After a long but uneventful trip through Bangkok and Dubai we arrived in Amman, capital of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. We were met at the airport by our guide, Maha, and our daytime home for the next three weeks, a comfortable air-conditioned coach. We drove through the streets of Amman and then stopped for lunch at a nice but empty restaurant; most Muslims observe fasting during Ramadan but once the sun goes down there won’t be a spare seat. After eating too much we headed to the ruins of the Umeyyesh (?) palace, circa 6^th century AD. There’s a non descript museum there which housed some amazing and priceless artefacts including dinosaur fossils, tools from the stone/bronze/iron ages, and some pieces of the original dead sea scrolls. We thought such things deserved a grander home. After that we continued our drive through the streets of Amman, taking in the contrasts between the more traditional bustling, run down markets (souks) of East Amman with the more progressive and incredibly wealthy West Amman. The houses here rival anything Sydney has to offer (except the harbour) with prices of US$5 – 10m typical. This part of the city is also home to the embassy district. We drove past the US embassy (no photos were allowed), which looked like it was the size of a few city blocks. As you’d imagine it was very heavily guarded with amour plated, machine gun-equipped 4WDs at every corner and soldiers everywhere. It was great to get to our hotel where, after a brief dinner, we all crashed. We hope everyone at home is well and we’ll look forward to bringing you more news in coming days.