[ photos to follow at some point in the indeterminate future courtesy of my kind friends and photographers Kylie & Thu ]

"ALLAAAAAAAAAAAAH U AKBAR!!!!!"

"Who the?... wha' the?.... huh?!!"

"AAALLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH U AKBAAAR!!!!"

"Oh my word!  Wha' time izzit? zzz..."

"4.20 a.m.!"

"Man, that suckszzzz....."

The Orient Gate hotel is situated - I now know - right next to what has to be the loooouuudest mosque in Wadi Musa, if not the world.  I nearly jump 3 feet outta my bedsheets as the call to prayer hammers into my cerebellum at ten thousand dawn-shattering decibels.  Kylie and I frankly don't know what's hit us as now other voices chime in from further afield adding to a quite eerie echoing of God's praises that reverberates and bounces from wall to wall of the valley basin within which Wadi Musa sits.  Thu doesn't even flicker an eyelash at this racket.  She's clearly blissfully immunne to the muezzin's calls after nearly three months living in Alex.

An hour or so more sleep snatched and its time for breakfast (the who can down as many coffees in 5 minutes contest) and off to the gates of Petra after we convince the hotel owner that "yes you really did offer us free transfer to Petra when we booked last night!".  After smirking at The Indiana Jones Cafe that greets you here we all buy our 2 day passes for 26 Jordanian Dinar - approx 26 quid. 1,2, & 3 day tickets are available.  And then we enter the ancient site.  Petra is what remains of an ancient desert rock-cut city established in its known form by the Nabatean peoples several millenia ago although its true providence and age are still debated.  It sits amidst a winding valley of rock canyons, gorges, caves and passes that nestle in the eastern extremity of the Wadi Arabia desert, once a key transit point for the principle trading routes of the Middle East between Gaza, Damascus, Aqaba, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.  From the beginning of the 2nd Century AD it was subsumed into the Roman Empire.

For the modern day invador - the tourist - Petra is a deathly still, immensely poignant and beautiful architectural tableau that pays homage, through the passage of time to acts of hard human endeavour; creative genius; the potential for something once strong and grand to appear at once timeless but fragile, softened and vulnerable; erradicable in the face of Nature's eternal wearing march.  I'm not well enough travelled in the world yet to make such a statement but I'd bet my bottom dollar that Petra does possess one of the most spectacularly dramatic 'opening sequences' of any such site (UNESCO tagged or otherwise) in the world.  Starting in the wide open, small rock carvings, stone relief tomb markers and a hint of what's to come in a 4 columned temple-tomb facade up on the hill face introduce themselves.  We are soon entering the eastern gorge 'entrance' to the Nebatean city.  High sandstone walls surround us on each side.  Dawn has passed, but it is early.  7.00 am(ish) but either way we are well shielded from the sun in here.  The gorge gently snakes and winds.  First one way.  Then the other.  There is little human traffic yet.  Kylie, Thu and I are alone in here, our necks craning up at the sheer beauty and majesty of the sandstone cliff walls as they reach, pivoting and undulating towards the sky.  Sometimes seeming simultaneously to be dripping, melting back down towards the earth.  A thousand different rock formations, textures and patternings created here in Mother Nature's sandstone art studio.  Her materials of wind, water and heat have created so many beautiful combinations of colour and form down here that it is a photographer's paradise.  Except of course I don't have my frickin' camera!  Still, I'm happy just to breathe the wonder in whilst Thu and Kylie fire away.  The sandstone possessed of infinite shades of yellow, gold, brown, orange and red, occassionally shot with bands of darker water-coursed greens, greys and black veins.  Sprinkled here and there with a surprisingly abundant spray of thriving, desert dwelling trees and scrub bushes.

Still few other people to disturb us we continue to stroll and pose our way along this great gorge.  Large cobbled sections of the ancient Roman roadway lying 9 feet above the original Nabatean pass.  Every now and then the clatter of a horse and trap can be heard echoing down the gorge, closer and closer and then rattling past you.  One of many quicker conveyances, donkeys and camels too, who's services can be comandeered within Petra.  Building with a sense of orchestral crescendo the gorge continues, narrows, widens, the colours bloom more and more dramatically as the source whilst invisible to us, the rays of the sun begin to cut deeper, more impressivley down into the higher reaches of the sandstone walls.  Gold rock.  Blue blue sky.  And then a narrowish crack of a passageway in the rock, a little turn... and there it is!  The high note.  The drum roll and cymbal crash of this great symphony of natural and man-made rock-hewn majesty.  The Treasury - well a slivered glance of it - is in view.  The iconic, beautiful, incredible facade of what many consider Petra's highlight.  A monument settled in the minds of many people who will never come here as the entrance to the Temple of the Holy Grail, sat within the Canyon of the Crescent Moon in the 3rd Indiana Jones escapade.

It really is a beautiful thing.  Carved cleanly out of the sandstone cliff wall.  Its pillars and other finely carved architectural features still remarkably crisp and intact despite the ravages of time evident in ways here and much more noticably at other sites around Petra.  Mostly the Treasury seems to have been protected from the worst excesses of wind and rain errosion but eerily the two large bas-relief carvings of well-muscled humans on horseback have been worn well away, reduced and half anhilated by Time and Nature.  Again I stand and think this testamont to the fact that the twin powers of Time and Nature will always remove us first and with great ease, and then the remainders of our acts and monuments later.  But all will pass in time.

