http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~pf/travel/jordan.misc (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
JORDAN COMPILATION 9 June 1995
Contents
[1] On-line Information
[1-1] CIA World Factbook
[1-2] US State Department Travel Advisory
[1-3] Frequently-Asked-Question (FAQ) Lists
[1-4] Trip Reports
[1-5] Newsgroups and Mailing-Lists
[1-6] Other Internet Services
[2] Guidebooks
[2-1] Lonely Planet Guides
[2-2] Guide du Routard
[3] Threads on the "rec.travel.misc" Newsgroup
[3-1] Crossing from/to Israel or Egypt
Please drop me a line when you've downloaded this compilation, so that
I may estimate how many people use this service.
The (more frequently updated) original of this compilation is at:
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~pf/travel/jordan.misc [Turkey]
Comments and suggestions are welcome!
Happy traveling in Jordan,
--
Pierre Flener, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Engineering Email: pf@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
and Information Science http: //www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~pf/pf.html
Faculty of Engineering Voice: +90 / 312 / 266-4000 x1450
Bilkent University (GMT+2) +90 / 312 / 266-5031 (home)
06533 Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey Fax: +90 / 312 / 266-4126
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[1] On-Line Information
[1-1] CIA World Factbook
The CIA World Factbook includes such things as population statistics,
info about a country's government (names of heads of state, and so on),
economy, addresses of U.S. embassies, and more, for many countries.
Very interesting! The information on Jordan is available as follows:
http://www.ic.gov/94fact/country/126.html [USA]
The information is not necessarily up-to-date, though.
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[1-2] US State Department Travel Advisory
The latest travel advisory for US-citizens wishing to visit Jordan is
available as follows:
ftp://ftp.stolaf.edu/pub/travel-advisories/advisories/jordan
http://www.stolaf.edu/network/travel-advisories.html [USA]
Such travel advisories are regularly issued by the US State Department.
As you can imagine, this information is mostly relevant to US-citizens,
but it gives an up-to-date, though slightly paranoid, estimate of the
current political/economical/religious/... climate in Jordan.
Here follows the most recent advisory that I bothered to download
(in November 1994):
STATE DEPARTMENT TRAVEL INFORMATION - Jordan
============================================================
Jordan - Consular Information Sheet
April 8, 1994
Country Description: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a
constitutional monarchy with a developing economy. While Jordan is
modern and Western-oriented, Islamic ideals and beliefs provide the
conservative foundation of the country's customs, laws and
practices. Tourist facilities are widely available, although
quality may vary depending on price and location. The workweek in
Jordan is Sunday through Thursday.
Entry Requirements: Passports are required. Visitors may obtain a
visa for Jordan at international ports of entry, not including the
Allenby Bridge, upon arrival. Entry into Jordan is sometimes not
granted to persons, especially U.S.-Jordanian dual nationals, with
passports showing an Israeli visa or exit/entry stamp. For further
information, travelers can contact the Embassy of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan, 3504 International Drive N.W., Washington, D.C.
20008, telephone (202) 966-2664.
Medical Facilities: Basic modern medical care and medicines are
available in the principal cities of Jordan, but not necessarily in
outlying areas. Doctors and hospitals often expect immediate cash
payment for services. U.S. medical insurance is not always valid
outside the United States. Supplemental medical insurance with
specific overseas coverage has proved useful. The international
travelers hotline at the Centers for Disease Control, telephone
(404) 332-4559, has additional useful health information.
Information on Crime: Crime is generally not a serious problem for
travelers in Jordan. However, petty crime is prevalent in the
downtown Amman Hashemiyah Court area and around the Roman
amphitheater. Visiting these areas during daylight and in groups
will reduce the risk of petty crime. The loss or theft of a U.S.
passport abroad should be reported immediately to local police and
the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. Useful information on
safeguarding valuables, protecting personal security, and other
matters while traveling abroad is provided in the Department of
State pamphlets, "A Safe Trip Abroad" and "Tips for Travelers to the
Middle East and North Africa." They are available from the
Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, D.C. 20402.
