April 4, 2009

Amman's Rolling Hills of Concrete
Amman, Jordan

As a guy that has spent several years living in Arizona, the notion of urban sprawl and desert cities typically brings forth imagery of flat terrain. But the idea of arid, elevation-less cities—particularly the capital cities that I've seen of late—has been all but shattered in this region of the Middle East.

Without question, Amman is a city that I've absolutely no desire to return to. I typically despise capital cities for one reason or another—having traveled overland from Poland to Syria this past year without stopping in a single one—and Jordan's is no exception.

Don't get me wrong, Amman's roadway infrastructure is one of the best I've seen in a very long time—on par with some of the better parts of Europe that I've traveled through. But it's not pretty, well-planned roads that I enjoy—nor is it the big-name hotels and banks, or trendy restaurants and expensive beers being drunk by a bar full of early-twenties Americans in the city to study Arabic.

Amman simply feels soulless… or perhaps filled with the likes that I care not to interact with, surrounded by rolling hills of mostly unpainted concrete.

Recently in this country...

Comments:

South Africa

david

July 7th, 2009

Is Travelvice like dead, Craig? What's happening and should your readers just abandon the site?

Hope not,
Kind regards

Thailand

Craig | travelvice.com

July 7th, 2009

Don't give up hope David — the 'vice is alive and kicking, albeit in an offline (and rather shorthand notation) form.

I've been having conversations with Tatiana lately about the unforgivable lag on the site, and how having a toddler around me all day distracts/occupies me to a point where I can hardly get an e-mail written, let alone lengthy travelogue posts that require reflection and recall. Aidric is older now, sleeping less during the day, getting into lots of trouble on his own, and always requires someone to interact with him.

I'm still tossing the occasional update on Twitter, if folks are interested in reading something in the meantime.

Expect updates to the site (starting with Israel and followed by Jordan, Egypt and Thailand) to start rolling again this week… dated back from April… ugh… :|

Thanks for reading, folks.

Love,

Craig

South Africa

david

July 13th, 2009

Good luck, man! :)

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