Amman

Boring. Caught a bus to downtown, the old part of the city. Stayed on the bus till the terminus, which is surrounded by stalls. It stinks badly there, and there are lots of locals doing shopping for crap. I just noticed that the brand name on the mouse that I am using is "Nopoos". Downtown was more crap. The people here dress in fairly ordinary western gear. Most women's clothing is bad '80s stuff, but of course they wear a head scarf, too. So when I noticed a Gulf Arab in his pristeen white dishdasha with three or four black abaya + burka clad wives in tow, it really stood out.
We had dinner in the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, which is called Beyond Rangoon (which is in Burma), and met the chef, Chung, who was quite friendly. There were one or two weddings on at the hotel every day, punctuated by loud Syrian percussion (apparently). Lady that worked in the gift shop was, not surprisingly, sick to death of hearing it.