15th Dec 2010, Wed.
Our first day of the trip was a longgggggg tiring one. We were on the move for about 24hours. Read on to find out how...
The day started from 9pm the previous night. Abg Fai & Kak Ly drove me & T and two luggages while Mummy and Ayah took one more luggage and took the cab to the airport. That's $25.
We had dinner at Burger King but still the rest weren't there yet. Tufeil was getting restless ...
So I let him run around
At the Checking in Counter close to 11pm and he's still active like what!
Our luggages!!While waiting for our turn at the counter, we made ourselves at home sitting on the carpet on the floor...
Reading Syifaa's new book reader
and playing Tufeil's magnetic doodler that I bought especially for this trip.Soon, it was time to go in and say our goodbyes...
Syifaa' wouldn't let her Nenek go =(
Terminal 1 Transit lounge decoration.
Ok my camera did not do justice to the splendour of our airport. In any case, we didn't walk around much cause we were supposed to go in to the boarding gate soon and I was trying to get Tufeil to sleep, nursing him facing a wall behind a buggy in the middle of nowhere. And then I made a mistake of slugging a bottle of Evian and he was so fascinated he jolted awake and wanted some too. Aiyooo!! It was past midnight ok! Super extremely late for Tufeil whose bedtime is about 9-9.30pm
While waiting, I gotta know one of our travelling members. Oh yes, must tell you that we are on a package tour by Qodariyah Travel & Tours where Mum does freelance. Among other passengers were the owner of the agency's relatives as well as Ayah's colleagues!
So I officially met Rabiah (late 30s). She was supposed to go with a friend who backed out at the last minute. So Rabiah wanted to cancel as well but somehow changed her mind and I was supposed to bunk in with her in the hotel but was dead set against it because I'm BFing. If you've seen how me and T sleep, you'd understand. Finally, she had another roommate, so i sleep with Mum while Ayah sleeps with the tour leader aka boss.
Tufeil promptly as soon as we settled in to our seats
We were destined to Amman, Jordan with a stopover at Dubai. It's an 8hr flight but we were delayed from taking off for an hour because of some medical supplies. Tufeil slept for 2 hours and woke up just after we finished having supper. He was restless, even refusing my milk. He was probably wondering "where's my bed?!?!?!?!" and cried rather loudly. I had to try to take him for a walk. I mean c'mon, it was about 3am S'pore time and people were trying to sleep.
In the end, I hid in the toilet for a bit. He was interested with the toilet roll and cups. After awhile, he calmed down and I returned to my seat. He slept but very fitfully waking every so often. Adjusted position legs on my mum, etc. As a result, I couldn't sleep much being attached to him most of the time and not being able to move (makes a dead ass) lest he woke up. So much so that when the Breakfast trolley came, I refused to eat trying to catch some sleep while T was. now that's VERY unusual for ME, JULISSA, the one who never refuses FOOD ESPLY PLANE FOOD! So don't even think about the in-flight entertainment. I didn't even so much as glance at it.
But alhamdulillah, Tufeil slept through the landing. First ordeal over. He woke up the moment we put him on ...
the airport stroller.
Pushing the stroller is fun
Tufeil hadn't had a proper breakfast just some wan wan biscuits, kit kat and a few strands of fries. (but already so active! It makes me wonder)
One of Dubai airport's shops
Dubai airport's toilet rocks!!
What are you looking at Tufeil?
Airplane!
That's the flight to our Final Destination - Amman.On the background are some of the kids in our group. I am sooooooo thankful that they are with us cause they entertained Tufeil a lot throughout our 10 day journey. They are not just friendly, they are very brotherly and caring too. There are 4 of them: 3 boys and a girl: Ammar, Umair, Harris and Hannah.
After the 3 hour layover came the 3hour journey from Dubai to Amman. Plane got delayed for about 1 hour because of somebody's baggages. Again, Tufeil slept even before take off but woke up when the food was here and finally he ate properly.
I let him walk down the aisle but always, he didn't go far, just up to two seats behind (we were seated in the first economy row on both flights). Luckily, we had a baby, a friend and an abang (older brother) as our neighbour so we played peek-a-boo with each other and he played with his truck etc.
That was until it was 30 min to landing when we were required to fasten the seat belt. The belt itself did not frustrate him. Only when he had dropped his truck and wanted to take it and couldn't, that was when ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! HE SCREAMED AND WAILED. And I was literally chained to the seat - couldn't hide in the toilet like the last time. Reminded me of that boy on the flight back to Singapore from Australia. He didn't quieten down either till after 30min or so when asked to buckle up. And he was like 3 years old! So everybody had to take in his relentless cries. But still when the plane landed nobody gave way to let us out first.
