Yesterday:
"Ya hayawaan!" our taxi driver calls the driver in the car next to us an animal as they bicker about road rights. Horns blow, speeds increase as they try to maneuver and yell some more. The road rage passes and the driver looks back at us in the rearview mirror after the car in front of us honks in ire at the same trouble-maker who hassled us, "This is the music of Jordan," he says regarding the continual honking.
Moments before, we got gypped. Buses from the ancient ruins of Jerash to Amman stop around six pm. So after visiting the 2000 year-old ruins, we end up hopping in a pick-up truck that is traveling to Amman with a Ukrainian passenger couple. We agree the driver will take us to downtown Amman for 7 dinars. Somewhere along the way, he points out a bus that is going to Amman, apparently where we want to go, and he takes 5 dinars as payment from us and we--slightly confused but he is so vehement that we concede--hop onto the bus that the driver got to pull over. Basically, the driver made an easy 5 dinars and got to avoid the downtown area by chucking us onto another form of transportation.
So, then we are sitting on a bus that is going...somewhere in Amman. We talk to the fee collector. He says we have to switch to a service bus...somewhere. So, we figure he will tell us. We disembark on the side of a road where everyone else does...somewhere in Amman. White taxis drop by the side of the road to pick up passengers. We observe what others do and wait for one with room for two, assuming we will get to where we are going sooner or later. Finally, after some moments of uncertainty and a sense of being tiny conspicuous specks in a huge city, we end up in the taxi mentioned at the beginning of this post. All is well as we enter the familiar landmarks of the Balad, and we spend less than our original 7 dinars!
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Other days:
In addition to indoors rock climbing, endless staircases, reading this out loud and visiting amazing friends, Sonja and I also enjoyed Jordan's rocky nature near the Dead Sea. Having stumbled upon a rock climbing place near my house, we joined their adventure trip to go canyoning and rappelling in Wadi Mijeres on Saturday. We left at 8 am and 12 hours (of hiking, jumping over rocks, sitting and waiting, slushing through water, and rappelling down waterfalls) later, we got back, sore and happy! It was a gorgeous day, we had a non-complaining group of people, and the wadi was beautiful. Sonja would probably say her favorite moment was rappelling down the middle of the last and biggest waterfall! Mine was enjoying the view at the top of it after having my shoulders massaged by a pounding waterfall. I also thought sitting in a waterfall pool sipping spiced tea was quite lovely.
"Ya hayawaan!" our taxi driver calls the driver in the car next to us an animal as they bicker about road rights. Horns blow, speeds increase as they try to maneuver and yell some more. The road rage passes and the driver looks back at us in the rearview mirror after the car in front of us honks in ire at the same trouble-maker who hassled us, "This is the music of Jordan," he says regarding the continual honking.
Moments before, we got gypped. Buses from the ancient ruins of Jerash to Amman stop around six pm. So after visiting the 2000 year-old ruins, we end up hopping in a pick-up truck that is traveling to Amman with a Ukrainian passenger couple. We agree the driver will take us to downtown Amman for 7 dinars. Somewhere along the way, he points out a bus that is going to Amman, apparently where we want to go, and he takes 5 dinars as payment from us and we--slightly confused but he is so vehement that we concede--hop onto the bus that the driver got to pull over. Basically, the driver made an easy 5 dinars and got to avoid the downtown area by chucking us onto another form of transportation.
So, then we are sitting on a bus that is going...somewhere in Amman. We talk to the fee collector. He says we have to switch to a service bus...somewhere. So, we figure he will tell us. We disembark on the side of a road where everyone else does...somewhere in Amman. White taxis drop by the side of the road to pick up passengers. We observe what others do and wait for one with room for two, assuming we will get to where we are going sooner or later. Finally, after some moments of uncertainty and a sense of being tiny conspicuous specks in a huge city, we end up in the taxi mentioned at the beginning of this post. All is well as we enter the familiar landmarks of the Balad, and we spend less than our original 7 dinars!
______________________________
Other days:
In addition to indoors rock climbing, endless staircases, reading this out loud and visiting amazing friends, Sonja and I also enjoyed Jordan's rocky nature near the Dead Sea. Having stumbled upon a rock climbing place near my house, we joined their adventure trip to go canyoning and rappelling in Wadi Mijeres on Saturday. We left at 8 am and 12 hours (of hiking, jumping over rocks, sitting and waiting, slushing through water, and rappelling down waterfalls) later, we got back, sore and happy! It was a gorgeous day, we had a non-complaining group of people, and the wadi was beautiful. Sonja would probably say her favorite moment was rappelling down the middle of the last and biggest waterfall! Mine was enjoying the view at the top of it after having my shoulders massaged by a pounding waterfall. I also thought sitting in a waterfall pool sipping spiced tea was quite lovely.
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