A guide to the do’s and don’t in Jordan, the gem in the middle east.

Last year in June I got married to the most beautiful girl in the world,Shweta. She is a cabin crew working for Etihad airways. As her profession suggests, she is extremely fond of travelling and uncovering various parts of this beautiful world.

Before her, I was quite a boring person whose life just revolved around the 7km distance from the recording studio to home.So 3 years into our relationship she managed to plant the seed of travelling into my life,thank god for that, I owe a lot to her for doing this. (Also she being a cabin crew gets me tickets for cheap, LOL 😀 ).

Last year in November, I visited the USA for the first time inspite of my brother living there for almost 11years now. She consented to accompany me and only then I agreed. It was a life changing experience. It was then we decided to travel to explore more places in the world as I had started enjoying this whole unknown concept of ‘travelling’.

I am an audio engineer by profession and god knows when we are busy it can get so hectic we have to remind ourselves by alarms to even shave. I was engulfed with tedious work on Star TV’s ‘The Voice’ season 3 as Project manager(Post Audio) through the first 4 months of the year. While I had done my tiny bit of research on destinations suitable to visit in May, I came across a post on Instagram about Jordan. It was a no brainer, we had instantly decided our holiday destination.

We decided to visit on 4th May as I had a break and Shweta too had a 5 day off from her hectic schedule. Extremely excited, I reached the airport on the night of 3rd May. To my horror I was informed that the flight I was to board was full and as I had a standby staff ticket I had to miss it. I was utterly disappointed as I was really looking forward to this and to add to it I had lost money over the prior bookings that I had done. We were heartbroken but we didn’t give up the idea and decided to travel next month again when Shweta had a 5 day off(luckily) yet again.

After a long month of patience , I got a flight to Abu Dhabi(where she lives) on 2nd June and I decided to spend 3 days there before our scheduled vacation to the unknown country, Jordan.The day arrived, we packed our bag and were on our way to Amman.Finally it was happening !

Day 1

We landed into Queen Alia Intl Airport(Amman) exactly at 12:55.We were warmly greeted by the Immigration officer. I was absolutely flabbergasted at how handsome the men and how beautiful the women here were. Every person had that specific common colour of eyes, the sharpness of the chin, reddish skin, thick Arabic accent.

Queen Alia International Airport, Amman

We quickly completed our formalities, claimed our luggage and head straight to buy a local sim card at the airport terminal.

There are two main Cellphone services in Jordan, Zain and Umniah. A Zain tourist sim card was 16JD and had a months validity. Umniah on the other hand was cheaper. The sim card was for 11JD with 15mins International minutes,5 sms and most importantly 10GB of internet.

1JD =Rs 98.5, so thats almost 100 bucks per JD !

From the prior research I had done, I was very well informed that the public transport in Jordan wasnt really great so I had booked a car rental through RENTALCARS.COM. An automatic Chevy Cobalt for 4 days with complete Insurance costed me around Rs. 17500. Honestly this decision turned out to be the best as we saved a lot of money over local and intercity transport and also had timing flexibility. Also the car was in mint condition and was super comfy.

The airport is 40kms away from downtown Amman. Cars in Jordan drive on the right hand side of the road unlike India, it took me some 30mins to get used to it as I was used to driving only in India. The speed limit in Jordan is 100km/hr and 110km/hr sometimes. Soon I got a hang of the mentality of local drivers. I realised it is nothing different from India. The local drivers in Jordan are as indisciplined as those in India. No lane discipline, no turn indicators, honking was common.

We decided to directly drive to our first location i.e. Amman Citadel. As soon as we entered the city, it felt somewhat like Shimla or any other ‘pahadi’ city, I thanked my instinct for booking a larger car with more engine capacity as I realised the roads were too steep to climb for small cars.

The traffic in Amman is mad ! Just like in Andheri(Mumbai) or maybe worse due to steep roads. It took us around an hour to reach Amman Citadel.It was beautiful ! Grand ! I was totally surprised at how precise and on point the architecture was in the year 332BC ! Amman Citadel is a historic site with great importance as many different people and cultures occupied it until the Umayyads after which the city became nothing but a pile of ruins. The important sites at the Citadel are

1. The Temple of Hercules

2. The Byzantine Church

3. Umayyad Palace.

4. In addition, the view of the city is also great from up here.

Next we decided to go to the Roman Theatre, you can actually see it in the above picture, to the left of me. There is a way to walk down from the Citadel. Its quite a long walk to the bottom ! And then you have to climb those stairs back too. Its almost 65 floors of steep climbing.

