The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 28 Day 2.4 In Amongst the Ruins at Jerash

At Jerash, Sufian bought the tickets, organized an English-speaking guide – a wheezing shuffling old guy named Yusef – and left us to it.

JD062 South Gate of City dated 130 AD at Jerash

Jerash was one of the cities making up The Decapolis of Rome. In the centre of the old ruined town, the Roman influence is obvious – the paved streets, the market shops  - and the old road criss-crosses, at the South Tetrapylon leading north to Damascus, south to Amman, east to Jerusalem and west to Babylon.

JD095 Cardo Maximus sth view, to Amman, 1 AD Jerash. Ruts  from chariot wheels

Some spectacularly large structures at Jerash – but mostly in ruins. Temple of Zeus (Jupiter) currently under restoration by a French team.

JD070 Temple of Zeus (Jupiter) 162 AD &  South Theatre 90  92 AD  Jerash

Temple of Diana (Artemis) also in ruins but easily able to imagine the past from what is left.

JD084 Main structure of Temple of Artemis 150-170 AD at Jerash

The South Theatre, still in fairly reasonable repair (with ongoing restoration underway), invited a look. Though sadly the same could not be said for a rather large black and nasty desiccated poo on the entrance stairs. Not exactly enchanting to have to step over on the way in – but you get that. Unfortunately all too commonplace. Waste, trash and their correct disposal, like museum labels, just isn’t a current priority it seems.

JD075 South Theatre rows of seating at Jerash

Inside the Theatre, treated to an impromptu concert by a small ensemble from Royal Jordanian Desert Regiment – 2 sets of drums and 2 bagpipes. Great entertainment!

JD073 Royal Jordanian Guard musicians South Theatre Jerash

The Theatre has an acoustic spot in front of the stage, marked by an arched stone tile in the floor, denoting the exact place where the acoustics are perfect - if you speak out loud, you can hear yourself echoing in your own ears.

JD074 Acoustic Stone centre of the South Theatre at Jerash

The nearby Oval Plaza was absolutely huge -a vast open space ringed by Ionic columns. Standing in the centre it was not at all hard to visualize Roman city life in Jerash.

JD065 Oval Plaza 1st Century Ionic colonnade at Jerash

Behind the Temple of Diana were the shells of 3 early Christian churches – St George, St John the Baptist and St Cosmos & St Damien (twin brother doctors) Still visible are the remnants of the mosaic floor dated 553 A.D.

JD055 Altar area Byzantine church 533 AD Martyrs St Cosmos & St Damien twin brother doctors, Jerash

JD082 Mosaic floor  Byzantine church  St Cosmos &  Damien    dated 553 AD Jerash


The Byzantine Cathedral, another example of early Christianity in the region, was itself a convert from its former life as the Temple of Dionysus. Saw a high niche at the top of the stairs, a sign said that there were reputedly painted inscriptions dedicated to Mary and the Archangels Michael & Gabriel. Wanted to go up there and have a look for myself, but old Yusef refused. Don’t really know why, as it didn’t seem to be a closed off area. Slightly disappointed – but sadly just had to take that one on faith.

JD092 Cathedral niche & inscriptions St Mary Archangels Gabriel & Michael  Jerash

So many ruins to see here  - Jerash is reported to be the best-preserved Roman city outside Europe.The guided tour took about an hour, though once again, would have liked to have spent longer and done it our own way using the JTB Jerash brochure and our trusty Lonely Planet book. That’s the trouble with having a guide – it’s often a bit of a trade-off. Time versus Information. 

Invariably they slow your visit and waste a lot of time waffling and waiting and wandering, so not highly desirable when there are time constraints and schedules to meet.
Whether they even give you the correct and/or better quality information is always open to debate. From experience, we find it tends to be predictably a bit hit and miss.

JD086 Columns of Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Jerash

Yusef informed us that Jerash was formerly Antioch – but that is absolutely not correct. On the other hand though, he did show us how the columns of the Temple of Diana were built to withstand earth tremors, using a ‘keystone’ construction. Poked a spoon handle in between the very large keystone pieces that make up the column and we watched in total amazement as the spoon wavered up and down indicating just how much sway there actually is in these.

