Valerie Knepper's Blog

So in Damascus things got a little dicey at the end, although just annoyingly so, nothing serious.  My Blackberry quit working and my email account quit working.  I went to pay for the hotel, and although they had requested my credit card to reserve the room, they did not accept credit cards for payment, much to my surprise, nor travelers checks.  Since I did not have enough cash to pay for 4 days of hotel, I went to the ATM, which would only allow me to take out 10,000 Syrian Lyra – not enough to pay the bill.  Then the bank card would not work anymore.  While I probably could have taken out cash on my credit card, if I wanted to pay an arm and leg for charges and interest, instead Calvin used his card to remove funds, I paid the bill, and we got a taxi for the bus station there “everyone” gets shared taxi rides to Amman.  (While I’d prefer a bus – the one we took between Amman and Aqaba in Jordan was clean, air conditioned and no one smoked, we were advised against that by several people because if anyone on the bus has a visa issue you all can wait hours for it to be resolved.)  So on our taxi ride to the bus station our taxi driver stops on the side of the road, and another taxi driver comes up, and he says this guy will take us to Amman.  The language limitations made it difficult to understand details, but we would be paying 700 SL each, which is the price we had been told to expect.  While we thought he was offering to take us without others, I think we misunderstood.  In any case next thing we know he is gathering up additional passengers.  Calvin, bless his heart, tells me to move into the front quick, as we had discussed how I tend to get nauseous when I’m in the back seat, especially if its crowded, smokey, and stinky.  So the ride wasn’t bad for me, although Calvin had to put up with all that and the fact that the windows would not close, which I thought might be better as we were sure they would have smoked with it closed up, but Calvin tells me was very windy. 

Going through customs was somewhat tortuous, possibly more so because of the holidays.  Everyone drives up until they are stopped in line, cutting each other off repeatedly.  Then our driver takes our passports, gets out and join the mob around the booth, shaking hands and kissing guys’ cheeks, eventually coming back to the car and moving forward,  then we do that again, but this time someone looks through the car and into our luggage (but only a little).  Then we move forward and then all get out to go into a building and have our passports checked.  Then he drops off paper work with someone on the way out.  This after having gone through a couple stops  back in Damascus with our passports to have our paperwork in order.  Getting into Jordan then required several stops as well.  It was incredibly inefficient, and I really could not figure out the multiple stops on each side, and even so they never did a serious check of our luggage – nothing like the airport system of x-ray or real search.  All-in-all it did not take that long, maybe 4 hours,  it just seemed like much longer than needed.  But we got through, got back in and after another cab ride got to our hotel in Amman, whew!

In Amman it was the last night of Eid-al-Ftr, so the streets were very crowded and the sidewalk cafes were packed with families, lots of groups of guys of various age groups, and a few groups of women and girls.  Most were smoking hookahs – you can get a wide variety of flavors and its enormously popular, including with the teenagers who looked 12- 14, and moms with their teenage daughters!  They clearly regard it as a fun thing to do while hanging out;  it involves getting to choose flavors and very colorful hookahswhich are brought to you and then shared around the group, so good on a social level.  Of course this does not bode well for their health at all!  Calvin and I stuck to ice cream.  At one of the tables across the way there was a young girl, maybe 8-10 years old, doing an attempt at a provocativedance on top of the table, surrounded by females, presumably relatives, followed by an even younger girl trying the same!  Clearly dancing is a thing females do for other females.  A loud and crazy night was had by all! 

The next day we sorted our stuff and packed up.  I accompanied Calvin over to the hotel where he would be staying for his orientation.  I got to see a picture of his host family, and then said goodbye!   That evening I went off to the shopping mall – not a likelychoice for me normally, but its where I could to be go out and about and not be looked at too hard nor be dodging cars – so it was a nice last view of the Middle East for me.  The next morning it was off to the airport  for that terribly long flight back.  Again with the kids without books, toys or games, who run around until they are exhausted, then holler, scream and cry, and then (sometimes) sleep!  Mark and Daniel came to pick me up at the airport – such nice guys, I was going to take BART but it was much nicer that way after 20+ tiring hours in the air. 

Its been a great few weeks travelling with Calvin.  I found out the things that you think you ought to know about someone you love but sometimes you don’t- food preferences, scheduling habits, shared jokes. Calvin is a great travel companion and we had an adventure and a blast (along with a few trying times).  Its a trip I will always remember, not only for the Middle East, which was wonderful, but also for getting to spend so much time with this very interesting and kind person who is my son!  I’m pretty sure I don’t get much of the credit, but he really is a great guy (must be that great Dad of his)!  Sorry to embarrass you, Calvin, but I did have a great time and I do love you.

C’est fini, over and out!

