5 details which make a difference: Jordan 2023

I’ve just come back from 10 days in Jordan. It was a bucket list trip which enabled me to tick off Petra but Jordan is much more than Petra and I’m glad I went.

January’s early in the year to go and when you check temperatures it can be as cold as it is back in the UK. However because it was low season I got a tour with no single supplement and got to stay in four excellent hotels. And despite it being winter we seemed to slip in and out after one cold spell and before another so although we did experience the cold of the desert at night in the daytime the sun shone all the time.

Our guide summed up Jordan rather well. He said ‘we’ve got no oil and maybe that’s not a bad thing’. He’s right because the net result is a nation that takes great care of itself, for example it can’t be wasteful of energy or water, and a people with great pride and civility. It’s got a capital city which lacks the frenetic manner of many others and a rich history which it shares with those who visit.

You visit a country for the big features of course but it’s often the details that make the difference. Here’s my list of five which made a difference for me.

• The Roman ruins in Jerash

I’m no expert but I’d put the Roman ruins in Jerash in the same league as those in Pompei and Ephesus. All the usual Roman features are there and they’re pleasantly laid out and accessible from the heart of the city. Most of the people visiting when we were there were obviously locals and it must be positive that they can enjoy such history on their doorstep.

You might  argue of course that these are hardly a detail but the fact is that they’re not well known outside Jordan. So it was a case of visit Jordan, see Petra and get Jerash as a bonus!

• The Arab Medical Centre in Amman

I had a little medical emergency and tested the tour company’s local agent, it came through with flying colours, and experienced A&E but not as we know it in the UK. I was taken to the Arab Medical Centre. A&E was calm, quiet and efficient and I was quickly admitted, given an ecg and provided multiple blood samples. The consultant considered the evidence, decided that there was no emergency and told me that I should continue my holiday. I was in and out within two hours and realise that what probably made it possible was the JD120 deposit I paid on admission.

• 20th century convenience at the Basin

Petra might not be the only reason for going to Jordan but on its own it’s enough. You walk lots and you first approach the Treasury through a canyon which slowly reveals its treasures. Then beyond this point you can walk further and I reckon that 6 or 8 km in you come to the end of valley before there’s an 800 step climb to the Monastery. But there, wonder of wonders, at the foot of the climb there’s an air conditioned restaurant with an excellent buffet and cold beer!

Actually the whole Petra complex is well ordered with adequate provision of toilets. High up at the Monastery I enquired and was given a key and told that there were toilets 100m away. Maybe not quite 100m but discretely hidden round the back was a small and perfectly formed toilet module. OK it wasn’t air conditioned but there was running water and paper was provided!

• Petra Kitchen

I’m pretty good at avoiding all the optional extras which can pump up the cost of your holiday locally especially when they involve joining the group to go to a restaurant selected by the guide. But in Petra Lonely Planet recommended Petra Kitchen for good food. It’s an event and a dozen or so of you prepare a standard Jordanian meal, fair does they do come rather standard, and then you sit down and enjoy it together.

It did what it says on the can. We used fresh ingredients, we used blunt knives under the expert instruction of the local chef, and we didn’t do anything very complicated. But it was delicious as is often the case regarding food you’ve prepared yourself.

• Rather good local beer

Of course Jordan is a Muslim country and you wouldn’t expect much by the way of alcohol but it’s one of those places that exhibits tolerance and trusts that its visitors don’t abuse it. Plus of course it’s got a centuries old tradition of viticulture.

There’s not much choice when it comes to beer but my first taste was of a Carakale (www.carakale.com) from what’s claimed to me Jordan’s first micro brewery. It offers a range of ‘craft’ beers but I only drank the blond. It was excellent.

My second beers were Petra beers which seem to be brewed at a larger industrial scale brewery along with Amstel beer. I enjoyed a can of 5% at a Bedouin restaurant in Little Petra and a can of 8% (!) at a beach side restaurant in Aqaba. Both were very drinkable but I did take the second one more slowly.

It’s perhaps fair to say that Jordanian wine is eminently drinkable, in Jordan. I don’t think it really travels much further than the plane home!

My journey home was uneventful with a final Heathrow to Cambridge transfer including the walk from the gate, immigration and baggage claim of under two hours. I had just enough energy left to organise dinner before sleeping long and deep. It was a great ten days.

There’s an album of photographs at https://adobe.ly/3I0zcf6.