Perfectly Petra

The next morning I was up early for the bus to Petra. I was going to be taking my first taxi of my whole trip....and I was nervous. I hate being ripped off. But when I was ready to leave the guy running the hostel said one of the hostel's cars could take me for the same price as a taxi. Sweet! And he even asked around and found my bus for me. The things about the local buses in Amman is they wait until the bus is full before leaving. When one leaves there's another waiting to fill. So there is no schedule. Thankfully I waited about 1 minute and we were on our way. I met Patricia, a Chinese woman who'd already been travelling for 8 months. She'd been to India so we chatted about that. However, she was pretty negative and didn't seem to think I could handle it, based on her comments. When we arrived, 4 hours later in Petra, though I could see that she may have been travelling for a long time she isn't relaxed about it. She wanted the driver to stop and let us out early and was panicking when he wouldn't stop. I figured we'd just wait till the end. I've actually never seen anyone panic that much, she was almost yelling at the driver to let her out. He finally stopped.....at the bus station. The thing about Wadi Mousa, the town outside of Petra, is that it is all uphill. So we started our climb. A horn honked and when we turned around a shuttle bus with the hostel's name on the side pulled up! Thank goodness! Arriving at the hostel I got a bad vibe from the guy at the front desk. He got really agressive when I only wanted to book 1 dinner instead of 2, telling me the other restaurants are really expensive. I was almost rude with him as he was so abbrassive. After Patricia was done checking in he showed us to our room. It smelled, and I noticed there was no heat. When I asked about heat the guy laughed in my face. Oh great. I got my bag ready to take to Petra. Patricia was shocked that I was going but I still had 4 hours to look around and a 2 day pass is only 5 dinar more than one day so why not. On my way I met Marco from Brazil who wanted to go as well so I waited while he checked in. Marco had been living in Israel for 5 months on a kibutz! We stopped at a bakery for some lunch on the way before we arrived at Petra. It was early afternoon when we arrived and as we walked on the path through the entrance people were streaming out. The first thing you see is the Siq. It's this amazing path through a chasm. The rock on either side is beautiful. I read somewhere that a lot of people rush through this area to get to the Treasury (the Indiana Jones scene) and they miss out on its beauty. So I made sure to take note as we winded our way through. Children selling postcards for 1 dinar follow you. They are good little salesmen who speak English amazingly well. And all of a sudden, between the rocks you catch a glimpse of the treasury. As the rocks give way to open space the sheer size and beauty hits you. Seeing it in person is no contest for the pictures. It is spectacular. We continued along and saw a man being loaded into an ambulance for a problem with his leg. What a terrible thing to happen on holidays. We walked along, seeing the beauty of Petra and turning down the offers to buy things, and for camel rides. Marco and I passed the Street of Facades, the amphitheatre (the only one built with the rock already there and not freestanding), and climbed stairs to see the Royal Tombs before walking along the Colonnaded Street. An old roman road is still visible while some is buried under the sand. We got to the Great Temple and decided to turn back to catch the last shuttle to the hostel. I enjoyed the sights just as much on the way out. And after returning to the hostel I decided I was too tired to attempt to find somewhere to eat so I purchased my dinner there. The meal was delicious. A buffet of Arabic salads and a rice and stew dish awaited us (plus falafel!). We mowed down our dinner and sat together enjoying the Indiana Jones movie. It was pretty cool to see Petra in a movie after seeing it myself only hours before.

It wasn't as cold that night as I expected without heat. I wore 2 layers of clothes and, though not for warmth sake, I broke out my sleep sac for the first time. Marco and I had decided to take the 8 am shuttle though everyone else in my room was taking the 7 am and didn't feel that it was necessary to be quiet for one person. Awesome. I ate my breakfast and was ready when the shuttle arrived but Marco was nowhere to be seen. I decided to go on without him as I didn't want to waste energy walking to Petra when I would need it for my day walking around. I met Tim in the shuttle, he's from Germany. I went with him and Bruno from Brazil who are both doing round the world trips. Although they both just started theirs. I should have known 2 boys would end up taking me somewhere crazy...more on that later.

We followed the route I had taken the day before to get the path leading to the monastery. The climb, yep climb, takes about 40 minutes and is exclusively uphill. I hate stairs! Halfway up a Bedoin woman (bedoin means people who live in the desert) named Turquoise invited us for tea. We drank tea, knowing we'd owe her something in the end. And indeed, the tea is free but have a look at what she's selling. We told her we'd be back later and continued our climb. When we reached the Monastery we knew it was worth the exursion. It was beautiful. We stopped and enjoyed for awhile. We also went to 2 viewpoints overlooking the valleys below. We took our time but decided we should be on our way. We walked down and sure enough Turquoise remembered us. I thanked her but said I wouldn't be buying anything and then I'm pretty sure she cursed me. After the climb down we went to the tombs. I waited on a bench while Bruno and Tim went to see one that I'd already seen. Two small bedoin children came to join me. I shared my banana chips with them. They are in charge of selling postcards. The next thing we headed for was a fort the boys wanted to see. The access from the entrance was not acdessible due to flooding in previous weeks but they figured they could get to it from a back way. I should have gone home. :-) We began to walk through a valley and past the cave homes of Bedoins. We climbed some rock hills and got directions from bedoins themselves. I am so grateful for my new shoes as my old sneakers never would have made the climb up these hills. At times I was relying on the grips to keep me on the side of the "cliff". Looking back it definitely doesn't seem as bad, but at the time, after a whole day of walking and climbing, I really didn't know if I'd make it. I contemplated a helicopter at one point, wondering about its cost. I also wondered if I should call for a Bedoin with a donkey. But in the end, following the long legs of Tim and Bruno, who were kind enough to wait for me and check that I was OK, I made it through a canyon, over a few small mountains and on to the highway and back to the visitor centre just in time for the last shuttle. Which is good as I could never have walked up the hills to the hostel. I did notice, walking back on flat ground that my hands were swollen and I couldn't make a fist. I wonder what that means? Tim and I went to get some snacks and I had some delicious falafel, though I still haven't tasted any as good as Saad's! After a shower and a lot of water I felt much better. I decided I was going to skip Wadi rum and head back to Amman to prepare for India. I had seen enough of the Bedoin lifestyle for me!