Getting Around in Amman

Remember I mentioned that no one walks in Amman?  We don't have a car here, so that means that whenever we need to go somewhere that's more than a couple of blocks, we take a taxi. But, there are some challenges in getting around  in taxis also.  Even though taxis are plentiful and cheap, it's just not that easy to get around, at least for foreigners like me. 

First challenge: Most of the taxi drivers speak very little or no English.  Thus, it is difficult to explain where you want to go.  I have directions to my house written in Arabic on a piece of paper that I show to taxi drivers, but still it is difficult.  Some can't read--either because they "forgot their glasses" or because they simply don't know how to read or refuse to read.  Those who can read have trouble with the directions due to challenge number two.

Second challenge: There aren't really addresses here.  Yes, there are street names, and yes, there are building numbers, but places don't seem to be identified by address the way we are used to in the U.S. and Europe. So, you have to explain to the driver where to go, usually by reference to the nearest of the eight circles (which are large round-a-bouts that sort of define the regions of the city).  This is difficult under any circumstances, but it is even more difficult when you don't speak Arabic and the driver doesn't speak English.

Third challenge: GPS?  Forget about it.  Taxis don't even have communcation radios, much less GPSs. And, remember challenge number two?  It would be tough to have GPS without addresses.

Fourth challenge: Drivers know some landmark places, but to a very limited extent.  If you want to go somewhere that is not a common taxi destination, such as an office or someone's home, then it is virtually impossible to explain to a taxi driver how to get there.  In fact, I live near a hotel, which should provide a good landmark for getting to my apartment.  However, it is extremely rare to find a taxi driver who actually knows where this hotel is.  I have to give directions, using hand signals instead of language (remember the first challenge!).  Forget it if I want to go somewhere to which I don't know the way (see fifth challenge).

Fifth challenge: If you are like me and bad with directions anyway, you can't even point out the route using hand signals because you really have no idea where you are going, but only know where you want to end up! Add to this directional-challenge the additional challenges of being in a relatively unfamiliar city with streets that do not seem to be laid out in a nice organized grid and of not being able to speak or write the language, and you have a real challenge getting around.

Sixth challenge:  Just being in a car is a frightening experience. Traffic is insane. There appear to be no traffic rules at all and, if there are, no one follows them.  I have actually seen stop signs, but I have never, ever, not one single time, seen any car stop at one. When cars come to a corner, they just keep going and sort of meet in the middle and whichever car can "take" the right of way, does. Also, lanes are meaningless; people drive on top of the lane line or anywhere else they want to. People change lanes without any sort of signal at all or any worry whether there is another car in the spot they are moving to.  Horns are honked constantly; a horn honk can apparently mean a plethora of different things: "watch out, I'm coming through," "go ahead, I'll wait but not for long," "what the heck are you doing pulling into the side of my car," "do you want a taxi?," or any number of other things.  I'm still trying to decode the intricate details of the horn honking language that exists among Amman drivers--it's almost as hard to learn as Arabic.

Despite all these challenges, I do seem to manage to get everywhere I want to go and then home again.  It always seems like a small miracle when I pull up to my destination.  It seems like a large miracle when the taxi meter says that the whole ride--which seemed to have taken me all around the world and back to get me to my destination--cost only 90 cents.

Riding on Trains

"Since the day this train opened, I have never, never set foot on the plane again. Why would anyone fly?"
~Carlos Martinez, a lawyer, on the high speed connection between Madrid and Barcelona (New York Times Quotation of the Day, March 18, 2010)

Petra Part II: Getting Around in Petra

There are all sorts of ways to get around inside Petra.  The obvious one is on foot.  The vast majority of visitors to Petra see it on foot. However, if you don't want to walk, there are plenty of animals to make your journey easier.

For starters, you can take a horseback ride from just past the Visitor's Center to the entrance to As-Siq. 

All non-residents of Jordan are required to buy a 33 JD ticket that includes one-day admission plus a horseback ride. So, almost everyone has already paid for this ride.  But, we saw very few people actually take this ride. The distance that the horse can go is not very far at all, and it is an easy downhill walk. Moreover, when you first get there, you are filled with excitement and energy and, therefore, do not feel the need to ride. The time you want the ride is back up the hill at the end of the day when you are tired and hot and hungry and feel like you can't take another step.  But, the horses aren't available then!

Once you get to the entrance of the Siq, you have the option to take a horse drawn carriage. The horse drawn carriages are quite beautiful; they are adorned with brightly colored blankets. 

