Jordan Adventures part 1

 You know that feeling you get after a fun filled and meaningful vacation? When the only thing you feel like doing is lay on your bed and nothing else? Yes, that's how I'm feeling right now. 

    

  On December 22nd, I found myself standing in the middle of Dubai International Airport about to board a plane to Amman. Alhamdulillah, 2030 kilometres (or 3 hours) later, the plane safely landed in Queen Alia International Airport. It was already midnight then so as soon as we left the airport, we headed straight to the hotel.

    Jordan has a total of over 6.7 million in population, 4 million in Amman itself. Migration is the leading cause of the drastic change in population since the 1960s, where the population started with only around 0.8 million. The Six-day War in 1967 had forced approximately 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians out of the country so almost 90% of them chose to move further into Jordan where they could live in a safer environment. Today, 70% of the population are from Palestine. No wonder lah all the Jordanians I've met are all either fully Palestinian by blood or somehow related to Palestine.

    The next day was tour day. Yayyy. It was a sunny winter day, with a temperature of 10 degree celsius, it just couldn't get better! Except if I didn't insist on not wearing my winter coat lah. Our first stop was an hour drive away from Amman, passing through a lot of streets packed with people in cars, people walking on the streets, it all seems so lively.

  

    After an hour drive out of the capital, the car stopped and there it is. Ahead of us lies Jerash Old City, also known as the Pompeii of Middle East or The City of 1000 Columns. When a vast earthquake hit Jerash in 749 AD, most parts of the city were left destructed. The ruins of the Roman built city stays as Jerash's attraction.

   

    The Temple of Artemis being one of Jordan's most popular destination is a Roman temple built in the 2nd century. Till today, the ruins still stand strong.

The Oval Forum

    On the way to The Royal Automobile  Museum, we stopped at an olive oil factory. Since olives are one of the leading industries in Jordan, these factories could be found anywhere. And don't even mention olive farms, they're literally all along the highway. The average live span of an olive tree is approximately 500 years. However, they may live up to 1500 years! 

    According to our tour guide, Jordanians are very fond of olive oil, especially the ones they buy straight away from the factories cause they're fresher. They smell and taste good too.

Olive oil factory

Olive oil in the making

    The Royal Automobile Museum wouldn't usually be on top of the places to visit list but it sure was worth the visit! The museum was built by the current king of Jordan, King Abdullah II in honour of his late father, King Hussein who was king from 1956 to 1999. King Hussein was a car and motorcycle enthusiast, and owned a lot of them. The museum featured his luxurious collection of supercars and motorcycles.

     Along with the cars and motorcycles, detailed information on the history of the autos and the kingdom were also available.

Specially used during Pope Francis' visit to Jordan

    Whilst looking through his royal highness' car collections, I couldn't help but wonder how many Chanel & Hermès bags are one of these cars worth. Can buy the whole shop kottttt. 

Ok maybe not but still

Stopped at the beautiful King Hussein Mosque for Aasar prayer.

   

  By 7 am the next morning, we were all ready to leave the hotel and head to Petra. It was a 3-hour journey by road; we did have a few stops along the way. 

    The hotel we stayed in was located right in front of the gate to Petra. Literally 10-15 steps away. So convenient especially if you'd like to save your energy to do the walking in Petra ((another excuse for being lazy)).

The town is so gorgeous. So calm and tranquil, reminds me so much of Capadoccia. There were souvenir shops all along the streets. But the souvenirs were more expensive compared to the ones inside Petra itself.

    Admission ticket to enter Petra is hella expensive maigod. For tourists its 50JD, 250 dirhams/ringgit per person. But for residence its only 1JD or 5 dirhams/ringgit. See how much difference having a Jordanian residency card makes? 

    Archaeologists believe that this Wonder of The World was established as early as 312  BC. It however remained unknown by the world until the early 19th century where it was introduced to the world by a Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. Since 1985, Petra has been holding the tittle of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    In order to get to the ancient city of Petra, we have to walk through a gorge pathway called the Siq that's 1200 meters long. Or another option is we could ride on donkeys, camels, horses or horse carriages. We chose to walk so that we could take our time to admire and enjoy the beauty of Allah swt's creation. Bet I lost so much of calories. I better have, penat ok. The Siq itself was alluring so I didn't mind so much. After almost an hour of walking, and stopping in between to pose for pictures, there it was, the ever so famous Petra. 

The Treasury, also known as Al-Khazneh 

    Seriously lah, no photo can justify the beauty of this place. Doesn't it blow your mind knowing that it was built more than 23 centuries ago before all this Petronas Twin Tower, Burj Khalifa, Shanghai Tower etc etc.

  We started going back towards the gate 15 minutes past 4 as it was going to get dark soon. Instead of walking back to the entrance gate, we went on a horse carriage and it took less than 20 minutes! See, that's how slow we humans walk lol.

    I guess that's it for this post. Our adventure in Jordan doesn't stop here. But for now, I'll be catching up on some sleep. Part 2 will be uploaded soon, so stay tuned! :)