Israel? Never Been There!

When do you put your foot down and when do you just realise the culture of a place and go with whatever's happening. I know you should probably do the latter nine times out of ten, but sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself. One thing that's happened to me more than once over here are people making a deal with you (ie: cab drivers and hotels) and then an hour or so later, change the conditions of the deal. It's becoming a little epidemic and just a tad annoying! If a cab agrees that they'll drive you from the border to Umm Quais, wait and hour then return you to Amman, surely that's what you expect, right? Well, not over here. Instead it can result in you being taken to Ibrid bus station to do the final part of the journey in a shared taxi. Now, you could argue that I was still going to get to Amman, but why should I pay the whole fare in a shared taxi? And why would you agree to drive a person to a place and then decide you don't actually know that place at all so can't possibly take the passenger? The Arabs will tell you that they just help each other out and at the end of the day everything gets sorted, but this time it just wasn't going to be good enough. This is the point when you have to decide whether you stand at the bus station and argue with about ten Arab men or just go along with it. Always up for a challenge, I chose the former. It had just happened one too many times. To be fair, they are good people and very gracious hosts and always mean well , so perhaps in times like this you just go along with it, but I got my way in the end, albeit a different car.

Anyway......the border crossing back from Israel to Jordan was another smooth event. Apart from several check points along the way which are a little time consuming, I don't really know what all the fuss is about. Maybe I just got lucky. And with no stamps in my passport, I officially was never there!!! From the border, I made my way up to about as far north as you can manage in Jordan. Umm Quais is tucked up into the north west corner, right on the border of both Israel (well, the Israeli occupied territory of the Golan Heights to be precise) and Syria. The journey north was nearly all through the very fertile Jordan Valley and each town passed was bustling and had many agriculture-related shops. There's also an agricultural research centre up here. Every town you pass through is covered with posters of the king. He's a multi-talented man, by the looks of it. He can shoot a gun, drink coffee, use a computer and hang with the family. He has an outfit for every occasion.....western formal, smart casual, smart military, fatigues, bedouin. And different poses....action, happy, serious, relaxed, happy, somber, facial hair, clean shaven, combed down look, dishevelled. It makes me wonder what he thinks of it all when he's having these photo sessions.

Umm Quais is probably most famous from the Bible story of Jesus casting out demons from two men and sending them into little piggies who then ran off the side of a cliff into the Sea of Galilee. They must have been flying piggies because although the Sea of Galilee (or Lake Tiberius as it is known today) is just a stone's through away, you'd probably need someone like Brett Lee throwing that stone.

Umm Quais' ancient name was Gadara and it's had a very long and colourful history. Perfectly situated on trade routes, it was a very important Roman town (one of the cities of the Decopolis) and later Byzantine. Today, the ruins consist of structures from both eras. There are many churches giving credence to the fact that it was possibly a pilgrimage site (because of the Jesus story). It's not a Jerash, but interesting to see, all the same.

Next it was time to head back to Amman and my Ibrid bus station adventure. Oh...and another thing Mr Store Man....a falafel sandwich with salad is not a meat filled pastry with tomato sauce. Ok!?!?

Finally back in Amman, my new driver knew a better hotel than the one I was going to use, so taking his advice, we went there. It was pretty rubbish, but probably no more so than where I was heading. And it was cheap. Plus, I hadn't eaten all day, so anything was going to do. Oh, and Mr Driver.......3 star actually isn't 5 star, just so you know! They'll tell you anything. It's almost becoming funny!

The afternoon was restful with tabouli and my computer.

XXX