Amman's Bird park

View of the Bird Park

Yes, Amman has a bird park. A friend of mine had told me about it before I arrived to Amman, but I had completely forgotten about it until a taxi driver mentioned that he had taken his kids to it. I decided to take Bibs straight away! She loves animals, so I thought it would be a good idea. Yesterday, I picked up my friend and her daughter and went to the park: it was closed, it was Tuesday. I returned today, and yes it was a success.

The park is located in Shmeisani. It is very small, not many exotic birds to look at, but for Bibs it was perfect: ducks, geese, chicken of all sorts or peacocks...

Look at the size of their feet!

Demoiselle crane

More than that it is a nice place to walk around with a stroller, there are benches everywhere, shade.

And there is a very nice playground area. It is really big. The only problem is that it is mostly in the sun. But then the days are beginning to be a bit cooler (only 30 degrees today) - soon it won't matter that much.

Entrance fee: 20 piastres or 200 fils (for those who are more comfortable with old currency!). So really not much. There is a small parking place next to the entrance, otherwise it is not that difficult to park in the area. As usual it is on my map. It is not that difficult to find, between 5 and 10 minutes from the 5th circle.

An afternoon at the Children's Museum

Last friday I said the weather was dull? Well yesterday it was Winter - with a capital "W", not used to temperatures dropping under 15 degrees anymore! And at least there is one place to go when it is cold... and when it will be getting too hot as well - apart from shopping malls obviously.

Yesterday with my friend, we took our girls to the Children's Museum. Did I mention that Bibs is 9 months today? I have a 9 months old baby girl. She is waving goodbye to Daddy in the morning, screaming of joy when he comes back in the evening as we wait by the front door. She is so concentrated as she crawles to get my shoes, my camera or my handback - I really need to learn to put things away now! And yesterday she tried to stand up by herself, not quite there yet, but she was flat on her feet, her butt in the air. 9 months...

Back to the Museum. I think I can speak for both of us, we were quite impressed. Entrance fee is 3JD per person (we didn't pay for the girls) and there is something to play with for all ages: from toddler to 10-12 year old.

Children's Museum, located in the highest part of King Hussein Park

As you enter there is a library and a cafe - that is for the kids who like to read and the parents to take a rest! And after that you walk from an area to another, pretty much every thing is covered: the human body, stars and space, farm animals, ancient times (where kids can do some digging), communication (with a radio station)... and some more as you can see on the pictures below - and much more than that! - all of the areas have interactive games:

  

View inside the Museum (Left); Electricity (center) and recycling (right)

Plane - you can go inside and sit in the cockpit - supermarket (right)

Obviously Bibs and her friend are a bit too small for all this, so good thing there is a toddlers' area (and a huge area where kids can lie on the floor and draw) as well as a small but nice aquarium!

One of the fish, Bibs really liked!

This is a must go I would say. Kids won't get bored easily in there (there is also an outside area) and they might even learn so stuff at the same time.

A walk in the park

One thing Amman is lacking of is green areas. There are no parks as such and where there is an attempt well the trees can't be more than 2 or 3 years old, so the general impression is not really that of a park... You know grass, big trees under which you can sit in the shade. That is next to non existant in Amman.

King Hussein Park (will do a post about this one)

This is a Park in Deir Ghbar

You get the idea! So here if you go to the "park", well it is more a playground. So you have to choose your timings correctly, because it can quickly get a bit too hot to run around in - well Bibs of course doesn't do that much running as yet. At least the kiddies can be outside and get some air, which is after all the idea. Ashame it can't be combined with some walking for the mummy as well!

Promised Pictures: Jingo's Jungle

Yesterday I went into the kids playground on the 3rd floor of City Mall, well this isn't a playground it is an amusement park! see for yourself...

So this Jingo Jungle is an area over 5.500 square meters (yes!!) dedicated only to the pleasures of kids! It has it's own food court (6 different restaurants), is on 2 levels - the "mezzanine" area being for the young adults. I bet kids love to go shopping with their mums in this country!
The toddler's area is 2JD per entrance - 1st timer has to purchase a 5JD card which can be topped up afterwards. For the rides and bigger children I will remember to update later!