Around the Middle East
in 80 days

Part 6:

Amman to Israel

  << Part 5: Southern Syria again    -    Back to Index    -    Part 7: Israel (north and west)>>

March 21st (day 26): Amman

Arrival and night

I arrived in Amman after dark on March 20th. At the bus station I noticed Baghdad among the list of destinations on the ticket office's billboard, so just for kicks I went in and asked what a ticket would cost. They said their bus service wasn't operating anymore and that in fact there were no busses to Baghdad anymore and that the only way to get there was by private car. The taxi drivers were all very eager to arrange that with me, for exorbitant prices in the range of 200 USD, all assuring me that it was the only way.

Now I happened to know for a fact that (at that time, might be different now) there were daily busses from Amman to Bagdad (for 7JD, which is about 10 USD). All these people were just lying to foreigners, hoping to get one to pay a huge amount for a car and driver, and indeed most journalists and aid workers went to Baghdad this way. This is a rip-off with a deadly twist: these private cars are ten times more likely to get attacked by terrorists as they have "rich foreigners" written all over them.

That evening in Amman was horrible. I wandered around the center for hours looking for something to eat without meat, asking in dozens of places if they had fish. No luck, so in the end all I got was some bad pastries and a miniscule pack of fries from a fastfood place. But the worst was yet to come; the window of my hotel room didn't close well and for the xth time this trip I spent the night shivering in a freezing room, lying under the sheets with all my clothes on.

Ironically, the morning was sunny and hot. As I was having breakfast in the garden, I met the weirdest person: a Russian woman who with an incredibly loud voice started telling me her whole life story uninvited. When she found out I was heading for Israel that day, she started telling me again and again how afraid her European friends had been there; "they were trembling!" she repeatedly yelled. Freakish.

History and sights

Although it does not have that reputation, Amman is an ancient town. In 1200 BC it was known as Rabbath Ammon, the capital of the Ammonites. The bible describes how David's armies slaughtered its population. In Roman times the city was called Philadelphia. Later it fell into total decline, until it became the capital of Jordan in the 1920s. Nowadays it is a huge concrete jungle that lacks monuments but is still somewhat appealing because it's spread out over 19 hills - it is more like a concrete ocean with high waves really. I spent the morning visiting Amman's ancient remains. The main remnant of ancient Philadelphia is the Roman theater, which has 6000 seats and was built in the 2nd century. Other remains from Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic times are on top of Amman's citadel, once the site of Rabbath Ammon, now one big archeological site. Climbing up the citadel in the heat was quite exhausting.

To Israel: from King to Sheikh

After my quick exploration of Amman in the morning, I relaxed a bit in the hotel. I was planning to go to Jerusalem, but it's less than 100km from Amman to Jerusalem and since the Lonely Planet said the border crossing (the famous King Hussein bridge, called Allenby Bridge by Israel) is open until midnight, I wasn't in a hurry.

At 14h I took a taxi to the bus station, where the last bus to the King Hussein bridge had already left. I could only go there with a special taxi, but the drivers were asking 10 Jordanian Dinar (about 12 euro) which I knew to be a rip-off, so I sat down on the pavement while a bunch of them kept arguing with me. They tried to pressure me by saying the border would close at 3pm, but I ignored that. After a long time, when I kept insisting I'd rather spend another day in Amman than pay that much (which I didn't) one of them finally agreed to take me for 5 JD.

I was dropped off at the King Hussein bridge at 14:50. It seemed rather deserted and it took me a while to find an official. He told me the border closed at 14:30 and not at midnight anymore. Aargh. The damn taxi driver had taken me here knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to cross, and all the others who had tried to rip me off had known it too. Bastards.

The border guard (who was very friendly) said that the only way to cross after 14:30 would be with a special VIP permit, which would cost me 71 USD and for which they would first have to consult the Israelis on the other side. He took me to the VIP lounge where some business types were smoking cigars, but when I understood that this price was not negotiable, I just left.

Now the border guard had told me that the other border crossing with Israel, the Sheikh Hussein bridge (confusing eh) about 100km to the north, would be open until the evening. I really wanted to get to Israel rather than waste a whole day, so back outside I started negotiating with some guys who were hanging around the border post. None of them were taxi drivers but they were all ears anyway.

They asked a high price but after a lot of arguing, using them against each other and some walking away like I wasn't interested anymore, I ended up making the 100km ride north in a fat BMW with shaded windows for 12 JD (15 euro). I don't understand why someone who can afford a car like that would drive 200km for such a small amount, but he seemed happy enough about it and even got a friend to come along for the ride. The long ride through the Jordan valley was very nice, and I was mighty pleased that I was gonna make it to Israel that day after all. I'll describe the border crossing in the next part since it was really the start of the Israel experience.

  << Part 5: Southern Syria again    -    Back to Index    -    Part 7: Israel (north and west)>>