We weren't entirely sure when we set out to leave Israel that our plan to cross into Jordan would work. There was a lot of conflicting information on the Internet, mostly tour companies saying that you couldn't cross the border as an individual, you had to be part of a tour (you could see how this would be in their benefit). Nonetheless, we set out anyway. Worst case, we'd get stuck in Eilat for the night and have to find a tour group in order to get into Jordan.
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| The Treasury at Petra |
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| Temperature the day we crossed the border into Jordan |
As we were sitting in the stifling heat at the bus stop just outside Masada, Israel, waiting for the bus, we met a few fellow travelers, two young guys who live in Paris. They were also going to try to get to Petra in Jordan that night, so we decided to combine our forces. The bus to Eilat from Masada took about four hours (seriously, thank goodness for air conditioning!) as we crossed some of the hottest, most desolate desert countryside I've ever seen (Kenzi here). Our new European friends, Thomas and Matthew, had also found conflicting information online, but gave us a tip to buy the Jordan Pass, which is basically a ticket that combines a visa and entrance fees to Petra and Wadi Rum, as long as you stay for three nights in Jordan. Crossing the border into Jordan took about an hour, as we did passport checks, luggage checks, paid fees, etc. But overall it was much easier than some of the horror stories we'd read online. Once we were finally in Jordan, we got a taxi very easily, along with our new friends, and were able to split it four ways, which saved us some money.
The drive to Wadi Musa (the town outside Petra) took about two hours. It involved an obligatory stop at a tourist shop where the proprietor insisted on putting head wraps on all of us. To his disappointment, we did not buy (as backpackers, we have purchased no souvenirs - if you buy it, you gotta carry it!). The drive also involved a confusing taxi swap. After many confusing minutes, we finally figured out that our taxi driver didn't want to drive all the way to Wadi Musa, and preferred that we get into his friend's taxi to take us the rest of the way to Wadi Musa. So we did.
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| Bill's a natural with the head wrap, right? |
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| Clever sales technique, but we didn't buy it |
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| Our elaborate breakfast in Wadi Musa |
We stayed at the best rated hotel in Wadi Musa, which was still within our budget. It had air conditioning, an elaborate breakfast, but spotty Internet, and the shower flooded the bathroom floor. But it was good enough for us! The next day we headed to Petra. I had read quite a bit about it beforehand, but was still totally unprepared for the size of the whole area and the number of amazing things to see.
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| The bright colors and designs in the rocks at Petra |
First, let's discuss the rocks at Petra. Honestly, it would be worth a visit to Jordan just to see the rock formations and colored rock walls. They were so amazing. An iPhone camera just really doesn't do justice to the whole place, so bear with the pictures here. The first major thing you come to is the Siq, a mile-long hallway between rock walls, which reminded us of Zion in Utah, but without the river running down the middle. The Nabataeans, who built Petra, did some really intelligent water diversions to keep the Siq from flooding, but they cleverly directed water to town through gutters carved into the rock walls. They created a desert oasis that thrived from approximately 100BC to 300AD.
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| The Siq |
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| More of the Siq |
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| Bill checking out the gutters along the Siq |
The Siq is kind of like a long, excitement-inducing red carpet. When you finally emerge from the Siq, you see the "treasury", a building facade carved into the face of a rock wall. It's so impressive, and it was appropriate that someone was humming the Indiana Jones theme song when we first caught a glimpse of it, since it appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It's called the treasury because it was once believed that it held treasure. You can see quite a few bullet holes in the treasury from Bedouin tribes who hoped to dislodge the nonexistent treasure. Archaeologists didn't really know until recently what the purpose of the treasury was. If it was a tomb, where were the bodies? Well, a couple years ago, an archaeologist got permission to dig down and he discovered a building below ground which is the tomb.
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| The Siq empties out into the Treasury |
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| The Treasury |
After the treasury, you see several more tomb facades carved into the rock walls. It's called the Street of Facades. Then, you eventually arrive at the coliseum, which is amazing. We've seen our share of coliseums on this trip, usually Roman or Greek, and built out of stone or marble. However, this coliseum is carved out of the rock. Instead of building up material, they cut it away. In this case, it's called a theater. It was very impressive. There are many more tombs carved into the rock walls in Petra, each of which is incredible. They are empty now, having been robbed long ago. The Nabataeans clearly were masters of rock carving and of course, water management, since they managed to make a thriving community in the desert by building dams, pipes, pools, etc. Petra was a big trading center in its time. We're not exactly sure why it was eventually abandoned, but it may have had something to do with a big earthquake in the 300s AD.
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| A view down on some of the tombs in Petra |
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| The Theater |
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| More tombs |
We managed to walk 14 miles the day we visited Petra, including hiking to the top of several large hills - it's a large area. There are remains of a huge temple, a Roman road, a large pool, etc. And they are still finding new things in the Petra area. The last big thing we did was hike up to the "monastery". It is even more impressive than the treasury, larger and definitely worth the hike in spite of the heat. So, all in all, an incredible day at Petra.
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| The Romans sure knew how to make long lasting roads |
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| Bill standing on the fallen parts of giant pillars at the Petra temple |
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| The Monastery |
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| The Monastery and the surrounding mountains |
As for cultural stuff, Jordan is a conservative Muslim country. Women are all seen wearing head scarves, and sometimes full burkas, but don't think for a second that there is no fashion here. I saw many Prada and Coach bags, sparkly belts, high heels, makeup, etc, especially in the larger cities of Aqaba and Amman. I have to admit that with all the ridiculous beauty standards put on Western women, wearing a burka does have its appeal. I just don't think I could wear it in such a hot place! But Jordan ladies do it gracefully, and appear to do it without breaking a sweat. Amazing.
On the whole Jordan is ~92% Sunni Muslim. As with every other country, there are varying degrees of religiousness. We learned that there's really no way to become non-Muslim. Once you're in, you're always in, which is really interesting. We were awakened every morning around 5:00am to the loud call to prayer coming from the local mosques. It sounds like a man singing/wailing in a minor key, and happens five times a day. I'm guessing you get used to it if you've lived here your whole life. You'll often see men with rough spots on their foreheads from all their days of praying five times/day. We once saw a Muslim man pulled off to the side of a freeway, bent over in prayer as the rest of the cars whizzed past. We had a taxi driver that claimed that Shias (or Shiites) are not Muslim at all.
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| Wadi Rum - no wonder they thought it looked a bit like Mars |
After Wadi Rum, we took a taxi down to Aqaba. Aqaba is a beach city of about 200,000 people. We enjoyed walking around town that evening. We even managed to find a health food store with gluten free products. Wonders never cease! The next day we had a flight out of Aqaba headed to Cairo, that connected through Jordan's capital of Amman, population 1 million. Amman had a very fancy and well air-conditioned airport.
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| The Gulf of Aqaba from our hotel window in Aqaba |
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| Everyone goes to the beach in the evening (Aqaba), probably because it's a bit cooler. |
Royal Jordanian airline moved our departure flight up one day, so we lost a day in Jordan. Nonetheless, we had a great visit and found Jordan to be very safe. If you're interested in learning more about Petra,
this documentary was pretty interesting.
Here's a time lapse video of Bill coming down the red sand dune in Wadi Rum.
Thanks for reading. Up next: Egypt!
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