Entering Jordan

After a month in Syria we were ready to move on. We spent the morning of our departure day doing errands and wrapping up loose ends in Damascus. Then we went back to our hotel, got our packs and took a taxi to the bus station. We regretted leaving Syria and felt an odd flatness on the way to the station.

When we got to the station we headed for the international terminal. There were two more buses that day for Amman but both were booked full. Gaby worked with the kind lady behind the counter and an hour later managed to get us two seats on another of their buses going to the Jordanian capital. We were beyond ecstatic about this. The bus took us through the dry desert highway separating Damascus and the Jordanian border. The area was largely agricultural and there were lots of tents housing the local Bedouin people.

Crossing into Jordan on a bus was much easier than our entry had been into Syria. The buildings were brand new and the computer state of the art. Everything was clean and organized. We got our visas on the spot and were done before most of the locals. When we stopped at a convenience store we saw all the products that were missing from the stores in Syria. Jordan looked like what Syria could be with more stability, investment and infrastructure.

We finally arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman at 11pm. We had researched Amman and chose to use the smaller town of Madaba as our base of exploration. After catching a local minibus we dragged into the Madaba hotel late that night.

It had been a long travel day and we were beat up. We fell asleep right away.

Steve