Arava Border Crossing
We woke up around 7:15am to be able to get to the Arava land border crossing between Israel and Jordan. We had no idea how long it would take to go through all the steps of the process, but we wanted to get there as early as we could.
Truth be told, I was a tad nervous about our Israeli/Jordanian border crossing. Given the historically rocky relationship between these two countries, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Or rather, I expected (rightly or wrongly) armed militia all over the place and a fairly nerve-wrecking process. Doug on the other hand wasn't worried in the least. In reality, it was totally straight-forward and not at all intimidating. I was happy to be proved wrong :)
Goodbye Israel
The process of exiting Israel consisted of five steps:
Go through airport-type security scanner, including all your luggage
Pay USD ~$120 total for our family; (an expensive!) tax paid to Israel upon exit
Scan your passport & get a picture print-out of your approved exit visa
Go through Duty Free; last chance to buy in Israel!
Provide your exit visa paper & your proof of tax payment; someone checks them and you’re good to go!
It’s also worth noting that the Israeli side of the crossing was really lovely. Palm trees & benches everywhere, plus pleasant & helpful workers. The whole process was the right combination of automated/electronic and efficient human interaction. Overall, positive & easy.
No Man’s Land
The exit process from Israel spits you out in a wide track with barbed wire coils atop fences on both sides. There are “Thank you for visiting Israel” signs behind you, and “Welcome to Jordan” signs ahead of you. We had to walk about 50 feet between these two markers. We took this chance to talk to the girls again (we had already prepped them) about how this is neutral territory, and belongs neither to Israel, nor to Jordan. Crazy to be physically in that spot.
Hello Jordan
We carried forward to enter Duty Free Jordan. It was like Groundhog Day, except doing the process in reverse this time :) We rounded the corner after Duty Free to find a veeerrrry long line to get your passport checked to officially register your entrance into Jordan. No more nice palm trees & automated kiosks; just one, big, long, slow moving line :)
Thankfully, right after we turned the corner we saw a man holding a sign with our names. Our Memphis Tour representative! We patched into the same tour company (Memphis Tours) that we used in Egypt. However, this time in Jordan we created a bespoke program that involves only one half-day of a guide at Petra, and largely just transportation & accommodation bookings. Ahmed whizzed us to the front of the Jordanian immigration line, literally cutting in front of all the waiting people. We saw this happen with a few other folks as well. Apparently official government -recognized tour operators get special treatment. Something tells us the border crossing agents benefit from this arrangement. Works for us! Within minutes, we were walking out of the border crossing and into Jordan free land. Times like this, it's easy to see the merit of a paid tour agency working logistics on your behalf.
Off to Wadi Rum
Ahmed introduced us to our driver, Yasser, who would be with us for the entirety of our five days in Jordan. He was immediately a jovial man, ready to ensure we have a super time in Jordan. First stop . . . Wadi Rum desert!
Border Crossing: That's a Wrap
Starting the day in Israel and ending it in Jordan was a bit surreal. Crossing by foot felt very different than landing in a new country via airplane. I’m proud of us for tackling things like that border crossing on our own. Easy for me to say, given it was a smooth & painless process in the end, but I really do feel like we gained another notch on our travel belt in doing so :)
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