While it showed a pleasant 30 degree temperature, I ll be honest it didn’t feel so. In my opinion a month before would have been much better. Jordan is Dry, so you really feel the heat. To every other person planning a trip here, please do it in April or May. It isn’t absolutely unbearable like Mumbai or Delhi though.

The heat was too much so we decided to take the car to the Theatre. This was a very bad decision! The road downwards is a steep spiral slope. The width is so less, Im guessing only a truck’s width. Cars parked on both sides narrowing the road further and to top it the two way traffic ! It took around 20mins just to reach down, maybe 1.5kms only !!Finding a suitable parking in Amman is near impossible ! After roaming the streets for 15 more minutes luckily we found a spot nearly 600m away from the theatre. Until now I had clearly gotten an idea as to how indisciplined the locals were when it came to parking vehicles ! Its CHAOS !

I would rather suggest others to walk down to the theatre and avoid the pain of driving and finding a parking spot !

The Roman Theatre was superb, it was 9th June and we were lucky to witness the 20th anniversary of the coronation of the King of Jordan Abdullah II. It was an event of national importance and many locals were seen carrying Flags of Jordan. Little children had their faces painted with the national flag. We also witnessed an Airplane show.

Roman Theatre, Amman

The heat was too much to bear. I decided to go local and actually try the ‘Keffiyah’, a local scarf which practically every local wears. I got one right across the street for 7JD and learnt to tie it from the shopkeeper who was a very sweet and helpful person who spoke broken English. I suggest everyone use the Keffiyah, its super comfortable and cool !

By now we had realised driving in downtown Amman isn’t a great idea so we decided go explore downtown on foot. On enquiring about places to eat, the locals unanimously suggested ‘Hashem Restaurant’ so we head there. Hashem to my surprise was a veg restaurant. They had only 3 things on the Menu. Hummus, Falafel and Mouttabal. We ordered for Hummus and Falafel. MAN ! HANDS DOWN, THE BEST HUMMUS AND FALAFEL I EVER HAD ! Being the hardcore non veg, I really didn’t miss meat at that moment.

We were completely full after the meal and asked for the bill. It was a mere 2 JD ! I was shocked and asked the waiter to recheck, he confirmed the amount. We ate like Hippos for 200 bucks ! I couldn’t believe it ! If you ever go to Amman, remember ‘HASHEM’S RESTAURANT’ is THE place to go at least once!

Hashem’s Restaurant

Next we walked upto the famous and the most ‘happening’ part of Amman, Rainbow Street. It was something like the Koregaon Park of Amman.In our short time we had seen that smoking was so common.

4 out 3 people in Jordan smoke.LOL! Thus sheesha is available everywhere.

Rainbow street had restaurants, bars, shisha cafes, cars driving with loud local arabic songs,young students, street music.Good vibes basically ! Heres how it looked .

Rainbow Street,Amman

It was almost 9pm and we decided to call it a day and started driving to our accommodation. I had booked an Airbnb at Mr.Shareef’s place. There was a wedding hall right opposite our room. Luckily there was a wedding happening there that night and we were lucky to witness a Jordanian wedding ! Beautiful music, great vibes. Day 1 was a win !!

Day 2

My itinerary for day 2 initially seemed a little too overambitious and that was one the main reasons for us to start the day early. We woke up at 6:30am. It was super pleasant, mornings in Jordan are the best weatherwise. A nice hot shower and cold breeze can totally rejuvenate you.

We thanked Mr.Shareef for his hospitality and started out drive to the next unexplored destination,the historic town of Jerash. Jerash is around 55kms from downtown Amman and takes slightly longer than an hour to reach. The drive to Jerash is quite scenic and the highway is in great condition. With a speed limit of 100km/hr it is quite a comfortable drive.We reached Jerash at around 8:15 which was early as the site opens for visitors post 9:00.

We decided to have breakfast at a local restaurant right opposite the car parking at the visitor centre there. We had fried eggs,cheese, fresh orange juice and yet again the local staple, Hummus ! I wasn’t over ‘Hashem restaurant’ and the food here was decent but nowhere close to it. I was surprised when the bill for the above food was 15JD ! Just a day before I had paid 2JD for a meal better and bigger. This was my first encounter with the famous ‘expensiveness’ of life in Jordan.We walked through the visitor centre where there were souvenir and local cloth shops. We stopped at a shop and I got few things for my mom there.

