We were able to through-check our luggage to Bangkok and get our boarding passes for both legs of the trip (Istanbul - Amman; Amman - Bangkok). We were both flying Royal Jordanian for the first time, and we thought it was quite a pleasant experience. The service was great and the first flight to Amman took only a couple of hours.
When we reached Amman we purchased a visa (10 dinar) so that we could leave and see some of the city. For some reason the immigration officers found something funny about my passport (perhaps the photo?) and then decided to question me on the fact that I was born in Singapore but was an Australian citizen. Still, I wasn't denied entry (which in hindsight wasn't necessarily a good thing). Royal Jordanian actually provides free accommodation for all long-haul transit passengers at the Golden Tulip (airport hotel), so we caught the free transit bus there and passed through the heavy security to check in. The room itself was large and had been recently renovated. We should have stayed in and slept on that lovely, safe bed. But no, we ventured out.
One of the hotel employees had told us taxis to downtown Amman should cost about 10 dinar, so when a cab stopped and agreed to that price, we got in. Our driver was a man named Mohamed, who decided that he would give us "good price" - 30 dinar to take us downtown, drive us around for a couple of hours, show us the sights, and deposit us back at the hotel. This was a fine deal, so we said okay. He seemed alright at first - showing us a photo of his son, complaining about his wife ("she always call, want to know 'where are you?', 'what are you doing?'"). When Mohamed started telling us about a little shop he wanted to take us to, I got a bit uneasy and firmly told him a few times we did not want to go (which was true, we had no room in our hand luggage for shopping anyway). Then he wanted to take us to a particular restaurant. I said no to that, too. He did show us a lot of the new and old downtown areas, including a swish new bridge and the very old Roman Theatre.
Despite what I had said earlier, he did pull back up at the previous restaurant. We got out and I made it clear we wanted to look at the menu first. The menu looked fine and there were also other people there, so we settled. It was essentially a fast food place, and Mohamed knew the man serving us (of course he did). In fact, he joined us at the table for dinner...and then made no attempts to pay for himself afterwards either.
By then I had seen enough and wanted to get back to the hotel. When we stopped outside the hotel Mohamed was taking ages with the invoice, so I knew something was up. We had 30 dinars ready (about all we had left on us) and then he told us it would be 45 dinar (essentially an extra USD$20) because he waited for us. Well, too bad. I told him again very firmly that we had made a deal, and that it had included his driving/waiting time. When he pushed back, I threatened to call over one of the hotel security guards. He backed down a bit, but insisted we still give him an extra 10. Poor Nik by this stage was willing to hand over the few dinar we had left, but I told him to get out of the car. By this time Mohamed was pulling the old "what about my children" line and begging for 5 dinar. I reminded him he had got a free dinner out of us (cheeky bastard) and then told him to take the money out of that. With that, I pushed Nik out and promptly got out and walked away. Mohamed called after us ("don't worry Zarah, I take it from my own pocket"). I honestly don't even know if that photo he showed us of his "son" was legit or not.
So that was the sum total of our Jordanian experience: a few glimpses of the city, terrible food (which I am pretty sure made me so sick, but more on that later) and an authentic taxi experience in which we almost got scammed. Not really one that makes one want to rush back. I hope Mohamed's wife gives him hell.
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