We got off the train and looked at the station – classic architecture for a European train station.   I really appreciate the visual language that I can understand, since my Arabic is still basically non-existent.  I can say salaam (hi), assalamu alekim (hello/peace be upon you), na’am (yes), shrukan (thank you), leh (no), marhaba (welcome); that’s about it, and even then I mostly get nods that they understand that I’m trying to say something.  When I say shrukan (thank you) they often smile and answer “you’re welcome” – I like to think they appreciate my effort, even if it doesn’t amount to much.   Even Calvin finds that although he has quite a vocabulary in Arabic, and undersands grammar and tenses and such, its often times hard to communicate basics – the pronunciation is so different I guess.  This is even when someone really wants to understand us because we are trying to buy something. 

Our experience of the Middle east has been nothing like the parts of Europe that I’ve been in – most people we have encountered here speak no or extremely limited English.  Most cab drivers do not speak any English, often do not understand our pronunciation of the names of hotels/restaurants, and many have trouble with our maps, even with Arabic.  (You can choose the more expensive white or even silver cabs instead of the cheaper yellow cabs and there is a probability, but no guarantee, that the driver will speak a couple words of English –  our limited experience doesn’t back the claim.  Mostly we use the cheap yellow cabs.)  Once we do manage to communicate the place name, they are much more likely to talk with someone in another car or on the street to figure out the location than to consult a map.  One time a guy (pedestrian) of whom our driver asked for directions asked if he could get in the cab with us to help us, to which we said ok, figuring we would owe him a tip when he got us to our hotel.  Instead he showed our driver the way, and then said nice goodbyes without any chance for us to give him a tip – just a nice guy!  Even in the hotels most staff speak very limited or no English, with usually one  or two people who speak moderate level English.  At the top end hotels you get more staff with English skills- Aqabastaff were local but spoke perfect English,  Petra staff were quite fluent as well.  I don’t mean to be demanding or sound like there is some reasonable expectation that others should speak my language, that would be rude.  But I am in pretty deep water here – I can’t even match the Arabic word as written for me with the signs on the streets (when there are any).  Luckily we are very good at finding our way around by watching the shapes of the streets and recognizing buildings, using the sun and my tiny compass for basic directions, and can almost always trace my steps back across the city if need be.  Also I’m pretty fearless and have lots of energy, and people are generally nice.

So, as I was saying before wandering off (see I said I could find my way back), Damascus is much more European looking than Amman or even Aleppo, specifically more French influenced, with streets in the new downtown/business area radiating from a centralcircle with a monument/statue in the  middle, grand boulevards, park spaces, French influenced architectural style of grand buildings (Baroque), and sidewalk cafes.  There are many more sidewalks, crosswalks and lights, and while its still not enough to make walking as comfortable as I’d like, its much better than either Amman or Aleppo in that regard.   We went out to eat around midnight and the streets were very lively, we could get dinner, snacks, sweets, fruit smoothies, etc.  Alternatively we could have sat in a cafe and smoked a nargileh/hookah, or at least Calvin could have – but those places were obviously very smokey and those places at least 90% male, (maybe entirely male but I didn’t want to stare long enough to know), so not much attraction for either of us.  We’ve seen numerous bakeries with tall, elaborately arranged piles of pastries, mostly with lots of pistachios, butter and honey.  We finally went into one and bought a small pastry, and the guys were trying to talk with us and gave us a couple more just to engage us and tell us they like Americans,(in their 5 words on English)!  The pastries were extremely fresh and very good – I think these were special treats for Eid-al Ftr.  Overall we have encountered many Syrians who have gone out of their way to say nice things to us about America and Americans.

The Old City is truly amazing, and very different in character from the grand boulevard style.  There is an ancient Citadel and an ancient walls around the city, with a Roman Gate, ancient mosques and churches.  Everything is extremely pedestrian scaled, and makes one feel like you’ve gone back in time at least several hundred years (although there is electricity, lights, plumbing, etc). There are very long very high roofed souks in most of the entrances, extending out in various directions, and then twisty winding paths/roads through old buildings of a couple stories tall, interspersed with numerous mosques and churches.  We generally could not see past the immediate close buildings to any landmarks, or track blocks, or even head in a consistent direction – great fun for exploring.  The exception is “Straight Street”,  which is straight and was a tremendous help to us when we would wander and get totally turned around. 

It was extremely crowded when we were there, for the end of Ramadan, Eid-at-Ftr, with thousands of people celebrating.  The crowds were predominately families with little kids and large numbers of groups of boys/young men, and smaller numbers of groups of women and girls.  We did not see groups of mixed gender teenagers/young adults, in stark contrast to the States where that is a major grouping.   For the most part males stay in their groups, and females stay in theirs, except for families with young children who often have multiple generations/extended family together.  We did observe a few risque young couples on some darker back streets, a couple even holding hands – perhaps in the heat of the celebratory mood they had thrown caution and their norms aside!  Its so odd to me that even married couples are not supposed to touch in public – if Mark were here I would have a hard time not holding his hand (I miss you, honey!).

