The Patterson Pair: October 2006

This post is being written in Ottawa from the Honda dealership, while I wait for our little "welcome home" surprise to be fixed. We arrived back in Montreal at 4:30 pm on Tuesday night, after traveling for more than 24 hours. We breezed through customs with no lineups or problems and after 20 minutes had our luggage. We couldn't seem to contact the hotel for our pick up ride, but fortunately J looked around outside and we found the shuttle. Upon being dropped off at our car, I noticed that the small back window on the driver's side had been smashed and someone had gone through everything in our car. I don't know what they were looking for but here's what they had to choose from : a package of pads, old pair of sunglasses, J's Bible, children's cds, Mr.Higgins ministry CD's, two emergency car kits, a pair of old flip flops, a sweater, a jacket and a bag of dirty clothes which we had worn to Montreal but had not taken on our trip! As far as we know, nothing was actually taken, but if they had looked close enough we could have been in big trouble. I never take my keys with me on trips, as they're too easy to lose, but I forgot to leave them at home before we left and had them with me in Montreal the day we left. I couldn't recall if I had put them into the glove compartment when I left so I was frantically searching the car as well as the house, when we got home. Where were they? In the bottom of the bag of dirty clothes which we had left in the trunk. Thankfully the thieves weren't too interested in it or we could be minus a car and part of our house!

Before arriving home in Montreal, the rest of our trip was rather uneventful. On Monday night, J, Carol and I went out for dinner at the "spelling mistake" restaurant again, as we knew the food was good and cheap. Arrived back at the hotel around 10 pm, packed up and got a couple of hours of sleep before our wake up call at midnight. The hotel had arranged for a taxi to meet us at 12:45, although it was really a private car with the hotel manager taking us to the airport. The ride to the airport took about 40 minutes with a quick stop at a gas station on the way. ($1.20/L - Jordan is one of the few Middle Eastern countries that doesn't produce oil so gas is quite expensive!) The man that drove us to the airport was quite chatty and was happy to tell us all about life in Jordan. He got his business degree in Texas in the 80's and came back to work in hotel management. (He even had the whole "ya'll" thing down pat!) When asked about the Jordanian economy he was quite blunt and honest about how he felt the war in Iraq was affecting his country and making it hard for the average Jordanian to live. Apparently all the rich Iraqis are leaving Iraq and moving to Jordan. The government allows them in, but they must have a certain amount of money and must invest it in Jordan. They purchase companies, huge homes and expensive cars, driving up the cost of living and leaving the average family in Jordan to only dream about ever owning a house. The Jordanian government needs the money so they let all these people in but the general population isn't too pleased. This man was of the opinion that the US wants to rule the world. They want to take control of different countries to steal their resources - Iraq for their oil and Sudan for their minerals.

Upon arriving at the airport we had to head through security before we could get our boarding passes. J went through the normal metal detector but I had to go through a special enclosed one for women only, where I was frisked by a young Jordanian girl! They only open the counters of the flights that are leaving within two hours so you can't even get into the airport unless your flight is leaving soon. Received our boarding passes, went through customs control and past the empty collection booth where we were supposed to pay our departure tax of 5 JD each. No one was around to collect it and nobody ever asked if we had paid it so we continued on to the departures lounge. Once again, you're not allowed to go to your gate until about an hour before your plane leaves so we sat around with a group of bleary eyed travelers and waited until they would let us through. We went through security again (2nd frisking for me in the women's only section!) and then sat around until they let us broad the bus that would take us out to our plane!

Arrived in Frankfurt at 8 am and turned our clocks back an hour to 7 am to concur with local time. Our bags had been checked through so we didn't need to pick them up but we didn't have boarding passes for our next flight. Found out the Air Canada counter didn't open until 10 am so we hung around the McDonald's until then, as it had the cheapest food and the most places to sit! By the time the lines had died down and we got back to the Air Canada counter, it had closed so we had to go out through customs, find the counter in the departures area, get boarding passes, go back through security and customs and then attempt to find the gate we were leaving from. Good thing we had 7 hours to spare at the airport! The gate wasn't listed on our boarding passes so we spent a hour hanging around the big blue departure signs waiting for it to appear. Our flight left around 3 pm, after driving around the pavement for what seemed like hours. We were beginning to wonder if we were driving to Montreal.

The 8 hour flight was uneventful and was broken into three sections - the part where they served lunch, the part where they served us our snack (ice cream!) and the part where they served us supper! Airline food actually tasted good after all the strange stuff we'd been eating!

Despite the broken car window, arriving back in Canada was definitely a positive experience! Even driving to the police station to make a report and heading back to Ottawa seemed more relaxing than the hectic schedule we've had over the past three weeks. Would we do it again? Definitely! Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll post them soon and let you decide whether you'd like a Middle Eastern adventure of your own!

