Alrighty then, time to rent a car!

I’ve only ever rented a car one other time while I was traveling back in Lithuania.

I’ve always opted to take local transit or use my feet to get around.

For this trip, though, I decided it was better to rent a car for my time in Jordan.

The transit system isn’t really that prevalent which means I’d have to sign up for different tours for all the things I wanted to do and see while I’m here.

Tours, ick!

Anyway, I was up bright and early at 8am and, after waiting for one of my roomies to get out of the bathroom, I was out the door at quarter to nine.

Avis?   Where are you?

Avis has a handful of locations here in Amman and the one I had chosen was the closest one to me.

Of course, when I went by where it was supposed to be yesterday, it was nowhere to be found.

So, instead, I rebooked my reservation yesterday afternoon with the next closest location and this one was attached to a hotel so I knew it existed.

I headed out the door and took the 20 minute walk to the hotel.

The streets in this area of town were pretty baren and most of the shops were still closed.

I did come across a quartet of stray cats hanging outside a pet store.

I’ve seen quite a few strays here (my photos from yesterday would attest) and I guess these were the smartest ones as they knew where they’d get some food from a generous shop owner.

The man at the front desk pointed me in the direction of the Avis office down the hall and when I got there, nobody was there.

Just a sign on the door to send the guy Muhammed a message on WhatsApp.

Okey doke.

After a bit of back and forth he finally showed up at the front entrance of the hotel to drive me to the main Avis office a few kilometers away.

Turns out that because I made my reservation less than 24 hours ago that the global Avis system hadn’t sent thru my reservation yet which is why no one was ready and waiting for me at the office.

Anyway, after filling out some paperwork and doing a quick check of the car, I was on my way.

A quick breakfast detour

I stopped by a nearby gas station to fill up ($80 by the way) and drove back towards my hostel.

Before I was going to head out of the city, I needed to get some breakfast in me and I knew exactly where I was going.

Yup, back to Wild Jordan Center where I had my amazing breakfast yesterday.

Today I wanted to do a different combo of gluten free waffles and shakshuka eggs which are mixed with tomato sauce, peppers, and onions.

Sadly, my waiter told me the waffles weren’t gluten free despite it saying it on the menu so I opted for the pancakes again.

Honestly, not a bad second choice and they were pretty awesome.

I made the mistake of saying I wanted the pancakes with maple syrup because while the honey that comes with them was alright, nothing beats maple syrup.

Unfortunately, there’s also a menu item called pancakes with maple syrup which is not gluten free and, yup you guessed it, I was served up that instead of the gluten free option.

Even though I literally told him I couldn’t have gluten as I was ordering my meal.

Ah well, let’s chalk it up to miscommunication.

Anyway, a pancake recook later and I had my scrumptious breakfast.

By now it was after 11am and I was starting to question whether to change my plans for the day as I really had planned to be out on the road a couple of hours ago.

A change of plans

I was originally going to head north to see Umm Qais, Ajlun Castle and Jerash but I felt like with such a late start that I’d be rushing through each site and I really just wanted to take my sweet time with it.

Problem solver that I am, I just swapped out my plans for tomorrow with today’s and, boom, problem solved.

So, tomorrow I’ll be heading up north and today I was going to head southeast to visit a handful of castles in the desert.

Getting out of the city

I knew when I rented the car that the drive in and around the city center of Amman would be the most treacherous and that once I got out of the city and onto the open roads, it would all be good.

Sure enough, the drive through the city definately gets your mind focused and your hands clutched to the steering wheel.

It didn’t help that Google Maps wasn’t given me the most helpful directions with things like “in 300m turn right and then turn right and the roundabout exit at the fourth exit”.

Oh my God.

I did mess up my route a few times but luckily Google Maps just does an auto-correct and tells you the new way to go.

Finally I got on to the open highways where there were just straight lines to drive and no traffic around.

Ahhhhh.

Qasr Al-Hallabat

You can find tours doing the desert castle loop but they only include the 3 main ones, Qasr Azraq, Qusayr Amra, and Qasr Kharana.

After reading up a bit, I added a couple more to the list cause, hey, I was the guide of my own tour and I could come and go where I want when I wanted.

