Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - April 2015
In April 2015, KC and I flew from DFW to JFK Airport in New York, waited for hours and then got on a new Boeing 787 to fly to Amman, Jordan to meet up with Stu W. We flew on Royal Jordanian Airlines direct from New York to Jordan, a nice way to fly and avoid stopovers in Europe, but it is very long time to sit in a plane.
I have been to the Kingdom of Jordan twice before in 2012, but the whole region has changed since I was last in Jordan because of the war in Syria, ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the large number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees who have come into Jordan and are placing a huge burden on Jordan. Syria is about 30 miles away from Amman, Iraq about 120 miles. Even this week, several neighboring countries have started to bomb Yemen after Houthi rebels overthrew the Yemen government. Lots of unrest and trouble in this area
Click on any photo to see a larger view
How to go full local in Jordan
A really fun link to “A Broad Abroad” travel blog
See airplane map, looks like we are flying straight into Syria, makes you hope that you have a good pilot who looked at the map. The next photo shows us crossing from the Med into Israel, 3rd photo shows a few minutes later, it is all desert, no green to be seen
Smoked Me Some Hookah
We landed here about 5 PM and the hotel sent a car to pick us up, safest way for us to travel. On our first night in Jordan, I smoked a hookah pipe and drank tea with an Air Force general for 2 hours, I did not even get a buzz from the tobacco – we did not even get a chance to eat dinner tonight. Our trip is off to a fast start. This week, we are going to a shop where KC and I can buy a red/white dish towel for my head. Maybe I will buy a hookah too. More hookah smoking pics from Cairo, Egypt.
Where in the world is Jordan? It is in a very busy area, there are a lot of countries at the east end of the Mediterranean Ocean. It is probably good for us to stay away from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
Fresh Sheep
Our host told us yesterday at lunch that the sheep we were eating at 2 pm were fresh and were running around that morning. See pictures below that I took of sheep in various stages: being herded down the same hill we were trying to drive down and then butchered sheep hanging up in the open-air markets that line the streets. Make sure that you shoo away the flies while you are shopping for a sheep carcass. I guess you might see a nice sheep carcass hanging from a hook while you are driving down the road, back the car up and go buy one. Not sure how you carry a butchered sheep home in your car.
Today for lunch we had more Jordanian food. Of course, we had hummus and giant pita breads. I had a glass of a yogurt drink – one glass of this and you are not supposed to be thirsty for the rest of the day. I had sheep nuts (yes sheep testicles), lamb chops, chicken, veggies, a dish that is like a quesadilla made with ground lamb baked between 2 pita breads. Also, lamburger? and even more lamb. See photos of meat and yogurt milk below.
Dressing in Jordan
Jordan seems very liberal when it comes to how women dress. Especially when you consider how women in some of their neighbors like Saudi Arabia have to dress. Ladies drive and dress very modernly. Almost all wear scarves, but they are bright and look good. There is not of a dress code here, but locals do not wear shorts, short skirts, short sleeves.
I think that I can say that I have eaten chickpeas at every breakfast, lunch and dinner since I have been in Jordan. This has been mostly on the form of hummus, but I have had other dishes as well. For lunch on our first day here, our host ordered 5 different types of chickpeas including falafel, hummus and pea salads. Of course, we had lots of pita bread. I think the bread is the safest thing to eat here.
I have also eaten a lot of yogurt. Lamb in yogurt, chicken in yogurt, a glass of yogurt, etc. I am not a big yogurt fan but they made it taste pretty good. To keep healthy, you need to be careful what water you drink, not have ice in anything and even think about salads.
So we drink lots of beer, wine, soft drinks and bottled water. Not a bad way to spend the week.
Tonight, we went to an excellent restaurant called Levant with Imad and Sofiyan. Traditional food including Armenian food. This was some of the best food I have ever had. One of the things we had to start out with was cracked wheat in some kind of cream. It was wonderful also had some spicy sausages. We had a good wine, some lamb including a mixed grill meat pie. It looked like a pecan pie but when you open up the lid it was full of different kinds of meats that have been cooked on kebabs. We also had a lot of beef on a big kebab Grill skewer. Whenever you are in the Amman I would highly recommend this place.
A little machine gun action. It is always fun to drive around and see the military has their guns up and are in control
