Thirty-Three Days - Day One

This entry is directly from my journal. It is slightly modified where the English language got a little hard to work in.

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27 Aug

Ange and I got up at about 7am and finished getting ready for the flight to Amman, Jordan. We headed to the Tube at 9am and arrived at Heathrow around half 10.

Check-in was easy and no hassles at security. We did the usual wander around to fill in time routine that seems to be expected at airports.

It took awhile for our gate number to appear on the board and when it did come up, we had to hightail it to the gate as it was down the opposite end of the terminal to where we were. As it turned out we didn't need to rush. Boarding was delayed by half an hour and then we say on the plane for about the same time. I don't know what happened but one of the runways was closed for a while so that held it all up.

Thankfully the flight was pretty uneventful. We had one of the funniest, nicest stewards. Yusuf I think his name was. He was a flirt and kept asking if we wanted more vodka.

When we got to arrivals there was a man with a sign saying my name waiting for us. It wasn't as exciting as the singing, clapping and instruments someoe was getting. Our guide told us later it was for a young man who had graduated as a doctor in London who was coming home.

The first thing you notice outside the airport is the heat. Our guide told us it was 55 degrees celcius at the Dead Sea that day.

They drive on the opposite side of the road here. It's like an organised kind of Russian Roulette. I'm not sure that there is a set speed, indicators are an optional extra and get used randomly and the lane markings are so feint you can't see them. The roads themselves are impressive. They're wide and smooth and better than anything I've driven on back home. And they're busy! So much traffic as we came in. Even now voices can be heard on the night air and its 1am.

This city in the dark is impressive. I don't know is this will still be the case when the sun coes up. On the roadsides are groups of people with eskies. They're taking meals and maybe drinking cause it's only day 17 of Ramadan. I guess we'll find out what that means for us tomorrow.

The Caravan hotel, from my quick glimps, looks to be architecture of the traditional style. The fans are going, the bed is comfortable and that's my next destination. There's a buffet breakfast in the morning. Ange and I are already looking forward to that.

Tomorrow our guide is taking us on a tour of the old city and two castles in the desert. It's exciting but the heat will be interesting.