Jordan

The wonders of Petra

November 4, 2012 Jordan Middle East

We made the long, arduous journey to Jordan with the express purpose of visiting Petra, one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites. Recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985, it was also named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World in 2007.  But for many people (myself included), Petra was made famous by the movie, Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, released in 1989.

Petra dates back to around the 6th century BCE when it was the impressive capital of the Nabataean kingdom.  Then the Romans absorbed it into their empire around 106 AD, and they continued to expand the city.  A catastrophic earthquake in 663 AD destroyed most of the buildings and the ingenious water management system.  By the time Saladin conquered the Middle East in 1189, Petra was long abandoned and forgotten for many centuries.

It wasn’t until the early 19th century when Western explorers and historians discovered this ancient city, and another century would pass before real excavations would begin, in 1929.  Today Petra is Jordan’s major tourist attraction, generating about 80% of the country’s tourism income.

Our first day in the modern town of Petra began with a typical middle eastern breakfast at our hostel (Cleopetra Hotel) – boiled eggs, humus, tomatoes, cucumbers, flat bread, cheese, butter, jam, tea and instant coffee.  Our hostel also offered a bagged lunch for a mere 3 JOD (about $4.50 CAD) which we took advantage of both days we were there.  The hostel was very clean, and the beds super comfortable, making our stay in Petra very enjoyable.  They offer a free shuttle service to the entrance of Petra, and they also can arrange any tours or transportation you need while in Petra.  We would definitely recommend this hostel to other budget travellers.

At breakfast, we met a Canadian couple (Jim and Sophia) who we immediately hit it off with.  They had just arrived from Jerusalem where they would return after spending two days exploring Petra.  Turns out, we had reservations at the same hostel in Jerusalem, on the same day….how’s that for a coincidence.

By the time we arrived mid-morning, the sun was already high in the sky and very hot, although the ambient temperature was a comfortable low-20’s Celsius.  The site was crowded with throngs of tourists including many large tour groups.  Motorized vehicles are not permitted and the site is huge, about seven square miles.  If you get tired, you can travel by camel, donkey, horseback , or horse and buggy.  I loved watching the camels with their long, gangly legs plodding along silently on their oversized, thickly padded feet.  They looked so graceful yet goofy at the same time.

Video:  Camels in Petra

Entrance fees are steep, 50 JOD for a one-day ticket, or 55 JOD for a two-day pass.  We opted for the two-day pass because of all the recommendations we had read on-line to give yourself more than a day to fully explore the site.

On the first day, we hit all the major sites, and on the second day we hiked to the High Place of Sacrifice.  Here are the highlights.

The Siq: Our journey began with a two kilometre long trek,, winding through a sandstone canyon that featured colorful and unusual patterns in the rock walls. You can still see the remains of the terracotta pipes built into the sides of the canyon that were used in Roman times as part of an extensive water system that made it possible to live in this arid land.

The Treasury:  At the end of the Siq, through the cracks of the narrow rocks, you catch your first glimpse of this is stunning edifice carved into the sheer mountainous rock face. Leaving the gorge, you enter a natural square where you now see the colossal, overwhelming façade of the Treasury in all its majestic glory.  Too bad there were so many tourists crowding the area when we first arrived.  Later in the day, it was far less crowded and much more enjoyable to view in the shadows of the late afternoon sun.

The Colonnaded Street:  For several more kilometres, you follow what was once a grand boulevard ornamented with a double row of columns, along which you can see the remains of ancient buildings, tombs, a 7,000 seat amphitheatre, temples and much more.

At the end of our first day, as we made our way back through the boulevard, the sound of a choir reached our ears.  We thought perhaps there was a recording being played in the royal tombs in the distance, and I jokingly said perhaps it was a passing choir who decided to test the acoustics of the tomb.  Well, the ethereal voices drew us to climb to the royal tombs, even though we were dead tired and were ready to call it a day.  Much to our surprise, there was indeed a choir singing the most beautiful music imaginable, their voices being carried far and wide.  It turns out, they were in Jordan for a choir festival and decided to take advantage of the ethereal setting to practice for their performance scheduled the following day.  What a special treat!

The Monastery: At the end of the boulevard, you begin the 850-step trek to the Monastery, tucked away, high in the mountains.  After climbing for about an hour, we entered a large courtyard area where the imposing Monastery stood, a beautifully carved building literally cut out of the side of the mountain.  It is huge, even the doorway is several stories high.  Interestingly, the name of this site does not accurately reflect its purpose; it was probably a temple.  It may have been named the Monastery because of its remote location.  This was my favourite site in the entire ancient city because of its isolation on the mountain top, the wonderful 360 views we enjoyed and the peacefulness that I felt looking down at this magnificent testament to an ancient peoples while perched on a hill top on the opposite side of the courtyard.

