Hey everyone,
Last night we had our tour's farewell dinner. Though Nadal had tried his best to fill in for Hakam given the circumstances, his approach for dinners was to kind of railroad everyone into buying an expensive touristy meal. So Nikki, Jason and I didn't eat the meal even though we were with the group, and instead bought a yummy street food mince and veggie filled bread thing afterwards for 10% of the price. The man serving us was so funny. "Where you from?" "Australia" "Haha - 2-1 in the football!" I agreed that yes we suck and Tim Cahill is our only good player and he's old.
A few of our group flew home overnight, and five others headed off for their third and final leg to Israel. I spent the day with Keith, Lara, Kristine, Brabbyn, Harrison and Agatha. We had breakfast (they had fruit! Very rare here) and then headed off to a free walking tour. On the way we saw some gorgeous street art near our hotel.
The tour started at a local hotel that was quite quirky. They had rabbits, birds and even an owl in the reception foyer. The receptionist gave us some Turkish delight with the tray in one hand and the owl in the other! Then she let Kristine hold the owl. Our first stop on the tour was the hotel rooftop, which gave us a lovely view of the city and the Roman theatre. Our guide, Mohammed (I'm up to about 57 Mohammeds on this trip I reckon!), told us that Amman is a very recent city. This time 100 years ago there was hardly anything here, and the built up nature we see today is only recent. The photos he showed us were very interesting because we could directly compare the past with the present from the rooftop. Apparently the ottoman sultan wasn't even aware Jordan was in his empire under ottoman rule, but in 1908 a railway was built through Amman and people were encouraged to come and live here.
Amman was previously called the seven mountain city, but today it spans over 20. The main road that now runs through the city was previously a river, but a lot of water was taken from this river and eventually it became very dirty so it was filled in. While Mohammed was talking to us on the rooftop, the call to prayer started very loudly. He had to compete with the very loud noise!
Our walk then took us past the Nymphaeum water fountain from Roman times, and then to many markets. Because it was Friday (the day of prayer in Muslim countries) the markets were particularly interesting today. When we walked through the vegetable one, many vendors had covered or simply left their produce to go and pray. Crime is very rare here so people feel comfortable leaving their goods. You could hear the man's voice from the mosque the whole way through here preaching.
We also saw a secondhand clothing market which was absolutely bursting with people, mostly men. Lots of men were gathering around buying shoes in the street. It was a frenzy because it was Friday! Then we saw a bird market and a meat market. There were all sorts of horrendous things here - brains, lungs, and just about any other bit of an animal you can think of. Yuuuuuuck.
We ended our tour just outside the Grand Husseini Mosque, and this was where it got awkward. I've done many free walking tours, and the idea is you tip whatever you think it's worth/whatever you can afford. I reckon I have probably done 50+ of them in my travels, and the tip amount has never been discussed or questioned. Between the seven of us, we tipped Mohammed 25 dinar ($50 Australian). I had given him 5 dinar. As Brabbyn went to give him a few more dinar in change, Mohammed said "for seven of you this is very little". I couldn't get over how rude that was, especially considering he had told us he wasn't a licensed guy. Being my father's daughter, I swiftly went on Trip Advisor and left a review saying he had been rude to us regarding tips. Considering the average salary here is $7000 per year, our tip was just fine in my opinion!
We all went back and got my bags and then went to a cute cafe near the street art. I had a delicious chocolate cake that tasted like a chocolate hot cross bun. Then we said farewell to Lara and Keith and I went and quickly checked into my hostel.
The remaining five of us headed to the Jordan Museum, and I'm so glad we did. Unlike Egypt, we didn't have to pay to take photos, and as much as I loved the Egyptian Museum, this museum was choc full of interesting and well signed artefacts so u knew what you were looking at. It was very modern and a fantastic museum which I would highly recommend if you're ever here. Very interactive and great for kids too.
The entrance hall had a temporary exhibition about life today in Jordan. As one would expect, we read that there are water shortages here and that many families live off tank water which they have to ration. This idea was first thought of by the Nabateans as we as we saw at Petra earlier this week, who used many cisterns. We also found out Jordan imports 96% of its energy from its neighbours but that wind and solar power are becoming more common.
I read about a plan to try and save the Dead Sea. As I mentioned last week, the Dead Sea is evaporating more and more each year. There is a 7 billion dinar plan called the Red-Dead plan to pump water from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea.
We also saw some interesting stats about women and people in Jordan. In 1980 just 55% of women here were literate, now 93% are, and women hold 30 seats in the Jordanian parliament. There was a fantastic Arabic proverb quoted on this display: "men are the wool of the tribe, but women are the ones who weave the pattern”. Unlike our aging population back home, just 9% of Jordan's population are aged 55+, 36% are 24-54 and a whopping 55% are 0-24. The average family has 5.4 people in it.
Then we set off through the rest of the museum which was very well set out. We started off by seeing the Dead Sea scrolls. These were discovered by a shepherd grazing his cattle in 1947 who stumbled across jars containing ancient scrolls. Unfortunately some of them were sold many times, but thankfully some of them are now in the Jordan Museum. They are the only surviving copies of biblical documents made before 100 AD, and were found in a series of caves.
The next room was about the Stone Age, where we saw the 'Ain Ghazal statues. These are the oldest statues in the world and are incredibly over 9000 years old. Wow! They were found not far from the museum and are estimated to have been made using earth and fire in around 7700-7500 BC. We also saw a 17000 year old skeleton in this section (amongst many other things!).
Next up was the Bronze Age. Trade boomed during this time because a lot of items found here in this period were from Greece, Cyprus and Egypt. I found the anthropoid coffins interesting that were a similar idea to the Egyptians mummifying bodies for the after life, and really enjoyed the room about the family tree of alphabets. It was very interesting to see where the different alphabets stemmed from. Particularly cool in this room was a computer that allowed you to type in your name and look it up in all the alphabets that have existed in Jordan.
Then we entered the room about the Hellenistic period. Alexander the Great was victorious over the Persian King Darius in 333 BC and a new era in Jordan began, because he conquered the Persian empire and ruled over Jordan amongst other places for the next two centuries. We saw examples of coins from this time that were the first to have rulers' heads on them as we see today.
As we walked through here, we realised that we had never really considered what ruins must be in Saudi Arabia. Because it's not really a tourist destination you never hear much about it, but we saw some photos and information about Nabatean temples in Saudi Arabia and they looked beautiful like Petra. I also found a hilarious looking statue in this room, and decided I would mimic its facial expression. You're welcome - it's a ripper!
We concluded our visit with a walk through an exhibition about inventions upstairs, but by this time it was getting towards closure time for the museum. I did quickly read some interesting facts about the origins of some of our English words though.
Kristine, Harrison and Brabbyn headed off to a shopping mall, and Agatha and I went and had dinner at a restaurant Caroline from my Balkans tour had recommended. We ate delicious falafel, hummus and baba ganoush, and the best part was it cost us $4 Australian each including hot tea. The restaurant we went to is apparently very famous - even the royal family of Jordan have eaten there!
Now I'm in my hostel room just chilling out. It's a cosy single room and I'm planning on watching a movie and relaxing for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I'm meeting up again with the other four to go to the citadel before they fly home.
Hopefully the photos attach today. I think I've found a way but am unsure whether it will work, so Nan and Pa - I've emailed them to you in case!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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