How does Jordan fit into a SE Asia trip?  Wonder no longer!

Visiting the Middle East in a SE Asia trip

This is the story of how Jordan and Bahrain, two countries in the Middle East, made it into my southeast Asia itinerary. I might have the strangest itinerary and route of anyone I’ve met in my travels.

Taking advantage of error flights

While I was enjoying Bali and Java, Indonesia, my friend was working on a business trip in Tel Aviv, Israel. She suggested we meet up. They’re not even remotely close, but just for fun I did a quick search. I was to surprised to find an incredible deal!

For $181 USD rountrip, I could fly from KL (Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia) to AMM (Amman, the capital of Jordan). It included a layover in Bahrain via Gulf Air.  That’s about the same price as the short trip to the next country in the area that I was about to book before seeing this.

It must have been an error in the system, or perhaps a generous promotion. But either way, after checking that Gulf Air was a reputable airline, I pounced!

I checked if I could could route through Israel or Egypt. However, c hanging dates or revising the plan so I would have made it cost prohibitive. At this rate I could certainly swing it.  An hour later it was almost twice the price. Later that night the price had nearly quadrupled.

My philosophy on layovers

The initial flight I found included a 4.5 hour layover in Bahrain. Layovers are often built into my longer flights to save money. In case it’s helpful, here’s my philosophy on layovers:

One hour layovers are fine, and 10 hours are often enough to leave the airport and explore. But 4.5 hours is just inconvenient. So I extended it to 19 hours for the same price. That gives me enough time to experience some of tiny Bahrain before heading to Jordan.

It wouldn’t have been possible to book a deal like that if I was on a schedule. I spontaneously decided to take advantage of tremendous savings with a week-long detour that took me halfway back home before returning to the Middle East.

That’s the beauty of a long trip like this.

I can’t fit both Jordan and Java, Indonesia, on the same map where you can see both.

Java’s on the southeast corner of the map (Java Sea is labeled), whereas Jordan’s located on the northwest corner of the map, in between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming – photos and stories from Jordan!