We arrived at the security entrance at which point I paid for paid for my ride and entered a small building that is adjacent to the Grand Hyatt. There, I had to place my luggage through a scanner and go through a metal detector. It’s a very quick process and one that does its job.
I was warmly greeted at check-in and offered a late checkout to go along with my city tour package I had booked through hotel.
The rooms themselves were fairly dated, but still classically elegant. I have no status with Hyatt, but they included two bottles of water and some fruit as a welcome gift in the room.
Complementary goodies
Bust in my room
I settled in and grabbed some dinner in one of the hotel restaurants before heading to bed fairly in preparations for a long day tomorrow.
The next morning I grabbed breakfast in the hotel restaurant which was a wonderful buffet of western and Arabic items. I had booked a city tour through the Grand Hyatt and agreed upon a 9am start time the evening before.
View from my hotel window
My driver, Hasan, was a nice guy who took me around Amman for about 5 hours hitting the highlights and spending time just chatting with him about Jordanian life today.
Temple of Hurcules at the Citadel
Ruins at the Citadel
Royal Auto Museum
Hasan drove me around some more and showed me the Embassy neighborhood. The US compound was a huge building with high walls around the entire complex. It was an absolute mammoth compared with all the other embassies. Large no photography signs surrounded the complex and numerous armed jeeps and soldiers surrounded the complex so I dared not photograph it. In stark contrast, the French embassy was a small building next to numerous other embassies and it had a single armed jeep in front.
Next up was a visit downtown to grab some lunch. Hasan asked me what I wanted for lunch and I immediately responded with Mansef. If I’m in Jordan, I might as well get a taste of their national dish right? My driver took me to a place downtown called Al Quds which he says is good for foreigners because it’s clean and they have good Mansef. Traditionally, Mansef is served family style, but sometimes you just don’t have enough people for that.
Single serving Mansef (yogurt not pictured)
Goods being sold outside on a Saturday
We arrived back right around two o’clock and I thanked Hasan for showing me around. I headed back to my room to gather my belongings and then went downstairs to checkout. My flight wasn’t until 1AM so I hung around the hotel lobby for about 2 hours just using my laptop and doing some reading. While going around the city, I noticed that a large number of people smoke in Jordan. Smoking is permitted in the lobby area and occasionally people would come down to the lounge area for a chat and a smoke. Though I hate the smell of smoke and it's something that is gone from American hotels, it's always interesting to experience different social norms in different parts of the world.