After a surprisingly good day touring Jordan from end to end and dinner at a sit down restaurant (not a buffet), we headed to the airport.

Things did not get off to a great start even though Royal Jordanian Airline has a special security and departure area for business class.

As you walk in the door, all bags go through screening. Since we were almost 6 hours early, we were the only ones there so I guess the troops felt no need to expedite the process. No Chinese tourists creating a huge bottleneck. We were our own bottleneck.

First, Jim is carrying 2 bottles of Jordanian wine in his checked bag (a gift from the tour guide). At first I thought it was sort of a joke – who would drink this stuff?? Jim forcefully said – hey, it’s a checked bag, it’s allowed. Case closed.

After loading my things on the conveyor, I looked up and saw both Mary and Frances’ bags were open and were being rifled through by the security officials.

Mind you, we have a “facilitator” who is supposed to manage these issues, but he turns to me and asks “are there medallions that look like bullets?” I tell him that this is ridiculous; what are you talking about? At another point, the guy viewing the x-ray asks if I have a drone. Sir, I’m a tourist from Florida, no, I did not pack a drone.

Then, Mary and Francie are required to unwrap all the carefully packed alabaster statues that they purchased in Egypt. These are just inexpensive scarabs, crocodile, cats and a big blue hippo. By this time there is a higher level person on the scene and I say, these are just inexpensive souvenirs from Egypt, what is the issue? He explains to the facilitator that they are on the look-out for Egyptian antiquities. Seriously?

We point out that 2 of the pieces have the price on the bottom and others had their names engraved on them. After much discussion, the supervisor says “These things look new to me.”

I’m not sure what their plan was – confiscate the stuff, throw us in jail? But it was a reminder of the arbitrariness of the system and how far from home we were.

Glad to be in Paris and I think the airport experience itself would deter me from recommending travel to Jordan despite the awesomeness of Petra and the other sites.