We've got here just in the nick of time today as people now start to flood out of the arterial gorge entrance.  The tourist deluge has begun.  Bedouin souvenir hawkers and donkey and camel owners start to jostle and vie for your attention and business.  The silence, the magic (the clear camera shots) start to slip but there is too much of awe and wonder to behold here I think even for the worst excesses of Tourist Tsunami to ruin the moment.  The three of us move on.  There is so much to see in Petra and depending on who you ask or read you will get varied opinions of how long; how many days you need here to "really see or do Petra", the emphasis often being on a bare minimum of 2 days, but probably 3.  And in reality only you will know how long you want to walk, to climb and clamber, to observe, to breathe as much of its magnificence in as you can.  Whilst I will never ever be an advocate for 'speed tourism', in the relating of this particular day for you I would want you to be assured though that it is possible to take your time, see the overwhelming majority of Petra's treasures at your own pace, climb to its high points, clamber in its craggy stairways and cave-homes and see many varied scenes of breathtaking natural light and beauty in a relaxed manner all in one day if you have to - provided you get there good and early and make sure you don't miss the best moments (dawn, sunset & nightfall) by arriving too lazily late or scurrying out too early with all the tired, impatient tidal ebb of organised tourism.  It is also easy to spend almost all of your day far away from the madding crowd.  You would be amazed at how unadventurous about 99% of the daily visitors here are.  Petra is your playground if you have the spirit (and the calf muscles) for the job.

There is the Roman Theatre hewn into the mountain side, the innumerable little cave-carved homes that proliferate the slopes (many sadly spoilt by being dumping zones or toilets for itinerant bedouin), other vast temples and rooms, the Street of Facades (lots of smaller temple entrance ways carved out of the rock, but only the frontices for reasons that are beyond me) the street of colonnades, the Petra Museum (small, and didn't do this), the artisan (souvenir trinket) shops, the ramains of larger complexes and grand temples.  Beyond the eastern gorge the rock here as you move further into the Petra valley seems to blush a deeper and deeper red. Often likened to shades of burnished roses, I feel the tones too reminiscent of rust or blood drying, darkening in the sun.  Beautiful, marbled striations of colour and rock forms.  Eerie effects of Time and Nature abound all around.  Many of the tomb facades once as sharp and clear no doubt as The Treasury have been softened; blunted to near non-recognisibility by wind and water errosion.  All lines have shallowed and begun to smooth back into the rock face.  The mountain is reclaiming man.  Sometimes barely perceptible after the several millennia that have passed since first they were hewn.  Beautiful.  Man may leave his mark on Mother Nature for a time.  Scar her surfaces and effect a certain union (never dominance) for a brief fleeting moment in time, but only the rockbed from whence our forms were once conjoured and now return as if into quicksand will stand for anything approximating 'forever'.

Kylie, Thu and I are privileged to some very lucky, special moments in our time in Petra.  As we amble around the echoey interior of one of the larger temples of the valley basin beautiful, melodious music suddenly swirls all around us.  Three young Phillipino girls have struck up the most beautiful series of Christian verse, arias and/ or hymns.  The acoustics in here are incredible and their voices too!  They sing in bursts for 5 - 10 miuntes or so for no other reason than to amuse themselves, their patron (a Phillipino ex-pat working for the Vatican Library and to help socially disadvantaged Phillipino domestic 'slaves' in Jordan) and their tiny, impromptu audience.  The music breathes life into this acnient, silent rock monument and into our day in ways I cannot describe.

We now try to head around the back of the valley and eventually alight upon the start of a large staircase hewn into the mountainside that over the course of much climbing, clambering and hiking in the next hour or so will get us to a wonderful, perfect vantage point back down from on high to The Treasury below us.  Along the way I am cursed by a stern Bedouin lady (Thu translates "sin be upon you!") for declining to accept a tea from her 3 times successively.  It sounds dramatic but really she's just pissed that I won't be buying any of her trinkets today.  She has the most incredible dark, bedouin eyes though.  The true stuff of the orientalist fantasies of Western men so I shuffle off before she hypnotizes me into buying a carved alabaster donkey or something.  When we finally reach the stunning viewpoint opposite and above the Treasury a chilled out, grissled and desert-worn Bedouin guide who introduces himself as Promise sits listening to music, smoking and offers us some sweet Bedouin chai.  He's a donkey owner (often referred to as "taxis" by their owners in Petra) on his day off.  A very informative man.  He has two donkeys named Michael Jackson and Monica Lewinsky.  There ya go.  I bet the infamous dress-stashing one never thought that performing extra administrative duties for Old Billy Boy would lead to a shonky old donkey in an UNESCO World Heritage Site being named after her.  The acts some people will commit for such posterity! ;D  Promise shows us dog-eared passport photos of his family members and a former Italian girlfriend.

The other highlight of Petra is the Abu Deir Monestary.  A far larger near replica of the Treasury it sits facing west far up in the mountain reaches of Petra.  A grand monument staring out across the expanse of the Wadi Arabia desertscape.  It's quite a haul up many, many hundreds of stone steps to get there but don't believe the endless 'taxi' drivers who try to convince you it's 2 or 3 hours walk without their assistance.  Frankly having been up there and back I find the concept of trekking up there on a rickety old Lewinski far more terrifying than sticking to my feet... although slipping in the constant stream of their green, overly aromatic faeces is a constant threat to ones foothold on the way up. 

Recommendation : whatever time of year you visit Petra make sure you've done your research and have a good idea of when sunset occurs.  Leave at least 45 mins for your ascent to the monestary and aim to be there at least half and hour before sundown.  Almost nobody does it (I know not why?) but you are gonna want to be up there at sundown for the perfect finale to the Petra Symphony of rock, desert, colour and light! Advice : take a torch, headlamp or other lightsource just to be safe for the descent back down at twilight.  The monestary is huge and at this time of day (only 16.00 ish) bathed in perfect evening gold.  The sandstone colours are set off so perfectly by the ultra-marine, cloudless blue sky that again I want to cry for having lost my camera, but the movie camera within my soul continues to capture it all.  We are pleasantly surprised to be reunited at this moment with Cameron and Nicole from the Nuweiba ferry trip who've trudged up just behind us.  We all take it in, walk to the rocky pinacle outcrops that form viewing points over the Wadi Arabia desert.  The sun is descending.  We snack, snap away and talk.  The few Bedouin 'store' owners up here are packing up for the day and dispersing.  Not wanting to head down in the dark Cam and Nic depart ahead of us.  Kylie, Thu and I sit and watch as the sun turns vermilion red and the speed of its descent into the sand sea picks up.  We are fortunate once again to have an extra measure of magic sewn into the perfect tapestry of our day here.  A young bedouin man on the next peak along has taken up on his small traditional 'shebaba' pipe and as the sun sets he blows beautiful, ethereal, high-tone bedouin music into the evening desert winds.  The notes he forms echo off and around the mountain walls before disappearing over the Wadi Arabia.  Perfect.

