September 14th cont.
We got to Aqaba and customs and stuff wasn't too much of a problem apart from some ranty Syrian guy who held up the queue at car registrations for ages. Since Sudan men love to argue very loudly. Shouting and screaming is commonplace. My dad wouldn't have to go off somewhere quiet on his own and vent his anger - it seems socially acceptable. O.K. by dad I actually mean me.
By the way if you are up on geography or have looked at the map and are wondering why we took a ferry across to Jordan and didn't drive it's because of Israel. You have to cross 500m of Israel to go by land. They won't stamp your passport but when we got to Syria they would have refused us entry if they saw the relevant Jordanian border post stamp in our passports. Nuts, no?
Found a hotel and went out for the best slap up chinky chop I can remember having. It was really excellent. Then had a drink in the Rovers Return with pictures of all your old favourites from Coronation Street adorning the walls. Awesome. Actually it was pretty lame. What was awesome is thanks to my mum I finally got some credit at the Amazon.com store and went on a book buying frenzy for the Kindles. We got something like 12 books of which I've read at the time of writing four. Dan Brown's latest? Don't bother.
September 15th
Headed off for Petra which I understand is a bit of the old set of an Indiana Jones movie left in the desert. It was 140km or so of driving and it was a pleasure, a marked change from Egypt. Virtually no roadblocks and where there are they do it properly. Massive swing arm detection units that electronically scan your vehicle and it's contents. No paperwork checks. No sweaty, nosey bastard peering at you, your paperwork, the contents of your car and your girlfriend's tits. We got scanned on arrival at Aqaba and that's it - no one else has done anything but smile and wave.
We turned off the highway proper and on to the Kings' Highway and promptly stuck Tom Petty on the iPod. Then Kanye. Found a hotel and got a man in a car to drive us to the mythical ancient city of Petra. A communications error meant he took us to Little Petra some distance away which was a bit lame. Headed back to town and found the other Petra was closed so went to the oldest bar in the world next to the entrance. Dating back to 1BC it still operates as a bar. Albeit one that doesn't serve alcohol (certainly in Ramadan) due to religious doctrines that the bar predates by more than 600 years. Okey dokey.
Went to hotel and set up Jo's Kindle for her. Watching her buy books was fun. I just jump in and buy and read. She pondered, considered and thought until I threatened to start buying more for me.
September 16th
Petra Proper - Tick. Done, been there and got some photos which I will upload sometime.
Drove to Amman. Amman is huge and very cool. It joins Kigali, Zim and Malawi on the cool place list. It's huge and commercial and yet remarkably clean. The food all through Jordan has been awesome and particularly so here. Found the place we wanted to stay based on Lonely Planet without arguing for once - despite Jo's best efforts - it has a cool seventh story bar with free very fast internet and the first sushi you'd dare to eat since Cape Town. Loads of shops including a store that sells refills for our pens - the first place we found since Kenya when they started running out. Had some food in the bar and read a book.
September 17th
Umm went to a shopping mall where we failed to buy anything we needed before some lunch and then back to the hotel to write this. Dinner at some French place or a Brazilian, not sure then off to Syria in the morning which is a pity as Amman is very cool.
So it was dinner at the French place which although a beautiful place was fairly average in the food stakes. Actually my steak was good but Jo's was rubbish. Went back to the room and bon soir.
Stubbed my left big toe. Again.
September 18th
Woke up a little late but when we did we managed to leave Amman, find an ATM and reach the border with no spannering or arguing whatsoever. Possibly a first in navigation for us. It was a bit crowded and nutty leaving Jordan but fairly quick. So we drove in to Syria.