Had a lazy morning, as there was absolutely no-one yelling "G Adventurers" at us, and wanting us to jump. Miss it already. After a late breakfast, and a bit of internet time to load up some blogs, we wandered down the road towards the shopping precinct and walked around window shopping. Well at least it was window shopping until a leather jacket in the window caught my eye, and I got Mandy to try it on. Hmm, now where is that ATM.
Whilst you can always spend up big in shops and in restaurants, in general things are quite cheap. I'd got sick of cursing myself for not bringing a warm beanie with me, so I put my bargaining skills to good use, and got a market vendor down from $5 to $3, and he was quite happy. Coke is 50c a can. We had a full dinner the first night we were in Amman for $3 each. A taxi fare from the burbs into the city centre set us back $4. Jeans are $25-$30, and tonight's meal of grilled chicken, salad, bread and drinks cost us $7 each at a highly rated restaurant.
So I'm not an expert in leather jackets by any means, but Mandy's new soft leather jacket seemed a bit of a bargain.
However, every country has it's cultural quirks, and Jordan is certainly one of them. The country is very arabic, and 94% muslim. Most, but certainly not all, women wear a Hijab, and the majority wear jeans or long dresses. You couldn't characterize women's dress as anything other than conservative, and often dour. Yet, every mall is packed with women's fashion shops that have nothing other than extremely short, tight and often see through dresses. Shop after shop sells skimpy lingerie, fishnets and hosiery that isn't all there, and formal dresses that might vaguely cover the hips. And its not discretely hidden at the back of the shop - it fills the shop windows - and it seems to be quite the done thing for a mother and all of her daughters to crowd into a shop, comparing and choosing what takes their fancy. In the main street market, every third or fourth shop seems to sell beaded Bedouin dresses, and belly dancing costumes. Their home life must be interesting. Surely most of the shop vendors would have gone broke if people weren't buying them.
Jordan is also a poor country, with no natural resources as we have often been reminded. They are certainly a highly educated and stable, well organised country with a good infrastructure, but the average wage is very low. So it's an interesting thing to see the overwhelming number of gold shops and, unlike Australia, they are stocked to the rafters with gold chains, ornaments, bracelets, bangles, rings, pendants and goodness knows what else, with the front window jam packed with stock. Goodness knows where they get the money to buy any of it, although I think that the purchase of gold plays a big part in marriage contracts, so that may account for a chunk of it.
About lunch time we checked out, and moved on to the Boutique Hotel in downtown Amman, where we will spend the next few days. It's modest, but highly rated, and just perfect for what we want. It's right in the middle of the downtown market precinct, and only a 10 minute walk from the cultural sights that we will explore. Free breakfast and free wifi. Think that we've done really well.
Went back to Jafra restaurant that Ayman took us to on the tour, as it's right across the road from our hotel, and enjoyed another cheap, wonderful meal. If only we weren't the only two in the whole of Amman not smoking, although as most people are smoking fruit flavoured hookahs, the smoke isn't nearly so overpowering as our tobacco smoke at home. It's so prevalent that the restaurant employs three people whose full time job is just to go around lighting and refilling the pipes.
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