Jordanian border crossing procedures were completed by 8pm. We got ourselves a local Zain sim card and commenced an exhaustive operation calling all 5 star hotels in Amman; Marriott, Four Seasons, Movenpick, Sheraton, Meridian etc… After 30 minutes of calling, one call made the difference.
The call to my friend Khaled Abu Shamleh who is an acquaintance of the Business Development Manager at Holiday Inn and managed to get us a good promotional rate.Though we arrived at 9:00pm and been driving for almost 18 hours, I wasn’t going to let my friend Khaled down. Especially after he had spent great deal of R&D efforts to find the best grill restaurants in Amman,
where the lamb Carcass is dangled at the restaurant door, your choice of the cut to be lively turned into a variety of mouth watering kabab. Such restaurants can only be found in exotic and exclusive road side locations or refugees’ camp.
However, Khaled decided to upgrade due to the special occasion and took us to Amman Grand Restaurants.
same formula and concept but with a hygiene factor 10x the road side butcher.Surprisingly, the family decided not to indulge in my glamorous eatery, and instead they settled for the tested and proven falafel Sandwich from Abu Jbara chain of restaurants.
Khaled and I spent good deal of time chatting over 1.5 kg of meat catching up on work and personal issues, we kissed and hugged to meet again in July in Abu Dhabi.
The true surprise came when I learnt next morning that that the two rooms have been prepaid. I called Khaled to object, but he insisted, exhibiting exemplary form of Arabic reception and hospitality.
رب أخ لم تلده أمك
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