The rest of Yusef’s spiel we listened to politely and wondered how much we should take with just the tiniest grain of salt and TheBoy gave Yusef a tip for his troubles. Tips are more or less expected and customary but not obligatory, though one tends to feel badly about not giving something. 60% of the tourist trade has dried up since the Iraqi conflict. Suspect it’s similar on the other border too with the ongoing struggle for the peace process. Lots of these people like Yusef – guides, vendors etc – need tips to help them survive. Yes, some may argue the case of questioning why it's necessary when they have already been paid for their guide services, but on the other hand, its helping to feed families. We prefer to consider it, in the big scheme of things, really quite a small contribution to make for the privilege of sharing such richness of history and antiquities. 

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 28 Day 2.3 At Umm Qais

Just outside the town of Umm Qais, we reached a security checkpoint – it’s very close to the convergence of borders for Israel, Syria & Jordan. The armed guard gave us a cursory stern look, asked Sufian where we were from (obviously) as we heard him reply, ‘Oostrayleeya’ and with that we were waved on. Seems that being “Aussie” is a good thing here ... for today at least :)

JD 041 Jordanian hillside olive grove Umm Qais

On the road up to Umm Qais, everywhere along the roadside, more weekend traders with their fruit and vegies stalls. And the olives! 
Saw pomegranates the size of large grapefruit and radishes even larger than before. Passed kids playing soccer in the dusty side tracks or running along dragging a stick – cars, kids and donkey carts all sharing the road in a strange juxtaposition of old and modern. Life is impoverished but vibrant and industrious in these villages.

At Umm Qais, rounded a bend and suddenly veered off into a small carpark with steps that seemed to lead up to a cliff top. Sufian jumped out to buy the tickets, leaving us to be confronted by a colourful water vendor character, looking for all the world like a real live Genie in his red fez, a very heavily embroidered sleeveless vest and black balloon breeches. On his back he had an enormous ornate brass urn, which protruded well above his head. He smiled and bowed very low, filling small cups on his tray with a steady stream of water emanating from the spout on the urn behind him. Amazing to watch. Offered us a drink each, but not wanting to risk some sort of unwelcome brush with foreign amoeba on the first day of our holiday, we declined politely.

At the entrance to the site, had to run the gauntlet of the marketeers trying to flog cheap trinkets and postcards at over inflated prices and slip past them up the steps. Immediately into view was the old Byzantine road, passing up through the ruined village and beyond that was the backdrop of Syria & Israel.

JD 005 Looking towards Octagonal Church Terrace 6th Century AD Umm Qais

Decided against engaging a guide and took ourselves round with the aid of the completely indispensable Lonely Planet book, making sure to avoid the gaggle of tourists that the buses had unfortunately disgorged just as we were arriving. Our very simple strategy: where they were, we weren’t!

JD018 Tiles on floor of Octagonal Church 6th century AD Umm Qais

The ruins were absolutely great! 

Memorable were the 6^th century Octagonal Church, with some of its tiles still intact on the floor;

JD020 Octagonal Church ruins 6th Century Umm Qais

JD010 West Theatre Roman period 2nd century AD Umm Qais

                the Roman West theatre

           

columns in various states of disrepair;

JD024 Fallen marble column beside Decumanus at Umm Qais 

JD060 Basalt tomb door& mosaic exhibits from circa 4th century  Umm Qais

                                 old stone doors

tomb lids 

JD055 Relics of a column top and sarcophagus at Bayt Al Russan Museum at Umm Qais

JD056 Walled garden at Beit Russan former Ottoman governors residence at Umm Qais

and a reconstructed house complete with walled garden

There was a small Islamic museum and some interesting things, but on the whole it didn’t have such a lot to offer and what was there wasn’t very well labeled. Obviously labels aren’t a high priority here or maybe its just assumed that if you’re interested enough to visit Umm Qais then you should know what you’re looking at without that they have to stick a sign on each and every item.

