Syria - Share Taxi Ride to Jordan

To get to Amman, Jordan from Damascus, Syria, we took a share taxi. We shared our cab with Mr. Saeed, a businessman from the Kingdom of Bahrain, a small island country on the coast of Saudi Arabia. He buys land all over the middle east (and one time in England), subdivides it and then sells to investors in Bahrain. More interestingly, he has TWO WIVES! Mr. Saeed has a great sense of humor, so I asked him all sorts of nosy questions, like do you all live in one big house, do your wives fight with each other. He has two houses on either side of a pool - each wife with her three children lives in one house but they share the pool. Yes, of course the two Mrs. Saeeds fight, which is why he is careful to divide everything exactly the same between them - same amount of money and use of car; he alternates days between the two houses. Bill looked at him in awe and said 'I don't know how you do it, just one wife is too much for me' and got kicked in the shin by me.

Mr. Saeed bought us Pepsi and snack for the ride, and we talked non-stop during the three hour taxi ride munching on potato chips. He couldn't believe that we have been married for over three years and still have no children. He laughingly told us "in four years, I have six!" He also teased me by saying maybe Bill needs another wife and got the evil eye from me. We promised him we will send him a picture of our son when we have one. I think Mr.Saeed has been talking to my mother.

Mr. Saeed was really nice to us - he gave us his business card and said to call him if we want to visit Bahrain, he will get us tourist visas and put us up at his house. He also had his friend that picked him up in Amman, Jordan drive us to our hotel. People in the middle east are really hospitable - starting in Turkey, people have been giving us food, cigarettes, stopping to help us if we look lost, one random guy fixed my rented bicycle...