Day 414: The Gatekeeper

Amman – Desert Castles – Amman, Jordan

Amman is a great place to be based in when in Jordan. The whole country is small enough to do easy day trips to the surrounding areas. Among the many day routes is the Desert Castles route to the east of of Amman.

For JD25 (USD35), I hopped on a shared taxi with a few people from the hostel and off we went to check out some castles in the desert. Honestly, they are all rather disappointing. The desert is hardly desert and the castles hardly castles.

The highlight of the day was actually being invited into a “caravan” by the gatekeeper of one of the “castles.” Probably bored to death because there weren’t any other visitors, this man invited us over to his caravan crib, which was basically a container, for tea. The man hardly spoke any English but was definitely interested in getting to know us. After tea, we asked how much we had to pay and he looked at us perplexed. Obviously, he just wanted our companies.

Perhaps it’s time for me to let my guard down again and believe that not everybody is out there to rip me off. I have to admit I got rather defensive after India. It’s not good.