Jordan Experience – Travel Days

Jordan Experience

Travels Days – 3 Dec 2009

With the Israel tour done, I showed up in the lobby of our Jerusalem hotel and met with the two from my Israel tour who are also on the Jordan tour and on the same flight. Our transfer was nowhere to be seen, so we called Mega Tours and they told us the taxi outside would accept the voucher and that he would call the dispatch to make sure there was no problem.

The ride to Ben Gurion from Jerusalem probably takes about an hour at normal speeds. At 140 km an hour, it takes about 40 minutes and five minutes to unwrap your fingers from the side of the seat. 🙂

The security procedures at Ben Gurion are, without a shred of doubt, the strictest I have ever seen. We walked in and immediately saw the booth where you can apply to get your VAT back from purchases over 100 NIS (apply outside and get the money inside).

The ticket agents are divided into four areas with a large board telling you as you enter whether your airline is serviced by A, B, C or D. We proceeded to B (What I call the Level 1 security check) and first spoke to a young woman who looked at our passports and confirmed our identities and asked about our luggage and if we had been given anything to take by someone else. She put stickers on every piece of luggage, bags and purses that we carried.

She then directed us to Level 2 – the x-ray machines. They took everything and put it through the machines, putting another number on each piece that went through. On the other side, another young woman pointed to me and told me to get my bags checked by Level 3. At this site, a woman checked with a screen and matched my bags up with the image on the screen (bar codes). Then she asked me to open it and I asked if I needed to unpack it. She said no, that she knew exactly what she was looking for. Then she dove into the back pocket meant for the laptop and pulled out two booklets – one from Galilee and one from Masada. She ran a blue wand (that looks like a toilet cleaning wand with flat tip) over and through both booklets asking where I got them. I was at a loss as to what kind of threat the booklets were, but she ignored my camera and three lenses and the computer. Then she asked me to open my main luggage and she ran through every nook and cranny and every pocket asking for electronic devices. I showed her my alarm clock. After a good ten minutes, she said it was fine and attached a paper security tape to the luggage as well as a plastic band that will need to be cut off.

From there, we proceeded to the Royal Jordanian ticket counter and checked in our luggage. The agent didn’t care that my bag was a half kilogram overweight and she gave me my boarding pass.

We proceeded through the departure gate and met the security Level 4. Our passports and boarding passes were checked and I was directed to another x-ray machine. I put my backpack through it and on the other side a young woman asked me to open it. She proceeded to run her magic wand over every square inch of my camera, lenses, charges, cell phone and cords. It must have taken about twenty minutes. I got through to the final level of security – my passport was stamped and I walked into the long corridor to departures. I had lost my tourmates so I went down to the very nice shopping area and bought – you guessed it – a couple of t-shirts to spend the last of my shekels.

I found my tour mates and we walked down to the gate where we waited for the flight. Twenty minutes late, they called for boarding (no special order) and we passed through Level 5 – the usual passport/boarding pass check.

The plane was half empty. The stewardess walked around before take off and offered everyone a juice box then she sat down as we began to taxi.

And taxi.

And taxi.

And taxi.

My tourmate turned to look at me and I said “we’re driving to Amman.”

That got a few chuckles.

But not a word of a lie. The taxi to the runway was longer than the flight!!!

Yup. It was only about 20 minutes to Amman. It was so short, the stewardess never left her seat. Like riding a roller coaster. We went up, over and down.

We arrived in Amman and disembarked outdoors to a bus and drove to the terminal about five minutes away. We followed the crowd and could see the sign for the Visa needed to enter Jordan. Before we got to the station, we were surprised to find the Insight Rep waiting for us. He had my name on the sheet but not my tourmates. The other two names we did not recognize.

He said no problem and brought us over to the Visa area where we paid 10 Dinar for a Visa. Then we proceeded through passport control where we were asked for our address in Jordan. We told him the Crown Plaza. Downstairs we waited a good 20 minutes for our luggage.

Once it arrived, we passed through what I could call Level 6 of security as we had to put our luggage through an x-ray machine TO LEAVE the airport.

Strange, indeed.

The Insight Rep passed us off to our driver and we drove to Amman in about 30 minutes (which would have taken only about 15 minutes if we had the same driver from Israel…heh).

The taxi was required to pass through security including a gate and steel pillars that move up and down. There was also an armed guard. We were met by another Insight Rep who gave us a small canvas bag with a pile of brochures showing where we would be going. We gathered up our stuff and walked into the hotel and found ourselves faced with yet another x-ray machine. Level 7.

Oh, my poor computer.

I put my bag through the x-ray machine and was directed to walk through the women’s entrance where a young woman gave me a gentle pat down. Then she opened up the curtain and I gathered up my pack. I followed the rep into the hotel and we sat down for a welcome drink – the first welcome drink that actually tasted like orange juice.

The Rep gave us some basic information, including the fact that there were 13 people on the tour. With a full day to occupy tomorrow, we asked him what we could do for the day. Given that it was Friday, there is nothing open in Amman. It is their Sunday, so any plans to shop or visit museums was shelved. We asked about day tours and he said he could arrange something or the hotel could. We decided to think on it and would use the hotel. He said no problem and told us how to contact him if we had any questions.

We got our hotel keys and went up to the rooms to wait for our luggage.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Yup. It took less time to fly to Amman.

The luggage finally arrived and I joined one my tour mates to check out the shopping across the street from the hotel so that she could get some money from an ATM. Crossing the street in any Arab country is always a treat and we got the hang of it, crossing five lanes of traffic without much of a problem. Just keep an eye on the driver to make sure he sees you.

We found an ATM that accepts MasterCard (yes, a word of warning. She’s been having a really hard time finding ATMs that accept MasterCard while those of us with Visa have not had a problem. No one had a problem with debit cards) and returned to the hotel looking for something to eat given that we skipped lunch. The hotel restaurant is closed until 7 pm, but there is a bar/restaurant called the V Lounge next to the hotel lobby that was absolutely phenomenal. I just had their “V” Club sandwich with fries and the others had the spring chicken with salad. It has to be one of the best meals I’ve had on the tour and only cost 10 Dinar with tip.

After dinner, we decided to arrange our day tour for tomorrow. With nothing to do in Amman, we weren’t willing to sit around and do nothing. We asked about a day trip to a town north of Amman and learned that it was just a drop off to the town where there wasn’t much to see. So the taxi driver that arranges the day tours told us about a couple of castles to the north and a lookout from which we can see Syria with lunch possible in Jerash – all for 90 Dinar. We thought it was a good deal and planned to meet up with the driver at 9 in the morning and expect to be back before dark.

I returned to my room, showered and did a laundry. There are renovations taking place in the hotel at this time, so there was hammering going on somewhere above us until late in the afternoon, but it’s quiet at night. The room is not unlike the ones in Israel with all the amenities including TV, hair dryer, safe, kettle, shampoo and stuff. There is an iron with a board but the plug doesn’t fit any of the plugs in the room.

Strange.

 

 

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