Jordanians for a week

Our flight from Budapest arrived in Amman early in the morning, around 9 AM. Upon landing, our first task was to purchase a SIM card from the Orange center at the airport exit, providing us with 20GB of data for two weeks, which cost us 20 euros. We enjoyed reliable internet access throughout our journey, except for occasional signal dropouts in the desert. Opting for convenience, we rented the smallest and most affordable car available from the Monte Carlo agency. A minor mishap occurred when we accidentally entered the wrong car and ended up at the wrong rental agency. However, after a brief exchange of information, the owner kindly arranged for us to be transported to the correct agency. With a bit of laughter and understanding, we eventually obtained the car assigned to us.

Traffic in Jordan is chaotic, with almost nonexistent rules. We encountered a jam and were quite taken aback. Everyone just stops abruptly without signalling, veering left, right, or unexpectedly in any direction. People drive in two lanes with up to four cars, and roundabouts offer no guarantee of safety as drivers merge from the right without yielding. It’s total chaos. However, we managed to find a place to park right next to the Roman theater. Of course, we didn’t park in a designated lot but on the side of the street, which is “permitted”.

Having the Jordan Pass allowed us to enter the theater without any additional fee. We presented our Jordan Pass, received a stamp, and gained entry. We were amazed by the size of the theater—it was the largest we had ever seen. We climbed to the top, reaching the highest seats, and the view and experience were fantastic. However, descending was a bit challenging for me; the height made me dizzy, and the steepness of the stairs didn’t help. Nonetheless, we managed to make our way down, explored the museums within the theater complex, and continued our journey.

Public toilets often require payment, so it’s advisable to have cash on hand. While strolling near the theater, we asked locals for the nearest currency exchange, and we quickly found one on the main street. The exchange rate was similar everywhere and quite favorable. We didn’t feel like we were at a disadvantage.

We set out on foot towards the Citadel, which also left us in awe, along with the breathtaking view. Up there, we enjoyed a coffee, did some sightseeing, and then returned to the car. On the way, we stopped at a small shop to buy snacks to tide us over until a proper meal. Payment by card wasn’t possible in that shop, and it wasn’t the only one like that. It’s good to have enough cash on hand.

Returning to the car, we encountered another mishap: the car wouldn’t start. Tin realized that he had left the car lights on, causing the battery to drain. Fortunately, people were genuinely helpful, and some passersby assisted us. They provided us with jumper cables, and the car started up again. We thanked them and headed towards the hotel.

We settled in and rested for a bit. After our rest, we called an Uber, to take us to the largest mosque. Since it was closed, we admired it from the outside and then headed towards Rainbow Street. As we walked, dusk was already setting in. It was fascinating to stroll around, surrounded by the evening call to prayer echoing everywhere.

We reached Rainbow Street after about 35 minutes. It looked charming with all the balloons in the air.

Turning left, we found a place where 1 JOD bought us one kebab. We also visited a shop, bought more snacks, and called an Uber back to the hotel. Uber is very affordable here; we paid only 2 or 3 JOD for each trip.

We arrived at the hotel and quickly fell asleep after taking a shower.

POST Butique Hotel

The hotel was one of the more affordable options on the Booking app. We were satisfied with the room and breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t luxurious, but for the money we paid, we received more than enough.

We woke up and called the reception for breakfast. Breakfast was a typical Arabic breakfast, including yogurt, hummus, their bread, sweet spreads, and various other dishes. After filling up and getting ready, we made our way to the site of Jesus Christ’s baptism. It took us about 50 minutes to drive there. The road leads to the tourist center where you can park your car. You need to register and wait for enough tourists for a bus. The bus took us to the starting point of the walk to the chapel.

Seeing that place and walking in the Holy Land was truly powerful. Tears welled up in my eyes almost the entire time. It was touching to dip our hands into the Jordan River, especially for me as a religious person. I recommend dressing lightly because it gets quite hot in the midst of all that land.

After the tour, we headed towards Mount Nebo, believed to be the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

We drove uphill for quite a while; the mountain is truly high. It was fascinating to see many Bedouin tents amidst nothingness, just in the middle of the hills. If there’s even a bit of grass, some pastoral families make use of it and settle there to live with their sheep.

When we finally arrived, we had to pay an entrance fee because it’s not included in the Jordan Pass. The ticket costs 3 JOD. The view from the mountain is magnificent; you can see the Dead Sea and a good part of Israel.