The final sliver of red disappears beneath the desert horizon.  The great 'Stand By' button of the world switched off for another day, Thu, Kylie and I - totally alone - commence our descent as the stars and the fattening, nearly now full moon begin to bloom above our heads.  Careful going on the way back down, Thu & I stumbling occasionally, Kylie clearly the sturdier and steadier on her feet.  The light of her mobile phone is called for for safety and assistance for the final leg of the descent.  Walking back through the Petra valley, night now fallen in totality, but it is still quite light owing to the size of the moon right now.  The cobbled Street of Collonades reflects silvery beneath us like a moon-bathed Yellow Brick Road.  A stray bedouin dog follows us most of the ways.  Camels hunker down, asleep in the sand and rocks.  The quiet mutterings of bedouin residents unseen are heard from further afield.  Back past the Roman Theatre, the Street of Facades and we catch up with two policeman who are doing a final nonchelant 'walk out' check.  There to assist any stragglers or strays lost in Petra after dark.  We keep amiable company all the way to the gate.  The Treasury beautiful again in a different tone by moonlight and the gorge, now our exit path, astonishingly pretty and a little spooky by starlight.  Moments of deep shadow and then lazer-beams of moonlight cutting onto the floor from above where you can stare up and momentarily glimpse her, bright up above.

At the exit we are drawn to the sound of friendly chatter from within a small guard building.  Peaking through the window, lo and behold it's only Nic and Cameron again!  Laughing and smiling and sharing cups of bedouin chai with an incredibly amiable old Petra soul Haroun.  It seems the little Nuweiba Ferry Gang are well-fated to remain, gravitating back towards one another, making firm friends along the way during our time in Jordan.  We join them and are treated to what is - for me - bar none, the most beautiful cup of tea/ chai in my whole life.  not a great fan of sweet, hot teas and coffees this is something else!  Divine.  Liquid bliss and perfectly complemented by the warmth and humour of Haroun and his infinite anecdotes of happiness and generosity over his years on watch here.  We all fall in love with Haroun.  The tales just keep on coming.  The cheeky smiles and life affirming sentinments he expresses story after story.  Haroun and the Sea of Stories.*  He is the a fine example of several fabulous, friendly people that make Jordan such an ejoyable country to be in.  Whilst I feel rather cruel in saying it, its a level of friendliness, genuine kindness and hospitality', joy in the easy company of guests and ones fellow man that pervades this country but in my experience was mostly entirely absent from my innumerable interactions with the Egyptian populace.  Such a change.  Such a relief!

A fine meal, my first good one in a while, with all the gang at the Red Cave Reastaurant and then back to The Orient Gate one and all for we wish to be up even earlier for Petra tomorrow.  Today has been a near perfect day in my life.  Beauty and good company beyond deserve.

* title of a Rushdie novel.

[ photos to follow eventually owing to proposed kind photographic donations from my travelling stars Thu, kylie Nic & Cam ]

The Jordan Gang (Nicole, Cameron, Kylie, Thu & I) all leave for Petra as early as possible today in Nic & Cam's hire car.  In reality we don't get tere much earlier than yesterday but enough so that by the time we reach The Treasury it is still nearly entirely vacant of tourists.  A Perfect opportunity for better, clearer photos.  Nic & Cam have come well equipped with a fab SLR camera and large tripod stand for it.  Cam sets it up on a timer with fast shutter-repeat settings so that all of us in place, standing in line attempt to do mentalist star jumps and leaps in time with each other and the camera in front of this great monument.  Childish I know, but hilarious fun.  Slightly tiring too.  Never the best jumper me!

Kylie, Thu and I feel we've pretty much seen all that we wish to see of Petra and our minds are already moving on to northern Jordan, Madaba and the Dead Sea.  Still there is some high point climbing we've yet to do and we fancy accompanying Nic and Cam to see if we can end up on the opposite side to the gorge from where we looked down upon The Treasury in Promise's company yesterday.  Promise actually pitches up at our momentary point of indecison and shows us an 'off limits' quicker but quite precarious route up the cliff side (there are vestiges of an old Nabatean stairway hewn sporadically into the rock, as there are all over Petra) but after I put my amateur climbing and scrambling skills to the test as an advance party it's looking way, way too tricky and dangerous.  Besides I've been spotted and am being told to get down and away from it.  Bummer.

So we take the more orthodox route up the large stone stairway looping back behind the site of The Treasury towards a place on the cliff tops entitled Sacrafice Point (there are a couple such names in Petra).  We walk and walk, half guessing an approximate route in the direction we think we need to go but after sometime this is proving quite fruitless and despite the redirections of a couple of guided trek groups we've quizzed along the way it's clear we're not getting anywhere interesting fast.  Nic and Cam, still with a lot more of Petra to see than us (having arrived only at midday yesterday) take their leave and head back to Petra main.

Kylie, Thu and I keep on trekking and trudging on in half-baked, half-guessed directions.  "If nothing shows at that point then we'll turn back."  trudge trudge trudge "ok, if nothing shows at the next point we'll turn back." trudge sweat trudge sweat  " Okay, if by the time we reach...."  You get the idea.  Essentially we're giving up on Petra by default walking on and on up into the hills.  Inauspicious dessicated carcases of goats long-deceased start to pop up on the trail.  Thu correctly points out that if these 'locals' to the area got stranded and dead then what does that mean for us :)  But eventually we ascend, and ascend aaaaaaaaaall the way out of the Petra valleys and onto a little road that once followed, eventually takes us all the way back along the highway to the basin rim of Wadi Musa.  I must pay tribute to Thu at this point particularly.  At the start of her holiday in Nuweiba - the day before we met her - at the end of a snorkelling session she'd managed to step right onto a spiney Black Sea Urchin of the type that abound in the rocky nooks and ocean bed areas of the Red Sea waters.  Not good.  This has left a small but noticeable tattooed trail of angry looking black spots along the side of her left foot where no doubt the urchins defensive spines have broken off and rest, prickling within her.  The grace with which she bears the discomfort and frequently pain throughout our two days of hardcore trekking and clambering in Petra really is credit to her.  I would not have been so stoic I'm sure!

