5 Cars

"I just hope we keep seeing signs for Jerash". Bruce definitely did not want to get off course. We left Amman in pouring rain for the Roman ruins of Jerash in our 5th rental car. Our 4th car, picked up at the airport in Amman two days ago, had steering problems which were getting worse, so Bruce drove through many hairpin curves from the Crusader fort, Karak, back to Amman, into the city to swap for another car. Five cars for two countries: one car for Israel and 4 for Jordan.

We picked up our first car when we first arrived a little over 3 weeks ago. The hatchback trunk of the crappy rather dilapidated mini was too small to hold our 2 carry-on travel bags. On the way to the hotel I opened the glove compartment and it was broken so it would not close again. We were tired, it was dark, so we decided to upgrade come morning. Upgrading was not possible at the airport which meant a detour to Amman. So, a rerun on paperwork, car checking, no refund for extra gas we had put in, but we were finally, about 6 hours late, off to Petra in car 2, a Chevrolet which lasted through the close to a week.

Car 3, a really nice, new mini, with the model name Fun (pictured right), worked fine for 2 weeks all around Israel. The only glitch was at the airport dropoff they tried to charge for dents which were there when we got it. The old repair work was obvious, but the Budget manager insisted on charging because the damage was “not noted on the pickup sheet”. Grr. We picked it at night and it is really hard to see. Finally, someone found the report on a previous record.

Car 5, a twin of car 4 but with no steering problems, carried us to the comfortable Olive Branch Resort Hotel where we can relax happily in a heated room. Again about 7 hours late, but with the wind and the rain, it would have been better to just hole up until tomorrow when the weather will be better. It is still raining and the winds are howling.

Moral of the story is: when you rent cars in the Middle East, check them out really well with a flashlight if it is dark. And read the fine print. In Arabic. In Hebrew too.