We didn’t linger for long; instead, we headed towards the Dead Sea to finally experience that floating sensation. We stopped at a place called Salty Beach on Google Maps, and it truly lived up to its name. It’s great to descend, move away from the road, and reach the sea. The salt crystallized on the shore is so sharp that it’s essential to wear good shoes to avoid cutting ourselves. We walked in flip-flops and were a bit afraid of slipping. After a few minutes of walking on the salt and hearing it crackle beneath our feet, we reached the shore. There’s also some litter near the sea, which I think is inevitable, so you need to make an effort for a good picture.

Just swimming is quite interesting. If you’ve ever entered the sea wearing a wetsuit that buoyantly lifts you up, it’s the same feeling. The entire time, it pushes your bottom and all other body parts out of the water. We made sure not to wet our faces and hair too much and not to stay inside for too long, but we still felt a bit tingly.

There’s a lot of salt, so Tin’s hair was covered in crystals. And mine, mine was as if it had been wet and greasy to the extreme. It was awful, I could hardly wait to rinse it off. Because of the high salt content and undeveloped beaches, it’s good to bring bottles of plain water to rinse off after swimming. We each had a large bottle, and we wish we had another one; Tin remained salty. Oh, and we tried how salty it was. It’s so salty that it’s bitter, so when you spit, it’s still bitter. It only becomes salty when you spit for the second time.

After a short swim and drying off, we headed towards Aqaba. That drive was long and exhausting. The car was not in good shape, and the road was long, but… we made it. We reached the hotel, parked right in front of the entrance, and checked in. Unfortunately, we ended up in the worst possible hotel.

We woke up early to make it to the diving center on time.

Of course, breakfast was late again, and we received another terrible meal. It consisted of a two slices of salami, cheese, one date, one dried plum, and a bit of bread… It was truly laughable but sad at the same time.

We ate as much as we could and headed towards the diving center, which was a bit outside the city. We arrived, checked in, and waited for a bit since we were a little early. We were led by the young instructor Ali, who truly impressed us with his professionalism and friendliness throughout the day. We were joined by a couple of more experienced divers from Manchester. They had their own equipment, while we rented everything.

The experience of wearing a 3mm wetsuit when the surface water temperature was 20 degrees Celsius and around 15 degrees Celsius at 20 meters depth was brave but uncomfortable. We were really freezing. I spent the entire hour between the first and second dive shivering.

The first dive was interesting; we saw a submerged plane surrounded by rocks and plenty of fish, including puffer fish, which were the most intriguing to us. Another interesting moment was Tin losing his weights during the dive and managing the situation. I purged the air out of my BCD, Tin grabbed onto me, and the instructor picked up the weights from the floor and reattached them to Tin’s belt.

We had fun outside, chatting, joking, and learning a bit about Jordanian culture. The second dive was to a submerged tank, which was really nice. We saw a creature resembling an eel or an octopus, plenty of puffer fish, and countless rocks surrounded by fish. Everything was beautiful to watch, but the cold was really unpleasant and barely tolerable. We even hurried a bit to get out, and the instructor was also freezing.

After the second dive, we returned to the center and had lunch. We had some burgers and fries, which we really needed after such a poor breakfast. We rested a bit, sunbathed, played pool, and chatted with the English divers.

After about 2.5 hours, we headed to the third location, this time without the English divers. We went to a large sunken ship, over 70 meters long. The visibility was quite poor, and on the way to the ship, we could hardly see anything. But suddenly, right in front of us, a huge wreckage appeared out of nowhere. Very unexpected, but truly magnificent. The ship was enormous, something we had never experienced before. We explored it a bit and entered the air pocket inside the ship. It was formed during the sinking when the air couldn’t escape. It was more than brilliant. We were thrilled. The only regret is that Tin didn’t bring the GoPro on the third dive, so we couldn’t capture it.

We descended from the air pocket and started heading towards the surface. Once again, we started feeling cold, so the instructor hurried by swimming really fast. It was great because after the dive, we talked about his work here, where he’s originally from, and Ali was really interesting to us. We probably couldn’t have asked for a better instructor; we really liked him.

We returned to the center, had a little drama with Tin’s lost phone, which I found where he had looked twice, so we all teased him a bit… It was already late afternoon, so we went back to the hotel to drop off our things and then out for dinner.

We gave up on dinner at the hotel because we were craving something good. We went to “Memories Cafe Castle” based on a recommendation and were really impressed with both the food and drinks. We had two of their juices (virgin cocktails), ate Mansaf and some stew. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and quickly fell asleep.

