Day 0.5 Wednesday, April 12

A rush out the door after work and at the airport. Well, the travel agency, DNATA booked the hotels and they took a long time to get the paperwork printed out at the airport.

I had waited until the last minute to book the hotels and as it turned out, it was a very fully booked week. So we ended up in the Aqaba Gulf Hotel, which isn’t the worst but not a top of the line hotel. Though Surya said, he likes it as they don’t treat you like you are soo special.

It was a two hour flight, full and cramped seating on Jordanian Airways. There was a meal which was OK and TV in the seatbacks. Very cramped when the person in front reclined, nearly the worst I’ve seen. Marja’s seatback TV didn’t work.

We landed and then had to buy a Jordanian Visa for 10 Jordanian Dinars (JD) each. (1 JD = 1.6 CAD) I thought the travel guidebook, “Roughguides, Jordan”, said that there might be an ATM in the arrival zone of the airport but there isn’t, there are only money changers.

There were moneychangers in the area where you buy the stamp, and fortunately I had some cash to exchange, I don’t know if they would take cash on a credit card. And luckily I had grabbed the US cash I had laying about along with the few Kuwait Dinars in the wallet which gave the 60 JD for the Visas.

Two taxis to the hotel for what they said was the regulated fare of 18.5 JD for each taxi.
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Click here for a large photo.
Last week was Mufty day where the students dress as a know character in literature.

• Surya was Arthur Dent from Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy
• Savitri
  was Hermione from Harry Potter
• Sumati was Piglet from you know what
• Janaki was Junie B Jones from Junie B Jones books

Now this is interesting. I suppose you were also wondering what a Mufty Day is. According to a web search:

“Mufti” is quite common amongst older Brits – it came from the era of the colonies and was generally used by soldiers to mean “non-uniform dress”. “In mufti” is probably the commonest use, used particularly by ex-servicemen of my acquaintance. It doesn’t mean casual as such – because soldiers have at least 2 uniforms “dress” for ceremonial use and “battledress” for everyday use. I have never heard a serviceman call his battledress “mufti” and indeed a soldier would call non-dress uniform “khaki” (pron “car-key” NOT “cacky”!). I believe mufti is simply civilian dress and, frankly, is inappropriate to use as an alternative to “dress-down” – unless the power dressers think they are at war (saddos).

Yes. It comes from the days of the British Raj and was used by soldiers – mainly officers – to describe the non miltary clothes they wore when off duty.

But on Wikipedia

A Mufti is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia), capable of issuing fataawa (plural of “fatwa”).