Two weekends ago, I traveled with my friend Caitlin to northern Jordan where we visited Umm Qais and Jerash. After a long week of classes, this trip was overdue and definitely provided me with yet another perspective of this wonderful country. You can view my photos here: Photos of Umm Qais and Jerash
On Thursday, September 22nd after quickly consuming the Nutella pizza (which is absolutely fantastic and also a mushkila [problem] and a half since I will probably be purchasing that pizza more frequently than I actually should), Caitlin and I departed the University of Jordan for our adventures. After attempting to take the “Amman-Swelieh” bus from the Main Gates, we were told by multiple people to go to the other side (which ran contrary to what my peer tutor, Wasfi, told me). Oh well, we decided to go to the other side and sure enough everyone, but Wasfi, was correct and we took the bus to North Bus Station (Mujama al-Shmael). At that point, I began to get a little nervous because I was relying on Wasfi’s directions from the UJ campus to Umm Qais since we had went over them during our conversational session just an hour before – this was not looking good for our trip.
Surprisingly enough, our bus travels for the day turned out a lot better than I had anticipated. After four buses, 3 JD, and about 2 hours in transit, we began to drive through a small town, which happened to be Umm Qais, our final destination for the day. We were clueless as to when and where we were to get off, until Caitlin pointed out the sign in the middle of the road for the Umm Qais Hotel and she knocked on the bus’ window and we left the bus.
We continued to look at the hotel’s sign, but we could not see the hotel itself – at least not the one that we had envisioned. We walked up an alley and sure enough the Umm Qais Hotel was there – what a relief. We entered and the lower floor was more like a hang out space with couches surrounding the wall and a small TV at one end of the room, filled with locals. A man, who I presume was the manager or caretaker of the “hotel”, greeted us and escorted us up to our “room”. It was only Caitlin and myself. There were several rooms with two single beds, however we were given the master room (if you can call it that) with a queen-like size bed. The bed and pillows were hard as a rock alon. The bathroom contained no toilet paper, and the shower lacked a curtain. Luckily I can deal with most situations and I had a good laugh about our accommodations, however the Lonely Planet guide book was not lying when it said that the Umm Qais Hotel has “modest accommodations.” Although it is another Decapolis city with ruins of a Roman city and an Ottoman-era village, the city of Umm Qais (formerly known as Gadara) does not find itself bombarded by foreign tourists primarily due to its location in the northwest corner of Jordan. With that said, it is understandable that Umm Qais contains only one sleeping accommodation, lacks public transportation like that of Jerash and other more visited cities, and none of the Jordanians that we encountered spoke a word of English.
That evening we met Khalid, a native of Umm Qais, who I believe originally planned to take us to the Umm Qais Resthouse for dinner, but since the Resthouse was booked he stayed with us the entire night showing us the various ruins and providing us with some historical background to them. It was incredibly nice of Khalid to give up his evening for us, and it also showed me the wonderful hospitality of Jordanians, especially those of the small city of Umm Qais. From the top of the ruins there are stunning views of Palestine, Israel, the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee, Syria, and even Lebanon in the far distance. The view at night was absolutely gorgeous – just looking at this incredible view made me forget the horrible events occurring throughout the region. After our evening visit to the ruins, Khalid brought us to a local restaurant where we enjoyed the best falafel I have ever eaten! Despite Khalid’s offer to take us to Irbid (where we had just came from a couple hours earlier!) for a party that night, we decided to call it a night and get some rest for the remainder of our weekend.
