We arrived in Amman this evening. From what I’ve read people don’t come to Amman for its markets and bazaars or mosques. People come to Amman to see a modern Arab city. There is definitely a massive amount of construction going on with new shopping centers, condos, hotels and even a university scheduled for completion. The downtown area we are staying in, however, is far from modern. Agreed, it is not as old as Damascus and other major nearby cities, but I wouldn’t classify it as modern…
We dropped our backpacks and set out for our first meal of the day. Again, we found very few choices that offered anything other than traditional Arabic cuisine. After a less than mediocre dinner we headed back to our “hotel.” My trusty Lonely Planet book raved about the hotel we are staying at. In fact it is listed as “The Author’s Choice” and the author goes on to say, “The Palace is definitely the best budget and lower midrange option in downtown and is worth a little splurge. The rooms are clean and large, all renovated in 2005, and some have balconies with good views of the street. There’s a wide range of rooms with satellite TV and fridge. It has laundry service, free local calls, internet access, a café…” Doesn’t it sound nice? I am feeling very deceived right now because it is a depressing dump! The carpet must be several years older than me and the rest of the room is in a state of despair. I have been carrying around a bottle of wine that I bought a week ago in Lebanon and corked it tonight to ease my depression over this room. TJ is in bed shivering because it is so cold in here as there isn’t a central heating system. I must be getting snobby in my old age because drab rooms seem to have more of an impact on me than they used to!
Tomorrow we’ll explore Amman and will hopefully meet TR here for lunch the next day before continuing on to Petra.
Throughout the three countries we have been to so far I have been discouraged with my Lonely Planet book for advertising some sites as “must see” or unmissable experiences.” I’ve taken the authors raves and recommendations seriously. However, in several instances I have been disappointed with what was promoted. I’ve arrived at “must see” sites and thought, “Uhh, why did I ‘have’ to see this?” I have learned a few lessons here. First, authors have to do their job of writing a book and promoting an entire country. We are visiting countries that are truly off the beaten track to the extreme that there only seem to be a handful of tourists – in the entire country. The authors cannot create sites to see or things to do, so they are left with the challenge of promoting what exists. And, I need to remember that how interesting something is can vary tremendously from one person to the next. The sites promoted may be truly fascinating to some people. My lessons have been to take into consideration where I am in the world and realize that my expectations cannot be too high. I also keep in mind that the journey is often as interesting, if not more interesting, than the destination.
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