In which it takes an entire day to fly to Amman, less than two hours away by plane.
Rain showers again in Istanbul as I left for the trek to the airport. Booked driver arrived just slightly late and dropped an hour later at the departures area joined the first long line for first stage security, all bags and people scanned before entry to airport proper. Surprisingly not much apparent deterrent to driving a car bomb to the front glassed entrances…. Again, some interesting line up cutting was going on and some people had cases upon cases stacked on trollies…. Once through, it was a (fast paced) 10 min walk to the identified check in counter – then another two security checks before getting into the areas with the departure gates. Yet despite all this very few bags were checked as happens in North America and I don’t get the sense that it’s as thorough…?
Masses of people milling around the cavernous, echoing halls – a Chinese group sleeping flat out in one corner, and several others like me looking for a lounge (none of us accepted, the only functioning lounge is the Turkish Airways and business class Star Alliance). Apparently the others are not finished yet….Few restaurants/food places open, all with long lines and ridiculous prices. Another two km hike to the departure gate (not exaggerating ) and the flight of course departs late and then spends 20” taxiing out to the airstrip. It must be costing the airlines a fortune in fuel for this stupidity.
The construction is still madly underway at the Istanbul new airport, and it was bizarre to see the roads being laid – literally nothing 10 yards ahead of the paving, methinks it won’t last long without proper underpinning…
Royal Jordanian planes are old…. I was in the exit row mid plane and there was such a draft and noise from the exit door over the wing on takeoff I was prepared for it to pop off at any point….. my charming seat partner used his phone on takeoff and landing, but had to get up three times for me (okay I did a couple of those on purpose) as he had the aisle seat. But amazingly they served lunch on a two hour flight, and even produced a vegetarian sandwich for me. Tricky balancing the tea and lunch box on the tray which slanted alarmingly (worn out like most of the rest of the plane). It was a bumpy landing and it felt like the wheels hit the ground right under our seats (probably a feeling shared by much of the plane) – looking forward to the next RJ flight to Cairo.
Queen Alia Airport in Amman is a nice, airy and light 5 years old airport . It separates passport control lines into “VIP’s and investors”, Jordanians and non-Jordanians, with or without visas…. the tour greeter was there as promised and when I eventually got to the wicket (2 agents for a long lineup) he certified that I was joining a tour (any group with a local travel agent spending at least a night in Jordan get visa fees waived). He drove like a maniac into Amman, a city built originally on 7 hills and now occupying 12 hills with a population of 5 million. All the way in I was thinking about the statistics for tourist deaths being mostly caused by traffic accidents…… The hotel, now in a residential neighbourhood, definitely belongs to the “faded glory” category and badly needs updating/refreshing/cleaning. Bags went through security yet again on the way in….However its a place to rest one’s head and the notice in the lobby says there’s a meeting at 8 tomorrow a.m. so will meet the rest of the group then and we move on for our first day of cycling through farmlands…tried to locate friend Julie’s archeology dig on the way in but wasn’t sure which of the many hills it was on! And the driver assured me there were too many in the way to see it anyway from our highway….I guess you need to know where to look?
Memories of the day: walking miles in the airport, lineups, taking all day to travel 2 hours by plane. Sigh. But an interesting variety of clothing from full burqa to Saudi Arabian garb to Bedouin style headgear at passport control in Amman.