Thats my flight to Dubai


The economy class seating


The ambient lighting in the Boeing flights were good. They turned blue once all lights were turned off


The vegetarian meals - biriyani , mini cutlets, salad and desert



FInally in Dubai Airport! Its huge!



My Stay for the night

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Day 1 - Part 1 - Dubai to Amman Flight

My flight was at 7:30am Dubai time. It was an A380. Economy class. More photos here. Let the photos do the talking.

My flight to Amman -A380


Delay due to late boarding of luggages and cargo. You can see the cargo boxes being loaded

Spotted a PIA flight


Take off and some shots. Spotted Burj Khalifa






Breakfast Snaps



As the flight progressed, the land below was becoming more and more arid and desert like. Some snaps




Finally made it to Amman, Jordan!

[sairamboko]

Day 1 - Part 2 - Taking the rental car

After I landed in Amman airport at 9:30am local time, I headed straight to immigration and customs. Since its Visa on arrival and i had bought Jordan pass, my visa fee was waived off. I was asked some regular questions and then visa was granted. The Jordan Pass is a very useful pass for tourists. 1) It waives visa fees if staying for more than 3 night 2) Most of the attractions entry fees are covered with this pass. It costs $100 with 1 day pass for Petra. There are other options too. Please check this website for more details. I totally recommend getting this if you are traveling to Jordan.

Post the Visa stamp i collected my baggage and headed straight to mobile counter. I collected a sim and headed to money exchange counters to change $ to JOD. I did this because 1) i needed cash right away to make payments to car rental and food 2) I will be inside the Amman City for short duration. Finding money exchange in the short duration will be very tough.

I found my car rental guy waiting at arrivals. He came with the car - a Hyundai accent automatic. I had booked an i10 but it seems it was not available. Hence a small upgrade. The rental costed me around $180 - approximately INR 13,000 in Aug 2019.

The car rental company name is Reliable car - http://www.rentareliablecar.com/
I booked the car after finding positive reviews in trip advisor. I booked via email. While taking the car, the rental firm took photo copies of my passport and driving license and credit card details. If any fines were posted after my departure from Jordan, they will charge the credit card. I didnt get any fines so no charges post departure.

Some snaps of the rental car. Some scratches and damages I captured it to be safe. Overall it was very easy and friendly to rent a car.

[sairamboko]

Day 1 - Part 2 - Madaba

I headed straight to Madaba - the mosaic town. Its 30kms from Amman city or 18 kms from Airport. Best known for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, Madaba is home to the famous 6th century Mosaic Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With two million pieces of vividly colored local stone, it depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta. Also visited the Madaba Archaeological park to see more ruins and archaeological discoveries.

I used Google maps extensively. No issues whatsoever. Downloaded certain maps in case i lose mobile coverage. Mobile connectivity was good and
available everywhere.
Let the photos do the talking

Time taken to reach the Madaba visitors park.


The street while going to the St.George's Church which has the mosaic map.


The Church Entrance


Inside the church






Observe this art! Tiny pieces of mosaic are used to create this


The hippolytus hall






More mosaic maps! You will see this mosaic maps/art many times in Jordan ruins




Panoramic view of the hall


Spotted a Tata Zest car

[sairamboko]

Day 1 - Part 3 - Mount Nebo

Mount Nebo is the place where Moses was granted a view of the promised land. Again like in Madaba, you can see lot of mosaic tiles and art here. I am quite bad at writing history. Please check this Wiki page for learning the significance of this site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nebo

I didnt take a screenshot of the google maps post arrival at Mt.Nebo. Hence here is the screenshot of the route i took.


The Entrance










Map showing the view of the promised land which was seen by Moses


Panorama Click






More mosaic
















The serpentine monument


The milestone marker




Not sure what tree it is


Roads from Nebo to Amman



Finally reached Hotel IBIS

[sairamboko]

Day 1- Experience of the drive in Amman City

Driving a car in a different country that too a left hand drive was a memorable experience all together! Traffic was heavy for afternoon time. Driving an automatic car was a blessing in disguise. First I didnt get tired of driving. Second I can cover more places since I dont get tired because of driving. Amman city is the capital of Jordan and everyone uses car. I hardly saw any public transport. I saw lots of Hyundais and Toyotas. I chose IBIS for the brand name but was disappointed with the room. It smelled and was kind of dim and appeared old. I was staying there for a night so I just didnt raise any issues with the manager.

Note : Almost all hotels charge 1 JOD for valet parking or overnight parking, per night.

