Trebil, Iraq border. 15th February 2025.

A long and frustrating day had been brought to a close by the kindness of the people at the border restaurant.
I was allowed to sleep in the sheesha room and the lad there even supplied me with a bed roll. I didn’t sleep all that well but it was better the mosque would probably have been.
I sorted myself out and headed down to the exit gate. “Where’s your gate pass?” What now? I was sent back and eventually ended up at immigration. I hadn’t received an exit stamp as I’d thought. But I couldn’t get one because the immigration guy said I didn’t have all the papers I needed from customs.
Back to customs. More waiting around while the minion ran around sorting it out. Finally he gave me the papers and I went to immigration again. I actually got the exit stamps.
But what about the gate pass? A guy who was outside the office was handing out bits of paper that looked like a gate pass, but not to me. I had to go to an office. But the guy wasn’t there and didn’t show up during the 20 minutes I was waiting. So the man in the yard finally gave me the pass. At last!
At the gate I still had to jump through hoops. I think they wanted one of the copies of the paperwork but the immigration guy had kept both of them. In the end they took the info off my Carnet and I could finally escape!!!
Jordan was very much more straightforward. The guy at the gate wanted $22. What for? Just stuff, was more or less the reply I got. But at least he gave me a receipt. Down at customs I had to take all my luggage off the bike for it to be x-rayed. They also x-rayed me. Then I had to take the bike over to a machine for it to be x-rayed. God knows what they expected to find on the it.
Immigration was easy. The guy at the payment window accepted my Jordan Pass. I had to stare into a camera several times. I’m sure they were taking a retina scan.
After all that I went on down to where the shops were and got a SIM. 22GB for 15 JOD, about £16.50. Pretty good. He also changed up my Iraqi dinars – 28 JOD for them. He gave me 74 JOD for $100. He spoke very good English and said he’d learned it mostly from gaming.
There was a customs office there which I was sure I needed to go to. I hadn’t yet got a TIP. It didn’t seem to be open. So the phone guy sold me a coffee and cakes. After that I went over there and got insurance, then the TIP. I double checked it was for 30 days. FINALLY I was out of the gate and onto the road. It was 2pm.
A long, straight road ran through sand and rock, no different to Iraq. But after about 30-40kms that changed drastically. All I could see was rounded off stones, black in colour. They were all of different sizes and stretched as far as I was able to see. They were obviously volcanic lava from a time way back in the past. Really strange to see.
There was a dearth of visible military and their checkpoints. I passed through four and got stopped at one. The guy basically said hello, welcome to Jordan, and waved me on. Two others weren’t even manned. Such a pleasant change.
I stopped for petrol and filled right up. £1 per litre but at least I could pay with my card. I got really annoyed with some guy who came over and jabbered at me, presumably in Arabic, and kept revving the engine.
The road surface was a bit rough a lot of the time, with some potholes, but not a major issue. I got to the hotel I’d booked but the place seemed deserted. Fortunately a guy across the way saw me and rang the owner. I spoke to him and he said he’ll send someone down.
Meanwhile a black guy came out of the yard in his car. He stopped and we chatted. He said he works at the nearby US base and his wife seemed to be local, or at least, not US.
The guy arrived regarding the house. He showed me my room and brought me a heater. The house was very cold, colder than being outside.
I walked down into the town, to a place I’d been recommended by the house guy. I had half a chicken with chips and some salad. While I was eating, the jar of coffee I’d bought on the way down dropped out of my pocket and smashed on the floor. I had to buy another one on the way back.
My first impressions of Jordan were good. Many people spoke English and the town centre looked well organised. My plan was go to Amman, Jordan’s capital, in the morning and start the tour.
I slept well and was warm enough. All my washing dried. But breakfast was a disaster. Firstly I assumed the eggs he’d left in the fridge were hard boiled. All the gunk that came out when I cracked one of them convinced me they weren’t! OK, toast it was then. Nope. The toaster had a 13 amp plug and there was no converter. When I saw the guy later he said there should be one in my room. Nope!
Then I made a real foul up. The converter on my laptop plug wouldn’t go into the two pin socket properly so I’d thumped it in the previous night. In the morning it was too stiff to come out and in the process of pulling on it I split it in two. I managed to get the other part out of the socket but it now wasn’t working. Damn! It was tea and biscuits for breakfast.

I walked down to Al-Azraq castle and used my Jordan pass. The fourteen day clock was now ticking! It was built entirely of basalt rock. There was a guide there but I’d forgotten my wallet. A shame, as he only wanted 5 JOD and it would have enhanced the visit.
I walked around. It was mostly in ruins but a lot of the rooms were intact. Lots of arches and I could see that the roof was made of stone cross pieces with flat stones on top of them. The arches date from the 14th century, although the castle itself dates from Roman times. It had a large stone door in one wall which still worked. Most interestingly it was the headquarters of Lawrence of Arabia.

