Souq Muqayyam, Irbid

2 days ago Zaid n I went to Irbid, as usual main reason nak cuci gambar(Zaid tak suka yang digital, kamera dia hebat, tak tau guna blur lah gambar..). Waiting for the photos to be developed, we went to souq muqayyam which is only 5 minutes by taxi from University (Yarmouk) Street or Syariq Jamiah.

Souq muqayyam atau 'Kem Pasar' is a palestinian camp found in Irbid, Jordan. This is like the Baqa'ah camp which I visited during last Ramadan but this one in Irbid is better in terms of infra-structure(still shabby houses!! ) n they have a street full with shops which sell mainly clothes/jubah n household items at low prices. I bought myself a new long winter coat/jubah with hood, easy to wear/very practical like many arabs do. If I buy this same jubah in Amman it'd cost JD20-Jd25, but here at souq Muqayyam i got it for only jd??, what a bargain, itupun I jenis tak pandai tawar n zaid only bargained sikit je(rugi,rugi..kena belajar bargain..dari muda sampai tua tak pandai bargain, takut!! )

Other stuff yang I beli, mainly for mimi since a lot of cute little gloves, snow caps, mufflers, long socks, long johns.. geram tengok, very colourful n more important, very cheap, tak sampai sedinar for a a pair of cap n muffler, mana nak dapat kat amman... Next time nak beli jubah casual yang murah di sini n teramat mahal di amman..No wonder many malaysian students go shopping here before they go back home to malaysia.....

Kem ni asalnya kem pelarian palestine n mana-mana kem pun walaupun dah berpuluh tahun wujudnya, the physical of the camps remain the same, macam rumah setinggan, kem di irbid ni nampak bersih sikit n orang-orang living here nampak lebih ceria/happy . Mungkin kehidupan di sini lebih bagus coz they have shops n market where thay can sell their goods( source of income ).. Nasib pelarian palestine ...kesian lihat hidup mereka di dunia ni...sayu ....

Last week masa naik taxi nak ke bus station besar untuk ke Mu'tah, the taxi driver told us that 75% of jordanians came originally from Palestine, he himself moved from palestine to jordan 50 years ago.He n his wife used to take a bus from Abdali to masjidil al aqsa in palestine every friday just to perform friday prayer . It took only 1.5 hours to get from abdali(downtown amman ) to masjidil aqsa..how nice if we can do the same thing now...The driver also said during 1940s( he wasn't in jordan yet !) a person could finish getting around the city of amman in only 5 minutes, the only street found back then was the street in front of king hussein's mosque. Nowadays, one may take up to 4-5 hours to do the same...

When you talk about jordan , u can never refrain yourself from talking about palestine because jordanians are palestinians n palestinians are jordanians...Souq muqayyam or other souqs are actually dominated by mostly palestinians, they are the merchants, jordan's economy depends on these people......they know they have to strive n quest for their survival.......