Damascus’ Old city is also appropriately famous for grand Damascene homes with open courtyards in the center, converted to hotels/restarants (as we found in Aleppo as well). Soft fabric ceilings have been added to protect from the sun, along with fans and air conditioning, creating a very airy and beautiful space, which is then decorated with ornately painted walls, intricaate mosaic floors, colorful blown glass vaces, china displays, etc.  (This architecturalstyle of an open central courtyard would seem work very well in the similar heat of the American southwest/southern California – given how well adapted it would be for the climate I’m somewhat surprized that we haven’t seen this built in CA.)  The classic Damascenestyle alternates light and dark horizontal stripes of stone – quite flashy.  We ate in some excellant restaurants of this type, mostly Arabic food with French influences. 

Unfortunately they do let cars drive in the Old City, (although they are only given a little deference when its so crowded).   The good news is that they do not proved excess parking in the Old City, the bad news is that the relatively small number of cars being driven around (mostly taxis in our experience) take up too much space and detract from the experience, making people  let them through.  (Imagine taxis driving slowly through the heavy crowds at Disneyland on the day after Christmas and you get some idea of the effect.)  Of course this is not an amusement park – people live, work, play and pray here.  Still, they could really use some traffic management.  I’d think that some combination of restrictions on cars during the busiest hours, providing for deliveries at off hours, combined with pricing car admission at other times with the funds going to support the local infrastructure (which could use it), could go a long way toward improving conditions.  I also think that an official “walking taxis” system, where one could go to a gate and be walked to your destination could be very popular for tourists (Syrians as well as foreigners).  I’d guess that many people take taxis because they can’t find the restaurant on their own.  Calvin and I found some of the ones we looked for, based on recommendations and directions, but at other times just could not, to our frustration, so I think there is a market for walking taxis (and perhaps additional tasteful signage), and it be much less intrusive for everyone else.  (And no, we did not resort to a taxis, it just seemed so inappropriate, and besides the riders actually were going much slower than walkers due to the crowds.) 

I’ve read on-line that there are some plans to demolish some parts of the Old City, which I think would be a major mistake for Damascus both culturally and economically.  It is such an important center for the community due to the history, architecture, mosques and churches, shops, excellent restaurants, and attractiveness for walking.  Its also a huge  tourist draw, for these same reasons, and tourism is a valuable component of this struggling economy.

So I must say that Damascus is my favorite city that we’ve been to.  Aleppo may be more genuinly Middle Eastern, – I almost think its like the Bakersfield of Syria, with much a much more localized mentally. Following along, Damascus is like San Francisco – more cosmopolitan, with wonderful restaurants.  Damascus is a wonderful combination of old Middle Eastern and French influence.  I love the amazing walled old town with the artists, and also the vibrant modern aspects.  All in all its a place I could definitlty see going back to sometime.

From what we’ve seen, Aleppo is lively, especially bustling after dark – most likely amplified by Ramadan.  Lots of people (mostly covered in black gowns, i.e., women) are buying lots of clothes from sidewalk vendors, so that at times the sidewalks are almost impassable.  The cars dominate the streets, so its a matter of pushing through the sidewalk scene on occasion.  We wandered around the Christian quarter, which is known for its high stone walls, arches and narrowing meandering paths.  On our first foray Calvin and I experienced both not necessarily feeling entirely safe when headed down a path with no one around, and then feeling a little uncomfortable encountering a large numbers of men in long robes yelling (chanting?) about something.  They were probably telling the world that god is great, but we really can’t tell if there are anti-American sentiments, so we choose to go another way.  That’s about the only time I’ve felt some trepidation, and it was probably entirely unfounded – we’ll never know, but decided caution was not a bad idea.

We went back into the Christian qurter (Al-Jdeida) for a wonderful meal in one of the mansions that has been converted into a hotel and restaurant – this is a very popular trend right now, and creates a really lovely space for dining.  The walls and floors were ornate, the large central courtyard was covered with a fabric ceiling/roof, with a central fountain, giving it a beautiful indoor/outdoor look.  The food was Syrian/French, and Calvin loved the veal with mushroom sauce.  We also had a good rocket salad, tasty and tender shish kabob, and we shared a delicious chocolate fondant and excellent vanilla ice cream.  The French influence on the food is a definite plus for us.

