Killing Time in Transit at Qatar’s Airport en Route to Jordan - Nov 16, 2009

Well, it is around 7:30 in the morning, and we are sitting here in the transfers area of Qatar’s international airport in Doha. We are en route from Bali to Amman, the capital of Jordan, and have a more than 7 hour layover here. Our flight arrived here at around 5 a.m., and as internet does not appear to be working in the airport right now, we are simply trying to pass the time before our flight to Amman at 12:30 this afternoon.

Given the length of our layover here in Doha, we would have ideally liked to have done an overnight layover here in Doha. Allegedly there is a fantastic museum of Islamic art which recently opened here, and we would have spent a day here checking that out as well as Doha generally. However, when we were purchasing our tickets online, a one day layover here doubled the ticket price. While we would have liked to check out Doha, we definitely don’t want to do it that bad, so we opted to continue directly on to Jordan this afternoon.

I’ve been wanting to go to Jordan since I saw two particular movies during the summer of 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which the final sequence takes place in the ruins of the ancient city of Petra, and the big screen re-release of the 1962 Academy Award winning Lawrence of Arabia, a big chunk of which takes place in the part of the Arabian Peninsula which today constitutes Jordan. In particular, the imagery from Lawrence of Arabia has since that time always remained ensconced in my mind. I’m not sure how anyone with Wanderlust who has seen that particular film on the big screen - with its breathtaking scenery of Jordan’s Wadi Rum, of the charge led by Lieutenant Colonel T.E. Lawrence at the Battle of Aqaba and of so much visually stunning imagery generally - cannot have felt at least inkling to visit this part of the world. And so now, some 2 decades later, I’m finally getting around to making a visit. Better late than never!

Smack dab in the center of the Middle East, bordering on Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, Jordan is supposed to be a sea of calm in more torrid waters and has a lot to offer tourists. Whatever happens, one thing is certain: this leg of our trip will certainly be a big change from our more recent travels in the tropical isles of the Malay Archipelago. I’m really looking forward to experiencing a bit of the Middle East!