Eventually we make our way down and back to the hotel.  Thu slightly hobbling now as we go.  We grab our stuff and negotiate a mini-bus fare (3 JD a head) outta town and up to Madaba, north west Jordan.  A long drive in the direction of Amman along the King's Highway we are dropped by the roadside at the turning for the capital Amman and have to try our luck flagging a bus going the other way to Madaba.  Thu, with her language skills tries her best to commandeer a lift for us but we are not on the receiving end of the usual Jordanian hospitality we've been becoming accustomed to.  Eventually though a yellow school bus kindly slows down, stops and takes us on board, directed to do so by the kindly teacher within it and takes us all the way to where we wish to be.

Kylie, Thu and I have a pleasant evening in Madaba a town in Jordan most notable for the much, much higher than average percentage presence of a practicing Christian populace.  We have a quick look at the famed mosaics set in the floor of St George's Church.  Not all that impressive really for anyone like me who's ever seen some really knock-out examples.  We then stroll around town and have a fabulous meal of rotissery chicken and local food stuffs.  Curious as to the uncharacteristic prevelance of liquor shops in Madaba (owing to the Christian majority here) we walk into one and have the best time talking to another fabulously friendly old Jordanian gentleman Naseem who's only too happy to talk to us for ages about family, life, Madaba, Jordan, drink and (awkwardly) politics brielfy whilst introducing us behind the counter to the Jordanian national liquor of Arak.  This is the usual anaseed-laced drink that tends to be claimed as a national drink of many countries in the Middle East and Mediterannean as far as I can see.  Milky white when mixed with water and ice. Ouzo in Greece/ Cyprus for example.

Tomorrow sadly Thu and I will part company with our pal Kylie who needs to crack on to the Dead Sea much swifter than we.  we're doubling back down south later tommorrow to the Wadi Rum desert so purchase a small half-bottle of red wine produced in The Holy Land (Bethlehem) to knock back when we get there.  Cheers Naseem.  A toast to you, your family and your fabulous country!

GET there early like everyone says and bring water with you, there are people sellingit inside for a few bucks and it's ICE cold~ the tour buses arrive around 9 am and for pic's without 100's of people early is better plus cooler temps. it cost $21 jd to get in and took 30 min to reach the SIQ,  (FYI i'm in good shape and live and hike at 6000-11,000 ft at home) so my time swill be faster than most.  the ampitheater was 10 min pass the famous treasury building, which was not like the movie it had nothing inside, climb the rocks to the right of the entrance for a great photo! we passed on the donkey ride as they smelled and he wanted to take photos, the rides started at $15-30 US depending on how your bargining skills are.   

there was alot of locals on the way great photos of them in there setting, bought some sand art in a jar but by the time we made it back to the USA the both broke~ and they are $2-10 just outside PETRA the street and $10-50 inside perta.  as we were walking up to the montestary everyone said it was 2 hours up and donkey was the only way.... we did the hike to the top in 45 min in flip flops~ and climb up and behind the cafe for an amazing photo of the whole thing, there are a few people selling goods and great place to have tea or a beer! it took another 45 min to get down while taking pics as this whole trip i took about 900 photos!  the whole petra took us about 4.5 hours but we speed site see! lol plus it was getting hot!

after we left Petra we stopped by our favorite pizza place for food before drive back to amman, jordan. the drive back was very well maked and took about 3 hours to amman, but driving in amman was another story! we headed to our hotel for dinner and sleep as we where trying to figure how to do israel as a day trip...!  

Late afternoon we came to Petra, one of the 7 worldwonders. Allready late, we visited Little Petra. It is older then Petra itself and it gave us a little impression what we could see the next day. One hour spending is enough, but is is amazing to see how old these structures in the mountains are.

The next morning we went to Petra. The guide decided not to go to early, because almost everybody goes early which means a large range of people by the entrance. We went on 8.30 and could after buying the ticket walk straight through. We could not start later, because you absolutely need a full day to see this world wonder. Actually, to see everything you need more than a day. Another tip: take you walking shoes! If you want to see as much as we did, you will walk for hours. You need water and a had as well. With the ticket the first for hundred meters you can take a donkey, but we decided to walk the first hundred meters. We entered the famous eastern entrance through a narrow gorge called the Siq, which is also famous of the "Indiana Jones and the last Crusade" movie. It is formed from a deep split in the sandstone and served as a waterway flowing to these parts. After an earthquake the waterways were changed, which also meant the desertion of Petra in th Byzantine time. At the end of the narrow gorge everybody gets excited, here you can slowly see the entrance of the seventh world wonder and most elaborate ruin; The Treasure. It realy is a rose colored world wonder, hewn in the sandstone cliff! We spend at least an hour there, seeing this amazing ruin. After that it was time to see the hole area. A little further from the Treasury is a massive theatre, with a lot of thumbs within.

Petra is found by the Nabataeans in very ancient times. But also there are Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Byzantine structures, which makes the whole area interesting. Petra is a World Heritage Site now. After dinner in the afternoon we could visit the Monastery of Petra. But is in an hour walk straight up the mountains. Half of us did, half of us didn't. You really need a good condition for this, it is a very stile climbing experience and you must be a little fit for this. But also the monastery after the climb is amazing. Don't go down after that, go a bit further and enjoy the view high in the mountains.

After that we returned to our bus, I must say I was exhausted! We walked at least 10 miles. But this is treally a world wonder, and the highlight of Jordan. Allthough, the next day, the Wadi Rum desert, is also considered to be a highlight!

Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor n a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture.

Petra remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time". It was described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage.