We wandered the huge souq next to the mosque, and its very interesting, set in block after block of connected stone buildings with built-in stalls, pointed arch ceiling/roofs, with passages going numerous directions.  Again, these were very crowded when we were there.  The wares included everything from clothes and shoes, tablecloths and linens, jewelry, soaps, nuts, spices, cheeses, to animal parts from the carcasses hanging on the walls, and much more.  Its hard for me to shop, though, because if I so much as look at something the vendor is all over us to come in and the sales pitches are relentless.  I did buy some Aleppo olive oil soap (I’ve noticed that my skin is less dry since I’ve been using it in the hotel).  I would have liked to buy some jewelry, and saw some interesting pieces, but I tend to turn away at the intense sale pitches.  Its also really tough when nothing is labeled with a price, its hard to assess the quality instantly, and I have no idea what things “ought” to cost.  One necklace that I looked at the vendor asked for $75, when I said no and walked away he followed and kept lowering the price until he offered it for $10 – by then I was annoyed by how much he had been trying to get and so I didn’t want it, although that was probably a good price.

We visited the Great Mosque, requiring that I cover up almost completely (no covering of my face), thankfully in a light fabric.  Calvin was way too amused that I had to wear this ridiculous outfit and he could saunter in wearing his clothes (long pants though).  The minaret is ancient, architecture was nice, with a big open tiled courtyard area with mostly men lounging and sometimes praying.  Men were washing in the fountain, I believe their hands, feet and heads, on their way to pray.  Most of the men in the Mosque were wearing robes, mostly gray.  I want into the women’s side and saw women lounging on the pillows on the rugs on the floor, and praying, in a large open room with gold Arabic script (presumably Qaranic verses) on velvet wall hangings.  It wasn’t clear where we could go and we really did not want to offend, especially during Ramadan, so we may have missed some areas.

The Citadel, which is an amazing ancient castle on top of a huge human made hill, dominates the cityscape.  When we went there it was almost deserted, we aren’t sure why (Ramadan?), but nice for us.  (While I don’t think there are religious rules against tourist type activities during Ramadan, people tend to chill or sleep during the day if they can, and avoid recreational activitie climbing around in the sun, given the high heat and the restrictions against drinking or eating during light hours.)  We spent half a day wandering around; lots of massive stone rooms, old water works, bath houses, mosques; the throne room is particularly impressive with incredibly ornate carved and painted ceilings and walls, tile floors, chandaliers and stained glass windows.

We learned our way around our little corner of Aleppo, which turned out to be a good thing.  (Although it took us a couple tries to find the ATM – a small machine on a wall – no built monuments to capatalism here, they build their big glorius buildings as mosques and not banks!)  When we checked out of the hotel the staff came out to get us a cab to the train station.  It was around 3:30 pm.  We waited awhile – traffic was very busy, almost all of the cabs were full, and the few that weren’t waved no (maybe on break, we don’t know).  Eventually we decided to walk, it was about 15 minutes with our rolly luggage, not too bad. 

Aleppo transportation system relies largely on buses (hard to guage actual carrying use, but we saw a couple different looking buses, with some extremely full and others just full), cars and cabs.  People do walk, and its better than Amman for walking across the streets, but still few lights or crosswalks, and no bicycle amenities.  We saw more sidewalk cafes and pedestrian streets, overall somewhat better conditions for walking and fewer traffic jams for cars, it appeared.  We also walked around a nice, clearly French influenced park, with walkways, benches, fountains and cafes. 

Our Aleppo to Damascus train left on-time to the minute!  The seats were comfortable and reclinable (with double arm rests) and the air conditioning worked well (in first class – my reading indicates that air conditioning is the principal difference between first and second class).  There were a number of families seated close to us so I got to watch some very cute kids playing.  Both the moms and dads talked and played with the kids.  These were clearly well off familes, the women with nice (mostly western) clothes with head scarves they took off , the men in slightly formal western clothes, and kids very clean and neat.  The parents consciously kept the kids in line for the most part, though I don’t understand why none of these parents provided books, puzzles, games, etc for the kids, who clearly got bored at times on the 5 hour train ride.  I asked one of the mom’s if I could take a picture of her adorable child, and of course that is the way to a mom’s heart.  We talked a little; we ran out of language before long, but it was a very positive experience for me.   People mostly can tell we are Americans, and many have said very positive things to us about Americans.  We are clearly an interesting oddity, people call out “Hello” and “Good Morning” (even at night).  I feel compelled, though I don’t really mind, to try to put a positive image out there of Americans since they are observing us.  We’ve certainly found the Syrians we’ve met to be very warm nice people.  The only exception is the extent of heavy selling, that is understandable and forgivable given the relative incomes.  Overall we have received a much warmer reception than I had expected, very nice.

So as I think you all know, we decided to go to Syria, and more specifically Aleppo,  because Calvin has a friend who would be there, so we scheduled out trip to coincide.  Turns out that her plans changed (which were based on her father’s work plans which changed, so I’m not faulting her).

