That day, I got stuck at the Israeli-Jordan border for quite some time. I had arrived by taxiqute early, but then we were blocked at the checkpoint before entering the border zone, because I was in a taxi with Palestinians from Jerusalem and the military people said that the computers were not working. The taxi driver of another taxi, which was also blocked there (my driver could not speak English) explained to me that this happened all the time. Normally, there is a need for registration at the checkpoint and therefore the computers are needed. But when we actually went through, after half an hour, the guy just noted the car licence plate number on a piece of paper… The strange thing was that cars with a licence plate from the Palestinian territories could go through much easier… and Jerusalem taxis only with foreigners as well. I was therefore offered to change the taxi, with only tourists in it (among them an Italian nun…), but the driver wanted to charge me (for the last two kilometers) the same price I had already paid coming from Jerusalem. I found this scandalous how they exploited this situation… Anyway, 5 minutes later the checkpoint was opened but then they made us wait a few minutes later at the actual entry to the border crossing. Another 5 minutes at least, for no clear reason. The taxi driver was furious as this seems to be done on purpose for whatever political reason.
Then I got to the Israeli side of the border. The border formalities were very efficient, after you paid your 30 Euros exit fee… But then you had to wait for a bus to take you to the Jordanian side… There were two buses there waiting, but I was not allowed to use them as they were only for people with Palestinian ID-cards. Segregation, I would call this…. But in this case the segregation had negative consequences for us few tourists as the Palestinian buses filled up relatively quickly, whereas it took ages for our bus to arrive and then we needed to wait to reach a “critical mass” for the bus to leave. I waited almost one and a half hours.. !!! In the meanwhile I got in touch with Floriana and the decided in the end to visit the desert castles and as they had a car and it was quite difficult to get there, we had agreed to go there together. They intended to leave only around 11h15, but with all the delay I got I thought it would be too late for me to join them… At the Jordanian immigration, I met an Estonian woman working at the European Parliament as a translator… My delay even increased as I had to get Jordanian money (the only cash machine was broken and the banks were closed!) In the end, I could convince the guy in the little duty free shop to give me a cash advance with my credit card (even for free!!) Then I had some hassle with the public transport (as it was a public holiday in Jordan… which also explains that the bank was closed) and eventually found an old lady and a policeman to share a taxi with, supposedly to Amman, from where I wanted to get to Hammamat Ma’in, a remote valley with hot springs and a very nice hotel that I booked (transportation to the hotel directly seemed too complicated… ) But then, I heard from Floriana that they were still stuck at the hotel because their rental car did not work and needed to be replaced. So there was still a chance to get to the desert castes together with them. Then the policeman told me that he also wanted to go in my direction, and so we got out of the taxi at a highway junction and immediately got a bus, which took me to Madaba, from where I could take a bus at least to the village near the hot springs. In the meanwhile, I could set up a meeting point with Floriana in Ma’in village, where we actually arrived at the same time. IT was a good feeling to see them!
As Europcar could not get the replacement car to the hotel sufficiently quickly, they managed to negotiate with the very friendly hotel manager to get a car from the hotel, including a driver (for free!!) What an incredible service!!
We then headed off towards the desert castles, which was quite a drive, but was absolutely worth it. One of them (Qusair Amra) is also part of the UNESCO-World Heritage, because of the amazing frescoes in the bathhouse. A we arrived only in the ,ate afternoon, the guard at the castles told us that his shift was already finished, but that we could have the keys of the castles if we give him some money. And so I got the keys of a UNESCO-World Heritage site, just like this !!! Amazing. The frescoes show half-nude women (quite extraordinary in a muslim country..) and some funny animals: a bear playing a lute and a monkey who is clapping his hands.
In the evening, when we got to the hotel, this was quite a positive surprise. I knew that the hotel was luxurious, but it was actually much more than that. They recently refurbished it and mostly used natural materials: wood, textile, paper, steel, leather… in any case, I did not see any plastic… and the service was great ! The official full opening will only be in September. I can only recommend it:
http://www.sixsenses.com/gallery/index.php?code_property=AMMEA&cate=acc
In the evening, we had a very nice dinner in the Dead Sea panorama restaurant, which belongs to the hotel and is just a few kilometres away.. what a treat !!!!
Pictures of the day at
http://picasaweb.google.de/muellju/Israel8best3?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfI95iivLeXWw&feat=directlink
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