Shop Jordan! {part one}

Amongst the many ancient sites to visit, incredibly tasty food to eat, and wonderful people to weave you a story or two about eating eggs fried in lamb oil when they were children....Jordan offers up a shopping exerience that puts us to shame.  Almost everything (note the 'almost'....) is handmade in the country.  However the PRC {People's Republic of China} has a hand in dealing Jordanians cheaply made goods like it does for the rest of the world.  Your best bet is to ask! Although after seeing what the Jordanian's come up with, you don't even need to ask after awhile...it becomes obvious.  The quality, the care & the spirit imbued into each item becomes apparent.

Two of the items shown above now have a home in Canada.  Can you guess?

Next post will be part two, of the shopping extravaganza!  Here is a wee list of all my Jordanian faves:

• tea with mint
• hummous!~
• hookahs!
• grilled meats
• Arabic
• our driver William!!!
• great travel companions
• a little bar called Jafra
• another restaurant called Kan Zaman, meaning "A place in time"
• Ammarin Bedouin Camp
• Zohrab & Yara!!!
• herbal tea on a mountaintop
• Bedouin tents dotting the landscape
• goats crossing
• camels crossing
• The Dead SEA...and lathering up on the shore with thick black mud and letting it dry on your skin in the hot sun
• Cairo shisha masters
• drinking too much Jordanian wine with Donna & Julian

More lists to come :)

xo

Comments

[Tara Bradford]

Great list of delights! You're absolutely right about the Jordanian handmade products: their care, quality and attention to detail. Just stay away from those Chinese-made refrigerator magnets! :) Am so glad those two beauties came home with you. :) xo

[karen cole]

What a great list. What amazing treasures.
I couldn't possibly choose which you may have brought home...I suppose one of the Bedouin dresses would be in your suitcase.

This trip sounds heavenly.

[Ily]

William take me to "A Place in Time" and then to Jafra, please! ;)

Beautiful photos and the handmade items are rare and precious. I can't believe you got a taste of this magical land. I'm envious...and happy for you, too!

Please share more!! It was a fascinating trip, I can tell!

Missed you, Chica! Welcome Home!! :)

[Steve]

Hmmm, let's see.... I would guess a few of those happy, colourful bowls (hey, I love bowls!) and either the ring or the guy in the first picture came home with you. If I had to decide I would guess the guy because he is a closet shisha master and that would be a good thing to have around!

I would have never given a trip to Jordan and seconds thought until I've read about your journey. It is rapidly climbing my Gotta-Get-There! list.

[Sherry]

Only two of the above came home with you? I'd have said more...the colours, the textures...you must have been in heaven.

And there you see...Bedouin. I said on facebook (I think) that every time you posted about your trip the word Bedouin just kept popping into my head!!

I'm thinking that second last photo (I don't know what that is!) came home with you and a dress....then again those brightly coloured bowls are rather you as well!!

[Swirly]

That is one rockin' list!

[Donna]

They are masters of the display, aren't they? The quality of the company made up for the quality of the wine. [:o)

[pam aries]

Ohhh Gillian..this is all so fabulous. I would have been going crazy mad withall the colors . trinkets. and spicyness of it all!

[Stephanie]

Gillian, I love the piles and piles of little treasures! Wonderful photographs, can't wait to see MORE!

x..x

[Gigi]

I would guess one of those gorgeous dresses and maybe a bowl or two. I want those bowls--as pretty as candy they are!!!

Loving your Jordan photos and tales. Hungry for more, my friend. xo

[elizabeth]

I would need at least one set of bowls. They would make for a very happy meal.

[Dionna]

Sounds like an amazing trip and experience.

[Tracy]

Such treasures & delights...those COLORS!!...*swoon*... I set of those bowls, some jewelry and one of those dress... I like shopping in Jordan! ;o) Very much enjoying catching up on your travels, Gillian... you've had the best time--it shows! Happy Days :o) ((HUGS))

[Rebecca in Switzerland]

One of my favorite moments of the trip was when that guy at the top of your photos here, deep in Petra, said to Julian & you, "This coin? Old. 100 years old. That over there (pointing to his right)? Made in China. Two weeks old."
Ha. Ha. Ha.

[Gillian daSilva]

Oh yes, that guy had a wicked sense of humour! He was pointing to everything with his stick, stating where it was made! Made in Beirut! Made in Taiwan! Made in China!
Wasn't he so hilarious?
I'm glad you remember him too.

[Yoli]

I covet all of them. I think the ring and the beading, is it a collar? Went with you.