After a much calmer traverse of the Israeli/Jordanian border we find a taxi and are headed toward Amman, the capital of Jordan. We are booked into 'Boutique Hotel' which the taxi driver has some difficulty finding, almost dropping us elsewhere after claiming that a small sign in Arabic said "Boutique Hotel" ha ha. Finally we find it - or have we? There is a doorway at street level which leads through to an odd little "back room", where a few local folks are hanging out. They see the backpacks and point us upstairs.
Boutique Hotel turns out to be a bijou, but a beautifully formed little accommodation on the first floor. It was only opened a few months before and the hosts are very welcoming and helpful. After checking out a couple of rooms, we decide to plump for the one with the balcony (then we can economise by doing some handwashing and have somewhere for it to dry!).
When we step back out to explore, one of the back room crowd (a fairly obvious transvestite) jumps up to chat with us. S/he is super-friendly and even takes us to her favourite tiny local "restaurant" (not sure the term applies to a place with 2 plastic tables, no menu and in fact only one item being served). She seems quite lonely and we chat for a while before heading out in search of beer.
Not unexpectedly, this proves pretty hard to find, but we luck out with a chance encounter. An ex-soldier who runs a tiny liquor shop is just locking up as we stroll by, and he re-opens just for us! After discussing the merits of Jordanian beers (and some military history), we make our choice and leave him to pursue his plans for the afternoon.
We enjoy our wee balcony, looking out over a busy Amman street. We follow this up with a trip over the road to a shisha cafe and restaurant. There are loads of groups smoking up the place, many with rather fruity, aromatic tobaccos. Seems like quite a family place although it must be slightly boring for the under-12's, who aren't allowed (?) to smoke.
The following morning, we make the most of the continental breakfast (including an extra cup of tea from the sweet receptionist), and also the wi-fi connection that cost a mere £1 for 24 hours (making some plans for India). Finally we pry ourselves away and set out for a walk, ostensibly to the city center. Instead, we find ourselves on a local street that winds up the hill on one side of the city, which turns out to have some great views! We also meet an elderly local who points us in the direction of a shisha place (the mime for shisha is pretty obvious!) - but it's a bit hot and a bit early in the day for us - and a mother with 2 small children who points at Lisa with great interest; possibly the kids' first view of a white woman?
Eventually we follow the old adage of "what goes up, must come down" and descend a steep staircase to the valley. We find a large building & open space but we're not entirely sure what it's purpose is - what we do know is that all the shady spots are either occupied, or smell strongly of urine. Lisa spots a man vacating a shady bench and makes a dash for it, and we enjoy the space for a few minutes while devouring last night's leftovers.
We head back to the hotel via many shops & market stalls that line the streets. Chris stops in a coffee shop (of the bean variety) and buys a bag of ground coffee for the road. Half the beans have cardamom added, to give it a bit of kick without being overwhelming. We also find a tiny shop that sells stationary, and we pick up some stickers & index cards to use at the school in Nepal.
We flag a taxi outside the hotel, dash upstairs to get our backpacks, and say our goodbyes to the lovely staff. There is a city check-in desk & shuttle bus for Royal Jordanian airline at "circle 7" on the outskirts of the city, so we can save the extra cost of the taxi to the airport. We arrive a few minutes too late for the cut-off for our flight, but a staff member kindly helps us to get approval for a late check-in. We must look quite funny as we hurriedly repack our backpacks and change into travel-friendly clothes as we queue for the check-in desk! After checking in, we're asked to move to a small security office while they scan our checked baggage. No problem, in just 5 minutes we're free to head out, but since it's still about 3 hours to our flight we decide to wait for a later shuttle bus (they run every 30 minutes). We've spotted a funny-looking underground bar (Terminal, ha ha) across the road so we pop in to see if they have shisha (Chris has decided he wants to try it). They claim to have it, but since it takes almost 20 minutes we suspect they ran out somewhere and borrowed a pipe for him to use! He gets about 10 minutes to enjoy his cherry shisha before we have to jump on the shuttle bus, and we have a little doze in the 1-hour trip to the airport.
