Day 262 – Petra to Amman

As per advice from our hotel, My Home Petra Hotel, we checked out very early (maybe around 5am) and walked to the local bus stop (view on Google maps). Along the way a taxi driver asked if we need a lift and we refused, saying we are going to the bus station.

We were able to get on the bus easily by asking the driver where the bus was going. However, the bus was less than half full. Our understanding was that the bus would go to the Southern Bus Station (view on Google maps). We were going to catch an Uber to the airport from there. We waited over 30 minutes and not a single new person came to the bus.

Luckily the taxi driver from before came to the station to check up on us. He told us that the bus will take 5 hours, due to stopping. We ended up negotiating a direct trip with him for 65 JOD / $134.06 AUD (including a 5 JOD tip). It was expensive but since we had a catch to flight, we didn’t have any other option.

Along the way, we were pulled over by a police officer. After a long conversation in Arabic, a different police officer got into the taxi. We ended up giving him a free lift to his house which was a 20 minute detour. Luckily we had some time to spare.

At the airport we had no issues. I was pretty sad, but the incident in the youtube link below did brighten my day for a while.