Jordan

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Crossing the road:
Amman has a number of wide roads that the locals cross with no fear - just stepping out in a way that would cause death in seconds in London or New York - it wasn't until late in my holiday did I find out that if a car hits a pedestrian - its the car drivers fault - regardless of what the pedestrian did!!

Jordan is a fabulous country - it's people are warm, friendly, and open - and it has some amazing sights to see.

In Amman, the capital there are remnants of Roman times, in Karak, a crusader Castle, in Aqaba the Red Sea.

The most amazing sight in Jordan has to be Petra - where the living rock has been carved out to form the facade of amazing buildings - I was lucky enough to have a couple of days at Petra, so I managed to get in early in the morning, before all the tour buses arrived and I had the whole place to myself.

I wanted to get out to see some of the more remote castles - but there is no public transport - so asked some locals to take me out in their mini-van - a price was agreed and off we went - only to be pulled over by a policeman looking for illegal taxi drivers! I quickly asked my drivers name, and what he did for a living.

Qasr Kharana desert castle, Jordan

The policeman took the driver and his friend outside and started to quiz them, after a while he came back to the mini van - and asked me how much I'd paid for my trip - I told him honestly that I'd paid them nothing - I told the policeman my new friends name, and what he did - and said that I'd been chatting to them and they offered me a lift to the castles. It was obvious that he didn't believe me, but he had no proof so, he let us go..