Days 188 to 190: Three Days in Amman, Jordan

November 13, 2025

Days 188 to 190: Three Days in Amman, Jordan

I’ve been in Amman for five days now. Since I did so many activities I will split my Amman post into separate parts. This is part one.

On November 8th, I flew into Amman with Pavle, whom I had met at the hostel in Paphos, Cyprus. We had the same Ryanair flight. The flight was so cheap and I only paid around $20.

I bought a Jordan Pass a couple of weeks before arriving in Amman so the visa fee was waived when I arrived at the airport. Even though the visa is for a month I have to register with the police if I want to stay more than 14 days. I might do that if I decide to stay longer in Jordan.

It’s the first time that both Pavle and I are in the Middle East. We took in the desert scenery as we rode on the Sariyah bus from the airport to Amman for 3.30 Jordanian Dinars. The exchange rate is 1 JOD per 1.41 USD so the bus fare was about $4.65. Then we had to walk about an hour from the bus drop-off point to downtown, where the hostels are. On the way, we had a late lunch at a fine dining restaurant because that’s the only type of restaurant we encountered since we were on the main street that has a lot of embassies.

I stayed at The Castle Star hostel while Pavle stayed at The Cabin hostel. Both are close to each other. My hostel has a great view of the city and the hills from the dining area, but there were a bunch of Chinese tourists who were so loud and rude that I decided to only stay for two nights. They spent their entire time at the hostel watching social media videos on their phones with the sound on.

I didn’t do much on my first day because I just arrived from the airport. On the second day, I walked up to the Amman Citadel on top of a hill and explored the Roman Temple Of Hercules, Jordan Archaeological Museum, Umayyad Mosque of Amman, and Umayyad Palace. I read that there are seven major hills in Amman. I was glad that I didn’t bring my bicycle here because some of the hills can be very steep and the traffic is very intense during the day.

At the hostel, I met an Australian man who is in his mid-60s. His name is Brendan and we got along great. We decided to explore the Roman Theater that’s down the hill. We also visited the Odeon Theater, along with two small museums by the Roman Theater. This is where I learned that the old name for Amman was Philadelphia. How interesting! I came from Philadelphia and now I’m in another Philadelphia on the other side of the world.

Brendan and I then walked to the Jordan Museum where we had to pay for the tickets since this museum is not covered with the Jordan Pass. The price for a Jordanian is 1 JOD, but the price for a tourist is 5 JOD. I didn’t like the fact the tourists have to pay five times more than the locals, but then again, it’s only 5 JOD, or $7.05. I have to appreciate this because the museums in the US can cost as much as $40.

I learned a lot from the museum, such as Jordan is one of the driest countries in the world. There’s a Jordanian scientist who invented a material that can capture water from air. And that most people live on the western side of Jordan because it’s more fertile. I also saw a two-headed statue that’s from 7500 BC. It’s probably one of the oldest man-made sculptures that I’ve seen.

After the museum, Brendan and I finished our day by having a shared dinner downtown. We ordered so many dishes that we weren’t able to finish all of them.

The next day, I changed to The Cabin hostel and Brendan went to the Battuta Hostel. I hung out with Pavle in the morning at the rooftop common area then I got in touch with someone named Mohammed on Couchsurfing Hangouts. I decided to meet up with him in the afternoon at Dali, a cafe/bar.

When I arrived, I also met Kasia, who was with Mohammed. Kasia is from Canada and works in IT. She’s on vacation in Jordan. Mohammed is a Palestinian Jordanian and served as the tour guide for Kasia for the day. Both are in their mid-20s. I had a great time chatting with them about music, among many other things.

Kasia and I decided to visit the popular Rainbow Street. It was a bit disappointing because we didn’t feel anything special about the area. We ended up having mansaf, a local lamb with rice dish, at Sufra restaurant. It was the most expensive meal I had in Jordan, at $26. But the dish was very good. The meat fell off the bones very easily and there was so much rice that neither of us could finish.

At night, Kasia and I walked to The Corner’s Pub to meet with Brendan. Brendan will rent a car for two days. Pavle and I will join him for the first day trip to the Dead Sea and on the second day Kasia and I will join Brendan for a trip up north to Umm Qays, Ajloun Castle, and the Archaeological Site of Jerash. So our plans were made and this concludes the first part of my Amman stay. I will write more about the day trips in upcoming posts.

Additionally, there are many things that I noticed about Amman. For example, there are three decimals places on the final amount of a bill, but the lowest coin is five cents which I found to be weird. Drivers honk their car honks everywhere and there’s more presence of the police with automatic rifles than I would like to see. Since Jordan is mainly a Muslim country, there’s no pork served in restaurants. But they do have plenty of lamb, which I like. The hostels are about $10-15 per night, which is quite cheap. And a typical meal can be as cheap as $10 or less. Cash is king here, but some places accept credit cards. There are lots of trash on the streets and the roads are curvy and hilly. I would encounter flights of stairs to get from one street to another since there are so many hills. There are also many cats on the streets. And I noticed that there’s a wide range of cars, from the newest Chinese electric BYDs to very old sedans from the 1970s. I’m guessing the income levels are very wide here.