It was like he really hated the plane because the very moment I FIRST STEPPED OUT of the plane, he IMMEDIATELY STOPPED CRYING. Like a switch being turned off. And looked out in awe. Aiyoooo
There was no stroller provided and then we discovered, he had pooped. Maybe that was also why he was so cranky. So we had to go thru another fit of his when trying to change him. Of course it didnt help that the water was icy cold.
As a group, we had a privilege and skipped all queue and got thru immigration immediately.
Atok entertaining his grandson while waiting for the bags at the carousel.We also discovered that the canopy of Tufeil's stroller was gone!!! When I told him, the Boss just grunted and didn't ask me to make a report or anything. ????!!!
After THAT was over, we had to wait for the bus. By then it was around 11am Amman time, 5pm Singapore time.
After THAT was over, we had to wait for the bus. By then it was around 11am Amman time, 5pm Singapore time.
The arrival Hall. Very small.
Tufeil played with his light weight ball alone and with his brother.
I had to confiscate his truck after he kept throwing it into people's faces.
The moment I stepped out of the airport, breathed and felt the air of Amman in December, I immediately associated it with Pakistan. The Sun was shining bright but the breeze was cooling. Mum had the Saudi-feeling.
It was a short walk to the bus so we didn't feel the cold at all.
and were greeted by this view some 20min later.
Subhanallah. I had never seen a desert before and this is spectacular! Made me forget that I had a difficult time holding a baby who was crying his head off for 30 whole mins.
We stopped by a souvenir shop where we stored our excess baggage. This is because we were headed to Jerusalem and to helpfully ease custom check, they told us to bring just one bag necessary for 3 days we're gonna spend there as we were going back to Amman later.
We stopped by a souvenir shop where we stored our excess baggage. This is because we were headed to Jerusalem and to helpfully ease custom check, they told us to bring just one bag necessary for 3 days we're gonna spend there as we were going back to Amman later.
At Amman's border checkpoint.I let Tufeil run around for a bit while we got our passport stamped. We didn't even had to get out of the bus! Prolly because we were on the way OUT of the country.
At Jerusalem border, we were stuck for 2 hours!! There were like 5 different stations to go through.
At Jerusalem border, we were stuck for 2 hours!! There were like 5 different stations to go through.
- we pushed in our baggages only. That was already chaotic cause we couldn't get passed through the language barrier and understand what they required of us.
- Then we had to go to another queue and show our passports. They would ask if you were single or with family. If the latter, how many people together, your reason for visiting. And pasted a sticker with Hebrew writings indicating just so.
- We had to walk through metal detector thingy and our hand luggages into the scanner.
- At this station we were held up for quite awhile. Something to do with Visa and we had to wait for the Boss who had to wait to speak to 3 different people saying we already had visa bla bla bla. and then 4 people were being sort of detained for another hour. We thought they would be questioned or something, but they were only asked to wait in the room till time was up? This is also where we got our stamps on a piece of paper (so that we can detach it later so we won't have problems to go to other Arab countries that don't have peace treaty with Israel)
- Another gantry I don't know for what.
Meantime, the rest of us who passed thru were getting restless. Esply T who was getting hungry. Helloooo we hadn't had lunch and it was already maghrib at 5pm. Some people missed Zohr and Asr. Luckily, we could nip out at the store to buy Choc Croissant for T that we paid in Jordanian Dinar (altho technically we were already in Jerusalem) and go back inside.
It was another 2 hour's journey to the hotel. But T already fell asleep in the bus. We reached the hotel at 7pm. Singapore time 1am. 24hours of travel!
Dinner time but i could barely open my eyes still i forced myself to eat.
I laid T on the sofa outside the dining room
and got myself a plateAte quickly and closed my eyes too.
Hotel lobby
Was sooo tired, I didn't even remember to take picture of our room! Very unlike me. But I only had one thing on my head: Sleep. But before that, had to change Tufeil's diaper and into pyjamas and he'd inevitably wake then had to put him back to sleep and then I myself had to wash up. Erghhh...
Another longggg day tmrw. Stay tuned!
3 glasses of Juice:
You were in Dubai and we couldn't meet! Oh how I wish you had a 24-hr stopover instead :(
Yah i was thinking of u too. But wait till u hear what happened otw back to spore!!
I love the desert pic! Breathtaking!!!
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