After that I got organised and was away by 12. Along the road to Amman I saw signs for Quseir ‘Amra. I stopped to see if it was on my JP list and it was, so I went there. The door guy looked at my pass but didn’t scan it. It’s a shame the other place didn’t take the same approach. I could have saved a day.
This was a very big site. But the main (only?) building was a hunting lodge and bath house, with its interior covered in painted frescoes. Some were very faded but many still looked very good. The themes were based on Byzantine art and included people and animals. It was built in the early 8th century and pre-dated Islam’s preference for geometric patterns only.

The visitor centre was excellent, with full explanations of what the paintings represented and mock ups of how they would have looked. There was a model of all of the buildings that surrounded the site, although they were too spread out and ruined for me to walk around them, especially in my riding boots.
I enjoyed seeing the very deep well outside the building and the winding gear (mock up) that was used to draw the water. A fascinating place to visit.

Onwards to the city. I had a fairly easy ride to Trek, the camping shop I’d found on Google,where I hoped to buy a fuel bottle. It was a real pleasure to ride among well behaved traffic. Cars would wait at side turnings when they saw me coming. How refreshing!
Trek had a genuine MSR bottle but it was about 0.8 litres and quite tall. It also had a safety cap on it. They had a smaller one, but not from MSR, the manufacturer of my stove. I wasn’t bothered about the safety cap and the smaller one was 0.66L. Perfect for me. He also had a very good electrical converter plug, which had all the necessary plug types on it.
We had a nice chat and I told him that his store looked exactly like Cotswold Outdoors, from the UK. He looked it up on his laptop and will peruse it later. I mentioned Decathlon and he said there’s one in the city.
It was a perfect place to stop because Trek sat beneath a coffee shop. A large Americano, a sandwich and a lovely piece of cake was consumed but it cost almost £10! Amman, and possibly all of Jordan, was not cheap. Mind you, barista style coffee shops were always dear anyway.
I left my bag and coat there while I walked round to the mall. The nice young woman at customer service pointed me towards ATM Corner The 4th one I tried was for Jordan Kuwait bank and it was fee free. The max withdrawal was 250JOD, which equates to £280-ish. Just right, as my card limit is £300. And it gave some small notes too.
Then I made my way to Batutta Hostel, where I settled in. I did some research on places to eat and none of them were very cheap, especially ones where I could get a beer. After a cuppa and some internetting I decided to go to a nearby place called Brix, mainly because the food wasn’t stupidly dear and they sold Amstel beer, which wasn’t bad for a lager.
It was a great decision. I met a couple of Brits in there. Norman from Belfast and Dave from Hull. I ordered a pizza and joined them at their table. The Spurs-Man Utd game had just started and the bar was full of TVs. We chatted away until my pizza arrived. I said to them that I’d come back and join them if they were still there, once I’d eaten. But they left and said goodbye on the way out.
Meanwhile the waiter came over and said that happy hour was just finishing and did I want anything else? So I ordered a beer. The waiter brought me a bill for my beer, at half price. “What about the first one”, I asked? Don’t worry he said, the guys paid for it.
I sat back up at the table to watch the rest of the game. When I went to leave I asked about paying for my pizza. “Don’t worry”, he said, “the guys paid for that too”. Amazing! How generous. It was very amusing when I first spoke to them and told them I was from London. Dave said he knew that because I have a very strong London accent. He’s not the first person to say that although I didn’t think it was really the case.
So a very nice end to a good day. Definitely starting to make up for all the border hassle.
I’d decided to pay for breakfast, even though it wasn’t all that cheap. But it was very good. Omelette, bread and some fruit, served by a nice young woman named Betty, from Derbyshire. She was studying French and Arabic and was taking time out to experience life there.

I walked down to the Jordan Museum. Lots of steps!! Amman was built on several hills. I was miffed to find that I had to pay as it wasn’t included in the pass. But it wasn’t too bad at 5 JOD,
An interesting place. Lots of history of the area. Displays about how they managed water. Plus, of course, the usual stone age history. They reckon villages were being formed up to 15K years ago in this area.
The section about the Dead Sea Scrolls was good. One of them was copper, but very oxidised. They cut it into strips so it could be read, but it’s not all been interpreted yet. The first scrolls were found by a shepherd boy and sold to a collector. After that the archaeologists got on the case and found loads of them hidden in, and near, caves. It was clear that Jordan was a very important area back then, as it was on the busy trade routes. They must have been strange times for travellers, coming across all these new religions as they went.

I carried on to the Roman theatre but on the way I passed a Nymphaeum, which is basically an entertainment area, particularly for young people. It was free to go in and I wandered around it. One of the walls was quite intact and it was easy to see the layout.
A guy I’d seen chatting to some visitors came up to me and started telling me about it. I feigned disinterest for fear of having to pay him, but what he said was interesting. He pointed out the seven niches in the wall, which the infoboard had said were for statues. But he pointed out the holes in the wall above them and said that the niches related to the days of the week and water would come out of the holes above the particular day. Very clever, if true. But given that the diagram on the main infoboard showed a huge tank of water behind that wall, it almost  certainly was true.

