Amman’s citadel

Sightseeing

I decided that we would have a relaxed start after all the moving around we’ve had recently.  But we still woke reasonably early for breakfast at 0730.  We were approached by drivers outside the hotel for trips for tomorrow and day after.  We got some good information about pricing to help with our decision-making later.

We had booked a night at Wadi Rum in tents, and Anna Theodorie from the agency came at 0830 to collect our payment on Amex.

Later in the morning we took a taxi to Amman’s citadel, which was nothing like the intact citadel of Aleppo.  It was largely in ruins with some restored portions, notably the dome of the Umayyad Palace.

The site had seen settlement from the Bronze age (possibly as far back as 1650BC), Iron Age, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and then Greeks (in 331BC when it was called Philadelphia).  It became Roman in 30BC and finally Islamic in 661AD.

The hilltop location allowed us to appreciate the expanse of Amman, scattered in all directions on hills.

We took a taxi to the Roman Theatre and explored that and adjoining museums.  The theatre was steeper and higher than what I had expected.

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We took lunch near the theatre.  As expected, we had kebabs.  I must have recovered from my dodgy tummy as I had a whole kebab while the other three people shared the remaining one.  The fresh juices were awesome.  We had a mixed fruit one and a mango one.

Our next taxi ride was to the Military Museum. Despite some language difficulties we got there but only to find it closed due to Ramadhan.  It wasn’t a complete waste of time as the ride gave us a good tour of Amman.

Speaking to an Iraqi

We taxied back to the hotel.  Fiona got chatting to a young Iraqi woman whose name meant “a thousand camels”. She’s waiting for the Canadian visa here so she can travel to Toronto to marry her Iraqi fiancé.  She spoke excellent English.

Her mother is here too and her brother will join them soon.  He was hopefully arriving from Baghdad today by 4WD, a 10-12h journey that costs USD100.  The alternative was a 1h propeller flight but that would cost USD500 (or USD750 return).

It was interesting to hear her points of view on various things.  She’s really pro-American as she said life was bad under Saddam.  But she did say that it’s the outside influences now that’s creating the conflict and stability.

It seems convenient that blame can be put on others.  It’s like in Aleppo, street crime by youth is blamed on Turkish and Jordanian.  Likewise, in Singapore on Malaysians and in my home country Malaysia on Indonesians.

We rested till 1800 when we took a taxi to the glitzier suburb of Shmeisani for dinner.  We ate at Chili House, an American-style diner.  Kim, Pat and Fiona all ordered salads.  I ordered a chili dog and swapped with Kim halfway, as usual.

I was surprised to see Pat and Fiona order salads when they’re not into vegetables.  I got my answer when I saw Fiona leave all her lettuce and olives.  Pat did the same and left the tomatoes as well.  Hhmmmm.

Back at the hotel, it was a little noisy.  After prayer time, there was scripture readings from the mosque as well.