My Adventure to Jordan

Sometime between 2016 and 2017, I had the opportunity to visit Jordan during my the Middle East travels. I flew into Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, from Kuwait. I arrived with my boss, Monty, along with my coworkers Rob, Steve, and Riley. The day we arrived was a free day to explore since our official schedule did not begin until the following morning. The group decided to take the opportunity to visit the key sites in Jordan and planned our trip accordingly.

While Riley worked on getting a rental vehicle, the rest of the group proceeded to the Starbucks at the airport entrance. Everyone was tired from the long wait in Kuwait Airport the previous night and needed a caffeine boost. I ordered the largest black coffee available and bought two bags of gummy bears for the trip. After everyone got their coffee, we met Riley at the curb, and we loaded up for our first stop: Petra.

Riley drove the vehicle and headed towards the airport exit. We went through downtown Amman to the Intercontinental Hotel to drop off our bags. We checked in and quickly dropped off our bags in our room and met back up to head south to Petra. We were in a hurry to get to Petra so that we could turn around and head back north to the Dead Sea region.

We drove out of Amman and made it to the highway, headed south towards Petra. As we headed south, we went over speed bumps along the road. It appeared that Riley treated the speed bumps as a challenge to see how far he could make the vehicle jump. In one incident, Riley hit a speed bump, and I watched as the liquid from my coffee floated up towards the roof of the car. Like a scene from a movie, the coffee seemed to be suspended in the air for a moment before it came crashing down on Rob, Steve, and me. Thankfully, about half the coffee returned to my cup so that I could finish it during the drive.

As we drove south, we came across a few checkpoints operated by Jordanian police. One checkpoint flagged us down, and we stopped. Casually, Riley rolled down the window and waited for the Jordanian police officer to come over. Riley, sporting a baseball cap and sunglasses, smiled at the police officer and said, “what’s up, bro!” which caused the police officer to shake his head and let us proceed on our journey.

As we drove south, I was taking in the scenery. The area looked like it belongs on another planet, with red sand and rocks everywhere. I read earlier that the site was used to film the Martian surface in the movie “The Martian” starring Matt Damon. As we drove along, I even saw a sign indicating where the movie was filmed.

We arrived in Petra in the early afternoon. We parked the vehicle and proceeded to the entrance of the historical location, where we paid a small fee. Before heading into the wadi, I stopped and bought myself an “Indiana Jones” style hat for good measure.

The group opted not to hire a horse carriage or donkey ride down the wadi. We decided it would be best to hike it down. We walked quickly through the wadi and were impressed by the rock formation in the wadi that had been carved by water a long time ago.

We finally made it through the wadi and arrived at the famous treasury building of Petra. The Treasury is the building most people are familiar with based on two popular movies. The first was in “Indiana Jones” I watched as a kid, and the second was in “Transformers” I watched with my kids. The building was impressive, and it was amazing to know that the entire building was carved out of rock.

Petra is much larger than the one building. The site extended deep into the valley, and we discovered that it was a small city. Additionally, we were surprised to find that there were burial sites within the cliff walls. We proceeded to walk through the valley and hike up into other buildings. At the end of the valley, we turned around and hiked back up to where we parked. Since we wanted to get to the Dead Sea before sunset, we quickly marched through the wadi. The walk felt like a workout on the way back up through the wadi in the heat.

The group returned to the vehicle, and we began our trip north to the Dead Sea. As we drove north, we came across old ruins and old castles that appeared to date back to the Crusades. Despite the traffic, we made it to the Dead Sea before sunset. The group got out of the vehicle and walked down to the water’s edge. As you approached the edge, you could see the dried salt on the sand. Everyone took the opportunity to dip their fingers in the water and taste the salt. As expected, the water was extremely salted. After everyone had their chance to taste the salt and take some pictures, we returned to our vehicle to head to a Dead Sea resort for dinner that Riley recommended.

We got back on the Dead Sea Road, hoping to reach the resort in about 20 minutes for dinner. We never made it. As we drove, we came across a massive traffic jam. Somehow, two-way traffic turned into four lanes of traffic headed in one direction. With nowhere to go, we proceeded forward until everything came to a complete stop. It seemed like we stood in traffic or over a half-hour when people all around us began getting out of their vehicles. We watched as men began taking out their hookah pipes from their cars and began smoking them. Additionally, people started singing and dancing on the road as though they were celebrating something.

At some point, Rob, the oldest person in our group, said he had to get out to use the bathroom. Everyone in the vehicle told him not to get out since we were the only Americans surrounded by a mixture of Jordanians, Palestinians, and even Egyptians. Poor Rob had to resort to an empty Gatorade bottle to take care of nature’s calling. Everyone was getting hungry, and thankfully I had bought two bags of gummy bears to pass around.

After an hour or so of sitting in deadlock traffic, things began to move. Finally, the four lanes of one-way traffic transitioned into regular two-way traffic. The cause of the giant traffic jam was a concert nearby. Since we had sat so long, we decided not to go to the Dead Sea Resort and instead return to the hotel.

Two hours later, we returned to the Intercontinental Hotel. We opted to eat at the hotel restaurant. To my surprise, the restaurant was a Mexican restaurant. The food was good, and the cold beer was even better. I never thought I would enjoy Mexican food in the Middle East, but the traffic jam on the Dead Sea Road made it happen.

The rest of my time in Jordan was all business, but I will never forget the road trips to Petra and the Dead Sea.