The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 27 Day 1.1 Travelling

Really LONG day!! Late night last night and early morning today. 3 AM wake-up alarm. Last minute things packed and checked, Suresh very punctually on the doorstep at 5 AM and 40 mins later, arrived at DMM King Fahad Intnl Airport. Amazingly smooth check-in. NO queues for x-ray machine, limited queue for check-in AND totally astonished when bags were through-checked DMM-RUH-AMM without as much as a murmur! Things must be looking up! Very much a ‘new’ concept here! When TheBoy opened his mouth to ask about thru-checking, the Saudi guy shot him a look like HE was the one with the problem, clicked his tongue in typical Arab fashion and said, “Of COURSE’ in a tone that suggested it had always been so. * Indeeeeed!
Flight to RUH – an MD-90.Only a short 40 minutes and AGAIN amazed at patent LACK of hassle getting from A (i.e. Domestic Terminal through Passport Control) to B (Gate 24 at International Terminal) So far so good! RUH-AMM – a B777 service. Journeyed under the prevailing calendar conditions of Ramadan fasting, though very curiously some people seemed to be receiving boxed lunches & trays!  Hmmm.... could have done with a little something....


Staved off hunger by watching the movie – Batman the Prequel – such as it was, after the censors had obviously gone wild with the editing of same, but even that was unceremoniously and without warning, switched off 30 minutes before landing - a good 10 minutes prior to commencing descent, leaving our already strained sense of suspended disbelief dangling disjointedly and wondering how the rest of the film panned out for Batman, his love interest and the bad guys. Begs the nauseatingly perennial expat question of Saudi Airlines: Why bother?? And most disappointingly of all, just when we thought they had improved!
Approach to Queen Alia Intl Airport was slightly hairy to say the least, height-wise. Seemed the pilot just couldn’t decide on a descent profile he was happy with and we approached to the tune of rising and falling engine revs, and swaying in time to the 'music' with the dance of nose up, nose down, bank left, bank right. Not actually conducive to inspiring confidence in his ability to perform a safe and uneventful landing!

View-wise it was amazingly unexpected - a landscape very different to either Egypt or Saudi, with obvious patchworks of green cultivation, and dry creek spider-veins, reminiscent of the Channel Country of Australia. Dark charcoal grey sands suggested richness in mineral rutile, dotted with what seemed to be olive groves and orchards of orange trees.