Flop Out Taxi Ride – Amman Jordan

Ever had that moment where you think…”what the hell am I doing?” When you suddenly realize that you are in a situation that is “one of a kind?” This happened to Lindsay and I on a deserted street in Amman Jordan. We were standing in the middle of the street yelling/arguing with two Middle Eastern men over a taxi ride and the cost. How did we get to this point?....let me explain. We took a taxi from Damascus Syria to Amman Jordan. Upon entering Amman our fantastic taxi driver from Syria offered to call “his friend” to come and pick us up for a quick tour of Amman before we had to head down to Petra. We kindly took him up on this offer as getting a local taxi for a few hours is a fantastic way to experience a city. We were dropped off by one taxi and picked up by “his friend” and everything started out great. He was a very nice man and kept looking in his rear view mirror and saying “welcome to Jordan” with a great Arabic accent. It all went downhill when we asked him if we could hire him to drive us the 4 hours down to Petra (this is not uncommon). At that point he called a friend and swung by and picked him up. The minute “his friend” entered the cab Lindsay and I knew we were in trouble. We had traveled enough in our life to recognize a scam artist and this guy gave off a bad vibe. After a little chatting we eventually pulled up on a deserted street where we were going to “switch cabs” to head down to Petra. Normally this would be fine but they asked for something that did'nt sit right with us…they wanted the money upfront and were going to have a different driver take us the 4 hours down to Petra. We thought for sure that we were going to pay them and then have the driver ask us for money again when he dropped us off in Petra. I remember during the argument getting very frustrated and saying over and over “I will pay you when we get there.” At one point they even took our bags to put them in the trunk (without settling on a price) and that made Lindsay really frustrated. We marched over to another taxi and asked if he could take us to Petra and he just gave us a blank stare. At this point the situation was getting bad…we were standing in the middle of a deserted street in Amman Jordan arguing with two middle eastern men. Eventually Lindsay and I conceded and got in the cab. The drive out of Amman was beautiful (it is an incredible city) but the rest of the trip is long, hot and quite boring (flat desert). The entire time I was so sure that the minute we got to Petra the driver was going to demand more money (our original fear). However, when we got to Petra he happily dropped us off with a smile and wave and did not ask for money. We were shocked and relived and immediately had the feeling that we had overreacted. Looking back we both realized that we did a horrible job of communicating. 99.9% of our experiences in the middle east were positive and the hospitality is legendary. We knew this but somehow forgot as we negotiated our taxi ride from Amman to Petra. Although it was a flop out experience we can look back today and laugh…traveling is always an adventure! :)

This picture of Lindsay was taken right before the madness started...based on her face it is almost as if she knew what was coming. :)


The only pic we got of our taxi driver in Amman...we are trying to get him to say in the camera "welcome to Jordan."