The pictures describe it better than I can, but Petra is cool! It is this massive city with incredible rock-hewn structures and I wish I had had more than a day to spend there. Petra is a must-see if you’re ever in Jordan, even though they have raised the price to 50 Euro for single-day admission!
Rather than talk about the history of Petra (since I don’t remember it), I will detail the fairly crazy day I had getting and being there. Feel free to skip and just look at pictures instead :)
Getting to Petra was a long and exhausting process that started for me at 5:30am. I was staying in Aqaba (Jordanian city on the border with Eilat) and had to bus from there to Wadi Mousa (Petra). You’re supposed to take the first bus out because it might be the only one. You also have to show up early because the minibuses leave when full, or whenever they feel like it. I got one that left at 6am and rode for about two hours before getting dropped off in the middle of nowhere. I learned I was in Ma’an and needed to transfer buses to get to Wadi Mousa. Once I got to the bus station (aka random parking lot), the Wadi Mousa bus had not arrived yet and I ended up sitting on curbside couches with a bunch of old jelabiya-dressed Arab men while they smoked and had coffee. Surreal. :)
They eventually directed me to an empty minibus and the driver and I sat in silence for a while wondering if other people were going to fill the bus up. No one was coming and I was getting worried that we’d wait all day for people to show up – I had Petra to see! The driver said that if I paid him 5 JOD, we would leave right away. The normal price for the journey is 1 JOD (~$1.4) but I figured paying about $7 for a private 24-seater air-conditioned coach to drop me at my hostel door (45 minutes away) was totally worth it!
I arrived at the Orient Gate Hotel where I had a $7 16-bed dorm reservation. Right when I arrived, the receptionist grabbed a key (before asking me anything about the accommodation I had booked) and led me to a double room. He asked that I pull up my reservation on the computer and show him. He kept telling me to sit and I told him “I’m pretty sure this is not a room I can afford so I’d rather not touch anything.” We went back downstairs and another man said “this is not the room you booked” - I knew that already! I received a key for another room though and it turned out to be a single! This wasn’t the room I booked either, but okay! Basically I got a single room paying dorm prices :)
I set off for Petra after dropping my bags and while I was walking, this 18 year old Bedouin boy started walking with me. I was immediately wary as he showed me where to go. Having come from Egypt, I just kept wondering when he was going to ask me for money for being shown the way. I’m not sure why, but we went this roundabout way and then the guy introduced me to his mother(?). We parted ways at the visitors center and he didn’t ask me for a thing!
I bought bananas and set off to see the sights. Right when you pass through the gates, people offer you overpriced horse-drawn carriage rides that I later learned can earn them 30,000 JOD in only six months! Walking further, men start to offer you horse rides and say to you “it’s included in the price of your ticket.” I had actually read that online so I accepted my third offer but told the guy I had no money for tips. He said that that was fine and took me a couple kilometers on a very nice horse named Russia. He then offered to take me the “Indiana Jones Trail” to get a view of the Treasury from the top, for a small price. I repeated that I had no money and then he offered to take me for free. Hmm...
I said no many many times with excuses about not being that comfortable on a horse... feeling bad about not having money to pay for a guide, etc. But eventually I said yes. I ended up following this guy, Barak, basically up a cliff and on an unmarked trail (on foot). Pause for thought there. As we continued hiking he kept offering to carry my purse for me because he saw that it was both weighing and slowing me down. Naturally, I refused, especially since I had everything in my purse at the time: Passport, money, camera, etc. At one point I needed help up a boulder - he took my purse from me, helped me up, and then we continued hiking. Yes, the warning bells were going off. There I was following a stranger who hikes a lot faster than me. There was no one else around and he was carrying my purse.
We walked for a while until I heard footsteps behind me. I’ll admit I was a little worried at first, but it turned out to be this Israeli guy that Barak immediately hated. Barak apparently had parents from Palestine and wanted nothing to do with this Israeli guy. The Israeli guy made some feeble attempts at peace talking and then eventually left.
After seeing a view of the treasury from the top (shown above), Barak took me to see some other views and then showed me a path I could take back down. He handed my purse back to me and didn’t ask me for anything except that 1) I tell people I paid 20-25 JOD for the private tour and 2) that I let him take me out to a Bedouin BBQ dinner in the desert. I agreed to 1 and told him I’d have to ask my ‘husband’ for permission to say yes to 2. He wasn’t so happy about that but then again, I'm sure he completely understood the whole submissive-wife thing :)
I parted ways with Barak and then another Bedouin boy, Yassir, invited me for tea. I met his mother too...(?) I left soon after having tea, but ran into Yassir later that day and he ended up giving me a free donkey ride. He also invited me to a Bedouin BBQ dinner. :) Then on my way out of Petra, another Bedouin dude offered me a free camel ride, and though I Really wanted to ride a camel, I said no because a free horse ride, private tour, cup of tea, donkey ride, And camel ride seemed excessive :)
At one point, Yassir asked me if I'd been to Egypt and I said I had been the week before. He said "Oh, that's why you keep saying no. When we say free here, we mean free!" lol So I learned that Jordanian hospitality is beyond anything I'm remotely used to and that Bedouins like to offer me free stuff :)
It was a really good day. I ended up walking/hiking about seven hours having eaten only two bananas and two crackers. But, I got to devour a half chicken with rice and then spent the rest of the evening recuperating in my single room :)
Up Next: Back to Israel!