We woke up and there was no breakfast. We decided to check out and leave without asking for it. We had enough time to take a walk, have coffee in town, exchange money at the exchange office, and then leisurely head towards the Wadi Rum desert.

The drive didn’t take too long, maybe about an hour. We arrived at the agreed meeting point with the owner, then followed him through the desert trails. He led us to the camp where there were only tents, and we rented a dome. He offered us tea to relax a bit. We agreed on payment, to pay as much as possible in cash, and the rest with a card. The owner wasn’t happy that we didn’t have more cash, but we managed to come to an agreement.

While having tea with him, we also arranged for a 2-hour jeep ride and an hour of camel riding at sunset.

Additionally, we arranged for the popular desert dinner at the camp, where the main dish is barbecue cooked in the ground.

So, what followed was fun and enjoyment. We got into his car, and headed towards the main camp, where the domes were. It was really great there; we got a dome with a fantastic view, endless desert everywhere.

We rested a bit from the journey, and soon it was 4 p.m. when a jeep awaited us in front of the camp to take us through the desert. That part was very interesting and adventurous. We were driven by a young guy who clearly enjoyed his new activity. He drove us fast, up and down, left and right, taking shortcuts instead of the main road, and we almost got stuck in the sand; it was crazy. We stopped at several spots: on a sand dune, where Star Wars was filmed, where Mars scenes were filmed, and a few other places with great views. The most exciting part was when the guy went down a hill, and it felt like sledding. Also, it was thrilling when he raced another jeep and drove us ultra-fast.

After 2 hours, he left us at a place where there were around 20 camels. There were two other groups of people there, and in the end, we all rode together. Getting onto the camel and the moment when it stood up was the scariest part of the day for me. I was really afraid of falling. However, I managed to hold on well and sit on it successfully the whole time. Getting off was just as exciting and scary as the getting on. The riding itself was really nice and calming; they walked slowly so we could enjoy the view. When the sun set, it became noticeably colder; that’s what I remember. That, and that my lungs were filled with sand, and I was actually coughing all day.

After an hour, we returned to the camp where the camels were, and the shepherd/Bedouin who led us with the camels took us home in his jeep. We were sitting in the back on benches because we weren’t the only ones. I was freezing, AGAIN. Jordan really wasn’t being gentle to me in terms of cold. It was good that the Bedouin offered me his jacket, which kept me warm for the rest of the journey.

We returned to the camp, showered, and soon had dinner. We saw them take the meat out of the ground; it was really cool. Everything was ready in the large dome. There were many side dishes, dips, salads… I filled two plates to try everything. Some dishes really impressed me, but some salads didn’t. They use parsley or cilantro as seasoning, and it’s quite intense. Such dishes didn’t really agree with me, so I left them on the plate. I felt a bit bad about it, but I couldn’t force myself to eat them.

So, that’s about this day, along with diving, one of the most beautiful adventures and experiences in Jordan, but also in general. It was our first time in a real desert, and it’s something that must be experienced.

Regarding this day, staying in such a dome is expensive, and they also charge quite a bit for camel riding and jeep tour, dinner isn’t cheap either, BUT… Such experiences don’t happen every day, so it was worth it. This day was so beautiful and fun that we’ll remember it the most. I think we spent a total of 180 JOD there. You can do it cheaper if you sleep in a tent instead of a dome, but we really wanted the dome experience. I definitely recommend it if you’re not totally on a budget.

Wadi Rum Desert

I can’t find the camp we stayed at on the Booking app, it’s possible that it no longer exists. Anyway, we easily arranged everything via WhatsApp or Booking, where we agreed on where to meet. We arrived at one camp where we negotiated the price and left our car, then the owner took us to the camp where we actually stayed. It would be impossible to reach these locations with regular cars, so they drive all the tourists around in their off-road vehicles. We agreed to cancel the reservation on Booking so that we could pay everything directly to the owners in cash without them having to pay Booking a fee. I believe that’s the practice there.

We paid 90 JOD for one night there. The jeep ride through the desert for 2 hours was about 20 JOD per person, dinner was 15 JOD per person, and camel riding until sunset was 10 JOD per person.

Mobile internet and signal are very weak in the desert, almost non-existent. That’s why probably every camp has fast and reliable Wi-Fi.

We woke up quite early, as we did every day so far. In this country, it’s worth making the most of all the time available. In the morning, we had an organized breakfast in the main dome. There was a wide variety of food offered, so much so that we ate enough to last us almost the entire day.