Our Amman – Aleppo flight was at night, only offered once a day, and it ran a little late, so we got into out hotel in Aleppo after midnight on the day that we climbed up to the End of the World (and back – that was the really tough part).  Despite some minor trepidation, everything was perfectly smooth and fine regarding tickets, passports, hotel reservations, etc.  It was incredibly crowded throughout the downtown, and apparently there was a great sidewalk sale at the corner of our block, so we saw a big crowd of people (presumably women) in black head to toe abayas and burkas scrambling for the best deals.  Ramadan is a time to shower children with toys, buy new clothes and shoes for everyone, new tableclothes and linens, and lots of special foods for each evening after sunset, so the streeets and souks are very crowded with peddlers and shoppers – its really a madhouse of activity at midnight!

Needless to say, we were tired.  We slept in, had breakfast late, afterwards I walked around by myself and found the tourist office and some interesting sights and neighborhoods while Calvin slept some more (he is a better sleeper than I am, its definitely not one of my strengths).  I found a fresh fruit smoothy place on my way back and brought two large ones back for Calvin and I to share.  We walked around in the afternoon, grabbed a quick dinner and got to bed early. 

Our hotel, the Mandaloun, has amazing character- its very old, build in an Arab style with rooms directly up a few stairs off a central open courtyard.  There are couches and chairs and a fountain in the courtyard, extremely charming, and they have added a white fabric space frame roof (almost but not quite closed up) to keep it cooler, along with air conditioning, thankfully.  The upstairs floors have a walkway overlooking the courtyard, and there is this totally magical looking elevator.  Our room almost looks like something out of the middle ages – the walls are two foot thick stone, set like bricks, with wood ceiling and windows to the courtyard, decorative tile floor, and chandalier.  There is also a pretty ordinary bathroom (but its fine), most likely added on semi-recently, and we can plug in computers and there is internet access.  The room is incredibly dark at night- its a little cave like,  totally isolated from the hubub outside, a nice relief.

We selected the hotel partially because its in the Christian quarter and we thought that might be easier for us, and by that I mean most of all me, for while I’m fine with accomodating local sensitivities up to a point, I don’t want to cover up entirely (for one thing, I’d die of heat exhaustion).  I’m a little surprised that even in this neighborhood by far most women are heavily covered, some even with veils covering their eyes and gloves, although there are a noticable few dressed in conservative European clothes (and a very very few in shorts or tank tops).  While I have gotten used to colorful head coverings as a kind of alternative to scarves, the total black covering of everything including the eyes still alarms me at some deep level.

On to Petra, truly and deservedly one of the wonders of the world.  Carved into mountains of rock, the buildings look like monumental Greco-Roman structures  – in the middle of mountains.  I don’t just mean that they are placed in the middle of the mountains in the middle of the dessert, which they are, but that appartently these folks looked at mountains of stone and decided to carve away all the parts that did not create the magnificent buildings they desired – truly mind bendingly awesome.  Most likely done by aliens I figure, seems more likely than the history we read of the Nabataeans.   There are actually a number of different architectural styles, including Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and other ancient influences, as these brilliant engineers borrowed from all cultures that passed through this very active trading area.

Calvin and I got in mid afternoon from Aqaba.  Given that the 2 day passes are not much more than the one day pass, we proceeded to a later afternoon hike.  Our hike started past the god rocks and obelisk tomb.  We then proceeded through the passage called As-Siq, a long deep narrow gorge with cliffs up to 80 meters, bizarre geological formations and colorful rocks, with water channels cut into the sides.  We arrived at the Treasury (Al-Khazneh), which is so beautiful and seems so terribly unlikely – truly a treasure to see.  Past the High Place of Sacrifice, Street of Facades and the Theater, lots of elaborate tombs, eventually up the 800 sometimes tricky steps to Al-Deir, the Monastery, and on the Top of the World to see out across the desert mountains. 

Actually the first day we got to Temonos Gate, about 3/4  of the way, before turning back because it was getting dark, the second day we did the entire hike all the way to the Top of the World.  This is all in some serious heat – I wore my sunproof clothes – thank you Father, along with a big hat and sunglasses, Calvin wore his hat and sunscreen.  We drank lots of drinks and cooled in the shade when we could, but that is some serious weather they have – could cook a wimpy NorCal body like mine!  Its something like 47 stories down at the beginning part, lots of up and down, and then lots of up at the end – we were seriously hot, sweaty,tired and very happy puppies at the end!  Magnificent!

The Bedoins offer camel, horse, donkey and carriage rides, and sell jewelry, trinkets, coffee sets, postcards, etc.  They look just like pirates – Johnny Depp move over!  Maybe our image of pirates comes from Bedoins – I don’t know, but they are rather dashing!  The kids now go to school which will give them more lifestyle choice.  We have seen lots of camping Bedoins, and have been told that people can camp pretty much anywhere (except on someones home or business).  Some local folks have told us that they are in fact wealthy and not poor – I don’t know the truth.