Despite the toughness of the bed and the non-fluffy pillows, I actually slept well (better than Caitlin) and felt well-rested. I awoke initially at 6 am, and then decided to go back to bed. It seemed like Caitlin was ready to go by 8:30, and once it hit 9:30 I realized it would be best for all if I got ready. I took a hot shower – however the absence of a shower curtain made for a wet bathroom floor – and we left the hotel around 10:15 am to explore the ruins again – this time when it was light outside! We ate lunch at the Umm Qais Resthouse, overlooking Syria and the surrounding areas. After lunch we gathered our bags from the hotel and began to look for a bus to return to Irbid, however we did not have the slightest idea of where to look. As we waited for a bus to magical appear at our feet, a van was passing by and from it a man shouted “Irbid?”, so we hopped in. We returned to Irbid after an hour and then took a service taxi to Jerash.
As we arrived into Jerash, we told our driver the name of our hotel – the Olive Branch Resort – but he was unfamiliar with it. After asking a few people in Jerash, we discovered that the hotel was about 7 km from Jerash towards Aljoun. He told us he would take us to the hotel, but he was going to charge 15 JD, instead of the original 5 JD. An extra 10 JD for 7 km? I don’t think so. We ended up paying 10 JD (which is still a couple JDs too high), as I think he assumed the drive from Jerash to our hotel was a lot farther than he thought.
We arrived on Saturday evening at the Olive Branch Resort, located within an olive tree plantation as its name suggests. Definitely put the previous hotel to shame. The hotel reminded me of an older hotel managed by an older couple in the middle of nowhere in the States. It had such a home-like feel to it, which may have been due to the genuine service of its employees or because Caitlin’s landlord knew the owner of the hotel! Either way the tranquil atmosphere of the hotel was relaxing, the service was incredible, and the bed was much more comfortable than the night before.
After taking a three hour nap, Caitlin and I were ready for dinner and decided to go into the city for dinner. As I mentioned the service at the hotel was incredible, as they called us a taxi that picked us up from the hotel and even returned us to our hotel after our meal.
On Saturday morning around 9 am, we arrived at the ruins in Jerash – one of Jordan’s major attractions. Thanks to my Lonely Planet guide book of Jordan, we did not have to pay for a tour guide of this Roman city. My guide book sufficed for my minimal interest in ancient history – although I will be in honest in saying that I did very much enjoy walking around the ruins and the guide book provided me with just the right amount of information on what I was looking at that it kept me attentive the entire time.
I will not bore you with background on each ruin that we passed. However, I will note a couple of ruins of interest to me. I am always amazed at the continued presence of some of these ruins, especially since the majority of these ruins were built in the 1st century AD. After purchasing the ticket to view the ruins of Jerash, you enter the city through Hadrian’s Arch (or the Triumphal Arch) which stands nearly 45 feet high – quite an impressive entrance. As we walked through the Oval Plaza (or Forum) I imagined how beautiful it had once been when it served as the center of the city’s social and political life – makes you think about what building or place serves as the center of our social and political life. After about two hours of touring the ruins of Jerash, we decided that we wanted to watch the reenactment of chariot races that began at 11:15 am. Our taxi returning to Amman was to depart at 11:45 am, so that would allow for us to enjoy the chariot races for approximately 30 minutes. Both Caitlin and myself were really looking forward to witnessing this reenactment. We paid our 6 JD per person, grabbed a seat in the arena, and waited for it to begin. However, remember we are in Jordan and time is not an exact thing for most occasions. Well, it was passing 11:30 am when we decided we should meet our taxi who was expecting us shortly. We asked for our money back which seemed reasonably since we did not see any performance. Although the cashier was somewhat hesitant to return our 12 JD, he eventually gave in and as we walked away I noticed they had changed the start time on the sign from 11:15 am to 11:30 am. Not surprised actually – although it still upsets me that time is used so loosely in too many instances (I guess I’ll have to get over it).
Caitlin and I plopped into the taxi and we drove back to Amman. One could hear crickets in our ride back because it was so quiet – Caitlin and I were both tired from a busy, yet incredibly fun and relaxing weekend. Not only was I able to do some in-country traveling to two beautiful and historic sights and enjoy various aspects of Jordanian culture, but I was able to spend time and travel with one of my best friends.
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