Like any other tourist place, the shopkeepers will try to rip you off and it is upto you to bargain, he quoted around 26JD for 2 items which I later got for 12JD after bargaining.

Jerash is another city of historic importance. It is also nick named ‘Pompeii of the east’. It is a blend of Greco-Roman and Mediterranean Arab culture. Yet again I was astonished at the precision and skill of architecture here. For a moment it takes you back of how it must have been back then.

As per historians the city flourished till the early AD’s until in 750AD the earthquake of Galilee destroyed large parts of the city. Later in the 16th Century Ottomans also settled here briefly.Important sites at Jerash are

1. Hadrian’s Arc

2. The Oval Plaza

3. The Cardo Maximus

4. The North Theatre

5. The temple of Artemis

An important thing to remember here is that this is a huge site and requires a lot of walking and climbing again. The heat gets to you so make sure you are well hydrated and have had sufficient breakfast.

We finished all the sites in Jerash by around 11:30 and decided to bid goodbye and move on to the next destination.My most looked forward to on this trip, The Dead Sea !

The Dead sea is to the west of the country, almost 95km from Jerash. Its a comfortable 2 hour drive but the highway after a while isn’t great and the roads are smaller. Nonetheless its easy.On our way to the Dead Sea we were out of drinking water and so decided to get water on the way. While a 1.5ltr bottle costed 0.35JD in Amman, the same bottle of water here was for 0.80JD !

Nowhere in Jordan is there a marked price on water bottles, I suggest you buy water at Amman itself as it is considerably cheaper as compared to the other places.

At around 13:45, we reached. I had made a reservation at ‘Ramada by Wyndham’ through Agoda.com. While initially the hotel staff couldn’t find my booking and after struggling for 45mins they finally gave us our room and we freshened up and decided to have lunch outside.

There is a small mall called Samarah Mall at the Dead sea where we found some local restaurants.We decided to have lunch outside and not at the resort as we were looking for something authentic and with prior experience at Resorts we were sure that the food would be expensive and non authentic. So we stopped at this mall to have lunch. I was charged 2JD just for parking ! That’s when I got an idea that maybe this being a tourist destination everything could be expensive.We went to a local restaurant on the ground floor and the owner offered us 2 sample bowls, one Mansaf and one Mandi, we finalised on the Mandi and ordered one. I’d be honest. The Mandi was below average and tasted bland, almost horrible.We were famished so we dug into it without complaining. It costed 12JD !! I was shocked and disappointed, the feeling of being ripped off isn’t nice, I learnt!

The cosmetics made from the salt and mud of the Dead sea are super famous. I decided to buy some for my mother. It was off season and every shop had a 50% off, we got 2 soaps, 2 body scrubs and 2 face masks for 60JD.

We returned to the resort at around 3pm, it was super hot. Ramada has its own private beach behind the resort. Towels,Showers and shacks everything is available there. We decided to let the sun go down a little and then head to the Dead sea beach.It was 4:30pm and we decided to take the shuttle to the beach. The beach is 750m away, so you can walk or take the hotel’s shuttle.

The Dead Sea

We took our towels and reserved our shack. The view was beautiful. The dead sea has only one source of water i.e. River Jordan which was flowing right beside our shack. I didn’t click a pic of it as it looked quite uninspiring, maybe like a small stream which I later learned was the only source of water into the Sea.The mud on the Beach is supposed to have a lot of minerals and medicinal properties. Everyone applies the mud on their entire bodies before washing it off in the sea.There was a mud pool specially made by our Resort and we too coated ourselves with mud completely.

Due to the dry weather in Jordan my skin had cracked at places. The salt from the mud made sure I knew exactly where I had those ! My entire body was burning and itchy!!!

The Dead sea lies 398m below sea level. It is called so because it has no form of life in it due to 34.8% Salinity ! Almost 9.5times that of the Ocean !!

My entire body was itching and I decided to wash it into the sea totally forgetting about the Salinity level.One can easily float on this water due to its high salinity. Its a wonderful experience, as soon as you get into the water and lie down, the water actually pushes you up, it feels as though you are sleeping on a bed ! I was literally surfing the internet while lying down on the water floating without any effort. It rather takes an effort to drown yourself here.