High Place of Sacrifice:  On our second day, we hiked to the High Place of Sacrifice, another moderately challenging hike up 700+ steps to the top of another mountain.  There on the mountain top, we were rewarded with the remains of an ancient place of worship along with spectacular views of the lost city below.  The hike down the back side of the mountain offered new sites that were completely hidden from the main boulevard where we had walked the day before. Very few people chose this longer route down the mountain, and we enjoyed peaceful, solitude for much of the way.

After our first day in Petra, we were exhausted from over eight hours of hiking in the hot, desert sun and minimal sleep the night before.  Earlier, we had made plans to have dinner with Jim and Sophia and I think we all thought it was going to be an early night.  Little did we know that we would quite literally run into the Canadian ladies we met on the Ferry the day before who were staying at the hotel where we decided to have dinner.  We ended up having a party of ten at dinner, enjoying one of the best meals we’ve had in a while.  Not surprising to me, we all ran into each other on our second day at Petra (the ladies’ first day), because it just happens that way sometimes.

On Sunday, we left Petra for Jerusalem at 8:00 am, about a half hour after Jim and Sophia.  They were planning to take the southern route via Eliat, while we had opted for the northern route via Amman.  Since we were all travelling to the same hostel in Jerusalem, we jokingly challenged each other to a “mini amazing race” to see who got there first.  Much to our surprise and relief, our journey to Jerusalem went smoothly.

It took three hours to reach Amman by bus (5 JOD each), including a 15-minute bathroom stop along the way.  From the bus station, we hired a taxi (21 JOD) to take us to the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge where we passed through the Jordanian customs without queues or issues of any kind.  A special bus (5.30 JOD) transported us to the Israeli side, where we went through five distinct checkpoints (each with their own queue) before clearing customs.  It was crowded and chaotic on the Israeli side, but it only took us an hour and a half to get through which we thought was pretty good.  Now that we were on the Israeli side, it was a simple matter of exchanging some of our Jordanian money for Israeli Shekels so that we could purchase our bus tickets (38 shekels each) to Jerusalem which was only an hour away.  We were dropped off near the Damsacus Gate, which was about a half hour walk from our hostel.  Unfortunately, we made a few wrong turns and it took us close to an hour, arriving around 4:00 pm.  As we finished checking in, Jim and Sophia arrived, having had an equally easy and incident free travel day.

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A long journey to Jordan

October 30, 2012 Egypt Jordan Middle East

The distance between Dahab, Egypt and Petra, Jordan is a mere 210 km as the crow flies.   But we weren’t travelling as the crow flies; no, we were taking a bus to Nuweiba, a ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba and a taxi from Aqaba to Petra.  Our bus from Dahab was scheduled to leave at 10:30 on Thursday morning, and we estimated a conservative arrival time of about 5:00 pm, giving us plenty of time to settle into our hostel before heading out to visit Petra at night, something that is  permitted only twice a week (Thursday and Monday nights).  This is how our day unfolded.

We arrived at the Dahab bus station by 10:00, giving us plenty of time to purchase our tickets (15 EGP each).  Our bus departed at about 11:15 am, 45 minutes late.  Enroute to Nuweiba, we were stopped at a security checkpoint where an armed policeman boarded the bus and asked all passengers to present their identification.  There was only about six tourists on board, the rest of the passengers were locals.  One guy was hauled off the bus for reasons unbeknownst to us, delaying us for half an hour, which put us into Nuweiba at about 12:30.  We weren’t too worried as we believed the ferry didn’t leave until 3:00 pm so we had plenty of time to buy our tickets, go through customs and get on board.

The bus dropped us off at the Nuweiba Bus Station and we walked towards the sea where we assumed (correctly) we would find the port.  It took a little wandering about amongst the filthy streets of Nuweiba before we found the ticket office that was well signed, except only in Arabic.  The foreigner price for ferry passage is a steep $75US, or 940 EGP for two tickets.  At least we were taking the fast ferry that should get us across in about an hour.

Garbage in front of the entrance to the port.  Sadly, this 
was not an uncommon sight in Egypt. 

The place to buy ferry tickets.  All signs were Arabic
making it difficult to figure out where to go. 

Getting our ferry tickets.

