March 9, 2024 – We woke up bright and early to make our way to the airport. I was trying a new approach and decided that I was going to fit everything into a carry on and personal item. This is a feat in itself, because I don’t know how to travel light.

We’ve experienced this with other travel groups, and didn’t want to have to wait for our luggage once we go to Jordan. Unfortunately, there were no direct flights into Amman, so we flew from San Diego into JFK.

Our flight was smooth – it was supposed to be a full flight but somehow we had an open seat next to us. It allowed us to be a bit more comfortable. In New York we had a 3 hour connection, which we thought would be plenty of time to find the American Express Speakeasy. We were so wrong. We had to exit our terminal, get on the AirTrain, and go to another terminal to get there.

We realized that we took the wrong train – and decided we were going to opt out of the Speakeasy. We made our way to our terminal – and thankfully we did. Because it was an international flight (even though we were in JFK…) our TSA pre check didn’t work. So we had to get into one of the worst security lines we’ve seen, ever. I don’t say that lightly.

JFK TSA has to be one of the least efficient organizations around. We barely made it through security when our flight started boarding. We made it with plenty of time, but didn’t get a chance to eat in the airport and honestly, most of the time it’s the roll of a dice if the airline will have good food.

Because this is our 10-year wedding anniversary trip we took a chance and put a bid in for business class, and they accepted! It was a great way to kick off our trip – we were thrilled that on our 11 hour flight we had the option to lie flat in our seats. It’s going to be tough going back to economy, where we belong!

The flight itself was pretty uneventful – and I actually did sleep for about 5.5-6 hours, which may be a new record! With the time difference, we landed around 4 pm.

We quickly deplaned and found our guide from Exoticca. This is the second time that we’ve traveled with Exoticca, the last time was in Egypt. We had a great experience with them, and hope they are able to match our Egypt experience!

There was only one other woman on our flight traveling with Exoticca. Tia – from Maine. An adorable little thing that reminded us of a combination of two our friends, so we became fast friends.

What we didn’t know – is that in Jordan their weekend is actually Friday and Saturday (no work) and Sunday was the start of their week. We got stuck in pretty bad traffic.

Our driver had to stop to get gas, and Tia went to use the restroom. She confirmed that Jordan indeed also has squatty potties (throw back to Thailand and Sri Lanka! The real ones remember the infamous squatty potty story in Sri Lanka).

We made it to our hotel around 6 pm and freshened up before going to dinner at the hotel restaurant. It’s pretty common for the restaurants to just have buffets – and not necessarily menus to order from.

We weren’t too surprised to learn that the restaurant didn’t carry wine, but this made us wish that we had packed some to celebrate our anniversary with. Oh well!

We got settled in because we knew the next day we were set to do some sightseeing and Petra by night, which meant it would be a long day.

Hotel:

Gerasa Hotel (Amman)

Up Next:

• Mount Nebo
• Madaba: mosaic map
• St. George Church
• Shobak Castle
• Little Petra
• Petra by night