We stayed at the Movenpick right next to the entrance for Petra – a great hotel, we loved it.  Beautifully decorated in an Arab style, great breakfast, and they let us take showers in the gym downstairs hours after we checked out.  We had a good Bedouin dinner in a place very close by.  A wonderful time!

So out of the frying pan and into the fire.  Aqaba, at the southern tip of Jordan on the Red Sea, is a good 10-15 degrees hotter than Amman – are we crazy or what! We got off the bus and we were like man, we need to get out of the exhaust of this bus! Then we did and it didn’t get any cooler. But that beautiful gulf of the Red Sea made it all worth it.

First we had to find our hotel- not too hard, we purposely got one near the bus stop. It was worth it. Our hotel was a resort hidden inside a fortress. It had two main gates, each with guards. Inside of that was a door with metal detectors and a man who whisked our bags away to be screened. All of this happened in the blink of an eye; after that we went to the front desk, where we were met by mint lemonade and excellent English. We were quickly led to our 6th floor room, which (along with every other room in the Kempinski Hotel) had a fabulous ocean view, ranging from Jordan, to maybe Saudi Arabia (but maybe not), to Egypt across the gulf, to Isreal further north across the gulf. Our room was magnificent, with a big shower, a nice bath, a balcony, robes and fuzzy slippers, a free minibar stocked with water, sodas and beer, and free high speed internet (and an LCD with a bunch of channels that we never got around to watching at all). We dropped our bags and ran out to the beach. The sand was hot, and the water was the nicely cool (but way warmer than the Pacific Ocean in CA) and extra salty Red Sea.  Floating was effortless, although the salt crusted quickly if you didn’t rinse right away – ther were outdoor showers for that. The staff opened up shade umbrellas, layed out towels, and brought (non-alcoholic) drinks.  The next day we went Scuba diving. We were stuffed in wetsuits and we set off. The water clarity wasn’t perfect but there was a wide variety of types of coral – brain and blue and others; they even sunk a ship to collect more. There were also colorful fish, small darting ones and medium size swimmers with stripes of bright blue/yellow and other contrasting colors. We were careful not to swim into Saudi Arabia because I forgot to wear my burka and I didn’t want to get arrested ;>)  

They layed out a fabulous breakfast, also included. There were walls dedicated to fruit (mixed, strawberries, peaches, apples pineapples, melons and more), pastries (from basic breads to hearty rolls to croissant with apples, chocolate or sesame), cereals hot and cold of a wide variety including gluten free, paninis, and freshly-cooked omelettes, all of which were excellent, along with large areas of “oriental”, i.e., Arab foods, like dried yogurt balls with zatar or peppers, salty string cheese, olives, faul, pickles, the ubiquitous tomotoes and cucumbers, and also European style cold meats and cheeses, a variety of yogurts,  . .   I get hungry all over again just thinking about it – it took quite a bit of will power to not just sit there and stuff ourselves silly!  (No, wait, Calvin says I’m already silly!) The wait staff was unbelievably attentive- we think they may have been overstaffed given that the hotel was not at all full, we were told because of Ramadan. Overall we think that our Carpinteria family vacation should be relocated here- except for that 20 hour flight!

Walking around was a stark contrast to Amman.  They gave us nice tourist maps, the sites are marked, with traffic lights, continous sidewalks, crosswalks and landscaping!  Overall a very nice beach town with historical sites.  We had a good buffet dinner out where I probably knew half of the foods – a fun way to find out what things taste like without commited to a full order of unknown edibles. 

It’s obvious that Jordan is trying very hard to build their tourism industry, and this showed us that they can do top-end very well. The English was excellent, the manners were impeccable, the experience was wonderful. Whether they can do mid-range as well is more of an open question.

The next day we started with the usual breakfast choices of little hots dogs andcorn, eggs and tomatoes, yogurt, soft boiled eggs in their shells and salt, olives, cucumbers, bread and various muffins, cereal flakes, pita, hummus, tang like drink, tea and nescafe.  I like the yougurt, tomatoes and tea, and the rest is fine, although I’d like some fresh fruit (we bought some at a market now).  Calvin is eating toast and cereral and muffins mostly, and hankering for bacon – which he will likely be doing for a long time now.  The dining room supervisor/waitress is a young women who always wears a white headscarf, a white tunic, jeans and sandals, and lots of makeup.

