This was the day when me and my friends are flying to Amman Airport, to go on our road trip to explore Jordan.
After my trip to Rome, Calabria, Peru, Madeira and Morocco, I was looking for the holiday destinations with a bit of sun, since it was cold and cloudy in London. Also since Machu Picchu was the 4th World Wonder that I’ve visited (Giza Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Colosseum and Taj Majal), I thought maybe I should visit Petra in Jordan. I checked the flights and spotted quite cheap flight with Wizzair to Amman for only £79. I texted my friends and we all booked the flight for 2-9th March. Of course, in the end it was more expensive flight as we needed to add a check-in luggage (though we could have survived with additional hand luggage), which added around £100 more to the price.
Our bus was super early and we had to leave to the airport at around 3:00am, but my friend at 9:00pm still haven’t departed and flight was delayed to London, so I was really worried that she won’t make it in time and then won’t make it to the flight to Amman. We also had to book a new coach ticket from Stansted as she wouldn’t have made to the last Stansted Express train. Luckily, she was at my place at 2:00 am. We left apparent just a bit after 3:00 am and headed to Victoria Coach station to grab a bus to Luton at 4:00 am. Unfortunately, the bus at 4:00 am did not show up and we boarded a later 4:30 am bus. We were lucky that we had plenty of time. We arrive to the airport a bit before 6:00 am. We quickly dropped our luggage and security took less than 10 minutes. Since our flight was at 8:15 am we had some time to enjoy Luton lounge and have some breakfast.
Departure was smooth and on time at 8:15 am. Luckily we had XL seats at the emergency exit. I don’t remember paying for them, but strangely me and my friend were on separate sides of the plane in the same row. Well I was happy as it was a long 5 hour flight and we had so much space for our legs. I quickly felt asleep.
We arrived to Amman Queen Alia International Airport around 4:15 pm (ahead of time) and we rushed to immigration. We lined up in a long queue to get a visa (at least I thought it was immigration), but then an officer came to us and spoke something in Arabic and directed us to another desk, so all four of us marched in a line behind him. He stopped for a minute to chat with his buddy on the way and we all stopped not knowing where to go like little geese following a goose. Th guy told us to stand in a straight line, so standing next to a friend was not an options, you had to stand in a perfect line queue, one behind another. Similar experience was in Morocco.
Acquiring visa was very quick (10 min or so), I just gave my passport and Jordan pass (printed on paper!) with a barcode. In return he handed the paper with a barcode and added the same barcode sticker in the passport (don’t remove it and also they add it sometimes on the paper page with a photo if there is no a plastic page), but did not say anything where to go or anything at all.
Apparently I was heading to the connecting flights section as the signs were confusing as well, since the exist from that queue was leading to that side. Then another guard immediately stopped me, but like the other guy he did not speak English. Eventually, he said “Connection?” and I answered “No, immigration”, then he pointed where to go and I lined up into immigration line, which was not very long around 10-15 people and they had many desks. Since it was four us travelling together we were told to approach the desk together. It was relatively quick (again 15 min or so), they asked where I was from and where I was staying and took a photo of the eyes (I guess retinas?). I guess, due to women wearing khimar (“veil”) and this is the only way you can identify a person as you can’t really see their face. One of our friends was interrogated a bit more as he had black hair and longer black beard, so he looked a bit more like local and immigration officer was really making sure the person is who he says he is. Tip: maybe shave your beard before going to Jordan ha ha.
After we passed immigration, our bags were already delivered to the belt and some of them were already offloaded from the belt and put aside. The whole process from the airplane to picking up bags probably took around 30 minutes in total. Next we had to buy SIM card and straight outside in arrivals there was a guy selling SIM cards. The stand was called Umniah and for 30GB we paid just 10 JOD (£11.25) and I believe this is valid for 30 days. Much cheaper than eSim (which was around £20-£24), but anyway my mobile does not support eSim so buying SIM was the only option. We were able to pay by credit card, which slightly surprised me as in Morocco I could pay only in Cash and preferably Euros instead of Moroccan Dinar. Also the option he offered us was not in the list of options he had on his table as shown in a photo below.
