Our bus to Amman was at 11am so we had time to get up, have breakfast and pack without being rushed.
We debated taking a taxi (it's a seven minute walk to the JETT bus station), because we had our big packs, day packs, a bag of food for the bus trip, plus a big duffle bag of souvenirs. Also I was starting to come down with a cold. It was a nice day so decided just to walk to the bus.
The bus was a double decker, and like in Morocco the seat assignments were treated a bit loosely. The bus was only half full so it didn't really matter.
The evening before, we had stocked up on food for the bus ride: pitas (from the bakery I took a pic inside), triangle cheese, mixed nuts, and bananas.
There was a bit extra customs to load the bus because Aqaba is in a tax-free zone, but they didn't pay much attention to tourists.
We slept through most of the ride to Amman. I was starting my cold and so didn't mind sleeping. The bus left promptly at 11am, and arrived in Amman without stops at 3pm right on schedule.
We quickly grabbed a taxi (20JD) to the Mosaic City hotel in Madaba. The traffic wasn't too bad because it was Christmas, a national holiday here.
Our hotel was an excellent mid-range hotel. It's fairly new, it was very clean, good shower and the heat worked.
The plan was to use Madaba as a base for day trips around northern Jordan. The excursion prices seemed a bit high at our hotel so we went to the nearby Black Iris Hotel to book out day trips.
The Black Iris owner was excellent at helping us plan out day trips. He's really knowledgeable about the area. He had another guest who wanted to do the Desert Castle tour the next day, so we signed up for that (JD 45 for the car, split between the three of us)
Walked down to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It's the top rated restaurant in the area. It looked good, except all the diners were having a Christmas sing-a-long. I suppose some people like that, but it wasn't for us.
Ended up at Adonis Restaurant. It had a good atmosphere. We had a nice Christmas dinner with a bottle of Jordanian red (from St George, right here in Madaba)
We debated taking a taxi (it's a seven minute walk to the JETT bus station), because we had our big packs, day packs, a bag of food for the bus trip, plus a big duffle bag of souvenirs. Also I was starting to come down with a cold. It was a nice day so decided just to walk to the bus.
The bus was a double decker, and like in Morocco the seat assignments were treated a bit loosely. The bus was only half full so it didn't really matter.
The evening before, we had stocked up on food for the bus ride: pitas (from the bakery I took a pic inside), triangle cheese, mixed nuts, and bananas.
There was a bit extra customs to load the bus because Aqaba is in a tax-free zone, but they didn't pay much attention to tourists.
We slept through most of the ride to Amman. I was starting my cold and so didn't mind sleeping. The bus left promptly at 11am, and arrived in Amman without stops at 3pm right on schedule.
We quickly grabbed a taxi (20JD) to the Mosaic City hotel in Madaba. The traffic wasn't too bad because it was Christmas, a national holiday here.
Our hotel was an excellent mid-range hotel. It's fairly new, it was very clean, good shower and the heat worked.
The plan was to use Madaba as a base for day trips around northern Jordan. The excursion prices seemed a bit high at our hotel so we went to the nearby Black Iris Hotel to book out day trips.
The Black Iris owner was excellent at helping us plan out day trips. He's really knowledgeable about the area. He had another guest who wanted to do the Desert Castle tour the next day, so we signed up for that (JD 45 for the car, split between the three of us)
Walked down to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It's the top rated restaurant in the area. It looked good, except all the diners were having a Christmas sing-a-long. I suppose some people like that, but it wasn't for us.
Ended up at Adonis Restaurant. It had a good atmosphere. We had a nice Christmas dinner with a bottle of Jordanian red (from St George, right here in Madaba)
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