The 'Festival of Lights' or Diwali (aka Deepavali) symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, victory of Dharma over Adharma. The festival is celebrated with great fervor in Gujarat, as it is in most parts of India. In Gujarat, though, it is the only time of the year when businesses and their owners take a break. Government officials, too, would be on a rather longish holiday as Diwali falls on 20th October this year and the Gujarati New Year falls on 22nd October. Suffixing and prefixing leaves one can stay away from work for 9 days. I chose this route too to plan a tour of the 63rd country, a tour to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Two of the main reasons to zero in on Jordan for this holiday were the ease of obtaining a visa and the many links it has to Christianity.
While it is quite easy to obtain an e-visa, I also came to know that if one buys a Jordan Pass, the visa fee is waived, and one can obtain the visa on arrival in Amman. The eligibility for the Jordan Pass is that one must buy it before entering the country and that the person must stay in the country for at least three consecutive nights. There are three types of Jordan Pass ranging in price from 70 to 80 Jordanian Dinar (JD), based on the number of days one wants to visit Petra. I purchased the 70 JD option, which will give me a one-day Petra entry, besides a host of other attractions in the country.
I also opted for the Bethany Beyond The Jordan, the Baptismal site of Jesus, entry. The entry fee was an additional 8 JD. For anyone visiting Jordan, the Jordan Pass is the recommended option to avoid queues and assured access. Besides the Baptismal site, ancient Christian churches and of course a visit to Aqaba where the biblical parting of the Red Sea is supposed to have happened were penciled into the itinerary. The iconic scenes of the parting of the Red Sea in Cecil DeMille's Ten Commandments are indelibly etched in my mind. However, how can I not say that Petra, Wadi Rum, Madaba and Jerash were not on the priority list too? These are sites beaten to death in travel videos and travelogues. Completely touristy.
Jordan is bordered by Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Israel/Palestine and across the Red Sea is Egypt. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with a hereditary ruler, currently King Abdullah II, and its capital is Amman, which is its most populous city. The name "Hashemite" comes from the Hashem family, which has a historical lineage to the Prophet Muhammad. Arabic is the official language, and the country is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim in religion. Jordan is host to a large number of refugees from Palestine, Syria and Iraq; refugees are a third of the 11.5 million population of the country. The currency, Jordanian Dinar, is stronger than the US Dollar.
As is usual with me, Rajiv Shah of Network Tours and Travels, Surat gave me flight options to travel to Amman and back. By the time I decided on the option, the fare had also gone up to ₹62,000 for the round trip from Ahmedabad by Kuwait Airways. He also confirmed that I would not require a transit visa for Kuwait despite the long 10-hour layover in Kuwait between flights. I also reserved a 2A berth by the Bhuj-Bareilly weekly train to travel from Gandhidham to Ahmedabad. As was to be expected the unreserved and second-class coaches were so overcrowded that some could be seen clinging on to open compartment doors for dear life. The toilet in the train was so pathetic that I decided not to eat or drink anything during the five-hour journey.
The train was 45 minutes late to reach Chandloliya, where I got down. The facilities on the platform are so pathetic - no proper lighting uneven platform surface, open drains, closed pedestrian bridge and even pointed, jutting steel rods! Such experiences drain one's enthusiasm in the India growth story. No taxis were in sight, and I took an autorickshaw to the airport. I had to wait for almost three hours before the Kuwait Airways counter opened. The Ahmedabad-Kuwait flight, originally scheduled for 4 am was rescheduled to 5.50 am. Except for two youngsters clearing passengers quickly through the immigration counters, four of them were so slow that unnecessarily the queues became long and serpentine.
I wasn't too bothered about the rescheduling as the layover in Kuwait City would have been about 10 hours before connecting onwards to Amman. The flight landed in Kuwait International Airport before time, and I took the Transfer channel to move onwards to the departure gate for the flight 8 hours later. I took a round of the terminal, weaving my way through the Duty Free shops, retail outlets and cafes. I was weighing the option of using the lounge when I heard my name announced to report to B1 departure gate.