The first thing to say, is that the owner was very helpful, and nice. We arrive there, he took us to Petra and back whith a telephon call. When we arrive to Petra Park, he asked if we have JD (dinars) to pay for the park entrance, when we said that we just have dollars, he gave us 100JD to have. :) He didn't know us! That all, it's a must why you don't care afterwards if the hotel is 10 dollars more or less than another one. The shower wasn't so good, but it was OK. The big minus for me is that it haven't got an air conditioner or even a ventilator. ...

Se puede decir que mi vieja se fue hace un tiempo ya, se siente. De todas maneras, aprovechando un cambio de días en el laburo, me llevé a mi hermana a Petra. Yo ya estube antes, pero ella no. Al viaje se prendió Luciana.

Viajamos en auto hasta la frontera en Eilat, sin ningún incidente,  sellitos en los pasaportes, pago de entradas y salidas en ambos paises, y cruzamos a pata una frontera que nos hacía acordar a la frontera con Bolivia en Salta, por el calor, y cómo se comporta la gente en esas temperaturas. Creo que salvando la banderita, y la foto del Rey de Jordania, no hubieron muchas diferencia.

Apenas cruzamos, conseguimos un taxi que nos llevó a Petra directo, no se si fue buen precio, pero nos trató bien y el Mercedes se portó de lujo. Para recordar, el teléfono de Osama Al Amayreh 00962 795056601.

Que se puede decir. El desierto es hermoso. No se puede describir. Para quien no haya estado alguna vez en un desierto... bueno, que lo haga, vale la pena.

En cuanto a Petra, no por nada es una de las maravillas del mundo. Aunque puedo decir, qeu nada maravilla como la primera vez. O sea... por mi punto de vista, era mas lindo antes de ser una de las maravillas del mundo, votadas por internet... (que es si una maravilla que trata de acercarnos a todos).
Fuera de eso que se puede decir, que viajar en Ramadán, no es la mejor idea que se tiene. Todos los bares y restaurantes abren sólo de 19 a 22 con suerte, y en el hotel no nos dieron desayuno por la misma razón. Menos mal que teníamos el mate y un paquete de galletitas saladas para pasar el rato.
Supongo que en un rato, después de ducharme, y ver las fotos, publique algunas para el mundo... que supongo que no seré en este caso el primero en hacerlo... así que será mas familiar, con algunas fotos de gente... (para quien no sabe, no soy muy amante de las fotos paisajistas con personas estorbando).

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english version.

My mother went away some days ago. Changing some days at work, i took my sister to Petra. I was there before, but she wasn't. Also Luciana, a friend, came with us.

We travel in my car to Eilat, without incidents, get the stamp in the pass, in and out of both countries, and we cross the border that remembered me of the border with Bolivia from Salta, because of the heat, and the behaviour of the people in that temperatures. I think tha if not for the flag and the picture of the King of Jordan, there were not so many differences.

Just in the border we get a taxi to Petra direct, I don't know if it was a good price, but it was a good services, they took us in a nice Mercedes. Just to remeber, the telefon of Osama Al Amayreh 00962 795056601.

What can I say, the dessert is beautiful. It can not be described. For the ones that wheren't there sometime... well, just do it, it's worth it.
Petra, not for nothing is one of the new wonders of the world. But I can say, that nothing is so marvellous as it was the first time. In my point of view, it was more beautiful before becoming one of the wonders.

Out of that, I can say that travelling in Ramadan is not the best idea. All the bars and restaurants open only between 19 and 22 if you are lucky, and in the hotel we didn't get breakfast for the same reason. At least we had some mate and cookies.
I already put some photos, some very similar of the photos of hundred of other peopel, but some for my family.

for the price and cleanliness you couldnt beat the hotel, there is a great pizza place about 2 miles away and dont try and walk! cery steep him once your in town. there is enough walking @ petra!

The next day, we woke up early to return to Petra.  This time, a girl named Iman from Heather's village came with us, which meant we had to stay mostly covered the whole time.  *sigh*  We headed straight for the Monastery this time, which we had completely missed the first round due to lack of water and energy.   We hired donkeys to take us up too, because we are lazy girls.  :D 

Fist off... did you know that donkeys have a gas problem?  They do.  A very extensive gas problem... they fart all the time!  Not fun when you are trailing directly behind your friend's donkey! Also, Elise's and my donkeys kept trying to be practically on top of eachother.  Mine especially loved Elise's donkey's butt... lovely, thanks to the aforementioned gas issue.  Donkeys also like to freak you out by taking the route closest to the edges of cliffs.... YIKES!   At one point Mel leaned away from the cliff, being a little scared, and her saddle slipped and she promply fell right off. Thank God she fell *in* and not towards the drop off!   Poor girl was pretty bruised up, but they gave her a new donkey and being the trooper that she is, soldiered on.  It was actaully a little more terrifying than I thought it would be, riding those donkeys.  It was also pretty difficult to take photos.... but it was worth it because we were probably not up to the task of the hour long hike it would have taken by foot.  Finally they let us off about three minutes from the Monastery, and we walked up the rest of the way. 

I would say it was definitely worth it... the building is incredible!  Although walking up isn't quite as dramatic as it is going through the Siq to the Treasury, the silhouette of the Monastery against the sky is pretty beautiful.  We stared at it and scrambled around for quite some time, then ate our lunches and headed back through Petra to Wadi Mousa. 

Iman wanted really badly to show us the town spring or to take us to her brother's house (which would have been quite an awkward and lengthy visit, most likely).  Honestly, we were pretty tired at this point and didn't want to do ANYthing but finally let her take us to the spring... which was basically a stone building with a spring inside.  Whoop dee doo, right?  We sat there for a while, watched people wash in it and get water from it, then left... and it wasn't until we got back that I read a little bit more on that spring.  Turns out Wadi Mousa means "Valley of Moses", right?  Well.... that spring we were so bored with, it turns out that it is reportedly the spring that Moses created when he struck a rock with his staff.  It's totally part of biblical history!  I wish we had known that when we saw it.... 

