Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
that the room was also close to a functions area that operated nightly on a rotation basis as
a nightclub and then a venue for wedding receptions and other celebratory events.
Just to top it off, Ramadan had just ended and the celebratory period of Eid was underway.
The deep thumping noise of music was constant and reached a stage in the early hours
of the morning with me ringing the desk and suggesting, through gritted teeth, that unless
something was done about toning down the noise, I would wish to be moved to a higher
floor, well out of earshot of the festivities.
They meet my request and I found the following greeting in the new room:
“Happy Eid - May you be blessed by the Love of Allah, and be Guided by Him in whatever
you do.”
The hotel was located in a relatively new area, with modern houses, apartment blocks and
a nearby shopping precinct. The houses thereabouts were large and well presented and
of style that, in part, was repeated in some of the more prosperous areas of Syria, with
rooflines similar in style to the old Australian federation style. The inclusion of red tiles
strengthened the impression.
These areas were relatively clean in terms of litter, however, within the inner city area, the
new was cheek by jowl with the old and many of the latter were run down with a chronic
litter problem, comprising plastic bottles, plastic bags of various colours, cartons and ci-
garette butts. It all lay like a blanket over the pavements and roadways.
To get to the old town area it was necessary to catch a taxi and that's when I encountered the
rather unusual charging system. The Jordanian Dinar or 'JD' as it was universally known,
comprised 10 dirham, 100 qirsh (also called piastres) or 1,000 fils. This is where it became
a little confusing for the uninitiated, particularly as the taximeter placed the decimal point
for a 2 dinar, 1,000 fils fare AFTER the second digit. Thus to those of us who operate off a
100 units equals one dollar, the fare looked like 21 dinar.
Being a slow learner, it took two taxi rides to work it out. For those first two taxi's, the
driver's made a killing. One also got the impression that they knew what the game was
about.
Amman, built on seven hills, is like a mini Cairo, with broken pavements, litter and chaotic
traffic. To cross the road without being run down was an acquired skill, although Amman
compared favourably with Cairo where, to cross the road unscathed, you needed something
more like divine intervention.
