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Zaid's entry: Today was another fine day! The forecast was calling for rain but it managed to stay away until even now. It was a bit chillier than yesterday (~17ºC) but that's not a problem considering that I left -30 or so temperatures...
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I first woke up - I pulled out my guide book and read for a bit and came across a nice little trip to a place west of Amman called Iraq al-Amir. The write-up sounded nice so I figured I'd give it a shot.
As I read, it was described as part of the urban sprawl of Amman so I figured, "Ok - should be easy enough to find a way there and back". I hailed a cab near our place and asked the driver to go to Iraq al-Amir. He spoke very little English but I could understand that from his Arabic enough to know that he was quite displeased with having to drive there. He tried to convince me to go elsewhere but I had my heart set on Iraq al-Amir. We very quickly left the city limits of Amman and headed out to the countryside - it was quite a different view from within the city. Plenty of rolling hills with lots of green pasture land and natural areas. Apparently, this time of year you can see black iris' in bloom, the national flower of Jordan. As I was lost in this pleasantries, I noticed that I was not seeing any "tourists", few cars, no inklings of a city at all. Where I was going was in fact not part of the urban sprawl of Amman (~20 km west) and in fact the driver stopped 8 times to ask various local inhabitants directions. It dawned on me at this point whether there would even be a taxi to take me back. I asked the driver if there would be taxis there in my broken arabic and he sharply replied "no" as if it was a ridiculous question. Hmmmm...ok...now what... I asked if he could wait for me while I check out what there is to see there and he was very hesitant but I managed to convince him to wait 30 min for me (he wanted to be back in town for the lunch rush).
Ok - to Iraq al-Amir. Its a quiet little village outside Amman. There are caves in the rocky hills which were and are still today used as stables for horses and/or goats. In my quick 30 min I was only able to see these from the road :( We then drove to the ruins of an old castle/fortress which was constructed ~200BC I think. It was called Qasr al-Abad (Castle of the Slave) - built as a villa for an influential family. What remained was quite impressive and in fairly good condition. There were a bucnh of school kids playing there, perhaps a field trip of some sort. From there, I went to a neat little craft area of town. It's a women's cooperative consisting of about 60 crafters which make rugs, paper products, soaps, food, apparel, etc. This was great. I was able to look inside their workshops, watch them at work, and at the end visited the shop which sells their goods. The stuff in there was overpriced but I bought a placemat sized rug (I bartered hard, of course) - you never know when it might come in handy ;) From there, we headed back to the city.
All said, I spent just over 2 h. with the driver and the total fare came to 8 JD (~11 USD I think). If I could do it again, I would want another hour to visit the caves, spend a bit more time at the castle (I think there's a small museum there that I missed), and spend a bit more time at the workshops and shop. I've uploaded some pictures into the albums (photos aren't great as I'm using my phone).
The rest of the day was spent trying to get my mom's Magic Jack to work (allows you to make long distance calls for free), grocery shopping, and visiting family. Oh ya, had some great falafels too!
- comments
Charlene What's the average wage for a cab driver? Did you just lower it?! :-)
Zaid Ha - the true test will be when I can get a cab for a whole day for 10 JD - apparently possible.
Bonny Amazing place: Canada is just so young!