My first stop, the Qasr Al-Hallabat, was located about an hour out of the city and I arrived there around 12:30.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when visiting these castle and ruins sites today.

I knew that admission was free since I had a Jordan Pass so I was kind of assuming I’d just show my pass at the front desk and walk onto the grounds to go exploring.

Well, at the first stop, a uniformed guard greeted me with a great big smile and shook my hand.

And then he guided me up the chained off rock covered walkway up to where the castle ruins were.

Oh, I wasn’t expecting this.

Is this where I’m reluctantly assigned a guide who I’ll have to tip at the end?

I asked him if he had to take me to the site and he said yes.

I asked him why and he said it was for my protection.

Hmm, now that was an interesting and unexpected answer.

So, naturally, I asked him what he was protecting us from and he responded “everything”.

Well, that was the biggest non-answer ever.

We reached the ruins, I snapped a few photos, and we headed back down to the visitor’s center.

Okay, guess he wasn’t a guide after all and he was literally just tasked with chaperoning visitors to and from the site.

Gotta stop being so preemptively defensive when it comes to people offering me help.

I’m just so jaded with these experiences in the past that my defensive walls just come up when someone offers help.

Honestly, I know it’s going to happen alot in the near future when I visit Petra here in Jordan and then, well, pretty much everywhere I go in Egypt, so it’s not without reason to be expecting it.

Yet, still, today it was just a friendly guy offering up some help.

Hammam as-Sarah

A quick 5 minute drive away was the Hammam as-Sarah.

The gate to the entrance was locked and, honestly, it was just a little building that could easily be photographed from the roadside.

I parked the car on the side of the rode, snapped a couple photos, and headed on to my next location.

By the way, if you wanted some in-depth description of these castles and their histories, well, you’ve found the wrong blog for that.

While I’m sure all that stuff is very interesting, I’ve just never had it in me to do all that research and share it on my blog.

But, hey, you know what, Google is your friend and there’s soooo much info out there.

Qasr Azraq

The next place, Qasr Azraq, was the beginning of the big three that are included in pretty much every desert castles tour out of Amman.

It was a good hour drive away so it took a bit to get there.

No worries, I had all the time in the world and no one to rush me to get from point A to point B.

At 2pm I finally arrived and entered the grounds.

I was again greeted by a man outside the complex but he was just there to check tickets and when I said I had a Jordan Pass, he didn’t even verify if I did or not.

And then he waved me in and I was on my own.

Like, literally, on my own.

I was the only one inside these black rocked ruins.

I walked around until I found some stairs and, I don’t know what it is but when you see stairs, you’re just kind of inclined to climb them.

No safety measures in place here and nothing roped off.

As I reached the top of the structure you had to really watch your step as there were unprotected holes in the ground.

No accidents for this boy though and I got out of there safe and sound about 20 minutes later.

Qusayr Amra

About a half hour away was Qusayr Amra.

It was interesting driving the roads in this area and you could see signs directed you to both Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Again, I was the only person here.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s low season or if all the tours go in the mornings or if the desert castles just aren’t that big of a tourist attraction but, whatever the reason, I was happy to have the whole place to myself.

I walked down to the little structure down the hill.

It had a door on it but it was locked so I just snapped some photos of the exterior and started walking back up towards the carpark.

A man came running down with key in hand waving me back towards the building.

Nice, dude was racing down to open the door for me.

Jordanian hospitality shines again!

And boy, was I glad he did.

The interior of Qusayr Amra is really the star of the show as the rooms are filled with painted murals from times long gone by.

Some more photos on my camera roll and it was off to the last stop of the desert castle loop.

Qasr Kharana

At 3:15 I reached Qasr Kharana.

This one was billed as the largest one of all the castles and while the building was quite big I didn’t find it quite as compelling as the previous two I had just visited.

Don’t get me wrong, the marvelousness of ancient castle ruins is always something that will draw me in but, I guess, after seeing ruins all day, you kind of get spoiled.

By 3:30 I was back on the road for the hour drive back into Amman but I wasn’t heading straight back to my hostel.

