David and Irene were also travelling to Amman so they kindly offered to give me a lift which I was more than happy to accept. It's always a lot more fun travelling with more people. :-)
The original plan was to travel by the Kings way rather than the motorway... With no GPS... of course. ;-)
I think it's worth making a mention here about what it is like to drive in Jordan... Should you decide to come and visit this glorious country by car you would be wise to keep a few rules in mind. These rules are all based on my observations up to date.
1.- Always throw your rubish through the windows, you get extra brownie points if you hit the car behind you with your rubish.
2.- Never stop by a pedestrian crossing. Pedestrians don't expect it and neither the cars behind you... it's an accident waiting to happen. You'l probably get some worrying glances from the pedestrians wondering why on earth you stopped in the middle of the road.
3.- Never give way, unless you are planning on sleeping by the road. Everyone expects you to cut off the cars coming as you impose yourself on the new road/roundabout.
4.- Never stick to your lane when you can go in the middle of 2 lanes... that way you can swerve quickly between lanes if someone is driving in reverse (see rule number 9).
5.- Always use cable tidy to strap your hubcups to your wheels... that way when you hit your first hidden speed bump in the motorway at more than 100Km/h and your car goes in the air you can relax knowing that your suspension may be all screwed up but at least you won't have to pay damages to the rental company for losing one or more hubcups.
6.- Never use the intermitent... people get confused when you do. Stick to emergency lighting only.
7.- Honking often and loud is a question of respect, it's also used to let people in the middle of two lanes know that you are going to over take them by using the curb and the other half of the lane they left for you.
8.- At the traffic lights, make sure your left hand is on the honk and your car is geared up, as soon as it goes green honk as quickly as you can as you accelerate with your foot all the way in at the same time you shout "yala, yala, yala" (let's go, let's go let's go).
9- In the motorway if you pass your exit there are two options commonly used, option number one is to reverse and drive in reverse for as many kilometres as required, option number two is to do a u-turn and drive in the opposite direction to the traffic by using the slow lane.
By keeping those simple rules in mind you'll look like a local. :-)
You are probably thinking that those things above are a joke but I assure you I've seen all that and worse every single day...
Anyway, coming back to the original story... We left at about 9am and quickly enough we made it to the motorway... as we wanted to go via the Kings way we took the first viable road in that direction. There are three main roads going North, one following the Dead Sea, the Kings Way and the motorway.
Irene and David apart from not using a GPS also lacked a road map and were using a combination of the guide to Jordan and some google maps on their phone (without GPS of course, as for some reason it wasn't working on their phones) but that didn't prevent them from getting to where they wanted to go every time... they even found the diving resort quicker than my Jordanian taxi driver...
So after following the Kings Way for a while we found a sighting spot with great views and we stop to streatch our legs and take a few pictures.
Then we went back in the car and we must have taken the wrong turn somewhere because next thing we know we were back on the motorway... so we looked for another road to takes back to the Kings Way and after coming back to the Kings Way we realised that the tank was getting low and it was time to find a petrol station as there aren't many on that road and it's better to have a full tank than taking the risk...
Finally when we almost reached Petra we found a petrol station, we stopped there and there were two guys manning the place. When we stopped the car, David got off the car and asked for 10 JD (Jordanian Dinars) of unleaded petrol, one of the guys asked him what his name was, where he was coming from etc... while the other was sticking the hose in the car. After paying we all got back in the car and drove off but almost immediatly David noted that the petrol level wasn't going up... we thought it would be a sensor glitch and continued for a few Kilometers until we noticed that the level was coming down...
The B@$7@rd5 only pretended to put petrol on but they never did, one of them was entertaining David while the other only pretended to put the petrol on, then took the hose off and asked for the money and we didn't realised until we were several Km away... too far away to go back...
So let this be a warning to anyone driving to Petra... Avoid Mohamed (because he told us his name as part of the distraction) and his friend in the Petrol station at the top of Petra or if you don't avoid them... make sure they do put petrol in your car and don't just get your money and split the profits.
That my friends is the story of the Petra petrol thieves, so you've been warned!
As we were approaching lunch time we decided to stop in Al Karak, and along the way we found these twisters...
And a hungry camel
According the Guide to Jordan, one of the best restaurants in Al Karak was right by the entrance to the castle... so by a mix of skill and magic, David and Irene managed to drive all the way to the top in one go... we parked right in front of the restaurant, sat down and order some food...
The guide wasn't exagerating... the food was really good, spiced up with some mysterious herbs and plenty bread as all good meals should have.
Once our stomachs were fully satisfied and we streached our legs a bit, we got back in the car and continued our journey stopping a few more times to take a few more snaps.
We finally made it to Amman... and again with a combination of magic and skill they managed to make their way through the chaotic city and find their hotel (a new one by the way, not the one they have previously used... that would be way to easy).
I got a taxi from their hotel to Maria's place and we agreed to meet up again at night to go for dinner.
At dinner time, Maria invited one of her Amman ex-pat friends, Isabel, to join us. Isabel and Maria knew of a good local restaurant and led us there...
I should point out that you (or anybody else) would never find this place on your own... someone has to take you there... Look at the street where it is
Not exactly a place you would venture through for a casual stroll, right?
The restaurant in question was on the third floor through the first door on the right... obvious, isn't it? ;-)
I must admit that the food was good and it was full of local people eating and at times singing... randomly without any apparent reason. :-)
We tried the Arak
Homous
Some kind of minced beef dish
Lamb chopsticks
And with that we said good bye to David and Irene as they were travelling back to Madrid the following day and the rest of us went back home to sleep and get ready for tomorrow.
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