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I arrived in Jordan on the 4th, and then went straight over to Israel. But was back in time to experiance the country's response to the latest bewildering move to Al Qada. Due to enhanced security procedues (checkpoints all over the place), my trip to the dead sea was canceled and I ended up not seeing anything outside of Amman.
Therefore, for this trip, most of my sightseeing in the region was in Israel. However, it was most interesting being in Jordan and seeing first hand the patriotic response of the Jordanian people to the atrocities committed against them.

The bombs were not the only surprises

Crowman
2006-01-13 18:25:36

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I arrived in Jordan on the 4th, and then went straight over to Israel. But was back in time to experiance the country's response to the latest bewildering move to Al Qada. Due to enhanced security procedues (checkpoints all over the place), my trip to the dead sea was canceled and I ended up not seeing anything outside of Amman.
Therefore, for this trip, most of my sightseeing in the region was in Israel. However, it was most interesting being in Jordan and seeing first hand the patriotic response of the Jordanian people to the atrocities committed against them.

The whole country seems to be moving toward a modern future. Unlike some other countries in the region, this direction does not seem to be forced upon the populace from the top down. Even though the King is by nature an un-elected sovereign, the people seem to be very fond of him and don’t view him with the same apathetic indifference accorded to President Mubarak of Egypt. As a whole, Jordan was much more modern when compared to any other Arab country in the Middle East, save parts of Beirut, Lebanon.
The only real frustrations during my stay were spending over three hours

trying to find an internet café (long story behind this one) and spending over an hour being questioned by the secret police because I was meeting a friend too close to the Israeli embassy. They were a little touchy after the bombings, and lost most sense of common courtesy during our drawn out discourse over the same details of my life. Assuming that one never has to spend an hour answering questions from these guys, the fact that you have Syrian, Egyptian, Lebanese and Israeli stamps in your passport would normally not be an issue. However, these can work against you if they get it in their mind that you are a possible threat to society. After clearing that whole mess up, I spent the rest of the day checking in on the bombing sights and resting up for my return trip.

All in all it was an enjoyable stay, but the timing could have been better. Luckily, I was coming off a thoroughly satisfying stint in Israel. During our interchange, the secret police told me I was always welcome in Jordan. I think that I will have to stop by again and check out Petra + the Dead Sea.