12/25 Friday: Its our 4th wedding anniversary! Woohoo!
We just reached Hotel Lewan at 12:30 AM. The hotel was good. We had to get up early to start the trip (ready by 8 am) and so were we since we were jet-lagged.
Breakfast at Lewan was delicious: a good combination of local + continental food.
(mango + orange juice, tea/coffee including Nescafe + hot milk + sugar, pita bread slices + hummus + yogurt + za'atr + olive. Boiled eggs… and the list goes on.
Right after this we started our day with Afram. Today we were going to cover 3 main spots: Um Qais, Ajloun Castle and Jerash. Um Quais is located on the north-western side in a hilly region of Jordan. During our 3 hour long drive, I spotted many interesting things which reminded me of India(Pune) time and again. Most commonly seen fresh produce + fruit markets, coffee shops at practically every corner (match this with ‘Amrut Tulya’ in Pune), lots of small local shops selling clothes, beauty products, pharmacies, etc. Everywhere we saw big hoardings+ billboards full of King Abdullah II with his wife and children. Jordan has the king + a democratically elected parliament. Afram said apparently only last moth, the king over-ruled the parliament and forcefully removed it; and the locals are not really happy about it. He also mentioned that it was against the law to say anything against the current govt / king in public. People can attack you if you don’t obey.
There is only 6% Christians living in Jordan; so in spite of being Xmas today, there were hardly any celebrations. We did see lots of minarets of mosques and the muslim Sheikh reciting passages from the Holy Quran 5 times a day. Went past a small suburb called Al Beka, which is a Palestinian refugee settlement. Lots of crowded small houses, none of them really well-planned and finished. Looked like a run down area.
At Um Qais, one of the roman decapolis cities, we saw roman ruins including a theatre, grand pathways adorned with corinthian columns on both sides. Weather was hazy and so made it hard to see any of Tiberias Lake, Golan Heights, Sea of Galilee across the border in Israel. Partially saw the border between Jordan and Syria. Lots of Palestinians also cross border to come to Amman for business here.
Our impression: Totally skippable as long as your are visiting Jerash.
The next stop at Ajloun castle – built in Salah ad-Din era (1200 AD) as a surveillance point to watch trade between Jordan and Syria. This castle was to protect against crusaders attacks.
The next stop at Ajloun castle – built in Salah ad-Din era (1200 AD) as a surveillance point to watch trade between Jordan and Syria. This castle was to protect against crusaders attacks.
Finally 40 more mins of driving and we reached Jerash. Had very nice buffet at Jerash Rest House. Discovery travels (our local travel agency) had arranged for a guided tour of Jerash/ Gerasa (old name). Our guide Akram did speak decent English and quite hurriedly walked us through North + South Amphitheatres, churches with mosaic floors, Artemis goddess temple, a quatrapolygon (main crossing) with all four roads having arches as Gates.
North gate lead to Damascus, South to Amman, East to Silk Route/ Syria and West to Jerusalem. The oval with Greek + Roman columns, obelisks, places to sacrifice, Arch of Hadrian, Hippodrome etc. We were most impressed by the theatre arrangements where your voice gets amplified at the exact centre of the stage – not a foot here or there!
North gate lead to Damascus, South to Amman, East to Silk Route/ Syria and West to Jerusalem. The oval with Greek + Roman columns, obelisks, places to sacrifice, Arch of Hadrian, Hippodrome etc. We were most impressed by the theatre arrangements where your voice gets amplified at the exact centre of the stage – not a foot here or there!
By 6 PM we were back and heavily jetlagged. So took a nap for 3 hours straight. Then stepped out to a local internet café, emailed home and ate a Subway sandwich at Al Baraka mall in front of our hotel. Not sleepy at all now – its 11:40 PM.
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