Solo Travelling Tales, Post No.1 - Jordan, few fact

Lots of people think (and I was one of them before this trip) that JORDAN is not a safe location to visit, due to its close proximity to Syria and Palestine, but let me tell you at times I felt, safer than Delhi. Also the culture there was very modern compared to other gulf countries so much so that it is known as the Amsterdam of Gulf.

The Treasury @ Petra

If I have to summarize my trip in one word, that would be “Unforgettable”. There were so many “firsts” to this trip, which obviously made it unforgettable for me. This was the First time I was travelling to a Gulf country, first time I was travelling alone, first time travelling abroad for work, first time staying away from home for 2 months and many others J

Location: I was stationed at Amman as my client's office was located there, and on weekends I took excursions to visit the places. Jordan is a very small country. All borders are at a maximum distance of 350-400 Kms from Amman and hence that was a workable plan for covering the whole land.

People: 60% population of Jordan consist of Palestine Refugees and now few refugees from Syria have also found shelter here. The country and its people are very warm and welcoming in nature. During my stay at Jordan I might have taken atleast 100 taxi rides and I don’t remember any Taxi driver not asking “Are you from Hind?” and saying “Welcome to Jordan”.

Two very naughty ones.. Especially the one in red

Weather: The most beautiful surprise after landing at Queen Alia airport Amman was the weather, the pleasant breezy spring weather was a superb and refreshing break from the heats of Delhi. During spring (March, April & beginning of May) the weather is very pleasant and all the roads in Amman, road side houses were full of beautiful fragrant flowers. December and January are the coldest months with some snow fall. And for rest of the year 38-39 degrees is the maximum mercury goes to.

Goodies from Hotel: Baklava 

Topography: Most of the region in Jordan is a barren desert. Amman is situated on little hillocks making the evenings and nights super romantic with its awesome views and weather, other cities are mostly deserts except Aqaba which is at the sea shore.

Best Time to visit Jordan: As per me, April is the best time to visit Jordan and my reason for that is the weather. And if you are going for touristy purpose 7-9 days is the ideal tenure for visiting Jordan for covering all major attractions/ places.

Food: If you are a non-vegetarian then Jordan is a paradise for you. You get all kind of meats seasoned with Medeterian spices. Mansaf is a must try (it a rice dish served with minced meat) and for vegetarians Falafel + Mutabal / Humus are definitely and only options to try from the local cuisine. Whether you have sweet tooth or not but you should definitely try Kanafeh & Baklava from some nice sweet shops (not all make it nice). 

Others: Alcohol is not sold is open here, you can only get it in Fine Dining restaurants.  But smoke is oxygen for country, everybody (and I mean literally) smokes everywhere. One of my colleague from Client site told me that she had to fight a lot to make separate smoking zones in the Office otherwise earlier people used to smoke on their cabins/workstations itself.