33. JORDAN

Next country in the Middle East: Jordan!

After a cheap 13 € Wizz Air flight from Abu Dhabi, I arrived in Aqaba, Jordan's most Southern city located on the Red Sea. I wanted to travel to Jordan already in 2021 from Egypt but since the ferries from the Sinai peninsular were not running during COVID times, it was time to visit the "oasis of stability" within a problematic region of the world. Millions of Arabs have immigrated to Jordan, mostly from Palestine and Egypt, to find a better life. The situation in Israel and Palestine was a topic every day in Jordan but more about that in the next post.

Jordan has a great opportunity for visitors to explore the sights: The Jordan Pass: For around 90 USD you get access to all major sights and a free 30-day tourist visa. The Petra entrance ticket alone is 70 USD dollars so this offer is a no-brainer. Normally I do not have the budget for those kinds of activities and I mostly prefer to spend time in random cities with local people instead of sightseeing and tourist crowds anyway but since Petra was really really interesting for me I made an exception.

So after 3 days of a little relaxing in Aqaba with good food and walks along the coast it was time to explore Jordan's most famous sight: The ancient city of Petra. The ruins and the sheer size of the entire complex are breathtaking and fabulous. Petra used to be the capital of the Nabataean kingdom and the condition of the buildings is still amazing. We spent an entire day from 6 am to 6 pm hiking the entire area (35,000 steps that day :D) and it was really a highlight of the world trip. There are a lot of downsides around Petra as well (crowds at the treasury, annoying Bedouins and the town of Wadi Musa) but all of that is still worth seeing Petra. The clear highlight of Petra was the hikes far away from the main tourist spots where you are completely alone and can find your "own" small ruins. That truly gave an Indiana Jones feeling :D

After Petra, we based ourselves in the capital of Amman for 8 days from where we did several trips around the country. First Jerash, famous for its huge Roman ruins and then the Dead Sea, where we hitchhiked and enjoyed the great feeling and floating on top of the salty water. It's the deepest point on our planet and really a naturally beautiful place. We first stayed 2 nights with Sajid from Iraq who is working as a professional hypnotist and then later with the Polish-German couple Tobias, Laura and their amazing daughter Johanna. We planned to stay 2 nights and eventually ended up there for 5 nights extending night per night since we got along with each other so well. Laura is working in the field of peace and conflict management and we had a few great road trips and hikes together. I would say this was my favorite time in Jordan :)

Jordan was quite an amazing country with plenty of interesting sights, especially Petra. But also Jerash, Karak, the city center of Amman and Aqaba are worth a visit. My problem with Jordan was that I found a major part of the local population quite cunning and dishonest. And I am not talking about obvious tricksters at tourist sights. Many times they tried to get scam us at local food places, cafes, supermarkets and even public transportation. Also contrary to other countries in the Middle East, invitations are mostly hollow phrases. Whenever Jordanians invited us home you could be sure that it's just a polite dishonest phrase instead of a real invitation. Especially that overcharging was really annoying for me and it definitely spoils the entire experience a little. Nevertheless, we also met some great locals, especially 2 grandfathers who picked us up while hitchhiking and took us around for ages leaving us with full bellies right at our destination!

After Amman, it was time to cross a quite annoying land border, more about that in the next post!

3 Highlights:

- Exploring the ancient city of Petra

- Floating in the Dead Sea at the deepest exposed land of planet Earth

- Amman itself and day trips around (especially Kerak and Jerash)