JD050 Umm Qais Antiquities Museum Beit Russan 4th Century AD

Going to Umm Qais was absolutely worth it – just for the view alone. Though a little hazy, could still see Lake Tiberias (Sea of Gallilee) as well as the small settlement of Tiberias on the distant shore. What an amazing feeling to stand on the cliff looking down into the Yarmouk River Valley – not only the border between Syria & Jordan but also the site of an important victory of Muslim forces over Christians – with the Golan (pr. zholan) Heights as the backdrop. Names from history suddenly became very real and it put a lot of things in perspective.

JD038 View of Golan Heights in Syria, Lake Tiberias & Israel from Umm Qais

Jordan lies between some of the hottest political spots in the world, yet surprisingly remains largely unaffected. At Umm Qais, it could not have been more tranquil...

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 28 Day 2.2 The Road North

Sufian drives really fast !! So just hoping he's as safe as he was speedy! – and the traffic seemed to be crazy, though certainly not as bad as morning peakhour in downtown Al Khobar.  Soon on the outskirts of the city of Amman and heading NW past the refugee camps of the Palestinians. There are 3 – one circa 1948, another as a result of the 6-Day War in 1967 and the latest took the human fall out from the Gulf War in 1990. 

Jordan has given all the refugees nationality and residency status with full rights under the law. 65% of current Jordanians come from Palestine and/or Palestinian descent. Sufian told us his own family came over in 1948 and stayed. By 1951 realising that they would never be able to go back to their homeland, they made the choice to settle in Jordan for good. He speaks with a lot of pride in who he is, his past and his present. They all seem to share that here, a great sense of national pride and respect for each other.

The Jordanians grow just about everything they need. And olives are very big business indeed.

Saw enormous radishes, about the size of small apples! The roadside vendors simply pull up on the shoulder of the road – literally anywhere - and conduct carboot sales, displaying their boxes in piles (usually just fruit and vegies). The only problem with this kind of free trade enterprise is that very often the roads are incredibly steep and even worse, there is actually no shoulder to set up shop on, so they stand on the road itself enthusiastically trying to flag down potential customers. Some even strategically arrange their boxes half across the outside lane so that the unwary are all but forced to pull up to avoid ploughing into the produce and skittling the vendors, as they rocket downhill at a great rate of knots. The more shrewd amongst them are those who pick an upslope to do business on! 

Passed through the town of Irbid, a notable university town as well as a number of smaller villages, rather less developed. The prevailing religion is Islam, and these are all Sunni Muslims – no Shi’ia at all in Jordan, Even though it was Friday, in the country life goes on as usual, after the 12 noon prayers, no time to wind down, shut up shop or take a day off. People everywhere – all out shopping!

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 28 Day 2.1 Brrrrrreakfast!

Couldn’t sleep. Up at 01.55 trying to write in my diary and ended up replying to an earlier text from Geoff back at home.TheBoy snored his way through the night so that didn’t help matters either! Finally nodded off only to  be back up at 06.00 and down to brekkie by 0700. Large spread of dishes in buffet style presentation, with an amazing array of fruits, meats, pastries and hot dishes.  Decided on the colourful healthy choice: stewed whole apricots, compote of figs, pistachio halwa, honeydew melon and some Arabic bread & marmalade. Plus a protein shot of apple & cinnamon yoghurt.  Absolutely Fabulous Sweetie darlings!

Mr. Sufian was waiting for us in the lobby at 08.30 as arranged – very prompt. We were down exactly on time too and just managed to exit the carpark slightly ahead of a party of very bad-mannered Europeans whom we had had the misfortune to encounter when they arrived en masse and summarily hijacked the breakfast room ambience. Hoped we didn't have to run across them again today anywhere out on the tourist trail !

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 27 Day 1.4 Out & About to the Local Shop

JD001 A view from Radisson SAS Amman to Al Hussein bin Ali Street belo

From our room we could see in the middle distance, a very small hole-in-wall "OPEN" supermarket in a parallel street, where we could buy much needed bottled water and maybe something else to drink as the non-alcoholic option....