The Roman Theatre was good. Really wide and very high, with steep steps running up between the tiers. It must have been a real spectacle for the six thousand audience members.
At each side of the arena was a museum containing ethnic clothes and displays of people’s activities. Interesting stuff.
Google said there was an ATM in Rainbow Street, which I wanted to visit anyway. The only problem was getting up there. A really steep street followed by steep steps. It literally took my breath away.
The ATM was in an enclosed area with a couple of others. And mine was the one that didn’t work. Typical! A bit more Googling revealed there to be one further up the road, past the hostel. So I went there and got the cash. On the way back to the hostel was a Western Union. I popped in there to see about some dollars. They had them at 71 JOD for $100. A pretty good rate.

Next morning, at breakfast, Betty told me that she shouldn’t have given me a coffee yesterday. It doesn’t come free. I thought that was totally wrong. She agreed and gave me one for free again. I told her I was going to have a moan at the hostel owner. I did that later on and suggested he get a jar of instant coffee rather than use the expensive barista type, because it would be cheap. He was going to think about it but in the meantime mine would continue to be free. Nice!

I went out and walked down, then up, up, up to the citadel. On the way there I made the decision to get a taxi back. I really did not want to walk back up that hill!
It was a big place with a history that went from Roman times (when it was called Philadelphia) to the first Islamic period. There were Roman ruins and byzantine ones too. One of the big buildings in there was a palace for an Islamic ruler.
I walked all round it, getting a feel for the houses and streets. There was a lot of them. There was an Islamic temple that was mostly complete and had been reconstructed to its original appearance.
The Temple of Hercules was just a ruin, with some tall columns remaining. The archaeological museum had some interesting items in it, including some Roman glassware. All very good.

I got a taxi back. I knocked the driver down from 10 to 5 JOD. He was moaning like mad about the traffic, and I didn’t blame him for that. I gave him 7 JOD in the end.
A much quieter day ensued. At about 1pm I walked up/down/up to the King Abdullah 1 Mosque. It was a very pretty place. The dome was light blue; two tall minarets; stained glass windows at the base of the dome. A big prayer room but not much else. I had a quick look in the Museum of Islam and there wasn’t much there. Some writings and so on.

Across the road was a big, modern church. I thought I’d have a look inside. Closed. Humph!
I stayed in Amman for a few more days. One of the things I needed to do was to replace the bike’s battery. Before I left home I’d installed a lithium ion battery. Firstly because they’re said to be more reliable. But also to make a very surprising 2Kg weight saving.
But it had slowly been failing. It had got to the situation where it needed to be jump started, even when it was simply stalled. It had to go! So I found a place where I could buy an ordinary battery and fitted that. No more problems.
The young woman on reception was always very cheerful. Her name was Jude and every time I walked past her she’d call me by my full name, which seemed to amuse her. So of course I would reply with “Hey! Jude.” I played her the song one time as well. Good fun.
Over the next few days I did a lot of writing on the blog. I visited the nearby Jordan Kuwait bank ATM for free withdrawals and eventually went to the local Western Union and got nearly $2,000. I’d also managed to get some Syrian Pounds. I was now well set up for Syria and beyond. Having USD to use or exchange is essential, especially in countries with a strong currency black market.

I left the hostel eventually. Cold but dry weather, so I was wearing all my warm clothes. I was heading north to Irbid, a town very near to the Syrian border.
On the way I called in at a couple of places.

The first was Iraq Al Amir, not very far from Amman. A fairly complete ruin of a rich man’s house which never quite got finished because he died. It was from the Hellenistic (Greek) era, built in the 3rd century BCE. The whole area was very historic, with many caves, dating from the Copper Age, set into the surrounding hills.
Then a very enjoyable ride to Jerash, a ruined Roman city. Up in the hills on minor roads. I walked down to the Hercules gate, then found the proper entrance where I showed my pass.  I walked up through the complex. It’s very big and spread out.

It took me around two hours to walk round it all. There were two big theatres. Two big temples. A very long central and colonnaded shopping street. At one of the theatres there was an Arab guy playing the bagpipes. He started off with Frere Jacques but soon got onto Scotland The Brave. Really bizarre.

Irbid, and the hotel I’d booked, wasn’t very far away. I walked out looking for food and found a KFC style chicken place. To my pleasant surprise, and unlike KFC normally, the chicken was really moist and tasty.
Next morning I visited the Dar As Saraya Osmani museum in Irbid. Quite interesting about the nearby area and north Jordan in general. Then I headed to the border.

A good way to round off my first visit to Jordan. The only fly in the ointment was that I’d overpaid for my Jordan Pass. It included a visit to Petra, one of the region’s biggest ancient sites, and I was able to select a one, two or three day pass. I hadn’t done my homework. Petra is a long way south of Amman so I wasn’t going to go there yet. But I unthinkingly paid the extra for three days. Fool!