Petra Jordan
So my second day in Jordan, I was awoken at 6am by the hotel reception – I had asked them to wake me at 6am. Ughhh I never get up this early not for work or anyone, but I’ve wanted to see Petra and The Treasury since I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as a child.
I promptly packed my gear, got dressed closed the door to my room at Palace Hotel (which is ok by backpacker middle east standards, but nothing spectacular) and rushed out the door. On the street it took me a whole 5 mins to flag a cab.
He already had someone in the cab so I didn’t ask about fare (I should have though!) and as we drive he asked me where I want to go. I said Jett bus station because this is where a bus apparently leaves at 6:30 am for Petra. He tells me the bus doesn’t go to Petra and that I need to go to another station. I said my lonely planet guide says this is correct and I am vary about cab drivers such as this, they try and befriend you saying they are doing you a favor, but in reality he’s trying to take you somewhere he can get a cut or commission.
Arriving at JETT bus station in Amman the cab driver insists that this is not the right place to go. He says, “ok, you go inside ask about Petra bus if he says no bus is running come back out and I’ll take you to the right place”. I get out and am about to grab my bag he says “it’s ok I’ll wait here for you, leave your bag”. This is where I was supposed to grab the bag hand him some cash and tell him thanks but no thanks. I didn’t do this though and took his word.
I managed to get a ticket no problems, so quickly I rushed back out hoping he was still there with my bag and hadn’t driven off. Luckily he was, I opened the door and told him I got my ticket. He looked a little disappointed, I looked at the meter which is in fills! (this is confusing if your new to Jordan) and not dinar’s. He said you don’t know how to read this meter, it read something like 1825 which is 1 dinar and 825 fills. I took out some notes and coins in my hands and gave him 1 dinar and he took another dinar in coins plus gave himslf a small tip of a few cents, I realised later he gave himself a tip, but it was petty cash and I didn’t mind. He then proceeded to tell me good bye in an angrish fashion, perhaps because he hadn’t been able to exploit me like he had hoped?
At the station I bumped into 2 Danish fellows I saw the night before at the Palace Hotel. 1 told me he was studying Arabic and his friend was traveling with him for a bit. We chatted on the bus which took about 3-4 hours.
When we got to Petra we headed for our respective hostels, the Dane’s and I shared a cab and parted our ways. I checked in my gear at Valentine Inn – a great place to stay by the way. The Polish woman at the desk is a bit of fun and the view from the tent and buffet dinner are awesome considering the price.
So I’m walking down to Petra and a Jordanian shop owner invites me to join him on the porch as I walk past his shop. His friend and him are chatting and he offers me some tea. Under normal circumstances I would say no, but he seemed sincere, without going into too much detail I wish I kept walking now. He turned out to be pretty weird when I saw him the following day (I left something at his shop by accident).
Jordanian’s especially Bedouin people are very kind and genuine from my experience. Unfortunately I had 1 or 2 weird people also (as you do traveling anywhere on your own I guess) and this shop keeper happened to be 1 of them.
Entry fee to Petra is 35 dinar or close to 35 euro which is pretty expensive, but it was a 2 day pass. Anyway when I finally arrived at Petra I was offered a horse to ride, but I refused and said I wanted to walk, how far could it be right? I was persued by a Jordanian on a horse who wanted to swap bracelets, I had a couple of cheap ones I bought in Thailand on my arm that took his fancy, so I swapped him for 1 of his bracelets that said “Adopt a wild one!” and was wildly fluroscent in colour.
He seemed pretty chuffed with is new acquisition and we chatted as we walked towards Petra (he was on his hight horse ;0)). Departing ways at the main entry to Petra I continued on my own by foot. You walk through what they call a siq which is basically a cavern with his cliff formations on each side. Its filled with noisy tourists taking photos and horses come up and down carting tourists who cannot walk anymore or wish not to.
Then all of a sudden you get a glimpse of the Treasury of Petra. I recall stopping for a second to verify it. Nobody was with me at the time so I was kinda taken a back and had nobody to reflect to and say, “hey, isn’t this something”. I asked a fellow tourist to snap a photo of me and he obliged. I would repeat the same request several times over the next couple of weeks since I was doing so much solo travel, nobody ever says no.
I pressed on moving out toward the Treasury, you reach an open clearing and there it is, it really is amazing. Much more amazing than I expected. I think its the intricate detail and the fact that its so tall. To think it was built before Christ, yet with all our technology today it still amazes people when they see it. I took several shots in the area and explored several small caves and cut outs in the rocks around it before pressing on.
There’s so much to see in Petra you really need 2 days to do it. Actually that was what I did, I spent the next couple of hours on my own before heading to the Monastry the 2nd great site in Petra. On my way up the hill I bumped into the Danes once again and we continued to chat where we left off last. On our way we encountered several Bedouins selling various objects, much the same at each store with the same sales pitch. If you bought 1 item from everyone you would not be able to carry it all and you would be broke too.
Finally reaching the Monastry its hard to know what’s more impressive the Treasury or the Monastry. Both are superb looking and very tall. Although 1 appears slightly bigger than the other. Snapping a few shots we head for the hills behind to get a better view.
A single tent is perched at the top of the hill and contains a couple of friendly Bedouins who welcome us and offer us tea. The view from up here was worth the extra effort and leg work. Its simply amazing and I can’t help but think I could be in work right now behind a desk or I could be here. I assume you know where I’d rather be! We stayed for a couple of hours before heading back the the Treasury.
We arrived back in time for sunset at the Treasury which is pretty amazing and I grabbed some additional shots. We all walked back toward the hostel’s we were staying at and grabbed a bite to each at a local restaurant. Here’s a word of warning about Jordan the cuisine is not that great. In the whole 7 days I was there I got pretty tired of the food very quickly. Petra does not have many great places to each either, so the Valentine Hostel is not a bad place to stay with breakfast and dinner provided for a small additional fee.
In the evening I met a German guy and an American girl at the Valentine Inn. I didn’t say up for too long though as I was pretty tired from the early start and long day of walking around Petra in the October time heat.
. Secondly you will probably have noticed a new design. If you can’t see it maybe you need to try a hard refresh in your browser. Just use shift+F5 and you should be ok. Anyway to give a run down on the redesign I put together a quick post.