We decided to visit the University of Jordan where Calvin will be studying.  We took a cab, as we most commonly do anywhere except to the local cafe district.  (There are buses, but no bus stops, and its really hard to figure out where they are going (since all the signs are in Arabic and going by quickly, and they are very crowded, and you ae supposed to call out something to get off but we don’t know what, so while maybe Calvin will learn one particular route from his family house to school, we haven’t ventured on the buses.)  As often is the case its hard to know if the cab driver understands where we would like to go -they start driving and then sometimes try to ask us in Arabic.  Maps sometimes help but not always, as we were soon to demonstrate.  We got in the cab but got to where the driver pulled over and there was a sign of sorts, but the cab tab was half what the guys at the hotel had thought so we thought it was the wrong location, maybe a branch.  So we pulled out the map and showed him.  He agreed and restarted the car, and drove us to the opposite side of the huge highway.  He was sure so we got out to look around – and realized that he had been right the first time and now had driven us to a Burger King – which was indicated with an icon where the Univesrsity is on the cutsey map that we showed him!  He left, we laughed about it and thankfully in this case there was an underground passage so we did not have to do a death defying crossing of the highway!

University of Jordan has more trees than the entire rest of Amman, or at least it seems so, and it was a very refreshing break from dusty car-oriented city life.  The campus has a clock tower with radiating walkways for pedestrians and lots of trees shading the walkers.  Farther from the center it sprawls a little more with buildings oriented around the roads leading into campus, but all in all a nice campus.  Classes are not yet is session, so while there were some people walking around, we didn’t see how crowded it is normally.  Some of the walkers looked like moms and their college bound kids, but almost all in headscarves and neck to ankle to wrist coverings – I felt a connection but still its funny to me.  I was thinking that the college students and maybe even their parents would be  in more western clothes – I was surprised how much covering we’ve seen – we still don’t know if its more because of Ramadan – will have more of a guage on that after Ramadan is over.  Walking around the University was a very nice calm break from traffic, we went in the library and sat and looked at books and out the window at the trees, found the language school where we think Calvin might be taking classes, bought sodas and found a hidden location to drink them, overall a good visit.  Oh, and we found restrooms in the library – the first “turkish” toilets (holes in the floor) that I’ve seen on this trip.  Not my preference, rather smelly, but still useful for the need.

In the afternoon after retruning to our hotel we tried to walk to a destination that we were told was not far, but got totally flumoxed by the need to run across busy highways – yes, that is expected, but outside our comfort zone.  After getting totally lost we eventually resigned ourselves and got a cab to  place a few blocks away but on the other side of the intersection/circle.  Yikes do these folks ever need some major traffic calming!  That and pedestrian amentities, and bicycle amentities – we didn’t see even one bike rack on the Univesity campus, where biking would appear to be a good option!  And dedicated transit lanes so the buses are stuck in the same awful traffic that the cars are in. 

They could really use a rail system – heavy, light, trolley or something!  There is a huge waste of people’s time just getting through town or to their jobs.  Plus on the outskirts of Amman there are a large number of Arab style suburbs under construction – large multi-family residential buildings, I think, but it looks like without space for shops, schools or anything else except a big gas station at the freeway.  If my interpretation of the construction projects is correct it looks like when these are inhabitated and all totally dependent on driving, traffic is going to go from truly dreadful to Chinese style traffic jams.  Seems like an awful lot could be done that would cost less than the massive construction projects going on.

Great name for a pedestrianized street / outdoor mall.  The car traffic is horrendous in Amman, and just walking short disances you take your life into your hands.  Evencrossing the street is a challenge because there are almost no traffic lights and no crosswalks, so the traffic moves continously.  Clearly cars have priority, drive as fast as they can, swervin around the ” lanes” and honking constantly; pedestrains sprint between them to get around.  Given our fatigue at battling to walk, going to a walking oriented area seemed like a good idea.  Turns out it was a bit of a bust.  None of the shops were open, and there were few people to watch.  I think we were early, but mostly I think the problem was that the stores were closed or only open limited hours because of Ramadan.  That coupled with the difficulty of eating or drinking in public, and the closed cafes, meant that after hitting up another mostly closed mall we bought some food in a grocery store, always interesting, and headed back to the hotel.  We were tired and so napped much of theafternoon.   Between the early morning wake ups (the 4/4:30 call to prayers), the high heat midday, and the lack of access to cafes during daylight hours, we are getting into a pattern of naps in the afternoons – which I find slightly disorienting.

We asked one of the hotel staff for a local dinner suggestion, and he recommeded a fast food place, so went, sat outside in the cool evening air and had decent burger and salad (on real plates).  We then found a totally cool cafe district with lots of men, and a few women, sitting in a couple blocks worth of outdoor cafes, drinking (coffee, tea and sodas, I think) chatting, smoking hookahs, playing backgammon and cards.  It was set up with twinkly hanging lights and had a jovial atmosphere, very nice. 

Although it was nice, they still don’t quite get the walking thing down, as the cafes extend across the entire sidewalk and one is forced to walk back and forth into the street.  I get the impression each business builds its own sidewalk – a few are truly lovely, then you step around the construction ruble, then an ok sidewalk, then more rubble, then a nice one. 

