Day 1

On our way out of Westchester!

We arrived at the White City, aka Amman (called the "white city" because almost all the buildings are built of white limestone) right on schedule. Our flight was great -- Paul and I watched Date Night together, and then Paul abandoned me for Clash of the Titans while I enjoyed the cinematic masterpiece that is Valentine's Day -- and before we knew it, 11 1/2 hours had flown by and we had landed. Our Jordan Select rep met us at our gate and helped us through visas and immigration, which was quick and easy. And we met our driver for the week, Mohammed, who took us to our hotel, Le Meridien.

We were starving when we arrived and decided to venture out for a walk in a part of town near our hotel that Mohammed had recommended for shopping and dinner. Unfortunately, we were just a little bit too early -- none of the restaurants open until sundown during the month of Ramadan (early August to early September). We walked back to the hotel dinnerless, and eventually headed back out to a restaurant called Kan Zeman, which was recommended by Lindsay's friend Leila. It was pretty far from our hotel and we had our first experience negotiating cab fare. As per Lindsay's instructions, we asked our hotel the cost of a cab to Kan Zeman and were told 8-10JD. As soon as we walked outside, we were swarmed with cab drivers offering rides for 20JD! Eventually we negotiated a rate of 10JD after threatening to just walk to a nearby restaurant instead. We implemented Lindsay's advice again on the way back from the restaurant when we had to just throw a 10JD bill at our cab driver and get out, as he complained that the 10JD negotiated rate was not nearly enough for our ride. Mohammed told us the next day that the "real" fare is 3.5-5JD...All in all, I was happy with our first attempt bargaining skills.

The Kan Zeman restaurant was an old horse manor built into a hillside. The restaurant had lots of rooms, and the roof of the first room was a colorful tent canvas. We were seated in the back part of the building which had all stone walls with large archways, a high stone ceiling, and a live musician playing Arabic music. The restaurant had a great buffet, although I can't tell you the name of most of what I ate. It was good and I don't feel sick -- a perfect Middle Eastern dinner in my book. We ordered a bottle of Jordanian wine from Mt. Nebo labeled "wine of the Holy Land" (a great marketing technique for the Christian tourists) to celebrate our first night in Jordan. The restaurant was nice, but we hope our next dinner will be closer to our hotel with a busier atmosphere and more locals.