While I actually thought washing off the mud would make me feel better I had forgotten about the Salinity of the water. After a while, my whole body was itchy and burning due to the salty water. I decided to take a shower which was thankfully on the beach itself. While showering a small drop of water entered my mouth. GOD ! That was saltiest thing I had ever tasted. I thanked myself for not opening my mouth accidentally in the sea, One would have puked definitely ! Its indescribable, the salinity, the itching and the burning ! You cannot spend more than 25mins at a stretch in that water.

After having a lot of fun at the beach we returned to our room and took a thorough shower.We had learnt after our afternoon’s experience that finding authentic good food in this area would be a distant dream and so we decided to eat at the hotel.We had a great poolside dinner(Grilled chicken with pickled vegetables) with Sheesha. It costed 17JD.While initally I thought we wouldn’t manage to complete our Day 2 checklist, we rather finished it comfortably, non exhausted. An eventful day 2 had ended and we were smiling as we fell asleep !

Day 3

I had already anticipated this to be one the most hectic days as per my ‘to do’ list. Was it going to be worth it was the real question! We had decided to go to Wadi Rum today. Wadi Rum is located in the south very close to the famous town of Aqaba. As it is almost a 5 hour drive, 345km approximately from the Dead sea we decided to start our day super early.Breakfast was included in our package at Ramada.

For Rs. 5500 for a night, a resort with a private beach, buffet or A-la-Carte poolside restaurant and a never ending breakfast buffet, Ramada is totally worth it !

Breakfast starts as early as 6am at Ramada and we were one of the first to have it. As the drive was going to be a long one and with a deadline of reaching Wadi Rum at 11:30 we did not have the liberty to make too many stops.

We moved on to our next destination and for a thrilling long drive. I was totally looking forward to it.The highway connecting to Wadi Rum is called the ‘Desert highway’ for obvious reasons. The drive is one of the most scenic drives in the world. Miles and miles of uninhabited desert wilderness on both the sides of the road. For someone travelling from India this is a rare and refreshing sight.

There are Police check posts at regular intervals on the highways in Jordan. The policemen are super polite and extremely helpful.

We were stopped at two different checkposts where the cops were extremely helpful and courteous. They guided us as to not take the road Google suggested as it was a bad one. On knowing we are from India they had bright smile and the greeted us with a ‘Namastey’. Halfway through the drive, we were left with almost 1/4th tank fuel but we still decided to refuel our vehicle.

Fuel in Jordan is quite expensive. There are 2 grades, Petrol 95 and Petrol 90 at 1JD and 0.78JD per litre respectively. That is almost 100 and 78 bucks per litre. A full tank with 1/4th tank remaining costed us 28JD.

Onwards into the drive the scenery started getting better. Beautiful stone mountains on both sides was a treat to watch. The road for most of the drive is in excellent condition with a 120km/hr speed limit as it is a newly constructed road. Work on the it is still ongoing and there are various detours and single lane patches which slow you down a bit and are quite annoying.

We reached the Visitor Centre at Wadi Rum at around 11:45 as scheduled. We had no prior bookings done and thus had to do something about it.One cannot use your regular sedan to enter Wadi rum as there are no roads but a total Desert terrain. An SUV with 4×4 drive has to be rented. There is a fixed price mentioned on the information board and thus it isnt possible to be cheated or overcharged. There are various 1hr, 2hr, 3hr,4hr and full day 8hr packages and you are free to chose any.

We chose an SUV with a driver for the entire day (8hrs) for 80JD. The SUV can take upto 6 passengers and cost the same so if you dont mind sharing the ride you can find many tourists at the visitor centre and you can share the total cost. We found 3 young travellers from Spain Alberto,Miguel and Laura thus our cost was a meagre 16JD per person !

Once you have paid for your ride you have to follow the driver in your own vehicle to Wadi Rum village which is around 8kms away. There is huge parking space there where you park your vehicle.

There is no space for suitcases on the SUV so it advisable to carry only essentials and a pair of extra clothes in a backpack.Make sure you buy water bottles here itself as the cost is double once you enter the desert. Cost of a bottle is 0.50JD for 1.5 litre on the village.

The 5 of us left onwards into the desert. The scenery around was so unique. Never in my life had I seen so much beauty around. There are various sites in Wadi Rum and the driver takes you around each.Lawrence of arabia spring, Khazali Canyon, Burdah Rock bridge, Mushroom rock, Alameleh inscriptions, Jabal Ram, Jabal Umm Dami are the sites which our young Bedouin driver Sami took us to.

