Sunday 12:30 pm Amman
alhamdolillah, i am now in a taxi going to malik husseini bridge for the border crossing. the taxi drive agreed to 11JD which is great because the budget recommended to me by an american here was 8-12 using taxi/bus combination.
if the crossing is easy, inshaAllah, and if there is a bus available to jerusalem waiting on the other side, inshaAllah, then, i will be in jerusalem by asr time.
i arrived last night. getting my visa at the airport was not difficult, but it was tiring.
what i have seen of the city by car and from the apartment in which i stayed, amman is beautiful, alhamdolillah.
it is a big spread-out city and the buildings look very much like those in and around Makkah, Madinah, or Karachi. roads here are far superior to those in Karachi, and much bigger than most of the roads i travelled in saudi (excepting the saudi freeways) alhamdolillah.
the weather at night is at least as good as Islamabad, and i am a sucker for cities built in and amongst hills, as amman is, alhamdolillah.
Sunday 1:30 pm King Hussein Bridge
just finished jordanian border processing. alhamdolillah, it was smooth. the next bus across though, leaves at 2:30 pm.
my visa stamps have been put on a separate piece of paper rather than in my passport. the reason is to avoid having an israeli entry in my passport. Saudi and Pakistan for example have no relations with israel and it could make entry to them difficult, wAllahHoAlim.
but what strikes me is how much everything costs. pegging the JD at about 0.7$US means a 5JD exit tax looks smaller than it is.
i exchanged $130 and 75SR and got back less than 100JD. less than half is left now. 11JD visa. 6JD phone. 19JD taxi. 11JD taxi. 5JD exit tax.
Sunday 2:30 pm Jordanian bus
3JD bus to israel (includes 550 fils per bag stowed under bus). so now i have alhamdolillah 45 JD left...
Sunday 3:15 pm Israeli border
waiting my turn in immigration. there's been a first passport control at which my beard caused quite a stir. about 20 min of questions later, and i got to here, alhamdolillah.
Sunday 4 pm Israeli immigration control
i had a very long conversation with the immigration agent, an ethiopian woman who had a million and one questions. everyone in my queue was furious with me. people are being processed all around me, and she finally told me...
"you are a very nice man, please have a seat." :)
Allah Ho Musta'an.
in the time i have been writing this entry, from 4:07-4:14 pm, i was back in place to answer a few more questions. and from 4:17-4:21, she came to me ask for a few more pieces of information. alhamdolillah. :)
Allah Ho Musta'an. Howal Muqaddimu, wa Howal Muakhkhiru, la ilaha illa Ho. La hawla wa la quwwata, illa billah.
Sunday 4:24 pm Israeli immigration control
there's no adhan here. at least not that can be heard.
since leaving the US, this is the first large public building i have been in where the adhan could not be heard.
i've been in other places where the adhan may have been drowned out by airtiza conditioning, etc. but i am not in a Muslim country now.
and i'm still really not past the doorstep.
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