We have a great, reliable and honest taxi driver we can recommend for Amman. His name is Jamal, phone +962 7 9559 8300. He does not have much English and the car is a little run down but again: honest and reliable.
So two days earlier we had agreed for him to take us to the AMM airport. We didn't speak to him after that.
He showed up early, and delivered us for 17JOD (going rate seems to be 20-25). It was he who recommended we go early which turned out to be great advice.
We were surprised by how modern and clean the Amman airport is. It was easy to get around.
The passport and security lines were totally empty at 6:30 which came in handy when I had to dig through my pack looking for the exit ticket from Israel (who knew we’d have to show that again?) and then again when security dig into my pack to look at and swab my camera.
But it was a minor hassle and we got through soon enough. There is a Starbucks, McDonalds, Subway, Popeye’s Chicken and a bar on the gate side of security, along with stores. So we ended up with a Starbucks coffee and croissant of all things.
There is a “200” wing and a “100” wing off the main terminal, and both of these wings have an additional coffee shop and bar-eating place. The 200 wing is more open and mellow than the 100 wing. Good news: the bathrooms are modern and you can flush the TP. The cleanest ones are way at the end of the 200 wing, downstairs by the prayer room.
We read and walked the airport until our flight out on EgyptAir. There is a one hour time change, so a mere 15 minutes after we took off, we landed in Cairo.
They fed us a full meal on the flight, even dessert and coffee. No wine or beer; it is Muslim country to Muslim country.
Within 15 minutes of takeoff, as the plane was still climbing, the stewardess was pushing the cart uphill and passing out the meals. As soon as they reached the back of the cabin they started over collecting the empty trays. I finished eating just as we nosed over from climbing to descending.
I looked out the window at the ground below. Empty, brown and folded as far as I could see. Coming in to land it changed to grey and brown with the black shapes of buildings and towers, crammed too close together, so crowded. A highway, like a river cutting through it, the city disappearing in the smoggy haze. Miles of geometric shaped buildings.
We landed. It is brown and it is sand.
It was easy through security again. I had ordered our visas online. Be sure you use the official government website; copycat tourist agency sites rise to the top in a Google search.
I stopped at an ATM for some cash. You should read the “Practical Notes About Egypt” post to find out about cash here.
It is easy to get through the airport. Things are signed well. If you are taking a taxi, just follow the signs to the taxi exit. Our hotel was picking us up for free because we were staying two or more nights. That seems to be the standard. So here is where you find the shuttle drivers with your name on a sign: walk out the exit for taxi and shuttle busses and stand there, in the shade on the sidewalk just outside the exit. Across the street from you will be a lot of people behind a low barrier. Some are families or friends, many are shuttle drivers holding signs with names and hotel names on them. Just stand and look and wait. They have to walk up from a parking lot to get there.
While you are standing you will be approached by friendly men who smile and offer to help. They will kindly let you know that your shuttle left a while ago, or that plans were changed and they are there for you (but where are you going?) or they will offer to let you take their taxi. Just say “No thank you” once and then pretend you are deaf.
We ended up with a crazy driver, swerving in and out of the slow traffic, barely missing cars, people, horses and whatever else. Once he stopped in the middle of the bridge over the Nile, insisting I get out to take a photo, in bumper to bumper traffic! And he wouldn’t move on until I did.
The entire time he was prattling on, non-stop about stuff that was hard to understand due to the surrounding traffic noise and his broken English. A lot of it seemed to do with how little he is paid and how much tip he expected. By the time we got to the hotel forty minutes later I had a headache.
When we got to Giza we dropped off the main freeway, down a ramp to dirt and half-paved rutted roads where we honked our way around people, pushcarts, Tuk-Tuks, trucks and cars going the same way or coming direct at us in our lane, all while we were dodging potholes. We turned off the street, zig-zagged though a police barricade, entered a dusty plaza with horses and trash and squeezed past a car by an inch into… a dead end street. A quick call by our driver and he squeezed out in reverse, took the next alley over and we were there.
I gave him a 50E£ tip and he seemed happy with it.
We were just glad to be at the hotel.