Iman's father came to pick us up, and tols us dinner with her family would be at 7.  However, when we got there at 7, the family had already eaten at 4!  So... it was just us eating.... awkward....   luckily after we started eating (more chicken and rice!) some of their extended family showed up and they went to the other room to visit, so we weren't eating in front of everyone anymore.  Whew--a little less awkward!   The dinner had chickpeas in it this time, and I guess maybe the spices were a little different... however all the chicken and rice I had over in Jordan pretty much tasted the same to me.   I loved it, especially the plain yogurt they give you to mix in.   Shortly after, most of the family left and it was just us and some of the daughters, who wanted us to have lots of questions for them (harder than it sounds), and insisted we get up and belly dance with them.    Fun times, fun times. 

Finally we had to leave, as we had a 5:30 a.m. bus to catch the next morning.  Yipes.  Why? Because our bus in Wadi Mousa was the only one that would take us to the Wadi Rum for our desert adventure, and it left at 6 a.m.  *sigh*  So, we had an early night to get ready for our desert adventure. 

How could I possibly describe my experience in Petra?  This ancient city, for some, is the primary reason to visit Jordan. To those people I say "What a bunch of tourists!" Yes Petra is breathtaking in so many ways, but nothing compared to getting immersed in the culture in Amman.  The main sights in Petra unfortunately are crawling with tourists, many of them dressed as if coming to a museum.  Therein lies a great advantage, therefore, for the young and adventurous because the actual beauty of Petra lies in the hiking routes and the trails not typically accessed by the older and more feeble crowds that stand gawking and open jawed in front of the glorious treasury at the end of the opening walkway. 

In the summertime, Petra is very hot so you will need a lot of water and since, as I have hinted, Petra is more a place for hiking than an outdoor museum (it's definitely that too), I would advise bringing a camelpack, boots and a head scarf.

The entrance to the city is a sinuous decent with narrowing canyon walls.  Geographically, there are no other easily accessible routes to the city center which proved to visitors in the ancient world that Petra was impregnable to even a powerful army. To understand Petra and the Nabataeans one must first understand the strategic location of this ancient capital along the caravan routes coming up from Yemen and also from the east across the desert to Egypt and north to Jerusalem and Damascus.  A social system completely based on trade, the Nabataeans became rich when the caravans increased in number in the first few centuries BC. Their empire stretched from the Euphrates to the Red Sea.  With such wealth they built immense tombs, temples and fountains in and around Petra. 

Petra has its own style of sculpture and architecture. It is a blend of the Semitic cultures of the region.  Travelers who have visited Greece will be pleasantly surprised to see columns with wholly unique tops unrelated to Ionic and Corinthian styles. Nabataean style is very sharp looking edges many times with carvings of eagles.  The blend of cultures has influenced the burial tombs with Assyrian/Babylonian looking stairs in a V shape atop the tomb entrances.  Petra is literally paved with Nabatean pottery. Simply walking along the pathways away from the city center you will surely find scraps of pottery strewn out all over the rocks.  Some pieces are even painted or contain handles and ridges.  I had the advantage of hiking with an archeology major married to an archeologist at Petra so I learned a ton about the ancient culture.  Much of the Nabataean way of life is unknown to modern scholars.  Their religion seems to be very strange and their lifestyle unclear. There is so much more to be uncovered at Petra.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the city of Petra is not the monstrous buildings carved into the rock walls but rather the complex network of water carrying troughs that slice through canyon walls.  Many times I found myself hiking in an area I believed no human could live near when I spotted a little aqueduct in a rock wall coming from a high place where water was collected and leading to a little niche where a community probably once lived. There is a main waterway with various dams strategically blocking flushing routes for the purpose of collecting water during the wet season for the entire community.  It’s hard to believe that there ever was a wet season if you come to Petra in the summertime.  This process of funneling water has led to the biggest tragedy in the history of Petra besides the earthquakes that destroyed many of the cities monuments. All of the rock in Petra is sandstone (duh, it’s in the desert) and thus the yearly process of draining and collecting has slowly worn away many of the city’s fountains, carvings and staircases.  Because the city was never really conquered (it just faded out of use by the middle ages) it might still look as splendid as it did in 100AD if it were not for water erosion.

What you do in Petra is go on various climbs or hikes.  My three favorites are the Monastery, the High Place of Sacrifice and the Treasury Overlook.  The first one is quite traveled, the second moderately and the third is rarely attempted but by far the most interesting.  The Monastery climb is mandatory because the sight of the monastery standing almost freely away from the mountain and much larger than the treasury.  By the way, the Treasury and the Monastery are misnomers as neither was used by the Nabataeans as the names imply.  After gawking at the monastery you can walk around to the scenic overlook of Jebel Haroun and the Jordan Valley.  This is possibly the highest place in Petra to dangle your feet from, but you might get queasy from the height.  On the backside descent from the High Place of Sacrifice is my favorite rock carving in Petra. It is a fountain made from the water collection troughs that is carved out of the rock wall into the shape of a magnificent Lion.  Unfortunately all of the lion’s head has been eroded away by the very water that would in ancient times drip from his gaping jaws.  Finally, the Treasury overlook climb is one rarely travelled but well worth the extra hours and half liter of sweat.  It ends with a wonderful view of the Treasury but in order to reach that great view you have to leave the path and get a little dirty climbing over boulders while moderately close to a cliff edge. It’s really not so bad as long as you’re not 5’ tall like our friend Elena.  We waited there for at least 20min starring down at the tourists who were too busy eying the immense treasury façade to notice the people hanging from the cliffs behind them.

That was the last thing we did in Petra and boy was it worth the extra 4 hours.  Petra is a place I could come back to over and over again.  In fact, Elena and her husband keep finding new treks to make and admit that “Petra never gets old.”

The next day we dove right in with Petra, the most celebrated of Jordan's tourist sites.  (For the rest of our trip, anyone who talked to us about where we'd been first asked, "Petra? Did you see Petra yet?").   It was also one of the things we were most thrilled to see!  I mean... anyone who has seen Indiana Jones knows the Treasury building, and to think there was an entire city of buildings like that was unbelievable.  So, we made sure that Petra was our first stop of the trip.

