Downtown Amman and Mount Nebo: Experiences.

Our journey to Amman start that evening. It was 5pm on a fine Sunday. I was home, alone. Suddenly my phone ring, and the caller id reveal who the caller is. Oh, it was my friend calling! i thought home alone movie scene is about to come true! I pick up the phone, and we talked. It seems like they wanted to go to Amman, and they needed another person to come with them. You see, we rent a car and in order to lower our expenses! Student life, yeah!

So that evening the journey started. The car, checked! Clothing 1, 2, 3, checked! Trousers 1, 2, checked! Towel? No need. Eh. Needed!!! Oh and don't forget my undergarment and deodorant, they are super important! And so we are ready to depart to Amman! First destination: Education Malaysia Jordan (EMJ).

a lonely evening in Irbed, Jordan

The highway was as usual. There is a brown-sand scenery along the way. The tarred road was as black as the tyre. Sometimes, green lorry with “moya sehheya lilsharab” passed by. They are heading north to supply clean water. You see Jordanian water system is not as excellent as the west. A big green lorry, will come every weekend and supply a house water tank. This way, people will not face water shortage. In reality, some house will suffer short of water 1 day before the lorry come to refill. But there is some exception. For example, my house in Jordan has direct water supply from Water Treatment Plant. This way, life is muccchhhh better!

Okay. Back to the real story. And so the road to Amman was safe and sound. There was no police, no traffic and the weather was so bright! We arrived Amman half an hour before seven. There was still sunlight, because it was summer and the day was longer than usual. Using GPS (our travel buddy), we went straight to EMJ hoping we can find refuge (sleep) there that night. To our surprised, there is a family living in the building!! And i was like... What is happening? Isn't this EMJ? We talked to a little girl who was standing near the gate ”nadi abuuki ya habibti" : Can we talk to your father, we said. The father come and said, the building is still EMJ’s, and he is the Haaris (The guardian of the building) and unfortunately we can't sleep there! So we started looking for another hostel, to tuck in for the night.

Top right: Cat, sitting on a bench. Top left and bottom: Farah Hotel

That is when I searched the internet and found a nice cozy hotel in downtown amman, Farah Hotel. The location is perfect! We can walk all night, eat Arabian food, and do window shopping in that sleepless area of Amman. Farah Hotel is actually a hostel. Farah mean happy! And we were staying in a happy hotel. And that was what to be. The hotel got its own parking area, and we need to pay for it. We were supposed to pay an amount of money per night, but the worker tell us to pay less! He is a good man. It is safe (there is a small police hut nearby). The most important thing about the hotel is: There is a wonderful and friendly 'ammi (Uncle) work as a receptionist! He locked the place after midnight, so if you are planning to stay out late, do tell him. The hostel is certified by tripadvisor, so there isn’t much to be worried about. We stayed one night, and we pay 10 JD, with breakfast. My friends found another hostel, it is cheaper 5 JD per night but there is no parking and no breakfast. (Im sorry truth always bring pain wit them). Besides breakfast is an important feature to consider. Don’t you think? Or its just me? Huh..

That night, we went out to find some shesha. Not to smoke it, but to buy the most beautiful shesha bottle. We went out late! and my feet feel sore, but i didn’t want to go back to the hostel. I wanted to walk further into downtown. Seeing people, exploring un-explored part of the place, and restaurants with lights and people inside it. Enjoying the meal. Life is good for them. Finally, we have come to the right shop. The man who works there come, and introduced himself. He is a tall man, dark hair with beard (which is typical in Jordanian male), and he looks friendly. He then ask us what is our desire? When we explain to him about the shesha bottle we are looking for, he talks about every shesha in the shop. There was a green strip with pinkish coloured bottle, lavender purple coloured, and a numbers of colours which I can’t describe. In short, the shop is so very full of colours!! Then he explained about the flavour. Each and every flavour has it’s own attractiveness. For examples, there are tuffahein (Double apple), farauleh (Strawberry), and many other combination of fruit. I tried to find fart flavour. Thank god it isn’t available. Sigh. We were lucky though, the worker gave us 5 gram of free tuffahein flavoured shesha, as we agree to buy his shesha bottle.

It was 2 am! And we were still outside. I started to feel my leg crying for some rest. Yet my eyes are widely open. I can’t sleep! But my leg win! I need to at least rest my leg. We walked back to the hostel. On our way back, there was a suspicious-looking man, tailing us. We take up speed, and he did too. We were scared and walk faster, it was like running! We went to the police hut, and the police officers weren’t there! So we ran back to our hotel and ring the bell as loud as we can. When the ‘Ammi opened the door, we know we were safe. I then go and take a shower, before sleeping in the lobby’s sofa! The lobby got an air conditioner. The air conditioner in our room was broken. And that night, I sleep soundly. I may have snored a bit, but yeah… Life was good for me.

Despite sleeping late last night, I woke up early the morning after. It was sooo cold, that I can’t take my blanket off me. The air-conditioner produced cold, comfortable weather in this hot hot summer! But, I was so exited about of a beautiful sun-rise view from the sutuh (The top of a building). Slowly, I pull my blanket off, and check my phone to see the time. The light is so sharp, it pierce my eye’s retina. The time is 5 a.m. Perfect I said. After cleaning myself and did my pray, i went to the sutuh using the elevator. My knee was so stiff, it was so hard to lift it up the stair. I brought a bottle of water, a book and my phone with me. I could read a book while watching the great sun-rise rising from the east. And it is… The sun-rise is so beautiful, that it can’t be described by a million pictures. Rise up!

After a while, I started to hear my stomach singing. Krrooooookkkk, it said. Oh no, Im hungry. So i went down, again using the elevator (Now its my ankle. Its sore. Okay, sore was just an excuse. An immature intellectualisation for a simple laziness). Breakfast was already served in the lobby! There’s breads (the usual aish bread), eggs, cheese, orange jam, and coffee. Ah, my favourite coffee. The best is Coffee plus Chocolate plus Cream plus Ice, made of coffee. Ah, Perfect!. I enjoy every piece of that foods with very good companies.

Then we said goodbye to the ‘ammi, and hit the road. Next destination: Madaba. A city located south west of the capital Amman. And again, GPS is our best friend! It tells us to go right, or left a hundred metres before the actual turn. And if we miss the turn, GPS will search for a new, better route. And it doesn’t whine. Great friend GPS is, said Master Yoda. LOL.

After Madaba, we went to Mount Nebo. A sacred place, where the Prophet Moses get a view of the Promised Land. I do not know much about history, so i will just post the picture of this amazing place. The road is dangerous and very high, so be extra careful. Once you get there, its worth it. The place is so amazingly beautiful, you can see everything from above. Some say you might be able to see Jerusalem during a clear, fine day. I wish i could see that. Lovely tourists spot, right? Entrance fee is 1 JD (Im not really sure). Inside the compound, there is a big church which was under construction. The place is clean, there is a lot of trees, we even have the chance to hear what a tourist guide got to say about the place. But, i forgot already.

Next we went to Wadi el-Haidan.