After clearing customs without any issues, in spite of having over extended our Visa by about a week (well within the 15 day grace period), we joined a small group of foreigners in a decrepit, filthy waiting area about the size of a football field.  There was a group of five older ladies who we discovered were also Canadian,  two Australian men, one woman from the UK but who is living in Cairo, and one young man born in Israel but currently living Berlin.  We had plenty of time to kill, so why not get to know our travelling companions? The Canadian ladies were travelling as part of an organized tour.  Michelle, the UK lady from Cairo, told me she had been robbed the night before and lost all her valuables, except her passport.  She was meeting her fiance in Jordan, who had arranged her passage from Jordan.  I shared with her my food and drink as she had no money to buy any provisions.  We didn’t get to know the guys from Australia quite yet, but the young lad from Berlin, Benyamin, befriended us and decided to hang out with us for the rest of the journey.

At about 2:30 pm, we were transferred by bus over to the ferry, about a kilometre away where we now lined up – men in one line, women and children in the other – and waited for another half an hour, under the scorching sun.  Finally, we were allowed to board only to be detained in the car cargo area for another hour.  At least we were out of the sun.  When we were permitted to go upstairs, we figured we would be leaving at any moment.  Wishful thinking!  At the Jordanian Customs desk on board, we reluctantly surrendered our passports so that they could be processed, and visas issued when we landed in Jordan.

As the sun set over the mountainous horizon, our hopes for visiting Petra that night began to fade  as quickly as the fading light.  What could be causing our delay?  Turns out we were waiting for the drivers of the transport trucks that were being loaded onto the cargo ferry next to us all afternoon.  For whatever reason, the drivers could not accompany their trucks, they had to board the passenger ferry with the rest of us.  At 6:30 pm, we finally headed out and didn’t arrive in Aqaba until 9:30 pm.  So much for the fast sailing.  There was a time change as well, so now it was really 10:30 at night.

I hate arriving in a place in the dark, especially when we don’t have transportation lined up in advance, as was the case in Aqaba.  When we collected our passports, we were pleasantly surprised that we didn’t have to pay for our Visas (usually 20 Jordanian dinari each which is about $30 CAD).  Apparently, Aqaba is a “free zone” which means you can come and spend your money in the city for 48 hours without having to pay for a visa.

On arrival, the Canadian ladies were met by their tour guide and were whisked away for a night in Aqaba.  Michelle’s fiance was waiting for her at the exit.   The remaining foreign passengers – the two Australians, Benyamin and us – were all going to Petra so we decided to stick together to find transportation.  Of course, as we exited the port building, the taxi drivers were right there waiting to pounce.  These guys were really aggressive.  There were only two taxis in the parking lot each with a very small car, charging 60 EGP each, more than double what the going rate should be.  There was another guy who offered us a mini bus for 70 EGP, but it turns out he didn’t even have a car of his own.  He was just brokering on behalf of the taxi drivers who didn’t speak English very well.

Things got a little heated when Benyamin called one of the taxi drivers a liar and a crook.  These guys were yelling at us, as if the louder they talked, the better their deal would seem to us.  Michelle and her fiance came by and offered to take us all downtown to get a better taxi, but we wouldn’t all fit in their car.  The taxi drivers were enraged that we might go with them, and went off to fetch the police.  Turns out Michelle’s fiance was friends with both of the police officers, so much to the taxi drivers’ dismay and my relief, they didn’t do anything.

Finally, we decided we would walk to a main road where we had hopes of finding  a taxi that wouldn’t rip us off.  The only problem was we didn’t know where the hell we were or how far it was to the centre of town,.  And it was getting late, about 11:15 pm by now.

As we started to walk, one taxi driver drove up ahead and then stopped in front of us, blocking our path, insisting we must take his taxi.  Then the old guy in the minibus and the taxi broker did the same thing.  We said we would take the minibus for 60 EGP, which we knew was a fair price.  No, the broker insisted the price was 70 EGP.  I think everybody was getting a little hot headed, because after doing the math, we were dickering over a mere three bucks each extra.  But, it seems everybody was digging in their heels leaving no room for common sense.

We kept walking, and then the mini bus driver came up beside us, without the broker, and agreed to 60 EGP, so we piled in and headed off to Petra.  We were surprised that it took another 2 hours to get there as we were under the erroneous impression Petra was only 30 minutes away.  Our driver contacted our hostel to get directions and to let them know we would be arriving late.  The three guys didn’t even have a room booked for the night, so they were very lucky to learn that our hostel had a cancellation on a triple room, so at least they had somewhere to sleep.

The bus pulled up in front of our hostel at 2:00 am.  It took us 16 hours to travel 210 km!  But it was well worth it, as we discovered the next day when we visited Petra.

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