Ruined again?

Crossing the border from Israel to Jordan was mostly pretty painless. Wait for the bus from Tiberias to Beit She’an (yes that’s where we went yesterday); look for a taxi at Beit She’an and when you can’t see one go into a take-away food shop, say you need a taxi to go to the border crossing and a man born in Tunisia says he will drive you in his private car (for the cost that the Lonely Planet guide suggested); pay the departure tax at the Israeli side; wait 1/2 hour for a 5 minute shuttle bus ride across the border; pay the visa fee on the Jordanian side; walk through the most relaxed border security I’ve ever seen; ring the car hire company and find out where to meet the car;  wait for half an hour because you're early; drive away in your rental car (upgraded from a Nissan Micra to a compact SUV but with almost no fuel).

The whole process took 4 hours for what could have been a 45 minute drive. The only stresses? Almost leaving our passports on the seat at the Israeli side bus stop. And on the Jordanian side, discovering that you can’t get money out from your bank account there, and that converting all our Israeli shekels and Australian dollars into Dinars still left us 23 dinars short for two visas. Would we be left in no man’s land? Eventually we worked out that since we were only staying 3 more nights in Jordan, our visa would only be 10 Dinars each ($20), not 40 Dinars each. We breathed a sigh of relief and kept moving.

Having spent all of our remaining dinars at the first petrol station we came across, we drove up some hair pin turns to Ajloun Castle. This castle was built by the Muslims conquerors in the 13^th century to ensure those pesky Crusaders didn’t come back. I have to admit that we are harder to impress when it comes to castles than when we started, but this castle was remarkably well preserved, and had experienced an upgrade for the tourists recently. But sadly no tunnels.

We did appreciate the ‘pour-burning-oil-on-your-enemies-head’ hole above the gate (sorry no photo).

Next stop Jerash. Having read that you really needed to hire a guide to make the most of this Roman ruins site, and not wanting to have our visit ruined through lack of funds, we needed to find an ATM. The Romans invented many things, but for this we needed google maps to find us one amongst the crazy traffic of the main street of town. This may well have been more stressful than the ‘I-haven’t-got-enough-Dinars-for-the-visas' episode. As I sat in traffic Isaac leapt out of the car and leapt back in with the cash and we headed for the ruins.

The ruins were extraordinary – covering a huge area. Here are some highlights:

 

Hadrian's arch - built for the Emperor's visit

the forum - absolutely massive

the cardo (main street)

the shopping mall - with octagonal water feature in the centre

the (rather large) water fountain

We particularly appreciated the man holes to the under-street sewer system about every 5 metres, so that a slim slave could be sent down to clear any obstructions. 

And our guide told us to stand on this central spot of the floor of the theatre and say ‘Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears’ – thank to the acoustics, you really could hear the sound coming back at you; take one step to the side and the effect was gone. 

Less fitting but certainly more curious was the ‘retirred soldier turned busker' playing ‘Ode to Joy’ on a bagpipe brought to Jordan during the British mandate in the first half of the 20^th century.

But once again perhaps even more delightful than the monuments was getting to know our guide Musharraf.

His family has lived in Jerash for generations, except for his 1 year stint at Cambridge university in 1979 to learn English. There he met his English wife (whose father warned her that when she went back to Jordan she might find her new husband already had a wife; he didn’t say either way, but I presume he didn’t). So far they have been married 37 years and have 6 children. His father worked as a guide on this site, and before that, his grandfather worked as part of the archaeological dig on this site from 1921. His knowledge and passion for the wonders of this site was delightful.

Back to the car for the drive to Amman. The phone was out of charge somehow, and so we were without google maps (or any other map) for a while, but Navigator Isaac led the way. Thankfully the phone came back online.

What’s traffic like in Amman – chaotic! And apparently today was better than usual because some people had a public holiday. Line markings have been drawn on the road, but have long since faded because no one pays any attention to them. Eventually I decided it was best to ignore them, and simply choose a car to drive behind. No one lets anyone in, and no one cooperates when lanes need to merge. Crossing a three-laned round-about is difficult under any conditions but it’s especially difficult here. That’s why there are police on hand continuously to help cars to extract themselves during gridlock, and to fill out forms when the accidents inevitably happen.

Finally we were relieved to arrive at the Forrests house and received a very warm welcome. We debriefed about the traffic and middle eastern eccentricities, shared stories about the places we have each visited, enjoyed a delicious homemade meal and found out more about their life and ministry here in Amman. And the good news is, they have cereal for breakfast and real milk!