Hot, Hot, Hot - the North of Amman, Jordan.....

"Rahoun"and I didn't get off to such a good start - for a start, his name is Haroun. Once we established that, things were off to a much better start..... (at this point I should point out that the translation of Arabic into the English alphabet is an inexact science, at best, and there are many variations of the same thing, MUCH to my eternal frustration)....

First stop was Jerash, or so I thought. We kept heading North though up to Umm Qais, about two hours north of Amman, right on the merging of the borders of Jordan, Syria, and Israel & the Palestine Territories - so I got to eyeball Israel and Syria - and even the mountains of Lebanon in the background - awesome.

Umm Qais is an old, old Ottoman era village in ruins.... but the best part was the view. Hello, Syria....

Hello Israel and the Palestinian Territories.... with the Sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberas) in the left......

There were school kids everywhere... which makes the below shot of the ruins a bit more interesting.....

Haroun. Incredibly generous chap. On the way to Jerash from Umm Qays, he stopped in Irbid to buy some produce, and came back to the car with two glasses of what he called "Yoghurt Sheep". It was warm, unhomogenised and unpasteurised, and lumpy. I had two sips, and thought "I'm going to have to drink this to be polite". Then, we went over a bump, I wore some of it, and I took a big gulp... and I knew that either way, "Yoghurt Sheep" was going to end up in my lap.... either directly from the cup, or on a round trip via my stomach.... I handed it back to Haroun who was incredibly disappointed, but I don't think the family microbiologist would have approved of it's consumption... it was the lumps, as well, you see. The lumps... urgh. I can purge on command now, just thinking about it...

By this time too, I decided that sitting in the backseat was elitist, and wrong. So, I moved to the front. Also the lack of seatbelts in the back meant that after two hours of near misses and three-across-a-two-lane-road overtaking, I decided that it was safer to get closer to the potential point of impact, and be tethered.

Any reticence I had at Haroun's lack of English, or more accurately my lack of Arabic, evaporated when I realised that he used to work with (my saviour) Khaled at the Ministry of Tourism, so I'm pretty well connected on this trip, getting use of the VIP carparks, and access to maps and people to answer questions... more than one has said I'm lucky to have him so all is good....

LOL - in Jerash I was mobbed by a group of screaming, hajib-donning schoolgirls who insisted that I was Jennifer Aniston. (LMAO so hard at this point, it's not funny). I told them I wasn't, but as they will, they all had to have their photo taken with me.... I can only assume that Jordanian television is censored (well, I know it is, because the movies are all incredibly badly edited) to the point where Jennifer Aniston is a short curly brownheaded size 10 (that's one-zero, not zero) Australian.....

Next stop Jerash. The Jordan Valley north, the valley of the Jordan River that feeds into the Dead Sea, was surprisingly Green - especially given how hot it was. HOwever, the site of Jerash, an ancient Roman village, is all white stones and glare and sunshine.. 5 litres intake, no wees. A medical marvel, I am....

Having been blown away by Ephesus in Turkey I have to say Jerash was equally impressive....

In honour of ANZAC Day, here are the poppies that were growing all around the North....

The entryway to Jerash....

...and by contrast to the gorgeous poppies, here's the heat beating off the pillars of the Oval Forum at Jerash.

The main colonnaded street....

Some of the minor colonnaded streets......

Unfortunately for you lot, I love a Roman ruin....

The backdrop of the modern town against the ruins was great....

Feeling very insignificant on the steps of the Temple of Artemis....

The town was such populated a long time ago (from 333BC) but for so long, that their chariots wore grooves in the road... cool.

The hard slog up the hill in the heat was worth it for this shot of the Oval Forum....

They were filming a Jordanian singer's flim clip in the South theatre - it was a good chance to hear how good the acoustics are - the Romans knew what they were doing....

And lastly at Aljun Castle - or Qalaat ar-Rabad'- built in the Islamic times as a fortress. Great view of Jordan Valley in the back, and a hot tired lady in the front....

On the way home I fell asleep, and unfortunately so did Haroun I think (a couple of times). It was good to get back to Amman albeit at 8pm, and good to get back to my old favourite felafel-and-hummus joint for the $3 special (well, the only thing they do so not really special).... pity there was no beer after such a hot day though...