Decided to give it a try and ventured down to the street below – Al Hussein Bin Ali – and stood on the kerb for a very long time, buffeted about in the collective air rush of a very large number of speeding cars and wondered whether shopping for water was really worth risking life and limb for! 


Suddenly with a break in the traffic, we made a run for it to the median strip and perched there even more precariously than before, this time at the mercy of air rushes to the front and back of us. We waited for the break, clinging to each other for balance, and then bolted for safety and kept on running onwards, even after we reached the safety of the footpath, up the hill to the supermarket in the top terraced street above.


It was small, very colorful and very typically Arabic casual - no seeming semblance of order – the empty boxes piled up out the front almost covering the front window. And that, coupled with a  bright orange roller door and a couple of beaten up drinks fridges on the paved area to the left, one step below the door, made it look more like a receiving depot for boxes, rather than a surprisingly diversely stocked mini-mart.

Encountered some language difficulties trying to buy our provisions – maybe it was our Gulf Arabic pronunciation. Water was the first hurdle. Tried everything (as one does) even miming and eventually as TheBoy said “moy” to the shopkeeper for the umpteenth time, the guy’s face broke into a wide grin as we broke through the language barrier and the light of communication and understanding dawned. “Ahhh “he smiled benevolently as he corrected our Arabic, “may-ya”....“May-ya” he said again slowly and looked at us expectantly like students of his impromptu language lesson, waiting for us to repeat what we had obviously gotten so wrong. “May-ya."

Lemonade was a whole different ballgame! And it seems generally to be a much more difficult concept on a global basis. In Hong Kong we once asked for lemonade and were handed lemon flavored Iced Tea. And in KSA there is a tendency to reach for orange flavoured Miranda (like Fanta) to fill the order for 'lemonade'. 
The universal word that seems to come closest to the generic, is the brand name – 7 UP.  And quite often the word Sprite will do the trick as well. A result of the McDonald's global phenomena perhaps?

With our small transactions successfully completed and parcels double wrapped in the ubiquitous (and omni-present) black plastic shopping bag, we made our way back to the hotel unscathed, not so breathless and with fewer heart palpitations.  Settled in for an early night and some local TV before sleep.

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 27 Day 1.3 Downtown@theRadisson

On first impressions, the traffic was nowhere near as crazy as in Al Khobar, though we did manage to pass 4 separate incidents of minor bingles on the 40 minute drive from the airport to the hotel. 


On the front steps of The Radisson, we were met by yet another International Traders rep who greeted us warmly and introduced himself as Mr. Mohammed. Certainly can’t fault them for being attentive, friendly or on the ball! He breezed us through hotel registration, amended the vouchers to reflect the correct details (demonstrating how efficiently he had caught the baton from Mr. Allal’aiyah) and had us seated in the lobby to discuss trip details, hand us our brochure and map show-bag and answer any questions.


While we were perched on the edge of 2 riskily luxurious tub chairs, a drinks waiter approached. Thought a Perrier water might be good seeing as it was now 3.30 pm and we still hadn’t had any food or drink since 3 AM! The Perrier was great and went down well – but the bill for same certainly didn’t! It came to over 6 JOD for 2 small glasses (not bottles) Thought that was just a tad expensive and somewhat over the top really – so made a mental note not to do that again in a hurry, as visions of mass budget-blowouts manifested before the eyes.

Made a move to head upstairs and reached over to take our bags, when suddenly from nowhere the bell boy sprang out and wrested them back. We went up in one lift and the bell-boy leapt into the other one next to it, and he ended up meeting us on the bend in the hall right before the door of our room, coming from the opposite direction. Felt a bit like impromptu actors in bad French farce, all doors and darkened hallways – and with a laugh handed him the tip he deserved for the comedic relief he provided and his navigational ingenuity :)

 Room at The Radisson SAS Amman

As it was only 3.40 pm and not even close to the Ramadan iftar hour, we had little other option than to order room service before we fainted from lack of food. LOTS to choose from but went with the steak sandwich for TheBoy at JOD6 and the Halloumi sandwich at JOD 5.
When it came 20 minutes later, it was not snack-sized at all .. massive serves accompanied by one, possibly two, large handfuls of Jordanian black olives, very plump, very good and somewhat reminiscent of Kalamatas. Sufficiently recovered from imminent starvation, we felt almost strong enough to go out to experience the general ambience of downtown peak hour Amman.