Heather woke us up at 9 a.m.-ish to get ready to head over there.  Luckily, she lives only 20 minutes or so from Wadi Musa, the city that is right next to Petra.  So we were able to take a cab for fairly cheap and were at the entrance by 10 a.m.  Woohoo! Also, someone from Heather's village works for Petra so was able to get all of us in for no charge. Sweet!  More money for souvenirs! 

You literally walk from the city of Wadi Musa right into Petra and within a few minutes are inside the Siq, the main entrance to Petra.  It was absolutely amazing.  It goes on forever, but is incredibly majestic and walking through these towering sandstone walls really makes for quite a grand entrace to Petra, indeed.  Talk about building up anticipation!   Even though we were dying to get to the Treasury, the Siq itself is something amazing, itself.    I just don't know how to describe it, and unfortunately, even though we took a LOT of pictures of the Siq, it seems like the colors in the photos never quite did the real thing justice.  I couldn't seem to capture the height of the walls, either.  *sigh*

When you reach the end of the Siq, quite suddenly the Treasury appears out of nowhere.  It's like Elise said when we saw it, "I finally have my OWN picture of that building!"  We've been looking at everyone else's photos of the Treasury for months now, and it felt almost surreal to have one of our own!  The treasury is pretty amazing... not only is it HUGE, but it's just as pink as it is reported to be. (One of Petra's nicknames is "The Rose Red City".)    It's pretty incredible to think that people actually carved that entire building out of the sandstone by hand and were able to make it so precisely (not to mention the fact that it's very symmetrical. How'd they do that?  If it were me, one side would end up several feet shorter than the first.... ).    However, if you come to Petra expecting to find the inside of the Treasury to resemble what they showed in the Indiana Jones movies, you'll be sorely disappointed.  It's basically a plain, square room.  Wheeeee! 

After that, we were immediately suckered into camel rides by the first one we saw.  Basically we took turns riding in a big circle around the area in front of the Treasury, which was really all I wanted.   I couldn't say I went to Jordan without riding a camel, you know?  So we did it, it was silly, and after that I had no desire to ride any more camels.  :D 

 From there, we began a five hour hike around Petra.  We had tea with one of the shopkeepers (again, forgetting to politely refuse twice.  dangit! Greedy Americans again!), climbed around some giant rocks (there aren't many places you aren't allowed to climb, really), and then decided we should go try to see the Monastary, which is the other most recognized building from Petra.  It's also a one hour hike up a very steep and rocky path, however.  It turned out to be too much for us on that day.  Not only were we a little jet lagged still, but it was also our first day in the desert heat, and were running out of water.  We tried to buy some from a shop near the entrace to the Monastary path, but no one would break a 20 dinar bill, which is pretty much all we had from changing in our cash at the airport.  Argh!  So, we climbed maybe 1/16th of the way before giving up and turning back.  *sigh* 

When we got back to Wadi Musa, we had to meet up with the friend of Heather's from her village that had gotten us in for free.  When we came in to the cafe, we sat at a table and he came up to me, grabbed my knee, and shook it.  VERY inappopriate--men are not supposed to touch women at all!  Their village is exceptionally conservative, too, so I'm sure he knew better.  I kind of jumped (here I was told not to even make eye contact with the men, and he grabbed me?) and he tried to laugh it off.  Heather was really surprised that he did that... I know it sounds weird, but she couldn't figure out why he would touch a foreigner, either.  She said the fact that I looked shocked was probably good though, so he understood that I knew the rules of the culture.   

After that, we headed back to her village, where we were immediately invited to the home of one of her students, Sara.   I'll admit I was pretty nervous about being invited to someone's home... there seemed to be so many etiquette rules and I was pretty sure I would end up coming across as a Greedy American again. *sigh* 

The rules:
-Shoes off before entering the house (got that one)
-When drinking tea or coffee or something, leave a little bit in the bottom of the glass or they'll assume you want more
-Try to make your drink last for a while
-When offered food or something, politely decline twice before accepting (the one I always forget, or do all wrong... you're supposed to be all sing-song-y with your refusal, like, "Oh, I couldn't possibly!", except you are saying "La, la, la!" and then when you are pressed to accept, just kind of shrug your shoulders  and smile like, "If you insist...."   However, I would either forget altogether or say "la" in the wrong tone. Dangit!)
-Don't point the soles of your feet at anyone at any time. It's an insult.   (For the rest of the trip, Mel, Elise and I would try to discreetly point our feet at eachother without anyone else noticing.  Heehee.) 
-Also, don't sit cross legged unless you are wearing something that covers your crotch. 
-Only eat with your right hand, the left is dirty (I will discuss Turkish toilets later...)
-Don't shake hands with any men, just put your hand over your heart.  Awkward.
-Don't make eye contact with any men on the way there, and don't speak to any man over the age of 12. 

So, those were the rules my brain had to remember right off.  Now that I look at them, they really aren't difficult, it's just that I was very nervous about doing something wrong. 

The entire walk to Sara's house, shebab (young, unmarried men) were following us or coming out of houses to stare at us.  Awkward.   At one point a group of them started yelling at us in Arabic, something Heather couldn't quite translate.  Then one yelled, "Go home!"  Geez, what a welcome!  When I told Heather what they said, she started laughing and said, "TRUST me, they don't want you to go home.  They are excited that foreigners are visiting.  They probably meant, 'Go home with ME,' they just didn't know how to say it.    ha. 

When we finally arrived at the house, we were introduced to a ton of women all crowded into the living room.  Turns out they weren't all Sara's family, it's just that word had gotten around that The Foreigners were coming to Sara's house so people wanted to see the mysterious Foreigners looked like. (Yes, I'm capitalizing the word foreigner....  we felt like it was almost a title of celebrity while we were in the village, so it deserves a capital F.)   Once they got a look at us, many of them got up and left, and from there we attempted small talk with Heather translating for us the majority of the time.  Although the language barrier made it a little awkward, the ladies did their best to make us comfortable with the legendary Jordanian hospitality.  We were constantly being offered orange soda or tang ("juice"), coffee, tea, sweets, etc.  Then asked Heather if we were hungry (we really weren't-the heat took most of our appetites away), and she tried refusing their offer to make us food but they did it anyway.  Within minutes we were brought out this huge spread of food similar to tapas.   You'd take a bit of pita, then dip or scoop out of one of at least a dozen little dishes--hummus, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed zuchini, cucumbers, olives, french fries, friend cauliflower, zater and olive oil, tomatoes, and cheese.  YUMBO.   