This will probably be my last post from across the globe, as we catch our flight home to Canada via Frankfurt at 3:30 Tuesday morning. We're hoping to leave the hotel around midnight to give ourselves lots of time to get to the airport and get checked in.
Had another full day yesterday, starting at the ancient Roman city of Jerash, which is about 45 minutes outside of Amman. Unfortunately J and I missed most of the explanation by the guide as J headed back to the bus to get some new camera batteries and I made a hasty retreat to the washroom as something from breakfast didn't quite agree with me. (It was even one of our better breakfasts too! Guess my stomach isn't used to getting meat and fruit at the beginning of the day!) We still had lots of time to complete the tour by ourselves and enjoyed walking through the city. The most interesting site in the area were Arab bagpipers in the amphitheatre playing a medley which included "Scotland the Brave" and "Yankie Doodle!" Seemed strange to have a bit of Fergus over in Jordan! After Jerash, the two Kiwis left our group as they're heading to Syria, while the three tour leaders went back to town and the 6 of us that were left headed over to the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is about an hour from Amman and is the lowest point on earth. We drove down into one of Jordan's valleys to get there and stayed at the Deed Sea Spa Hotel for the afternoon. Enjoyed one of the better buffets on the trip (8 JD) before heading out to the beach. Entrance to the hotel, transportation and lunch was 20 JD each, but well worth it. The hotel had three huge pools, a kiddie centre, nice beach chairs by the pool and the beach, and lots of fresh water showers to use after your float in the Dead Sea.
The beach was quite rocky and the sand very hot on the toes but we weren't really interested in swimming, only floating. You only have to walk out a couple of metres before you can lie down and float on top of the water! It's a really strange feeling but really neat. The water is so salty that you can feel it on any nick or cut that you have and if you stay in too long you come out quite itchy! (Our guide warned us all not to shave for a couple of days before this experience!) J wandered out further than I did and could actually float in the standing up position - the bobbing cork position! After running up to the showers to wash all the salt off, we all settled down for our Dead Sea mud experience and covered ourselves in the thick gooey mud. It actually felt quite good and our skin was nice and soft later on. (J opted not to do this but took pictures instead!) After rinsing off again we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and met our driver and guide at 5 pm to take us back to the hotel. (J pointed out that now we've swam in the Red, the Dead and the Med!)
We all met together again at 8 pm to go out for our last dinner together. The Aussies had bought a watermelon at the market the day before, so before we left, they cut it up and we all enjoyed a piece in the lobby. We hailed two taxis and headed downtown, as there isn't much around the hotel area. (The taxis here are metered so it's a bit easier to get around but there's no bargaining power!) Ate dinner at "Varna Roses" a restaurant the Aussies had found the day before and enjoyed a good meal, although the highlight of the evening was laughing at all the strange English translations on the menu. Some of the funniest included Chocolate moose, Hot Fahita, Tuna Sandwish, Greace Salad, French Friez, Spaghette, Chicken Karie and Col Slow Salad. J wasn't too hungry so just had an icecream but I enjoyed a "Shawerma" and a fruity drink called "Sun Sit!" After supper our tour leaders headed to their new hotel where they were starting a new tour, and the 5 of us squished into a taxi back to the hotel. The taxi driver's English was quite good and apparently he was a captain of some pipe band in Jordan and we enjoyed bag pipe music all the way back to the hotel. It was interesting to hear "Amazing Grace" being played in Jordan and we pulled up to the hotel with another blaring rendition of "Scotland the Brave!"
We attempted to sleep in today, as our tour was over and we had no plans, but for the last three mornings we've been awakened at 4 am for the call to prayer which is broadcast from all the local mosques. They've had these calls throughout the rest of our trip but usually we had the air conditioning on and the windows closed so they didn't bother us as much. This hotel has air conditioning but since it's the slower season they won't turn it on so we've had to endure a couple of stuffy nights and early morning wake up calls. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a quiet call to prayer but it actually sounds like someone is at the end of your bed with a huge blowhorn! We met Carol at 9 am for breakfast, a bit tired and wishing we could go back to bed. Headed out around 10 and decided to see the Citadel, a Roman fortress and more ruins in town. Only stayed there for 45 minutes or so as there isn't that much to see. There was a small museum which has some skulls and tools dating back to Jericho as well as some pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Not as impressive as the pieces that came to the Museum of Civilization though.) Walked from the Citadel down to the Roman amphitheatre, stopping on the way to talk to some school boys who wanted to shake our hands and know our names. They seemed quite pleased with the Canada flag pins which J gave them. After talking with them we saw another little boy playing at the side of the road with his toy gun. When he saw us, he turned around and pointed his gun at each of us, pretending to shot us. Bang, bang, bang! Not really humorous given the recent shootings in Amman. Halfway down we stopped at a good viewpoint to get some pictures of the theatre and were approached by another little boy who wanted us to take his picture. (For some money of course!) We declined and kept on walking but as soon as we were out of site he picked up a handful of stones, threw them at us and them ran off! We haven't found Amman very friendly and I'm not sure if it's because we're suspicious of everyone or if it's because they're suspicious of us! Needless to say, we didn't spend too much time in the downtown area. Looked around the outside of the theatre (lots of security!) but didn't pay to go in. Walked up the street to find a money exchanger and then attempted to cross the main road and hail a taxi . Crossing the street in Jordan is just as risky as in Cairo but you'll just be hit by a newer and more expensive car! Arrived home around noon and we've spent the afternoon catching up on our sleep and trying to find an English news channel! Since nothing will be open for supper until 8 pm tonight we'll stay here for a couple of hours before having one last meal in Jordan. Hopefully our next post will be from Canada or perhaps the Frankfurt Airport as we have 7 hours to kill while we wait for our flight to Canada! Looking forward to landing on Canadian soil very soon!