Jordan, like many other Middle Eastern countries, has a spirit of hospitality from which the rest of the world could learn. Welcome is the word on everyone's lips when you arrive.

We were certainly made to feel welcome on a recent trip to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The holiday was taken with the main intention of seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the ancient Nabataea city of Petra. From Larnaca airport we flew into Queen Alia Amman international airport where we were able to collect cheap Rhino cars through the agencies of Avis or Hertz. Jordan's capital city Amman is much more relaxed and manageable than somewhere like Cairo as well as being cleaner and for the most part more modern.

There is less noise, less confusion and driving is relatively safe and logical. From the city it is a three or five hour drive to Petra, depending on which road you take. The Desert Highway is quicker (as the name suggests most of the Jordanian countryside is in fact desert) but tourists will probably prefer to take the more scenic route along King's Highway. This passes the Dead Sea on the left, a narrow strip of water which is between the eastern border of Israel with Jordan. The Dead Sea is one of the lowest points on earth and its water is extremely salty.

The Dead Sea scrolls were found here and the area has much religious significance. Looking over the Dead Sea is a figure-shaped stone thought to be Lot's wife. She was turned to a pillar of salt for daring to look back when God drove her out of Sodom and Gomorra. There is a great feeling to be had from floating weightlessly in the Dead Sea and the water is reputed to have healing properties.
The road to Petra then winds through some fabulous desert cliffs past the Dana nature reserve where you can see an old Bedouin village. The route is signposted with brown information signs though you may get pulled over for routine checks by the police who operate very tight security here. It is not surprising when you consider that Jordan borders countries such as Iraq.

Petra is enclosed within a huge buttress of pink stone near to Wadi Musa (Wadi is the word for valley). The Bedouin people have resided here for centuries, mostly in caves, while using great skill to live from this barren land. Today they still live in Petra even though it has become one of the world's premier tourist destinations.

To get to Petra you walk through a narrow gorge with towering cliffs on either side for about one mile until the gorge opens out into a clearing. There in front of you is a dazzling sight. The Treasury is the most impressive of the vast colonnaded buildings which were carved into the rock here in the first century BC as a king's tomb. The poet Dean Burgon described it thus – 'Match me such a marvel save in Eastern Clime/ A rose red city half as old as time'.



The Nabataeans created a huge empire from Petra which stretched all the way to Syria in the north but this resourceful people were eventually annexed into the mighty Roman Empire in 106 AD. When you walk through the red sands of Petra you will also see Roman structures such as a large amphitheatre. Entry to Petra is quite expensive at 26 Jordanian Dinars for two days (a Dinar is valued almost the same as a Euro) but a price worth paying you will need plenty of time to see everything that this ancient Middle Eastern kingdom has to offer.

Having an unexpected visit from an English friend who was in Cyprus for a day on business, I wanted to show him around in the evening. The only sight I could think of to show him in a short time was the main attraction of the capital Nicosia – the divide.

But as we crossed the Green Line demilitarized zone looking at the bullet holes in the old buildings and UN efforts to patch up the destruction, I got a nasty surprise.

I handed over my passport for what is normally a routine check to cross the border, and was informed I had committed two speeding offences totaling 120 Euros. Fair enough they had a note of my vehicle registration number, but what really annoyed me was that one of the offences allegedly occurred in January 2009, a full 10 months ago.

The woman at passport control was quite nice and explained in halting English that the limit is 65 kms but that you can go at 75kms no problem. Apparently I was only 4 kms above at 79kms. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) speed limit is actually 100 kms and I think she just got confused on this because 100kms is 65 miles per hour. When I asked for proof that I was speeding, neither her nor the policeman's English extended to this. But between her telling me it was 120 Euros and visiting the policeman to have the documentation drawn up, the price mysteriously went up to 140 Euros.



This is the first time I've been cautioned for speeding. I have only been driving for a year so I'm not sure what the procedure is, but would think that proof would be necessary. The most annoying thing is to get a speeding ticket from 10 months ago when I have been backwards and forwards to their country about 10 times in the interim period.

There is every possibility that I was speeding, though I find it hard to believe I was going over 100kms as a new and inexperienced driver in a foreign country. It could possibly have occurred at one of those times when I was lost and angry. Right now I am tending towards paying it and will just have to look at it as doing something for their impoverished government.

However, as the TRNC is not legally recognised as a country, I believe I would be well within my rights to not pay it. Whatever happens I certainly won't be going back to Northern Cyprus, so if they are looking to squeeze some money out of tourists it will backfire.