Drug Penalties: U.S. citizens are subject to the laws and legal
practices of the country in which they travel. Penalties for
possession, use or trafficking in illegal drugs are severe in
Jordan, and convicted offenders can expect jail sentences and fines.
Areas of Instability: There is a risk of violent incidents during
demonstrations, other large public gatherings, or in refugee camps.
Two non-American tourists were attacked in separate incidents in
February in downtown Amman, following the violence in the West Bank
town of Hebron on February 25.
Land mines are located within two miles of all military
installations and borders, including the popular Dead Sea area.
Mine fields are fenced off and marked with signs carrying a skull
and crossbones, but the fences and signs may be in poor repair or
hard to see. Avoiding these areas reduces the risk of accidentally
setting off a mine.
Terrorism: Tension in the region remains high, especially in the
wake of the violence in the West Bank town of Hebron. Although
there is no specific information on threats to U.S. citizens or U.S.
targets in Jordan, terrorism remains a concern. U.S. citizens in
Jordan can receive more detailed information from the U.S. Embassy
in Amman on reducing the risk of becoming a target of terrorist
attack.
Dual Nationality: Although no longer subject to immediate
conscription, all U.S.-Jordanian dual national males under the age
of thirty-seven are required to register for service in the
Jordanian military. Those subject to registration may be prevented
from leaving Jordan until permission to do so is obtained. This
permission is often granted to U.S. citizens, but may take some time
to obtain and is limited to one trip only. Consular assistance to
dual nationals may be limited in some instances.
Registration: U.S. citizens who register at the U.S. Embassy can
obtain updated information on travel and security within Jordan.
Embassy Location: The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, is located in
Abdoun, Jabel Amman, P.O. Box 354. The telephone number is (962)
(6) 820-101.
No. 94-44
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[1-3] Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) Lists
Loai Said (lsaid@netcom.com) is planning to prepare a FAQ on Jordan:
he welcomes suggestions and contributions!
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[1-4] Trip Reports
Currently (June 1995), there is only my Jordanian trip report on the
rec.travel archives:
http://www.digimark.net/rec-travel/middle_east/jordan/trip.flener [USA/MD]
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~pf/travel/jordan.trip [Turkey]
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[1-5] Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
+ There is a newsgroup, namely "soc.culture.jordan", with continuous/
exclusive coverage of Jordanian culture, politics, economics, history,
sports, and so on.
+ The "rec.travel.misc" (not: .asia!) and the "bit.listserv.travel-l"
newsgroups periodically have threads about Jordan: see section [3] of
this compilation for an edited and annotated "Best-of".
+ The same holds for the TRAVEL-L bitnet mailing list. A bitnet
mailing list similar in goals to rec.travel. To subscribe, send a
mail message to listserv@trearn.bitnet consisting of the line:
"subscribe travel-l firstname lastname".
+ JordanNews is a mailing list devoted to the discussion of issues and
news with importance to Jordan and Jordanians. To subscribe, send email
to listserv@netcom.com with this line in the body: subscribe JordanNews-L.
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[1-6] Other Internet Services
Excellent home-pages on Jordan are at:
http://iconnect.com/jordan/ [USA]
http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/jordanians/jordan/ [USA/MA]
Lonely Planet Publications have very valuable and very recent feedback
from travelers (but no general information yet, as of May 1995):
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/meast_pc.htm#jor [USA?]
