Amina Yanarsaeva

I have wanted to go to Jordans for almost 40 years. I have lived in the Middle East and traveled and worked in many of the countries but I never had a business reason to go to Jordan and then when I retired it just never seem to work out. I had a sudden schedule opportunity to fit in a couple weeks in Jordan and I contacted Kim Kim. I told them what I was interested in since I'm a history buff and also a seasoned amateur archaeologist. They responded almost immediately and put together a fabulous itinerary and got me a guide that just couldn't have been better.

What Kim Kim has always done well for me is to know the local market and be able to find resources. In this. In this case they put together an itinerary together with Flow Travel of Jordan travel, and found me an archaeologist as a guide. The guide, Amer Bdour, was absolutely perfect for my needs. He was well-versed in the history of the sites that we went to and since he had worked with the Archaeology Directorate he knew the archaeological history of the sites as well. Archaeology is never static, there's always new discoveries that are changing viewpoint on historical events and sites. Amer and I had some delightful conversations and debates about the wonderful sites that we visited

Petra is the big tourist draw in Jordan, and certainly the two days we spent wandering around Petra or amazing. But Jordan is much more than that. The neolithic sites go back to almost 10,000 years BCE. Historical chronology from the time of Christ onward includes amazing transformations between Nabatean, Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, and Muslim empires. It was fascinating to visit the various sites and see the evolution represented in architecture and iconography.

I also have a particular interest in TE Lawrence in the Arab Revolt during WW1. The schedule had me visiting four places where there's good historical evidence that Lawrence was there, including his office in the ancient Al-Asraq Castle. Amer understood how important that was to me and went out of his way to make sure I had enough time at these sites. I also got to talk and interact with some of the Bedouin tribe members whose tribes were part of the Arab Revolt. This is very real history to them and I remember one of the Bedouin tribesman telling me with pride that his grandfather rode with Lawrence in the attack on Aqaba on 1917.

We did include some non-historical sightseeing at Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. I will most likely come back with my wife next time and will probably do a more nature focused trip. There's no doubt I will arrange this trip yet again with Kim Kim