Overthinking is my second name, and I thought that they probably wanted to reexamine my check-in bag or some such. At the gate I was asked for my passport and boarding pass; I hoped they would put me on an earlier flight to Amman! The positive side of overthinking. I was floored when they told me that they would put me up in the Safira Airport Hotel as the connection time was over 6 hours. My eyeballs possibly popped and the two comely girls at the gate may have thought that the old man was getting ideas!
Here, then, I am relaxing in the comfortable room of the Safira Airport Hotel after a buffet breakfast of eggs, French toast, sausage, cheese, croissant, coffee, etc., etc. By the way, Malayalam and Tamil are two languages I heard in the Airport and the Hotel. A decent proportion of ground staff and those in hospitality are from the Indian southern states, I was told.
While taking a round of the terminal I came to three cash dispensing machines; each of them dispensed different currencies. One dispensed Euro and British Pound (GBP), while the second dispensed Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD) and AED. The third dispensed USD and Saudi Riyal. The KWD is the strongest currency in the world, pegged to the USD at 3.26 and exchanges for nearly ₹290. The next two strongest currencies in the world are also in this region, the Bahraini Dinar (BHD) at 2.65 USD and Omani Riyal (OMR) at 2.60 USD.
The flight from Kuwait City to Amman, Jordan was on time at 1530 hrs. The B777 flight was less than half occupied. I commandeered a window seat. The flight path was mostly over the Syrian desert. A full meal was served during the flight. I couldn't finish the chicken meal as I had already had a proper meal at the Safir Airport Hotel. By 5.15 pm the flight landed in Queen Alia International Airport, Amman.
Upon disembarkation, I went to the section where passengers with Jordan Pass were to report. The immigration official went through my passport and asked if I was a resident of GCC, to which I replied in the negative. He directed me to another counter from where, after a polite Namaste, I was redirected to another counter. I didn't quite understand what the confusion was. Anyway, fortunately, only one flight had landed, and the crowd was sparse.
At the third counter I reported to, a visa was issued after inspecting the Jordan Pass and the multiple entry US visa I had in my passport. That official too had to consult a couple of his colleagues before issuing a Jordan temporary stay visa. I didn't have to pay for the visa as it was part of the Jordan Pass purchase. With the visa I got back to the immigration counter. My passport was stamped after some peremptory questions of my stay in Jordan.
While I was waiting for the bag I noticed a currency exchange counter near the baggage carrousel. I went across and the girl at the counter told me that I would find the exchange rate anywhere in Jordan the same at 1JD = 0.7080. However, at the airport a commission of almost 10 percent would be charged for the transaction, she said. I aborted the transaction immediately. Once the bag was collected, I exited the airport and found massive queues at the Sim card counters. I aborted that attempt too.
I had requested an airport transfer from the hotel. The young man was waiting with a placard, and we went to the carpark from where he drove me to the Roya Downtown Hotel. On the way he told me about his recent road trip from Amman to Beirut via Damascus. He said that it was absolutely safe; the only thing that bothered him was the border control delays. That sowed the seeds of another adventure in my mind. On the way he stopped at a Western Union shop to facilitate currency exchange, this time without commission. The driver told me how expensive Jordan is, the fuel, food, accommodation, etc. He gave that also as a reason for him being still a bachelor.
After checking in and depositing the bag I went for a walk to buy a Sim card and exchange some currency. The recently renovated hotel is bang in the center of the happening place in the city of Amman; crowded, vibrant and lively - not unlike a Mumbai street, but neat, orderly and safe. I walked in and out of a few shops to examine souvenirs and local crafts. I chanced upon a phone shop and bought a Zain Sim card for 18 JD, which is about ₹2,250. The shop owner told me that while WhatsApp messaging is possible in the country, video calling is not permitted. For that either Messenger or Telegram Apps had to be used.
With massive meals throughout the day, thanks to Kuwait Airways, I settled for a Kunefe in the famous Habibah Sweets, which is literally a stone's throw away from the hotel. I bought a small portion and still couldn't finish the entire portion; it's mighty heavy with flour, pistachio, cheese and sugar syrup.
With that I got back to the hotel and decided to call it quits for the day. The street in front of the hotel was still busy, and I was told that the weekend business would go on till 2 am. I worked for a while on the agenda for the next day. I was fatigued from lack of sleep since I left Gandhidham and I slept like a baby, despite the noise from the street.
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