The Jordan Diaries 2005: October 27 Day 1.2 The Arrival

Met on arrival – quite literally at the point of  arrival i.e. the door of the aerobridge -by a Jordanian gentleman who must have been under the impression it was a cold day in Amman – even though it was a warm 30 something outside –  as he was wearing a fairly thick red, black and grey pullover. He was waving the usual meet & greet sign with our names on it ...which DOES make for peace of mind and relief of knowing you’re in the right place and delivering yourself into the custody of the right people.

With impeccable manners and very good English, he issued us a formal welcome to Jordan and introduced himself as Mr. Allal’aiyah (*al-larl-‘lai-yah)– or so it sounded. He ushered us like a mother hen to the Visa Desk (all of 5 steps away), collected 20 JOD (10 x 2) from us and oversaw the issue of our visas, which took about 5 minutes flat with a minimum of fuss.  Then it was over to the end of the Immigration queue, obviously too slow for his liking, so he had us lane-hop to the queue at the far end of the desk, where there was a sign declaring Reserved for VIPs/Transit. As we were distinctly neither, we felt we were most definitely in the wrong line. However, the Jordanian Immigration officer didn’t seem to notice and/or care and processed the passports with the same lack of fuss and bother that we had come, over the course of our brief 15 minute experience of the country, to expect of Jordanian Officialdom.

We looked up from tucking the documents away safely, just in time to see Mr. Al lal’aiyah scurrying away and watched in dismay as his departing back view disappeared round the corner, to the top of an escalator leading down to Baggage Collection.

Visa issue – 5 minutes; Passport Control – 10 minutes; Baggage Collection – interminable!  It took an absurd and inexplicable 45 minutes! The bags appeared through the rubber-stripped hatch onto the creaking and grinding carousel at the rate of 6 per deposit from somewhere outside....disturbing wild imaginings of some poor man doing the shuttle between aircraft and terminal struggling with an overloaded wheelbarrow! 


With nothing else to do while we waited, TheBoy amused himself with the mental gymnastics of number crunching and announced that on present form, 45 minutes was the mathematical equivalent of 37% of the entire flight time from RUH to AMM. * thanks for that!They really ought to consider sorting out that aspect of the Welcome to Jordan experience!!

In the meantime, as a distraction of my own, and being The Queen of Detail, I was busy reviewing the paperwork and discovered, with a small degree of alarm, that there was an apparent error regarding the itinerary and hotel vouchers that Mr. A had handed us – vindicating once again that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being obsessive, especially about detail, and even more so when one is in a foreign country!

We were meant to be visiting the Dead Sea and accordingly staying at The Dead Sea Marriott – both events distinctly absent from the sheaf of documents in my clutches. By the time we had finally plucked our bags from eternity, passed in a blur of people and noise through the x-ray set up in front of a totally disinterested official in a uniform, Mr. A had very efficiently got it sorted and was ushering us out to our waiting driver.

We were once again welcomed warmly with a handshake and genuine friendly smile from Mr. Sufian (*soo –fee-‘yan) who reminded me instantly of Mr. Nidal from Al Hussan, though for no particular reason I could think of. Guess I just could never have come to Jordan without remembering him- hope he finally made it home and now rests somewhere here in peace.

We were ushered to Mr Sufian's car, a pale blue Samsung (didn’t KNOW they made cars!), which we sort of guessed was his own personal car, complete with tissue box and other outward signs that he and his car had been through a lot together. Nevertheless it was very clean, ran well and gave us the distinct feeling that we were to be in the company of a personal friend showing us his Jordan.