We are usually hopelessly in love with road trips and like to self drive at the slightest of the opportunity we get. So much so that we do not hesitate taking impromptu trips two countries away. We have enjoyed driving the windy roads in the alps, the snow dusted tracks of Canada and vrooming on the no speed limit autobahns of Germany as the county side passed by in a blur. But driving in Jordan was a different beast.
Considering we have driven in many countries one could easily assume us to be well seasoned and prepared for any kind of driving conditions, but Jordan took us by surprise. Here are 11 things we wish we knew before setting out on our Jordanian road trip.
Distractingly beautiful landscapes
We wouldn’t be exaggerating when we say the entire country of Jordan is beautiful in ways more than one. The Kings Highway tracing contours of the mountains at wadi Mujib gorge tracks the prehistoric silk route. Straddling the border of Jordan and Israel, the drive stretching from Moab mountains to the emerald dead sea is pleasing. Arriving at wadi rum, the landscape is dominated by the orange sandstone hills and dunes. The drive south to Aqaba passes through parched brown mountains opening up to the sea. With its infinite flat stretches, driving on the desert highway is eerily beautiful. The small towns along the countryside and occasional grazing sheep and camels take up this factor by a notch.
Animal crossing
We just mentioned about the camels and sheep, there are also donkeys and horses spawning the villages of Jordan. Most of the times they are led by a herdsman who doesn’t think twice before hurdling them onto a road, be it a freeway. Of course you have no choice but to wait and watch these animals parade aimlessly and finally make it onto the other side of the road.
Nobody follows lanes
One of the first rules of driving is to follow lane etiquette and not surprise the driver two lanes across. But while driving on the Jordan highway, one has to be prepared for unannounced cars flooding into their lane. It gets worse on steep turns where cars smoothly move left to right with no regards to the white lines on the road. It was hard for us driving on the Kings Highway that meanders along the river Jordan. The stunning Wadi Mujib gorge was what kept us sane and going.
No turn signs
The drivers here really don’t believe in preemptive driving and signaling their good turning intentions. This applies even on the freeways, people change lanes and never bother tuning on their indicators.
Roundabouts / flyovers mashup
If you thought google navigation or any other navigation was your best friend in a foreign country, Jordan will have you reconsider this judgment. Driving in the city of Amman threw a challenge that google maps sure couldn’t handle. Partly to do with how the Jordanians replaced all roundabouts with fly over bridges. The navigation device however refused to acknowledge this change and insists we use the roundabout, which sadly don’t exist. This meant we missing taking lot of ramps and of course long detours followed.
Too many one-ways and uphills/downhills
This holds true for mostly driving in Amman. This is how the centre of the city of Amman looks like on map.
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| Welcome to the maze! you may not leave. |
Finding your way out of the city is a challenging maze game with lot of one way roads thrown in for good measure. Also the city is itself hilly and the roads are super narrow.
Prepared to be offered tea
Of course with the way google itself seemed confused at directing us, we obviously had to resort to locals for directions. Jordanians are courteous, in fact so friendly that you would have to figure out ways to respond to their offers for coffee and tea.
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| A local Jordanian and a made up one |
No petrol pumps for miles
This happened to us driving from Aqaba. We couldn’t find a gas station for over 60 kms. That might not seem a lot, but for an Arab country that runs a little over 400 kms north to south we expected gas stations to be popping up every now and then.
Lot of checkpoints, guns
I think i can safely say there are more checkpoints than gas stations per area in Jordan. The low flying helicopters, vehicles topped with loaded machine guns, army mean all around didn’t really put us to ease but we did feel safe. Almost all of the times we were pulled over we were greeted by a friendly Jordanian cop welcoming us to their country. Most of them tried to guess our nationality and had a proud smirk after they found they got it right.
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| Checkpoints spread all across Jordan |
No patience at signals
While the Jordanians have a lot of perseverance to offer you tea, tell you tales they are also the most impatient at a traffic signal. A slight delay, even the fraction of a second and one has to be prepared to be honked at. It helps when they see you are a non local, and the smug is swapped by a smile.
Extra long names
The Jordanians really love their leaders. Obviously they had to name the streets and roads after these popular people. Imagine this, you are driving on the Princess Alia Bent Al Hussein and directed to take a right on Makka Al Mokarrama and continue on King Abdullah Ben Hussein li. I bet by the time the voice navigator completes the sentence you are well a block ahead already.
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| The long and windy roads through King’s highway |
Despite all this, we feel self driving in Jordan is really well worth it. We had no trouble picking up a rental car from the airport itself and start our road trip. Driving in the middle east is a big plus considering the fuel costs are one of the minimum compared to rest of the world. The roads are in excellent conditions and the three roads running north to south extensively connect the entire country. The desert highway, a flat road is the fastest of them. Whatever road you end up taking, you will go back home with some great memories.