As we're leaving Amman, the security guys retain a fork from Lisa's bag (she tries to argue the point, to no avail - you'd have to be pretty desparate to use it as a weapon though!!). So long Jordan - we're off to India! (eek)
Boutique Hotel turns out to be a bijou, but a beautifully formed little accommodation on the first floor. It was only opened a few months before and the hosts are very welcoming and helpful. After checking out a couple of rooms, we decide to plump for the one with the balcony (then we can economise by doing some handwashing and have somewhere for it to dry!).
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| Lisa & Philadelphia beer |
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| Retro gramophone in hotel |
When we step back out to explore, one of the back room crowd (a fairly obvious transvestite) jumps up to chat with us. S/he is super-friendly and even takes us to her favourite tiny local "restaurant" (not sure the term applies to a place with 2 plastic tables, no menu and in fact only one item being served). She seems quite lonely and we chat for a while before heading out in search of beer.
Not unexpectedly, this proves pretty hard to find, but we luck out with a chance encounter. An ex-soldier who runs a tiny liquor shop is just locking up as we stroll by, and he re-opens just for us! After discussing the merits of Jordanian beers (and some military history), we make our choice and leave him to pursue his plans for the afternoon.
We enjoy our wee balcony, looking out over a busy Amman street. We follow this up with a trip over the road to a shisha cafe and restaurant. There are loads of groups smoking up the place, many with rather fruity, aromatic tobaccos. Seems like quite a family place although it must be slightly boring for the under-12's, who aren't allowed (?) to smoke.
The following morning, we make the most of the continental breakfast (including an extra cup of tea from the sweet receptionist), and also the wi-fi connection that cost a mere £1 for 24 hours (making some plans for India). Finally we pry ourselves away and set out for a walk, ostensibly to the city center. Instead, we find ourselves on a local street that winds up the hill on one side of the city, which turns out to have some great views! We also meet an elderly local who points us in the direction of a shisha place (the mime for shisha is pretty obvious!) - but it's a bit hot and a bit early in the day for us - and a mother with 2 small children who points at Lisa with great interest; possibly the kids' first view of a white woman?
Eventually we follow the old adage of "what goes up, must come down" and descend a steep staircase to the valley. We find a large building & open space but we're not entirely sure what it's purpose is - what we do know is that all the shady spots are either occupied, or smell strongly of urine. Lisa spots a man vacating a shady bench and makes a dash for it, and we enjoy the space for a few minutes while devouring last night's leftovers.
We head back to the hotel via many shops & market stalls that line the streets. Chris stops in a coffee shop (of the bean variety) and buys a bag of ground coffee for the road. Half the beans have cardamom added, to give it a bit of kick without being overwhelming. We also find a tiny shop that sells stationary, and we pick up some stickers & index cards to use at the school in Nepal.
We flag a taxi outside the hotel, dash upstairs to get our backpacks, and say our goodbyes to the lovely staff. There is a city check-in desk & shuttle bus for Royal Jordanian airline at "circle 7" on the outskirts of the city, so we can save the extra cost of the taxi to the airport. We arrive a few minutes too late for the cut-off for our flight, but a staff member kindly helps us to get approval for a late check-in. We must look quite funny as we hurriedly repack our backpacks and change into travel-friendly clothes as we queue for the check-in desk! After checking in, we're asked to move to a small security office while they scan our checked baggage. No problem, in just 5 minutes we're free to head out, but since it's still about 3 hours to our flight we decide to wait for a later shuttle bus (they run every 30 minutes). We've spotted a funny-looking underground bar (Terminal, ha ha) across the road so we pop in to see if they have shisha (Chris has decided he wants to try it). They claim to have it, but since it takes almost 20 minutes we suspect they ran out somewhere and borrowed a pipe for him to use! He gets about 10 minutes to enjoy his cherry shisha before we have to jump on the shuttle bus, and we have a little doze in the 1-hour trip to the airport.
As we're leaving Amman, the security guys retain a fork from Lisa's bag (she tries to argue the point, to no avail - you'd have to be pretty desparate to use it as a weapon though!!). So long Jordan - we're off to India! (eek)
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