They go really fast down the Siq, however, so if you take the ride, you miss out on all the beautiful scenery on your way.  And, the key word in that last sentence was "down."  The walk through the Siq into Petra is all downhill.  Therefore, it's a relatively easy walk.  The only obstacles are the uneven cobblestones that cover some parts of the path, and the only dangers are that you will trip while looking up at the amazing overhead views or get runover by a carriage which comes barreling down the narrow Siq at what seems like 150 miles per hour.

We walked and I'm glad we did.  We took our time and enjoyed the amazing natural and carved beauty of the Siq.  It was one of the highlights of our trip to Petra.

However, coming out is another story.  Coming out, the Siq is an uphill walk.  It comes at the end of your day when you are hot, tired, and hungry (as I mentioned above), and a ride would be nice at this point.  We still did not take the ride and I'm glad we walked out. It gave us another chance to enjoy the Siq, take some more pictures, and generally reflect on our awesome day.

Once we got inside Petra after coming through the Siq, we were bombarded with possibilities for camel rides.  There were camels everywhere!

The camels didn't seem to like me much.  Every time I got near one hoping to get my picture taken with it, it turned and indicated by a show of big, ugly teeth that it was about to bite me. One stuck out its tongue at me, which was one of the most disgusting gestures I have ever seen any animal make.  I wish I had had the wherewithall to take a picture, but I was in a slight state of shock at the gross display and could not decide whether to stand still or run.  The tongue looked like a giant internal organ--most likely a bladder, but I'm not sure exactly which organ it looked like.  Then, as the camel was moving the tongue around, a frothy foam covered the camel's tongue, lips, and face.  If it had been a dog, I would have thought for sure it was rabid.

Although the camels seemed to dislike me, they seemed to like Maggie quite a bit.  In fact, it almost seemed as if they swooned in her presence. 

Photo by Paul Scudder

As we made our way around the ancient city's first curve, we were again bombarded by offers for rides--this time on donkeys and mules.  There were donkeys galore, each with its own entreprenurial Bedouin who tried to convince us that his ride and his price is the best in all of Petra.

We ended up deciding on a donkey ride with Mohammed. Why Mohammed's donkeys? For one thing, he was very persistent.  He followed us up a hill with two donkeys. He was nice, and he described, in clearer detail than anyone else, what we would get for our money. I'll have more details about our wild donkey ride up to the Monastery and our journey on to the End of the World in Petra Part III.

Undoubtedly, the horses, camels, and donkeys and their Bedouin owners were part of the ambience of Petra and they are a big part of what makes a visit to Petra such a unique and memorable experience.

Nobody Walks in Amman

It's quite a coincidence that just as I was preparing this blog post about how no one walks in Amman, the New York Times posted an article--"Sidewalks, and an Identity, Sprout in Jordan's Capital"--about how Amman's urban planners are adding and improving sidewalks, benches, and parks in order to encourage more walking and outdoor recreational activity and achieve a lifestyle consistent with its motto: "A livable city is an organized city--with a soul."

My observation has been that very few people walk outside any distance farther than from their car to the building they want to enter. There are probably many reasons for the lack of walkers in Amman--ranging from cultural and habit to the absence of "walkable" sidewalks and the availability of inexpensive transportation.

The sidewalks seem to be more like obstacle courses than walkways. They are bumpy and torn up in many places. Trees adorn and sometimes fill the sidewalk (as is shown in the photo above). The roots from the trees have caused the pavement to buckle in many places. Sidewalks dip deeply for driveways, requiring a pedestrian to go up and down inclines or even actual steps frequently. Sidewalks are covered with other impediments to free travel, such as trash cans, guard houses, parked cars, and other things. Sidewalks often end, sometimes mid-block, for no apparent reason; perhaps the builders just ran out of stone bricks or concrete. People who do walk often end up walking in the street, between the traffic lanes and the parked cars.

Add to the problem of the sidewalks that don't invite pedestrian traffic this: taxis are cheap here. Really cheap. Really, really cheap. A taxi ride that might cost $20 or more in New York City might cost about the equivalent of $1.50 or less here. Really cheap. Why walk when you can ride for next to nothing?

Nevertheless, I really like to walk. I walk to and from work every day, and home and back for lunch. My walk is a series of turns and veers designed to avoid running into trees, guard houses, holes in the sidewalk, parked cars, moving cars, trash cans, wires mysteriously strung across the sidewalk at about neck level (this is the strangest of all of the obstacles I encounter on my walk to work), low hanging branches, and any other surprise that might have popped up since the last time I walked my route.

I hope that walkable sidewalks will pop up all over Amman. I imagine that it will still take a serious cultural shift to change Amman from a driving-city to a walking-city.  Los Angeles has plenty of fine sidewalks and yet no one walks there. People are, after all, creatures of habit.