For the second day in Jordan, We didn’t plan for anything specific. The night before, with the help of google translate, we told Rakez that we’d like to visit villages nearby and possibly some local markets and he kindly offered to come with us and show us around.
Before carrying on, let me give some more information on Rakez, our host.
He moved with his wife to his parents place in the remote area on the hills overlooking the dead sea when his parents passed away and he had not much to do in Aqaba where he was working for government for 30 years at the port of Aqaba. His sons are still working in Aqaba and when we visited his place, his wife was away at Aqaba to visit her sons. His sons came with this idea to put their parents house in rural Jordan on Airbnb to help them with the income so they can do some organic farming and few other projects at their inherited home and also provide them with some company.
His wife normally take care of cooking for the guests but as she wasn’t around, he was in charge. With the little English that he knew and the little experience in the cooking, we ended up with few confusing situations. But it didn’t stop us from getting into serious political/ cultural conversation with him over the dinner table.
We started the morning with the breakfast that he prepared for us and was serving in his room in front of the TV.
The plan was visiting few villages on the way and a region called Merkez and then head to Kerak main town. The drive was amazing with lots of vegetable plantations and a lot of olive trees. Pretty much all the houses have at least few olive trees for their own use.We saw areas that are covered by olive trees for kilometers. We had few stops on the way to talk to goat shepherds on the way too which was really fun.
And then we got to the place called Merkez. The vibe was exactly what we were looking for. A small town that thought us a lot about the actual life in Jordan. That’s why having a rental car comes handy. You can drive where ever you want and stop to look around when you find somewhere interesting. After parking the car we decided to go and explore on our own and meet Rakez later by the car. Here are few photos of the vibe of the town:
Some locals weren’t keen to have a conversation or have their photos taken and some were super friendly and even posed for the Amir’s camera. We ended up with some interesting conversations with locals. The first question that always we’ve been asked in Jordan and Egypt was if we were married and why we don’t have kids if we are married. We got a brand new one in Merkez. An old man approached us and asked Amir if he has Viagra with him!! That was really interesting to see what their perspective is in regards to foreigners and what they thing westerners might carry in their big backpacks !!!! He tried to explain what he means with little English and sign language. I can only tell you that was fun watching him explaining what he means in sign language 😀
The Viagra man followed us for a while and then introduce us to some of his neighbors and friends and Amir got this photo with his mates.
The most interesting fact that we learnt about Jordan in Merkez was quite shocking. Apparently Jordan is the home for the remaining family of the “Saddam Hossein” and their political view is valued in Jordan. Everywhere in the streets, you could see his photos or stickers. It is super interesting to see that the political figure that is considered hated in the whole world ( At least that’s what we thought before visiting Jordan) is so much loved and respected in Jordan. That was the first time that we encountered this fact and it became a natural scene for us all the way though the whole Jordan.
Rakez took us to a religious site with no one in and we headed to Kerak in the hope for finding some interesting markets. Kerak has a famous castle on top of the hill, which is the only touristic attraction of the area. Driving down the hill in the town center, things started to get more interesting. We walked among local stalls and the shops for few hours and watch the daily life passing by.
Fruits were amazing in the market, so I ended up buying lots of pomegranate, grapes and cucumbers before joining Rakez and Amir to have a decent meal in a local restaurant. It was an amazing big local restaurants that all locals were pouring in after a long day in the market. It was a buffet style restaurant and we ordered few different meals to try and share different Jordanian meals. We paid 30 NZD for three of us over a massive feast.
After having an amazing lunch, we did shop for the dinner and also bought a laundry detergent to take care of our smelly clothes from the dead sea and headed back home to enjoy our last evening in Rakez backyard.
We were still full from the late lunch, but Rakez start preparing dinner and promised us that we will be hungry by the time that dinner is ready.
He put a big eggplant an the whole chicken on the charcoal and we sat around it in the backyard under a big local white berry tree and enjoyed the sunset while watching the chicken get grilled.
And just like that, our first two days in Jordan were coming to an end with this breathtaking sunset view over the dead sea from the rooftop. We really enjoyed the fact that we gave our selves two days to chill before getting to the touristic spots of Jordan. In the next post, I’ll share our tips on visiting Petra in a unique way and not getting stuck into tourists main stream.
