We set our alarms for 9, and we didn’t wake up a moment sooner because we had some sort of weird metal blackout thing covering our window (and ironic since we didn’t have this half the time in Iceland). Either way, we had a relaxing breakfast outside on the terrace which consisted of mostly carbs. This may have been a good thing for later in the day . . .
We got in our car and started driving south. It was just over 2 and a half hours from our hotel in Amman to Petra. The scenery was mostly desert with an occasional town. The roads in Jordan are actually much better than I expected. For most of the journey, we were on a major highway (the appropriately named Desert Highway to be exact). We did get motioned to the side at one point for a random check by Jordanian police at a checkpoint. He kept talking to me in Arabic and I just shook my head and shrugged. I eventually showed my passport, the officer said, “Welcome to Jordan,” and we were on our way.
We checked into the Marriott up the hill from the ancient city of Petra. Both hotels so far have had a lot of security. There were gates at both and we had to pass through a metal detector today as well. Sometimes the security presence is off putting because it implies that there could be a major incident, but I suppose the security could also hypothetically prevent said incident from occurring.
After regrouping, we drove the short drive down the hill to Petra. We paid for 2-day tickets since we were arriving later in the afternoon and wouldn’t see the Treasury bathed in the sun’s light, but there is much more to the site than just the Treasury, so we were off.
There was a lot more walking than either of us expected. I knew it was a while to get through the siq (the slot canyon-like pathway leading to the treasury), but it’s a significant walk just to get to the siq itself. The siq eventually opens up to a dramatic vista of the Treasury. There were two or three other tourists there and about 15 Bedouin hawkers trying to offer us camel rides or show us a secret viewpoint or any other number of things. They were quite persistent and it kind of killed the vibe while we were just trying to take it all in.
Though I had been wanting to see this for years, we didn’t spend too much time at the treasury initially because everyone was being so annoying. The problem with a lack of tourists is that it’s easy to be zeroed in on by aggressive hawkers. We soldiered on toward the other sites in Petra.
We passed an amphitheater, a colonnaded street, saw more tombs in the distance, and then began our march up 1000 steps (in reality closer to 900) while being offered donkey rides every five minutes. Eventually after much effort and sweat, we arrived at Ad Deir, or the Monastery.
While I would have sworn it was smaller than the treasury, it’s actually quite a bit larger. I think it’s the setting that the treasury finds itself. It just looks more dramatic. We spent a while at the monastery, however, and were practically the only people there with the exception of a young couple from Argentina. I bought a mildly chilled sprite nearby which did not hit the spot in the way I had hoped.
Unsurprisingly, the long walk back seemed . . .long. There was a breeze, but the heat and dryness of the desert, some pesky flies buzzing about, and the unrelenting, “Maybe later, think about it, special price for you today,” was enough to drive someone insane. We talked about how we would like a pizza and beer tonight as if we were two prisoners fantasizing about what they’d do with their freedom.
As we progressed back toward the entrance, most of the hawkers had closed up shop for the day. Thus, when we got back to the Treasury, it was pretty calm. We were able to set up a self-timer shot with only us in the photo. Luckily I got it fired off before a local boy started lingering uncomfortably around my camera. That was our queue to make an exit. Some time later, hours, minutes, we’ll never now, we arrived back at our car. The car struggled a bit to climb the hill back to the hotel, but made it intact.
We did get that pizza and beer, along with about three other beverages each. It was a divine meal with a good view of the surrounding hills as the sun set. It was one of the first real meals we’ve had on this trip since most of the time we have been eating in our rooms or cooking for ourselves. Another wonder of the world has been checked off.
passports & pepto bismol 