Atop Lawrence’s Spring

Lawrence’s Spring

Atop Lawrence’s spring

Burdah Rock Bridge

Mushroom Rock

Another suggestion is to probably have lunch at Wadi Rum village itself as the lunch that the camps provide is pretty bad. Its canned Tuna, a tetra pack of Hummus, 1 biscuit, 1 slice of cake, 1 tomato, cucumber and a banana for 5JD ! Totally avoidable !

Every site has a small Bedouin camp set at the foot and you can have refreshing tea there which they offer free of cost !

If you have seen the films ‘The Martian’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ you will totally relate to it. These movies have been entirely shot here. The place actually seems like a different planet altogether.

Visiting sites at Wadi Rum requires a lot of walking and more importantly climbing difficult mountains. Make sure you wear comfortable clothes and suitable footwear.If you have a foot or Knee problem this place is seriously difficult and would’nt been fun. My smartwatch clocked 16kms and 173floors of elevation at the end of the day ! Just saying !

The sunset at Wadi Rum is to die for ! The orange sunburst makes the whole desert look prettier. Here are some unedited pics I clicked off my cellphone.

After sunset if you wish to spend the night, there are innumerable ‘Bedouin camps’ where you can experience authentic bedouin lifestyle and cuisine. The cost is 25JD per person which includes dinner and breakfast. There are some other extremely expensive luxury camps(almost 150JD per night) but we rather opted for a more cheaper authentic camp.

The Bedouin camps aren’t really comfortable as the bathrooms etc. have limited water. There are very few phone charging points too.

Bedouin Camp

Dinner was Chicken Kabsa made in the traditional underground oven called ‘Zarb’. It wasn’t great but not too bad either.The night sky was absolutely clear and we decided to star gaze for a while after dinner.

A five hour 345km drive, 16kms and 173 floors of walk and the hot sun had the best of me. I fell on the bed and fell off the sleep almost instantly but extremely contented with a feeling of achievement !

Day 4

Yet again we started the day early. I had already visioned there wouldn’t be hot water in the morning and so had taken a shower the previous night itself. Poor Shweta had to take a cold shower in the already cold desert morning.Breakfast was a humble spread of Peta Bread, jam,breadsticks, cheese, olive oil and the regional herb ‘Zaatar’. Herbal tea was served along with this.

We bid adieu to the camp and were dropped back to the village at around 8:30. Our next destination was going to be Petra.Petra is 105kms from Wadi Rum and the drive is again very scenic. You drive on the King’s highway, which was supposedly a trade route in the olden days. It took around an hour and a half to reach Petra.

King’s Highway

Petra is considered a UNESCO heritage site since 1985. It is also part of the New 7 wonders of the world. Naturally we were super excited to see this heritage site. Considered to be made by the Nabataean Rulers, it sure is pretty old !As we entered the visitor centre the first thing we noticed was the humongous map. It was clear, this was also going to be a day full of physical activity. As per the map, the end destination, the monastery was around 8 kms ahead !

According to local guides this is only 1/3rd part of the city. The other majority of the city is yet undiscovered and buried under the mountains.

We started walking with our head gear on and water bottles stocked. Almost a km into our walk, the road further led into a natural canyon. The path was surrounded by large mountains on both sides providing natural protection from the sun. It was incredible.

Next up almost 1.5km ahead you reach Al Khzaneh or The treasury. The beauty of this monument cannot be explained in words. Its huge ! Its elegant ! Its beautiful !

There are sub sites around the treasury. These are the photogenic points. You have to climb the adjacent mountains to reach these spots. They are sort of ‘controlled’ by locals and they force you into hiring a guide to go up even though it isn’t mentioned officially. They will try to rip you off. Our guide quoted 15JD per person to which I counter bargained aggressively to seal the deal at 6JD per person. At the top there is a little camp run by these local who force you to buy overpriced drinks or else pay 1JD per person as fee.Its an offer you cant refuse ! So you do end up paying for pictures actually !

Nonetheless, the view is breathtaking and the pictures are lovely irrespective of how ugly you look !! LoL !

Al Khazneh

The Treasury

Around an hour and a half is easily spent here. Mind you this is only 1/3rd of the main trail yet. Another Km ahead you reach the Royal Tombs.

The Royal Tombs

There are many side trails apart from the main one, you can definitely visit if you have the time ! These trails are difficult though.

Numerous sites like Qasr al Bint, the high place of sacrifice, city of facades come along the way. They are marvellous!

