zlacker

I must say I visited Jordan with my wife in 2020, right before the pandemic and I had a wonderful experience. No heckling, we felt safe all the time, people didn't rip us off, and when looked at we felt it was more curiosity than anything else.

We loved it. I'm learning arabic on Duolingo now because I got curious about the script.

Of course, YMMV.

>>pcardo+(OP)
Did you see Petra? How was it?

>>rsj_hn+u
Yes, it was great. We were free to roam around inside and saw most of it, up to the monastery, and then up to another viewpoint ("the best view in the world"). I think we walked about 20km that day. It was worth it.

We bought tickets for the Petra by night show, and while it was good, we felt it was a bit expensive for what it was.

The martian landscapes of Wadi Rum were equally as good.

>>pcardo+09
I was quite saddened by the number of people who go to petra and only factor in a few hours, never going much further than the treasury. I appreciate not everyone has a lot of time in their itinerary, but that seems to be one part you should make the time for.

We had two full days there and it was such an extraordinary site to look around.

And I'm pretty sure there were about 5 "Best view in the world" :) Although all of them could make a pretty good claim to the title, it's a stunning area.

>>pcardo+(OP)
I'll echo that, having had exactly the same experience in 2018. We stand out almost everywhere - I'm Caucasian with a rugby player's build, and my partner is tall and very obviously East Asian. Yet there was no heckling, no scams, no soliciting for bribes, at most there was friendly interest when interacting with locals. I fully expected to need grifter repellent from time to time, and but it was not so. So I'll also pipe up for Jordan.

I know it's not a perfect country, but to us it felt safe, in the way that some other nations don't, and we weren't confining ourselves to the usual tourist spots of Amman, Petra, and Wadi Rum, but also wandering further afield besides. Yet I've felt more at risk in parts of Europe, Russia, and China.

I just checked some global indexes and was not surprised to find that Jordan ranks #1 for literacy and medicine in the region, despite being one of the nations without oil revenue. In my experience it carried itself with the patina of both storied history and modern education.