Our flight from London Heathrow was nearly empty, our first contact with Jordanians was on board, and the crew was absolutely lovely. By the end of the flight they all knew the name of Bibs and came and chatted to her constantly. We made our way through the visa section (you need 10JD per visa - so make sure you have money on you - you can exchange in the arrival hall even at 11pm), immigration and passport control very easily. The visa guy had never seen a passport from Mauritius and was inquiring in half-arab half-english where this strange country is located. So with a little help of the hands we managed to explain...
The porters helped us to get our luggage – vey impressive as they check the name on the label and go to get the remaining pieces on the belt! Sure you don’t get such a service in Europe anymore - ? wonder if you ever got it! Then the drive into Amman which took about 30 min.
I spend most of our first day unpacking (what we had finished packing the day before!) and Bobs went to work.
Today after lunch at the Hotel we headed out for the first time to City Mall (one of the shopping malls in Amman) – just a quick tour to Carrefour and to have a look at the shops! Well Carrefour is pretty much the same as in France, but you can add some UK products as well which makes the choices quite large! And the same comment goes for the shops.
Our taxi driver is working at the Hotel and is really nice. He invited us for Mansaf (traditional dish) that his wife cooks very well (so he said) – when we told him that we had one for lunch – and then told us everything about his family. That’s the thing, they will all tell you about their children and their family. All Jordanians love children it’s amazing! You would never have such a response in Europe. All the waiters at the Hotel come and chat to Bibs, of course she loves all the attention she gets.
On a little more serious note… Jordan has recently been downgraded from “partly free” to “not free” in the Freedom House’s 2010 report – this was mainly due to the Parliament’s dissolution and the decision not to hold elections before the end of the year. And here is a link to an article published in the Jordan Times today: Court ruling threatens press freedom – activists. This includes bloggers… which means little me and as well as 100s of others…
But let’s not think about too many serious matters for the moment! We are here to enjoy our life in Jordan and I am sure we will…
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The view from our room
2 comments:
Sounds like you had a good ol' fashioned Jordanian welcome...between the mensaf, the mall trip, and the attention to your child, that's pretty much the best way to start out life here in Jordan! Welcome!
Thank you very much! We are absolutely thrilled to be here. Can't wait to be settled...
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