The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Middle East is full of amazingly interesting countries however safety and security prevent many from visiting this part of the world. When I suggested we go to Jordan for a week on our way back from Europe to Thailand Jacqueline was a little  apprehensive. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the North, Iraq and Saudi Arabia to the East and South-East and Israel to the West. It is a constitutional monarchy and is currently ruled by  King Abdullah, taking over from his father King Hussein who ruled from 1952 to 1999. Even though it is located in a reasonably volatile part of the world it is a very safe country to visit. The Jordanians are lovely, friendly people and we never felt unsafe at any time (day or night) whilst travelling there. The food was absolutely delicious and I’m sure we put on some extra weight during the short time we were there.

I visited Israel and Jordan about 20 years ago on a short organised tour and was blown away with these two countries. The highlight was always going to be Petra however on that particular tour we only had a few hours to explore this huge site. I always wanted to return to have a more thorough exploration and also to get Jacqueline to see one of the wonders of the ancient world. Fast forward 20 years and an opportunity presented where the dates between two house sits matched exactly with an 8 day tour to Jordan with Explore. We’ve used Explore for many other tours (eg. Turkey, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Eastern Europe) and highly recommend them for small group tours.

This tour covered all of the major sites of Jordan – Jerash, Madabah, Mount Nebo, Petra, Wadi Rum, Aqaba, The Dead Sea and the capital Amman. Our tour guide Mo (short for Mohammed) was a native Jordanian and a really knowledgeable and excellent guide.

I am going to write a number of posts about our travels through this fascinating country over the next few days/weeks and introduce you to some of it’s wonderful history and sites.

Stay tuned…..