Leaving Israel for Jordan is not like making a nip across the American border into Canada. We had to show our passports just to enter the security compound along the border post. After paying the exit tax (72 shekels, about US$15), we waited about 20 minutes for the bus would carry us over the Jordan River. The Israeli border guard examined each page of everyone’s passport as we boarded the bus. When my companion tried to point out her Jordanian visa, the border guard snapped: “I don’t care about your Jordanian visa; they can send you back if they don’t want you!” Later, someone explained that she was looking for stamps from countries more hostile to Israel.

The bus cost a small amount but we were out of Israeli shekels so we ended up paying with a mixture of U.S. dollars and Jordanian dinars and receiving our change in Israeli shekels. After the bus slowly trundled across the border with a final couple of stops in Israel, we crossed into Jordan where the fun began again. Immediately after crossing the border, a Jordanian border guard boarded the bus and examined our passports. Upon arrival at the Jordanian border compound, porters scrambled for the chance to hold and transport our bags as we went through the lengthy entry process.

Fortunately, we already had visas so we got to skip one very slow line. However, we got held up at passport control. In Jordan, one official examines your passport and then gives it to another official in the next booth who stamps and returns it to you. This second official was at lunch so we had to wait around ten minutes to make it through this part of the entry process. This division of one job into several appears common in Jordan as a means of combating unemployment. However, the excess employees seemed to reduce rather than speed up the entry process.

After finally passing passport control, we went back outside and then went with the porters into another building where our luggage was electronically scanned. We confirmed that we were neither bringing guns nor alcohol into the country and we were released into Jordan. Well, sort of. We were released outside into the Jordanian border control compound where we then had to pay the owner of the luggage trolleys and then separately tip the porters who manned them. At that point, only several hours after we had arrived at the Israeli border point, we went to the taxi stand and continued our journey to Amman.

However, the fun doesn’t stop there. Jordan has numerous military checkpoints in the Jordan Valley. They appear designed not so much to prevent Israeli spies from sneaking into Jordan as to prevent Palestinians from infiltrating into Israel from Jordan or to Jordan from Israel. Jordan put down a Palestinian uprising in 1970 and does not want a repeat. Even more crucially, Jordan does not want to experience the Israeli reprisals that would likely follow Palestinian attacks originating from Jordan.

The Jordanian military checkpoints were efficient and professional. They quickly and politely examined our passports and sent us on our way. Unlike in many other countries where they exist to extort money and harass travelers, the Jordanian checkpoints seemed genuinely about maintaining the peace. Nevertheless, I bet your travel agent doesn’t mention them when booking your next package tour of Israel and Jordan.