We drove towards Wadi Musa and the main entrance to Petra. Since we bought the Jordan Pass with a two-day ticket for Petra, we only needed to pick up our tickets at the entrance. Honestly, one day would have been enough for us because the ticket wasn’t required for Little Petra, and we didn’t re-enter the main site.

It’s true that you can see everything in one day. Some recommend visiting Little Petra and walking all the way to the main attractions, but we opted for the main entrance to climb all the stairs. That was one of our achievements there. The arrival was really easy, with no parking issues, it’s free, and there are plenty of spaces available.

Our walk lasted about 4 hours, starting from the Siq passage, through the Treasury, and finally all the way to the main Monastery. Before tackling the stairs, we sat down at a restaurant and had some coffee. It was a welcome break to rest our feet a bit and make our sightseeing less exhausting.

Everything is beautiful to see, but the only downside is the slightly annoying people constantly offering services or souvenirs. The funniest thing we saw was someone selling old coins, but they weren’t really old coins, they were found coins (almost worhtless eurocents from Europe countries). So, this person was selling a 5-cent coin that someone simply dropped while walking around the site. Here, we also learned the importance of bargaining; we managed to negotiate a scarf from 20 JOD down to 6 JOD. We were running short on cash by then, so we really needed to save.

At the Monastery, we climbed onto a rock, which wasn’t the safest venture, but it was worth it for a good picture. On the way back down, we managed to see what we missed on the way up, interesting views of the natural surroundings around the site.

We returned to the car and headed back to the hotel. We drove along winding and peculiar roads, but it was worth it. The hotel wasn’t luxurious; it was a typical family-run hotel, where the father was the owner, sons interacted with customers (us), and daughters prepared dinner in the kitchen and cleaned rooms.

When we arrived, they asked if we wanted their homemade dinner, and of course, we agreed. Additionally, since my name is Petra, popular in this area, the receptionist said they would give us a slightly better room than the one we booked. The room was really fantastic, with a balcony and a great view of the city. We even saw a beautiful sunset before heading down for dinner, which was really good. Feeling quite tired from a full day of walking, we returned to our room and quickly fell asleep.

After waking up and showering, we went down for breakfast, which was delicious. We grabbed our luggage and slowly made our way to Little Petra. We weren’t overly impressed there; it’s really much smaller than the original Petra, but Tin enjoyed it because he found a cat that really took a liking to him.

We didn’t stay long there; we decided not to revisit Petra and headed towards Amman through the Valley of the Kings. We visited two castles, passed through many villages, stopped at a few viewpoints, and after many exhausting hours, we finally arrived in Amman.

We checked into a hotel that was really low-budget but not worse than the one in Aqaba.

We descended onto a very busy street when night had already fallen, and the scene surprised us quite a bit.

The streets were bustling with activity; night had fallen, and everyone was finally allowed to eat (ve visited during Ramadan). There was so much food, it was hot, everyone was yelling, especially at the fast-food places.

We found a well-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor and went up there. There was no one there; it was a touristy restaurant with slightly higher prices in JOD. It didn’t alarm us; the prices seemed normal, and we enjoyed a peaceful meal. We had some good fresh juice, ate homemade and traditional food, and were thoroughly impressed. We returned to the hotel and quickly fell asleep.

In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and decided to visit Jerash, a city with remains from the Roman Empire. The scene there is truly spectacular, and it would be a shame to miss it. To explore the entire complex, it took us 2 hours. There is so much preserved, including two main perpendicular streets, some side streets, the main forum, temples, and baths…

In the end, we decided to buy some more souvenirs. We haggled a bit, and we also had some luck because the vendors didn’t understand each other. Since we were paying by card, we agreed on one price with one vendor, and with the one who had the card machine, we accidentally mentioned a lower price, and he put that in his machine. We were happy, quickly exited the complex with the souvenir shops…

We wanted to eat at the restaurant there next to the parking lot, but it allowed smoking, and I said I didn’t want that. We returned to Amman and to our hotel.

Once again, we went to the street where we had dinner the night before to grab something to eat. Almost nothing was open, so we just bought some snacks at the store. Since card payments weren’t accepted there, we first went to the ATM and withdrew some cash, of course, with a fee. The fee wasn’t too high, but if possible, it’s good to have as much cash on hand as you can.

We returned to the hotel and took a short nap. We didn’t have anything specific planned, and we had already visited most of the places we wanted to see, so taking that break was a great decision. In the evening, we went for a stroll to grab some kebabs, to take a final walk around the city, although quite tired… We came back and quickly fell asleep again.