The first thing that charms you about Jordan is its people – warm, friendly, open and welcoming. The men are drop-dead handsome; well, the women are stunning too, but for a six-member, all female journalist group from India, the former factor strikes home first.

Unlike in the rest of the Islamic world, there isn't much hijab that we see the women wearing. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a land of mesmerising beauty, breathtaking, undulating landscapes and fascinating history and culture.

If this tiny kingdom of over 6.1 million people has managed to remain peaceful and quiet in a region that has erupted into revolutions and riots against long years of repression and exploitation, it is thanks to the Jordanian royalty having its finger close to the pulse of the people.

As Egypt exploded, Libya marches towards ‘liberation', and Yemen and Syria continue to see unprecedented violence and bloodshed, Jordan has seen sporadic and milder protests related to the proposed change in the Constitution, and over the rising cost of living, demand for better jobs and political reforms.

Making a comparison, the Managing Director of the Jordan Tourism Board, Mr Nayef al Fayez, proudly quotes a visiting American journalist who had observed the other day that “this place is much safer than New York city”.

But, he sighs, addressing our group which has been invited by the JTB to showcase Jordan as India is a promising market, “the problem is that when there is trouble in Europe, economic or otherwise, it is happening in a Greece, Italy, or earlier, East and West Germany. But when it comes to this region, the entire Middle East is dubbed as a whole.”

The result is that even though thanks to aggressive campaigns in newer markets such as India and Australia, tourism has been growing – in 2010 it grew by 20 per cent – arrivals from the US and Europe have dropped because of the “crisis in the Middle East”.

As we drive from Amman to the ancient Roman city of Jerash and then to the Dead Sea, which is being promoted as the biggest and first natural spa in the world, the only evidence of the “Middle East turmoil” we see in this affable nation is heightened security at the hotels we stay in. But then the Indian five star hotels are no different.

Elusive Spice market

Our itinerary is packed – Jordan has so much history and culture to package in a four-day tour – and during the only evening we have in Amman, our guide refuses to be sympathetic to this all-female group's request to visit a place where we can pick up the heavenly Jordanian spices. Our only meal till then had tantalised our palates with a fragrant Lamb Bukhara (a lamb pulao). Coupled with other fish, chicken and lamb delicacies, not to mention the hummus which was unmatched, it had strengthened our resolve to take some Jordanian spices home.

My colleague Amy and I refresh our memories of how the aroma of the Moroccan jeera (cumin) had permeated our suitcase and clothes last year, and Marryam, the food specialist in the group, reels off the names of Jordanian spices that we simply have to take home. But remaining indifferent to our quest, our guide takes us to a street with some small stores where neither the spices nor the dates – Jordan has the best quality dates on offer – impresses us. But what finally gets us all excited is the aroma emanating from a bakery. We troop in to find a mindboggling array of fresh baked breads of all varieties, shapes and sizes, along with mouth watering pastries and cookies.

Amy and I drool over stacks and stacks of different varieties of naan-like breads and have an animated discussion on how well they would go with kheema, paya (trotters), or for that matter, any ordinary chicken or lamb curry.

The evening ends with hordes of pictures – of the breads, the biscuits/cookies, and of course individual and collective poses with the comely men manning the counters!

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