Once SIM card was sorted – we needed cash. There was a Jordanian Bank ATM just next to bag collection before exiting, but for some reason it did not give any money. Luckily it did not charge me anything as I tried few times and I was quite worried. It would just spit out the card without saying anything. I suspect it was because there was no banknotes left in the machine. After exiting to arrivals there couple of ATMs on the right side and I used one of them to withdraw money. The plan was to withdraw as much as possible so we can split the fee cost, but unfortunately that didn’t work. The maximum we could withdraw was 250 JOD and 5 JOD commission was added on top. Anyway, it was way more cheaper than exchanging money in London as there the exchange rate was around 0.84 JOD for £1 and withdrawing it worked out almost 0.89 JOD (0.002 JOD from official exchange) for £1 (including the commission).
Meanwhile, my friends were calling Monte Car rental company to pick us up from the airport and they arrived very quickly, almost too quickly as I was trying to withdraw another 250 JOD from the ATM. We’ve paid 255 JOD for the car for 8 days, which included full insurance (scratches too). We’ve loaded all our cabin size suitcases into the boot of the car and headed to their office. The rental agent has warned us all about the bumps on the road that are not marked, so to follow the speed signs and also that any fines we will get (also belts are mandatory) will be 30% higher when they come through the rental agency to the driver.
The The paperwork took 15 minutes or so, we took some pictures of the car, the cat next to the car and we were good to go on the road.
We were expecting to leave the airport in the dark, but actually we left before sunset, so we could see some of the surroundings and in all fairness once we left the airport it was plastic on the fields and by the side of the road.
We were staying in Mosaic City Hotel in Madaba. On our arrival, the receptionist send a guy to direct us to their parking lot, which was on the side of the hotel. The receptionist was very polite and he would jump and stand up from his chair every time he saw us passing by. I almost felt bad to be noticed when walking passed him. The room was comfortable and had all the things we needed for one night stay. He also gave a restaurant recommendation for our dinner.
We left for a stroll in Madaba and it was already after sunset. The streets were generally quite empty on Sunday night. As it was quite cold we stopped St. John Restaurant & View Bar for some tea.
We tried to sit outside, but it was quite cold even with a warm fleece. So after some nice panorama photos we moved inside. King Hussain Mosque was the most impressive landmark at night visible from the terrace. We had our tea and eggplant snack which was really nice.
So when we asked for the bill the waiter said that the tea was on the house and we had to pay only 5 JOD for the eggplant snack. We felt uncomfortable and we had no smaller change just 5 JOD for the tip, so I just handed those 5 JOD to him. He was confused and asked if I was sure about tipping that much. I confirmed. He seemed satisfied and happy.
Next we stopped Ayola Cafe, which was recommended by our hotel. The host practically pulled us in into the restaurant when we mentioned the name, but I couldn’t see the name of the restaurant. It was the right place.
We went wild in ordering food and I won’t remember the names of the dishes, but the outcome was out of this world delicious! The waiter even cut through the dough of Fukharat Lahmeh and the steam came out. Impressive! All the food was really good and the hummus was just divine.
They even had local wine too, which was quite good and reasonable price of just 12 JOD for half bottle. Total bill was 42 JOD for 4 people fully stuffed. Interestingly they have 3 decimal points in the prices!
After the meal we headed to hotel to sleep as we had an early morning. I could see a lot of rubbish on the sides of the road, but the most shocking views were next to Amman Airport with large amounts of plastic.
Somehow, I was expecting Jordan to be similar to Morocco (as in Marrakesh), where the hustle and scam awaits on every other corner, but to my surprise, a pleasant one, it was completely the opposite experience. Maybe people here are nicer because of a Ramadan? Even from the first experience in the Amman Airport it felt that Jordan was completely different and even our driver from a car rental was super friendly and was giving tips on what food to try while in Jordan, despite the fact that he didn’t eat entire day due to Ramadan.
Additionally, I worried that we will have issues getting food during Ramadan, but some stores were open and you can buy snacks and as we found out later the restaurant inside the Petra and some hotels that we’ve stayed in served food as normal. To be honest, we were completely fine as we normally would spend time in the car anyway, when travelling between cities during the lunch time, so we had just snacks or pastries (delicious pastries) in the car. Getting alcohol was a completely different thing, as it was served only in a few places and most restaurants did not serve it during dinner and definitely not during lunch due to Ramadan. Also, no same hustle and being scammed all the time feeling as in Morocco (well mainly Marrakesh). People generally were very friendly!