City Net Express has more pointers:
http://www.city.net/countries/jordan/ [USA]
David Koblas' "Currency Converter" allows you to find out the current
exchange rates of the Jordanian Dinar vs. major and some minor
currencies:
http://www.ora.com/cgi-bin/ora/currency?Jordan [USA]
Rick Bronson's "Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory", at:
http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/lucas/travel/tourism-offices.html [Canada]
listed the following addresses when I last checked (in October 1994):
Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities
P.O. Box 224
Amman, Jordan
+962-6-642311, -642317
FAX +962-6-348465
Jordan Information Bureau
2319 Wyoming Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
+1-202-265-1606
Many other travel-related (in general) resources are accessible via:
+ the rec.travel archives:
http://www.digimark.net/rec-travel/ [USA/MD]
ftp://ftp.digimark.net/pub/rec-travel/ [USA/MD]
or their mirror sites (select the closest for better network performance):
http://www.solutions.net/rec-travel/ [Canada]
ftp://www.solutions.net/ [Canada]
ftp://ftp.nus.sg/pub/misc/travel/ [Singapore]
http://www.nectec.or.th/rec-travel/index.html [Thailand]
ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/rec-travel/ [Thailand]
+ Lonely Planet Publications:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com [USA?]
+ GNN Travelers' Center:
http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [USA]
or its mirror sites (select the closest for better network performance):
http://bond.edu.au/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Australia]
http://www.wimsey.com/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Canada]
http://quasar.sba.dal.ca:2000/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Canada]
http://www.germany.eu.net:8000/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Germany]
http://www.iol.ie/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Ireland]
http://www.ntt.jp/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Japan]
http://www.elvis.msk.su/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [Russia]
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [UK]
http://www.digital.com/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [USA/CA]
http://gnn.interpath.net/gnn/meta/travel/index.html [USA/NC]
+ City Net Express and The Virtual Tourist II:
http://www.city.net/ [USA]
http://wings.buffalo.edu/world/vt2/ [USA]
+ Going Places:
http://travel.gpnet.com/ [USA]
+ TravelASSIST:
http://travelassist.com/ [USA]
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[2] Guidebooks
[2-1] Lonely Planet Guides
+ Hugh Finlay
Jordan and Syria - A Travel Survival Kit
Lonely Planet Publishers, Victoria (Australia), 199x (2nd edition)
ISBN ??? UK# 8.95 ??? pages, ?? maps, ?? color photos
Also available in French. UK# 10.00
Simply excellent! Very informative and comprehensive (includes long
sections on basics and contexts, and thus provides for excellent
armchair traveling or reading material while on the trip). Highly
recommended!!! I can't think of anything that could be included
anywhere in this on-line guide that would not be redundant with this
book. There is a memorable quote in this guidebook:
"Jordan must be the most underrated tourist destination in the world!"
+ ???
Arabic (Egyptian) Phrasebook
Lonely Planet Publishers, Victoria (Australia), 199x
ISBN ??? UK# 2.50 ??? pages
Very useful, especially that Egyptian Arabic is widely understood in
Jordan, because of the cultural influence of Egypt (music, movies,
magazines, ...) on the whole Arab world. Jordanian Arabic itself is
closer to classical Arabic, though.
+ ???
Middle-East on a Shoestring
Lonely Planet Publishers, Victoria (Australia), 199x (1st edition)
ISBN ??? UK# 11.95 ??? pages, ?? maps, ?? color photos
I haven't read this one.
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[2-2] Guide du Routard
Le Guide du Routard - Egypte, Jordanie, Yemen
Revise' et reedite' chaque annee
Hachette
ISBN ??? FF ??.00
Assez bon, mais (comme d'habitude) un peu mince sur le cote' historique.
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[3] Threads on the "rec.travel.misc" Newsgroup
[Editor's note: I considerably edited the following threads so as to keep
them short and informative (and spell/grammar-checked).
I also annotated them whenever I don't agree with other
people, or have updates to what they wrote. Sometimes,
I also include private followup email conversations I had
with readers.]
[Editor's note: This section is virtually empty as of now, since I have
seen very few messages about traveling in Jordan so far.
Most of the messages so far dealt with crossing from
Jordan to Israel, or vice-versa, and I'm afraid they have
become obsolete with the recent peace accords between
Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and Jordan.
