Jordan April 8

Today is Friday which seems to be the way our Sunday's used to be. A day of rest. No government offices are open, not even the buses are running.

I was going to walk around town, but a German man checked in yesterday, and I decided to join him in taking a car and going to Umm Qais, a small village at the northern tip of Jordan.

It's taken me a while, but I think I understand the taxi business a bit better. It's a mixture of taxi and Uber system.

In Madaba my hotel arranged to pick me up at the airport, to get me a driver to do the day trip to the Dead Sea, and then to drive me to Petra. All were private cars.

Except for my driver to Petra they all smoked in the car, windows open, thankfully, and they all were on their cell phone frequently. One had two phones, the second one rang while he was talking on the other one. He didn't answer right away, otherwise this would have been a short trip.

They all have a system where they interconnect. The trip from Madaba to Petra was about 6 hours. After the stop in Karak he asked me for a favour. I wasn't quite sure what it was. I thought he wanted to know whether I minded that he pick up another passenger. I said ok. But what actually happened was that we stopped just after Karak, and we met a real taxi coming from Petra. That taxi, an official one, had a family of three who were going up north. So they traded passengers. I took the taxi to Petra, the family went north with my driver. I thought it was a neat system. It saved both drivers time and money, and worked fine with me. I paid my driver, he was paid by his fares.

The two drivers obviously worked out the exchange over the phone, while we were driving.

A similar thing happened when I took an official taxi from Petra to Aqaba. At the outskirts of Aqaba I was handed over to a local taxi. This gave the local an in, and I used him on my trip to Wadi Rum. On the way to Wadi Rum it was a taxi, the next day he picked me up on his own car.

When I arrived at the Amman bus station, a man approached me and offered me a ride. It turned out to be a private car, and we drove to Jarash. When we arrived at my hotel in Jarash he introduced me to a local taxi driver, who offered his services for any trips around Jarash.

It's quite a system, a mixture of official taxis and private cars. There is no big battle between the systems. 

Yesterday afternoon another guest was at the hotel. He looked rather eccentric, only a small backpack, sandals, sweatpants. He was German, and had all kinds of questions for the hotel owner. I listened in, and he wanted to go to Umm Qais, a village at the northern tip of Jordan. There are some ruins there, and the views over the Golan Heights, and the Sea of Galilee are supposed to be great. It was on my agenda for next week so I decided to change my plans, and go there with him. Because it's a Friday no buses, and we decided to try to hire a private car. So at 8:30 Clement, the German, myself, and the hotel owner went to a nearby intersection. The hotel owner was very helpful, and he bargained for us. So for 25JD we had our ride. Part of the deal was that we would detour and spend an hour at the castle at Ajloun.

This castle, on top of a high hill was built by Saladin as protection against Crusaders.

The castle was interesting, the view from top beautiful. This is certainly the most attractive part of Jordan that I have seen. Lovely hills, green valleys, looks fertile.

Clement describes himself as a pilgrims following Jesus' footsteps. He compared the donkey ride up to the Monastery at Petra to Jesus' ride to heaven.

He is a yoga instructor, but does a lot of travelling. He goes to Thailand several times a year. He is 51.

Umm Qais has one hotel, and the owner was recovering from a big party the previous night, and it took us 20 minutes to gain his attention.

This is the cheapest hotel I've stayed in so far, 20 JD, and not worth anymore

Aside from its location, there isn't much to do. There is one Main Street about 3 blocks long, and that's it. Prices here are cheap. I paid a quarter of what I did in Petra for some fruit. Location, Location, Location.