Qasr Al bint

The last 1.5km of the main trail is the challenging part. It is a steep accent, you are actually climbing the mountain to reach Ad Deir or the monastery which is the penultimate destination of the trail.After a good hour of rigorous effort we managed to surmount the mountain and reach Ad Deir. It is unbelievable how they must’ve made it back then !!

Ad Deir

We had managed to finish the main trail and now embarked on our return journey. We started at around 3:45pm and reached the gates of the visitor centre at 5:30pm, a distance of 7.5km one way !As famished that we were, we decided to visit a close by local restaurant called ‘Petra Kitchen’ .We had Hummus with Chicken and it was superb !

Petra Kitchen is not only a restaurant but they also conduct cooking classes where you can learn to make local arabic dishes. Its a 3hr class with prior bookings.

We hadn’t booked a hotel so we started hotel hunting. Petra is the site based in the town of Wadi Musa. Most of the hotels here are overpriced but we managed to find a decent place in downtown Wadi Musa called ‘The Petra capsule hotel’. For a reasonable cost of 18JD for the night it was a steal and I totally recommend this place. There is a sweet shop and Wadi Musa’s highest rated restaurant ,Beit Al Barakah, bang opposite.

Petra is open at night on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday each week. The entire path upto The treasury is lit by candles. The cost is 17JD per person and tickets can be gotten at the visitor centre in the morning itself.

Petra by night is a wonderful experience. Thousands of candles, a music performance to go with it make it quite memorable.

Naturally you end up walking all the way to the treasury and back again adding around 3kms of walking activity.We decided to have dinner at a local restaurant called Beit Al Barakah. We ordered a Chicken Mansaf. Mansaf is meat cooked in Yoghurt with local herbs and served with rice. A special curry type of a thing is served which is made from Goat Milk. Mansaf is tasty but could be acquired taste and noob non veg folks wouldn’t really like it much due to the odour and blandish taste.

Another hectic day was over. My watch clocked a whooping 43400 steps and 23.4kms of walking activity. Consequentially we slept like the dead !

Day 5

Finally it was the day to go back. We got up late. There was a local bakery and sweet shop called sanabel. I packed assorted Baklawa for friends and family. Shawarma is as common as wada pav in Mumbai, we packed ourselves 2 Shawarma sandwiches for 6JD and we were off to the airport.

The airport is 205kms away and is a 3hour drive.Before reaching the airport,we refuelled the car one last time.it cost us 30JD. After reaching we returned the car to the rental. For one last time I got myself a cup of Arabic coffee, looked at the high flying Jordan flag at the airport and bid this beautiful country goodbye !

Tips to make your stay better in Jordan 1. Jordan offers on arrival Visa to Indian Passport holders. There is a thing called ‘Jordan Pass’ which includes your Visa charges and entry fee to various (almost all) sites in Jordan. It 70JD each for a one day to Petra. There are 2 and 3 day Petra packages too. Also you can choose to visit The. Baptism site of Jesus for additional 8JD(16 JD on the spot) per person. If you are religious you can go or else there is very little to see there. 2. Renting a car is the best mode of transport. There are private (Yellow) and shared taxis (white,) in Amman but the other places are a pain without a car. 3. Rent a sedan or vehicle with bigger engine capacity. Avoid small cars as there are too many steep climbs. 4. Try and stock water in Amman and save almost 50% of water cost. 5. Use Sunglasses and Caps always. Carry sunscreen lotion 6. Preferably visit in April or May as it not totally pleasant in June, its not unbearable though. 7. Buy the Umniah Sim card for tourists, its cheaper(11JD). 8. Food, water etc in general is expensive in Jordan. Don’t be shocked. 9. Jordanians are very polite and helpful. English isn’t very popular but the do understand a bit. Learn basic Arabic greetings and keep the Translate app. 10. At the dead sea please have meals at the hotel itself, they cost almost same outside and aren’t half good either. 11. Do not carry Indian money as most places don’t accept it even to exchange. Carry Dollars or Euros after exchanging in India itself. 12. Unlike most of the countries in the gulf there is very little resident Indian population. English isn’t very popular amongst the locals, do acquaint yourself to basic arabic greetings. 13. Conserve water when in Jordan

Here is the photograph of expenses I kept noting realtime.

Jordan is beautiful ! Amongst all the chaos and war in the neighbouring countries, Jordan has managed to keep itself safe for everyone.Its a paradise worth visiting at least once in your lifetime.