(P.S. I don't eat cauliflower, normally.  However, if you fry it in olive oil and then squeeze lemon juice over it and salt it, I will eat it and I will love it. )

The women had so many questions for us, some of which I had to lie to answer.   I know that sounds bad, and honestly I would not have normally lied but the thing is, it's very unusual for women my age to be single over there and Heather said I could either tell them I had a fiance or not, it was up to me.  But if I told them I was single, I'd have a lot more questions to answer as to why I was unmarried and would probably get a few suggestions as to local men to possibly look at for marriage.   So, I chose option number one: the fake fiance.  Little did I know that what started out as a simple white lie ("Yes, I am engaged!")  would turn into a pretty complicated story.  

So, if anyone from Basta asks,   I am engaged to a man named John, we are getting married in a year and a half.  Also, we are having a talk when I get back because these ladies get lots of gold from their fiance's when they get married and I don't see why I don't get gold, too.  :D

Once we returned home, we set out the itinerary for the rest of the trip, and tried to figure out what to do on Tuesday... none of us were ready for another day in the heat of Petra... we considered going to Aqaba and spending the day at the beach, except there was no bus back from there on Tuesdays.   We looked at going to some castle in the region, but that would require navigating the transportation system of Jordan without Heather's help, as she had to teach class that day.  Argh!

When Mel woke me up on Tuesday to see if I still wanted to go to the castle, we decided to take the day off and catch up on our rest before embarking on our next adventure.   Hooray for sleeping in! 

Next up:  Karak and the Dead Sea, and hitching a ride with the Police

This hotel is quite new and room is clean. The staffs are little gloomy but kind. But they can't do anything without manager's permission even the lift to Petra. We asked shuttle to Petra one day before but the staff only said that we should ask the manager directly despite the manager always out. After all we couldn't get shuttle and the staff pays money to taxi to send us to Petra. He said that we should take taxi for return way and be paid back money. But the all taxi from Petra has never run with meter and refuse us in small money. We required the manager 3JD( our best!) to be paid back but he refused to say that I could return only 1JD. After argument he willingly reduces 3JD from our accommodation fee. Instead,he turned off hot water. As far as seeing other reviews this hotel treats costumer as normal in high season but we might not expect in low season. He throws over the room key to us. It seems represent what he is like. During our stay nobody came here; meanwhile, the opposite side of the hotel had many tourists.

Guidebooks, magazine articles, and other tourists wax on and on about Petra. “If you only go to one place in Jordan, it had better be Petra…” and so on and so forth. So today we finally got to see what all the fuss is about. We were not disappointed!

The ancient city of Petra was literally carved from stone in the 1st to 3rd centuries by the Nabataeans (I had never heard of them before, either). It is now an expansive (and impressive, and amazing, and astounding, etc) archeology site. We spent about five hours exploring it on foot today. I feel like we got a pretty good taste of it, although the common recommendation is that you spend two to three days there. It’s a pretty big place.  

We got there just before 7am, and already the tour groups were gathering. We slipped in just before a large Japanese group. It wasn’t the first time during the day I was happy we went early. The light was soft and beautiful as we made the long walk through the entrance, a narrow gorge about 1 km long, called the Siq. This walk in itself was worth the price of admission! It was really gorgeous.  

As we got to the end of this long passage, we caught a glimpse of the first “structure” -- the Treasury. It is an enormous (43m or 140 feet) façade, perfectly carved from the side of the dusty pink cliff.  The camels and horses (available for hire) only added to its picturesque quality. Pretty stunning.

From there we covered a lot of ground. We visited an eroded Roman-style theatre carved from the cliffs, the Street of facades, and a series of ancient tombs. We saw archeologists from Brown University working on one of the sites -- talk about detail work! I watched one man spend 20 minutes on some minute measurements, and another group was just dusting off rocks. They probably did that all day long. (“honey, how was your day?”  “pretty good. I dusted off some more rocks.”) Not the job for me, although I have no qualms about enjoying the fruits of their labors!

The grand finale for us was the long walk up to the intricately carved Monastery. It was starting to get pretty hot at this point, and the 900 steps that carried us there really felt like…well, 900 steps. It was hard work! Many people opted to take stair-climbing donkeys, but we decided to go under our own power. Finally getting to the top was exhilarating, and it was beautiful…well worth the hike. In my excitement, I even bought some jewelry from a vendor there.  

Then it was time to hike back out. It had really heated up, and the numbers of visitors coming in had increased dramatically. The Sig had been tranquil and shady in the morning, but was nearly spoiled by chattering groups on the way out, plus the sun was relentless. Again, I was SO happy we were just finishing up at 1pm, instead of being the ones just coming in!

We were so tired when we finished our tour, a nice nap certainly seemed to be in order. But, NO… unfortunately we had already checked out of our room and placed our bags into storage. On our agenda for the afternoon was a drive further south, to Aqaba and the Red Sea.

i would like to make my comment about hidab hotel.i was in some other hotel and i moved to hidab hote with my groupe. i found out that hidab that staff was very nice.and clean,and the terrase was some kind of magic.and the turkish bath was amazing.and we had a night on the terrase on the candle light.i would lie to thank all the staff,who helpd us to make our vacation so magicly.

Located amid rugged desert canyons and mountains in what is now the southwestern corner of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Petra was once a thriving trading center and the capital of the Nabataean empire between 400 B.C. and A.D. 106. The city sat empty and in near ruin for centuries. Only in the early 1800s did a European traveler disguise himself in Bedouin costume and infiltrate the mysterious locale. Amazing views for the City that a must to see!!! IM sure u will love it!