[sairamboko]

Day 1 - part 4 - Amman Citadel & Roman Theater

As i experienced the Amman city traffic earlier, I hired a car from hotel itself for visiting Amman Citadel and Roman Theater. These 2 sites are located inside the city.

Amman Citadel

The citadel means a fortress. Hence the Amman Citadel is a fortress overlooking the city. It consists of many ruins - Temple, Theater, Church, Palace, Water Cistern, etc. I saw even a bronze age cave in this site. Let the photos talk again!

IBIS Amman hotel room



View of the citadel from the entrance





Remains of the pillars of the Hercules temple











The remains of the Hercules statue









Entrance to the palace - remains



The Umayyad palace



The Dome of the palace from inside



Information about the palace



Side view



Street view of the palace. Actually the street had a perfect drainage system. I took a click of it but somehow misplaced it



May be a Tomb relic or a storage box. Not sure whats this.


Bronze age cave







Remains of the Church

[sairamboko]

View of the Roman Theater from Citadel



This photo shows how the temple would have looked if it was completed



Gates to the palace



Storage rooms



More remains of the church photos





A Cistern. I took a photo of the remains but misplaced it



Different names of Amman as it was called in the past

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Roman Theater

The Roman Theater is a 2nd century monument. It can seat 6000 and is still functional. As I was visiting it, there was some band setting up their equipment s for a concert on a later date.

View of the theater from the street



The pillars which remains now



The seating. Lower seating is reserved for Government officials, military and other big shots. Higher seating is for public






A mini theater near the big theater

[sairamboko]

Panoramic view of the theater



Drainage holes in the theater



Here is the video I shot when the sound check was going on. The acoustics of the theater is perfect and it seems in the past the speaker would stand in the center and he would speak. Entire theater audience would be able to hear the speaker even without mic or any other devices. Such is the acoustics designed by the Romans. I have shot another video of another such theater and you can hear it for yourself.

https://youtu.be/sHwuWUILZ2c

[sairamboko]

With the above, I am signing off Day 1. Day 2 is Ajloun Castel, Jerash and Petra by the night. A picture of the salad that I had at the end the Day 1.

[sairamboko]

Day 2- Part 1 - Ajlun Castle

I got up early and finished breakfast. Checked out from the hotel and started to Ajlun castle by 7am. It was a pleasant drive to the castle. Photo story below:

Spotted a Mahindra XUV while checking out from IBIS hotel



Countryside view



Finally reached Ajlun castle





View from the castle



What remains of the castle today










Most of the hallways in the castle is well lit






Cannon balls







This was supposedly the bedroom





Must be wondering why the tiny opening. Its for natural light to enter and also to draw water. Check the photos below.





The water system in the castle is brilliant!!



Collection of rain water was done in this pit and it was connected to storage area via ducts



The rain water harvesting underneath the floor is highlighted by the lights

[sairamboko]

The steps leading to the different rooms of the castle



This was the dining hall. It was well lit and also airy.



Those mountain ranges you see in the far in this photo is Israel



This part of the tower is called Pigeon tower



A map showing how far pigeons were sent to share messages! Messages were sent and received from Baghdad , Cairo and other cities in Jordan during those days!Nowadays we have whatsapp, imessage, etc





What remains of the watch post



An outside view



Some random room





There was a museum inside. Some clicks of the artifacts the museum has collected

[sairamboko]

Day 2 - Part 2 - Jerash Ruins

Driving from Aljun castle to Jerash was smooth and short. Now Jerash is a mix up of ruins of different cultures - Greek, Roman, Neolithic, Byzantine, Islam, Ottoman etc . Strongly suggest reading this wiki link Jerash-Wiki

One thing I forgot to add earlier was - both the Amman sites and Jerash ruins are located in the middle of the city!! The ruins and the modern city co-exists side by side!

Jerash an introduction





The arches/Pillars of the hippodrome (more on that later)



The Hadrian Arch - An arch constructed to welcome King Hadrian



Left side is the entrance to the hippodrome and right side is the burial sites and other small ruins



Entrance to one of the burial sites



Some relics or ruins of the floor/pillars


The Hadrian's Arch



Church and more mosaics!!







View of the long walking journey ahead!



One more burial site entrances



Description of the place where I was standing - the southern necropolis



The Hippodrome!! The place where chariot races and gladiator fights were held!!





Entrance to the open ground where the races and fights were held!



The ground and the arches!


The horse stable



Between the stables there were water drainage paths! Romans were pioneers in drainage and water systems. You will get to see more of this again



The arch to the next street/barracks





Left side were the baths and right side barracks



More on the souk and barracks



Bath area


Oil press!!







View of the street again!



One of the many pillars you will get to see!