We haven’t done a road trip, like, a legitimate road trip, in quite some time. The closest we’ve done is three or four hours into Texas or Mississippi. The last actual road trip I was on was to Branson, Missouri with my dad four years ago. With SM it’s probably been over a decade. This is the first road trip we’ve taken with LB. Jordan. Go figure.
The beginning. Copenhagen to Queen Alia International Airport outside of Amman is four impossibly long hours by air. We flew Norwegian, the Scandinavian budget airline, direct. Though the flight felt more like twelve hours it is here where we got our first taste of how welcoming and indulgent Jordanians are with kids. Every time LB got up, which was a lot, she was greeted with smiles, touches, and offers of food, toys, or play time. It was the same for all of the other littles on board.
Visa on arrival and immigration went fairly quickly. SM and I got the Jordan Pass, so had to provide the physical paperwork. We did not get one for LB as entry was almost universally free for her. By the time we got through our luggage was waiting for us. We’d reserved a car from Payless Car Rental and decided to upgrade to an automatic. This is something we are glad we did as the hills of Jordan would have made anyone not intimately familiar with driving a manual up and down mini mountains quite mad.
The flight arrived after ten local time and by the time we left the airport it was after eleven. Instead of starting in Amman we decided to start in Madaba, the old Christian town famed for its Byzantine mosaics. For two nights we stayed in the Pilgrim’s Guesthouse right next to St. George Church. It was a little tricky to find. The highways are decently signed but the city streets, not so much. Add that to the not obviously one way streets and we found ourselves doing more than one circle.
I didn’t expect a party but Madaba was surprisingly dead for a Saturday night. When we got there the whole town was locked down tighter than a virgin’s chastity belt. Once we finally made it to the hotel we had to park on the street and hunt up the staff on duty to let us into the parking lot and check us in despite having forewarned them of our late arrival. But it didn’t take long. There are several prominent signs throughout the guesthouse offering the direct number to the night reception.
The Good
A cheap place, Pilgrim’s Guesthouse has an impossible to beat location right next to St. George church. St. George is built on the bones of a Byzantine church. In the remnants of the original church was a mosaic that is the oldest map of Palestine in existence providing historical insights into the ancient region. This is the town’s top attraction. It’s a standard BBC (Basic But Clean) but our room had air con, a private bath, and a balcony. There is also, parking, a communal patio and buffet breakfast on offer from 7 to 10.
The Bad
We arrived Saturday night. Which means that we, well I, was awakened at the ass crack of dawn to the ringing of church bells and a call to service. Yep. Christians do that. Heck, church bells are even a thing in Copenhagen. But it is a more intense experience when you are right next door.
This is more of a neutral as at this price point it shouldn’t be expected but housekeeping service is not daily.
The breakfast was abysmal. Stale bread, dry hummus, and limp cucumber were a couple of highlights. The olive oil was good, tho.
Speaking of food we ate at three restaurants in Madaba. Two I remember. The first was super fancy Haret Jdoudna which stumbled upon after striking out at two other places.
The Good
Let me just start by saying this place is all good. Lovely and cool courtyard, clean, attentive staff, and delicious (if pricey) food. We each had a lemon and mint juice, the best we’ve had so far. We decided to go with a few mezza: the kibbeh, which was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The mtabble/mutabal, an eggplant dip made with tahini that is similar to baba ghanoush. Personally, though, I prefer mutabal. It’s smokey, rich, and delicious. And hummus because, why not? It was perfect. This trip I am discovering how good and bad hummus can get! The bread was fluffy, warm, and so delicious LB ate half the basket.
The second was Al Mandi Kitchen and Restaurant.
The Good
The rice. Al Mandi is a prominent local dish of chicken and rice and the rive here is to die for. I know what you are thinking, it’s rice. Nope. It’s mana. With your chicken you get several types of rice and they are ALL good. Our meal also came with yogurt, a passable bean soup, and a slightly spicy tomato sauce. But, seriously, y’all, the rice! All very affordable.
The Bad
It’s a bit away from the center making it a pain to get to. You are not coming here for the atmosphere- a woman eating here alone may feel vaguely uncomfortable. And the barbecued chicken was barely edible. Dry, dry, dry. LB ate half, if that, of her drumstick and she usually devours the things.
Speaking of dry, almost every morning we’ve been here I have woken up feeling lightly hungover despite having had not one drop of alcohol since setting foot in this country. For you lovely folks who have never experienced a hangover, bless your hearts, they are (mostly) caused be dehydration: gritty eyes, cotton mouth, headache. We are drinking, easily, a couple of liters of water a day and it is still not quite enough.
I brought saline solution for eyes and nose and have used it liberally. (Two different bottles. Avoid cross contamination.)
That said, the weather here is not that bad. If we had flown from Louisiana instead of Denmark we’d probably find it downright delightful. For August. The evenings and nights are quite comfortable. Mornings are cool enough to demand a light covering. Afternoons, though, are hot. Damned hot. Hot enough to make you slap your mama.
Still traveling so I will probably go back and update this one later, but other things about Jordan so far:
It’s less developed than we thought it would be. In part due to the prices we thought Jordan would be more like Morocco, Egypt, or even Turkey. Instead it reminds me more of Laos or Guatemala. Though without Guatemala’s violent crime issues and with less comprehensive public transportation than either.
It’s expensive. The Jordanian dinar (JD) is about fifty percent stronger than the US dollar. The three mezza and three drinks at Haret Jdoudna cost us about thirty USD. Yes, it’s a super nice restaurant, but those are Denmark prices.
People talk about how easy it is to drive and how well signposted the roads are. Maybe they are traveling different routes but that has not been our experience. If we (and by we I mean SM) hadn’t thought to download the Jordan map from Google we’d still be driving.*
Jordanians love little kids. As I mentioned above, they are welcoming and indulgent. On our plane littles, including our own, roamed the aisles with barely a glare in their direction. Almost everywhere LB is greeted with smiles, touches, and offers of food. LB is generally a social, gregarious, little girl but she is finding it all overwhelming.
While the breaking of routine and being constantly on the go are definitely affecting her I think it doesn’t help that so many of the people one encounters and interacts with are men. So far, the entire staff at the hotels we’ve stayed in seem to be made up of men.
It’s quite safe. Even, with some precautions, for a woman traveling alone. At least as safe as the US. Which, I know, isn’t saying a lot.
*The difference between lost me and lost SM: SM drives in circles stopping and comparing his current location on his downloaded map until he figures it out himself. I stop and get out of the car with my paper map looking confused until someone offers to help or I spot someone who looks approachable. Which ever comes first. As long as your map is also in the local language (something I learned to do a couple of decades ago) you don’t even need to share a spoken language.