Please feel free to submit anything you'd like to see
included here!]
[3-1] Crossing from/to Israel or Egypt
From: Sam Kershaw (skershaw@bnr.ca)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Israel/Egypt/Jordan border crossings?
Date: April 1994
I intend to travel around the middle east this summer and would like to
travel around Egypt, Israel and Jordan. Can anybody who has recent
experience of this area advise me of the current situation regarding
border crossings. I would specifically like to know:
1. Has the Israel/Palestine peace accord affected the entry bans
imposed by some countries on people who have evidence of a visit to
Israel in their passport? Is it likely to in the future?
2. Can I cross from Israel to Jordan? If so, how?
3. Can I cross from Egypt or Greece to Israel without any evidence of
Israel being entered in my passport?
---
From: bnewlin@netcom.com (Bill Newlin)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Israel/Egypt/Jordan border crossings?
Date: April 1994
I don't know what effect, if any, the peace accord has had on the entry
bans, but the Israeli border authorities have always been very
accommodating about not stamping your passport in the first place, if
you ask them to. (Of course, if you *already* have an Israeli stamp in
your passport, you may be out of luck.)
It's no trouble to cross from Israel to Jordan (without a stamp in your
passport), or from Jordan to Israel (since they have always considered
the West Bank to be part of Jordan...); there's only one road, across
[Allenby] bridge [...]. I forget what buses to take to and from the
border (I was there in '89), but it's pretty obvious.
Here's the catch: You could go from Jordan to Israel and back to Jordan
(on the theory that you'd simply been visiting Jordan's West Bank),
*but* you couldn't do the reverse, i.e. if you entered Jordan from
Israel you couldn't go back to Israel the same way you came in, because
you were violating Israeli protocol. (There was really no way around
this for me, since I was a guest of the Israelis, for the Jerusalem
Book Fair; I ended up coming back into Israel from Egypt.) Again, I
don't know whether recent events have affected these rules.
Finally, if you're going to Jordan I assume you're going to move heaven
and earth to get to Petra? It's one of the world's great sights, up
there with Angkor, Tikal, etc. When you go, be sure to enter the site
very, very early (before it officially opens, in other words) so you
get a good, solitary look at it before the mule-riding hordes.
---
From: djw@wang.com (David Weinstein)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Israel/Egypt/Jordan border crossing?
Date: April 1994
Some of your questions can be answered by reading the Lonely Planet
Guide to Israel. There's a new one out. I don't have time to put it
all in here. Also check with consulates for up to date political
info. My advice would be: don't get an Israeli stamp or get two
passports.
---
From: Judy Frost
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.travel-l
Subject: Israel and Jordan
Date: September 1994
From what I've heard, you should have no trouble. I don't think the
Jordanians are accepting Israeli passports just yet, but with an
American (or other Western) you should have no trouble.
---
From:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.travel-l
Subject: Israel to Jordan
Date: September 1994
It is also very easy to get to Jordan from Egypt. You can obtain a
same day visa from the Jordanian embassy in Cairo. Make sure you have
a picture and 20USD. There is a boat that goes from Nuweiba on the
Sinai Peninsula to Aqaba. I think it goes two or three times a week.
You can also just travel to Eilat and then to Aqaba. From Aqaba, Petra
is only 1 or 2 hours.
[Editor's note: Jordanian visas can be obtained on the spot when coming
on that ferry from Nuweiba (Egypt)! And they are then
significantly cheaper than if obtained from a consulate
somewhere else! Please see my Jordan travelogue (cited
in item [1-4] of this compilation) for more information
on visa prices, and my Egypt travelogue
http://www.digimark.net/rec-travel/africa/egypt/trip.flener [USA/MD]
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~pf/travel/egypt.trip [Turkey]
for information about Nuweiba and the ferry ride.
I have also heard that overland transit from Egypt to
Jordan, through Israel, is going to be possible in a
not-too-distant future.]
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