According to the Turkish Cypriot weekly Cyprus Today and new figures released by the police: "More than 6,630 Greek Cypriot motorists have been caught by speeding cameras in the TRNC.
"Details of the licence plates of speeding cars were passed to police at crossing points. A total of 3,439 speeding tickets have been handed out, while there are another 3,193 waiting to be served."

Those high figures make me think there is quite a bit of money to be made by handing out speeding fines. One local Cypriot businessman I talked to said that he had been "stung" last year four times on a single journey to Kyrenia alone. He recommends paying the fine unless you are going not going to the North again (the fines have to be paid in that instance as they will not let you through until you pay). The next time he went to the border they slapped him with the fine and took away his licence for three months. In the TRNC your licence is held for three months if you get more than three offences in a three month period.

THE WELL DODGY LOOKING SPEEDING TICKET !

There are not many things in life which are more annoying than hidden charges. Last weekend, with something to celebrate, we decided to book ourselves into a four star hotel on the Limassol coast of Cyprus. There were deliberations about whether it would be better to stay somewhere cheaper and just use the room as a base while we went out for the night, but in the end we decided a bit of comfort was called for.

Cyprus is an expensive island and hotels don't come cheap. Some of the rooms at the Four Seasons hotel cost hundreds of Euros and those aren't even the luxury options. We picked a nearby hotel, the Mediterranean, which came with good reviews and a four star rating. Although quite a good bargain, it was hardly cheap at 110 Euros for the night. For that sort of money I expect really good service.
Now, to give you some background, going away (even for a night) takes a bit of planning on our part. We got everything together, the bottle of wine, the swimming gear – well almost everything – I forgot my gym clothes. Just before leaving my lovely girlfriend got worried because she had forgotten the room reservation email confirmation. I laughed and told her not to worry. We went through a period of staying in hotels in London and it was never a problem before.

The Mediterranean Beach Hotel in Limassol

You can read other reviews on the Hotel at tripadvisor, some good, some bad.



Arriving at the Mediterranean Hotel tired and looking forward to getting to the beach we were then told that we would need an email confirmation. I asked to use their internet and was informed I would have to pay 5 Euros for half an hour on the net. To give you some perspective that is four times how much it costs in a local internet café. I was of the opinion that most four star hotels have free internet access. A family member had stayed in the three star Hotel Centrum in Nicosia (highly recommended by the way – excellent service, décor and rooms) and we were able to use the internet for free.

When I told this to the staff member on duty he said every hotel in Cyprus charges for the internet and that he had never heard of the Hotel Centrum. I made it quite clear I was not very happy with the policy.  To be fair the guy who served us at the Mediterranean was friendly and to date I have not been charged, so I thank him for this courtesy. But the moral of the story for all businesses is NO HIDDEN CHARGES! They really piss customers off.

Another Story from our Editor - Rob Frische

The devil is in the detail. With the recession biting car hire brokers have realised that it's that little attention to detail which might convince customers to choose their service over the other millions of alternatives.
For instance large European car hire provider Europcar has launched a new car hire customization service which will get cars matched to customers according to which hotel they are in, where they are staying overall and how long they are staying for.

The service has been launched in conjunction with Accor, a hotel website booking service. Accor customers who use Europcar will get a fifth off the normal car hire booking price as part of a special promotion.
The chief operating officer of Europcar, Rafael Girona, said: "We are delighted to take the partnership between these two companies to the next level.

"This new system will allow us to provide customers with a higher level of quality and more special discounts."
Accor’s director of transportation partnerships, Pascal Mergez, said: "This new service constitutes a milestone in the partnership between the two companies.

"This gives Accor the chance to offer its customers a new level of service that they have not offered before."
Europcar and Accor have been partnered for a long time and Europcar has also recently launched a new mobile internet service. The launch has come following figures that eight million people in the United Kingdom alone book car hire on their mobiles. The service is specially designed to be easy-to-use remotely and will have neat features such as showing you the nearest car hire location if you are driving. The booking confirmation and any other information you need can also be sent straight to your mobile. Up until the end of November, Europcar will give customers who book on this mobile service 10% off.


At Rhino car hire we have also followed suit with the following great bits of detail. There is now a Drive Smart website designed to help you get to grips with the rules of the road, no matter where you are in the world. In partnership with the AA we also have an excellent and useful route planner. The new look website has been given a thorough make over and now looks brighter and better than ever. Rhino has also branched out on airport parking so that we can use our expertise to find you a perfect place to park close to all of the UK's top airports.