It appears that half of Amman is under construction, including both new buildings and new roads, on ramps, etc, so that its very dusty and one is constantly walking around rubble.  I understand that the US is investing heavily in Jordan, 4th highest US investment I’ve heard, and that we are trying to build its tourist economy.  I think they could benefit from more attention to the quality of place rather than just massive construction of new hotels everywhere.  They could use sidewalks, trees, crosswalks to improve the tourist experience, as well as better signage,  traffic lights and stopsigns, information/publicity about sites – we could easily missed the local cafe district since its so hard to walk anywhere we tend to go to a place we can name in a taxi. 

Oh, we also came across a small linear park that I swear is  a train station, set up for underground trains with benches and signs (empty though), but no train.  Maybe its been built in anticipation of a future rail system or extension.  Anyway the kids were using it for rollerskating, so that was fun to see.

So to track us, Day 1 Aug 28, was getting in from the airport, eating at the hotel and crashing.  Day 2 Aug 29 we hiked aound the old city souk and ancient sites.  Day 3 Aug 30, we went to Wakalat St and later got to know our neighborhood.  Day 4 Aug 31, we visited the University of Jordan.  Day 5 Sept 1, we will be off to Aqaba, staying for 2 nights, then on to Petra for one night, Aleppo fir 4 nights, Damascus for 4 nights, back to Amman for 1 night for Calvin before he joins his program, and 2 nights for me before I fly home.

After much excitement and planning and two years of Arabic by Calvin, we got on the plane and flew away. Other than no accidents it was the worst flight of my life, due to kids screaming, yelling, crying, hitting, and otherwise making scenes until 2 in the morning. I was impressed with their endurance however. But no real problems, we arrived in Amman and got a taxi to our hotel and decided to eat at our hotel.  It was empty as far as we could tell, but when we asked if we could get food they turned on all the lights in a large dining room, and proceeded to cook for us  –  chicken soup, fatoush, green ssalad and mixed grill – good food for hungry travelers.  Then we totally crashed. At 4 o’clock in the morning we heard the melodic call of the muezzin to wake people to eat before the beginning of the day- it is Ramadan. Then we heard him again at 4:30. Our breakfast at the hotel included olives, yogurt, eggs with vegetables, hard boiled eggs in salt, sausage and corn, chocolate cupcakes, sesame bread, pita and hummus, canned fruit, tang, nescafe, and tea.

We set off by taxi to downtown Amman to see the older parts of thr city, wandering around aimlessly for awhile, seeing the fruit market, and then hiking up a hill to the Temple of Hercules, the Ummayed Palace  and a wonderful musuem with Dead Sea Scrolls and amazing statues and ancient artifacts – pretty amazing history (we have pictures but the web is so slow we’re not sure we can download them now).

We hiked down to the Roman theater, then hiked up to the top and through it, walked around the older smaller theater, and toured the museam of common people.  At this point the heat was getting pretty intense. Almost all the cafes are closed for Ramadan, which means that not only are most of the cafes closed until night, but that it is rude to eat or drink in front of others (or smoke or have sex, but those weren’t issues for us).  We found some water and sodas and drank them discretely.  We caught a cab back to the hotel, inching along at times in horrendous traffic, and took naps instead of having lunch.

We took a cab to the City Mall in the late afternoon to see modern Amman, and did some people watching of the shoppers.  In downtown we saw many more men than women, and mostly older people.  At the mall we saw many more families, with grandmas, adult kids and little kids, as well as groups of guys and groups of young women, but not together.  Even at the mall many of the stores were closed for Ramadan, and I don’t know if the people characteristics are different for that as well.

Overall most of the men wear clothes similiar to what we see in the States. with maybe 10% in distintly Arab clothes, including Bedouin outfits.  However I’d estimate more than 3/4 of the women wear headdresses; most of the “older”women (over maybe 30 or 40) wear full loose neck to ankle coverings while more of the younger wear more fitted outfits, sometimes jeans, but usually covering neck to ankles, including arms to the wrists. Some of the headdresses are clearly high fashion, others sparley, while others plain black or white.  We’ve seen a number of women in total black with face coverings with eye slits, and even some with no visable eye slits (although Calvin assures me there are eye slits).  Sorry to sound PI, but it makes me uncomfortable – they look like dementors to me.  We had a meal of good arab food (fatoosh, mixed grill, hummus, olives, yogurt) at the food court, where we could have had Burger King, KFC, Fish and Chips, Pizza Express or other fast foods, but what we had was quite good.  We took a cab back, and while he couldn’t find the hotel for a long while -he stopped and talked to a stranger who talked on the phone with his friend, eventually got into the cab with us, and called the hotel for directions.  Our map did not seem to help them much, but we are back now and ready to sleep.