Journey Through Jordan - Jordanian Highlights

As per usual since the pandemic began, my intended travel plans changed drastically on short notice. I’d intended to go to Japan this month, but when August rolled around and it was clear the Japanese government’s restrictions on tourism would make it impossible for me to go, I changed my trip and decided instead to go to Jordan.
Jordan was on my list of “Top 10 countries to go to that I haven’t visited yet” and going there was made surprisingly easy by the fact that there is now a non-stop flight from Washington DC to Amman, the capital of Jordan. I spent 11 days in the country and visited 5 different places: Amman, Jerash, Madaba, Petra, and Wadi Rum. The main draw for the country to me was, of course, the history and the ruins/various historical sites, although that wasn’t the only thing I saw there. With that in mind – here is the Great and the Mixed Bag of my trip to Jordan.

The Great
Jerash
Jerash was without a doubt the coolest place I visited on my trip. Jerash is an ancient Roman city, that was at its most importance in the 100s CE, and the ruins of the city are one of the top places to visit in Jordan. The site is just extremely cool - I literally just said aloud to myself many, many times as I was walking around “this is so f***ing cool.” Even if you don’t have a particular interest in history, it’s impossible to ignore the grandeur of the city. It’s also the most well done and accessible site I visited. It's a manageable size – you can spend up to 5 hours there (about what I did) but its easy enough for non-history nerds to see in a couple hours. The signage is excellent, and it’s an easy ½ day trip from the capital of Amman. Hands down the top thing I saw in Jordan.

Wadi Rum

I wasn’t sure of going here initially, but multiple people insisted I had to go to Wadi Rum and experience the desert. And they were absolutely right. Wadi Rum is where Lawrence of Arabia lived while working with the Arab forces during WWI. As a desert, it is of course extremely stark, but it can be in a beautiful way. It’s also extremely quiet. You basically need to have a guide or a tour to visit the protected wilderness area. I went on a tour. And while there are sites to see – I particularly enjoyed the petroglyphs – for be the best parts were sitting in the back of the jeep just watching the desert as we drove around, and watching the sun set over the desert. It’s the vibe more than the individual bits and pieces that make Wadi Rum worth visiting.

The Unexpected

Some of the coolest bits of my trip were the unexpected things that occurred along the way. The unplannable, the unexpected. There was a trio of British women I ran into three different times during my trip – we met in Jerash, I ran into them at the Archeological Park in Madaba, and then we ran into each other a third time in Petra. Petra! The biggest and busiest site in Jordan. On my last day, the driver taking me to the airport had a family emergency, so I ended up riding with him and his whole family up to the Amman airport for four hours. They had me join them for lunch as a rest stop and gave me a gigantic bag of dates (that due to US customs rules, I sadly had to leave in Jordan). Things like that made the trip unforgettable in the best possible way.

The Mixed Bag

Petra

It feels weird to call Petra a mixed bag of a visit. It is the thing that everyone knows the most about, often the only thing people know about Jordan. And it is, in fact incredible. The tombs and buildings are awe-inspiring and it is 100% worth visiting. But. But it was also the most stressful part of my trip. It is huge and exhausting to visit. I had three days there and was still stressed about seeing things.

More importantly, though it’s the stuff that has grown up around the site that makes it a mixed bag. First, there is a complete lack of signage, making it difficult to know what is what and the deeper meaning of the sites without a guide. Second is the touts. There are people trying to sell you things - souvenirs, a guide to climb to a lookout point, food, camel rides – every few feet it seems. And they do not leave you alone. You can’t avoid them. I had my headphones in, and that plus the sunglasses helped a lot but it was still really annoying. Finally – the entire site smells like donkey shit. Those touts I mentioned? Many of them were offering donkey rides, or camel rides for tourists. The result of which was there was donkey poop everywhere, and it smelled. And honestly, constantly smelling and trying to avoid stepping in poo really puts a damper on visit.

The People

Ok, I feel a little bad about saying this. Everyone was extremely kind and friendly to me. Except for a few very specific touts at some of the sites, I never felt uncomfortable. And even though I was traveling alone as a woman, I never felt unsafe. People were very positive about me being an American and super warm. At the same time, everyone had an angle and was trying to sell me something, if only for me to engage their services again. Every conversation with someone working at a site seemed to end in them expecting a tip, and every driver tried to convince me to use them again or the next time I visited Jordan. And extremely friendly waitress asked me to rate the place on Trip Advisor and mention her by name. I get it, the need to hustle is real. And I do not actually doubt the genuine warmth I received. But it was still really tiresome to deal with it in what felt like every interaction.

Conclusion

I highly recommend Jordan for anyone interested in travel. As you can see, there was no “the Bad” section of this trip because there honestly really wasn’t any. The worst parts were nearly always mixed with some really good things. Jordan is also very accessible. Most of the people working with tourists spoke English, and there are a number of systems, such as the Jordan Pass, which encourage tourists to come a visit for extended periods. And it’s pretty small - 1-2 weeks is a good amount of time to see the country fairly thoroughly. I would say for solo travelers, this is more of an intermediate level trip, and if going in a group, make sure there is at least one experienced traveler in the mix. But if you have any interest in visiting that part of the world, I highly recommend you check out Jordan.