Nope, it was time for some more food…

Ketolicious

I had this gluten free dedicated restaurant marked on my map but seeing as how it was over an hour’s walk from my hostel, I had no intentions of visiting it.

That was until I had rented a car.

Well, hell, now the world was my oyster – I could go anywhere I wanted!

So, off to Ketolicious restaurant I went and, man oh man, this place was amazing!

I opted for the traditional Jordanian dish of Manakeesh which is an Arabic pizza topped with cheese, egg, or ground meat.

They had a few different options but I went with the turkey and cheese Manakeesh and, like I said, it was amazing.

I’ve had gluten free breads and doughs and the like in many different places but this was easily the best tasting gluten free bread/pizza dough I’ve ever had.

Oh my God, just writing about it now, I want to go back for more!

Anyway, I had some cherry pop with it and finished it off with some gluten free tiramisu.

Now, I know, I know, tiramisu is so far away from being anywhere close to traditional Jordanian food but, dammit, it’s tiramisu and I lovetiramisu.

I also ordered a meat shawerma combo with pickles and coleslaw to take with me so that I could reheat it later on in the night for a late night dinner.

And, yes, I’ll most likely be back there the next couple of days too before I head south towards Petra and Wadi Rum.
tiramisu

A costly souvenir

My euphoric late lunch was broken up soon after as I headed back towards my hostel.

I popped in the car, turned on my Google Maps, and hung a right onto the main roadway.

No sooner than I had turned right, a cop leapt off the sidewalk to pull me over.

Oh crap.

Turns out that despite what Google Maps was telling me, I wasn’t allowed to exit from where I did and the convenient cop was just waiting on the sidewalk to nab people who were doing it.

Oh, and apparently there’s two different signs that say you can’t do it but I didn’t see either since I was looking at my stupid navigation on my phone.

Sigh.

So, after a bit of back and forth with Google Translate, I gave him my license and he wrote me a ticket which will be forwarded to the rental car company.

At first I thought he said it was 15JOD ($30) but then when he repeated it afterwards, I could have sworn he said 50JOD ($100) so I actually don’t know how much it will be and it doesn’t say it on the ticket either.

Guess I’ll find out when I return the car and they charge me for the ticket.

Either way, it was a chunk of change.

At least I got a cool, unique souvenir, I guess.

Hanging with Fehid

When I got back to the hostel I headed downstairs to the main lobby area that has a nice big hang out area next to it to put together this blog.

My hope going into this trip was that I’d connect with a couple people here in the hostel in Amman and then we’d travel together down to Petra and Wadi Rum in a few days.

I knew it was a longshot seeing as how Jordan isn’t really known as a tourism hotspot and also January is the low month for travel in this area.

But ya know, I thought, hey, if I meet someone, I meet someone, ya know?

Now, I feel like I’ve thrown you a little bit of a bait and switch here since the title of this section is “Hanging with Fehid”.

The fact is, like yesterday, there was no one else in the common area.

Just me and Fehid, the front desk guy.

So, yeah, I met someone, but they won’t be traveling with me down Jordan.

Anyway, Fehid is a pretty cool guy.

Totally laid back and personable.   A friend.

He was on the tail end of a 15 hour shift today.

I saw him when I left this morning and here he was still behind the desk as the night closed.

But like he put it, he gets paid to watch YouTube videos and chat with friendly guests.

He was born in Jordan but his mother was not Jordanian and since birth right citizenship isn’t a thing here in Jordan, he’s technically not Jordanian.

He lived in Turkey for 15 years running an electronics shop where he’d buy cheap from China and resale at huge margins from his shop.

He was rolling in it.

And then the earthquake in early 2023 hit and, just like that, his whole life was destroyed.

No more home.   No more business.   No insurance.

Just a total loss.

He ended coming back to Jordan and he’s been working here at hostel ever since.

But he’s planning his comeback and, I for one, am interested to see what happens.

We chatted for quite awhile about his life and also about my travels and how I should be vlogging.

And, I’ll admit, several times during my travels I’ve thought of how I could transition this written blog into a visual video series on YouTube.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll switch over.

For now, though, I’m happy just typing away at my laptop at the end of each day.