Arrival in Jordan- Egypt Air via Cairo

28 November 2009- Saturday

Have slept better on other flights, but an 11 am landing in Cairo left me a little groggy. The 5 hour layover didn’t help- so plenty of time for a slice of pizza and tea- $10 in Egypt. Flight to Amman full and I noted a lot of Grand circle and OAT baggage tags. Arrived in Amman about 6pm and sure enough a rep from OAT was at the gate and then the mess began. I have to reach back to my enlisted days in the fifties to come up with a descriptive word- Clusterf—k! The gentleman separated the large group of Grand circle (about 50) to one side a smaller group of about 15 OAT to the other side and then sent me to the visa desk to buy a visa. I told him as part of an OAT tripI would be getting a group visa- no he insisted I was to get my own visa for 10 Jordanian Dinar- but sine I had no Jordanian money I had to go to the money changer and get dinar. While I was in line for my visa- photographed but no finger prints- the OAT grup left the area, And somehow I got melded with the GCT group at the baggage carousel- where I quickly found my bag but no sight of the OAT group- Finally a porter who was xraying all bags entering Jordan took me outside the customs area and threw my bag on the OAT baggage cart. My late arrival prompted some questions from my fellow travelers as to why I haad to get an individual visa and I asked if they were on the Suez cruise as well- Oh no, they were on another tour but my bags were now being loaded onto their bus so I had to out and retrieve them. I finally ran into the original OAT rep who sad I was to stay in the airport and he’d send someone for me- Then everyone disappeared. Several minutes later a van pulled up and I had my private transport to Lharsa Hotel where I met one of the tour guides, Ahmed. He said the other guide, Mohamed, had gone to the airport to pick up the rest of the Suez group who were coming in on Air France from Paris. (Air France is a mileage partner with Delta- so I could have gotten a bunch of Skymiles) Short briefing before dinner at 8.30pm then to bed in my Motel 6 room with a very busy4 lane highway outside and the floodlights streaming into the room (thin drapes)- so begins my mid east trip.