Jerash and Beit Sitti

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day with a wander around the local area around the hotel and then watching people from our room going about their daily activities. Particularly amusing was the street carpet seller trying to sell his carpets to anyone who dared make eye contact with him. Then there were the guys from a local food restaurant who did a bin run.

We met up with our tour group in the evening - 11 of us consisting of 4 Australians, 3 Brits, 2 Canadians and 2 Americans - and we are starting to get to know each other over a meal of traditional Jordanian food

We started our tour with a trip to Jerash, about 50km north of Amman. The ancient ruins were only discovered in the 1800's and is still being excavated today. It reminded me a lot of Ephesus in Turkey with similar features as columns, temples and mosaics arches and amphitheatres. In one theatre there was a bagpiper and drummer. Rather than being Scottish, bagpipes were really Roman in origin. Who knew!

Later in the afternoon we went to a Beit Sitti which means Grandmothers House and is a cooking class of traditional Jordanian food in a locals own home, which we help prepare and then eat. We've never done a cooking class before and it was a lot of fun.

Great first day of the tour - tomorrow we leave Amman and head to the Dead Sea.Read more