Yalla Yalla

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It was, again, a very early start, as we needed to get to breakfast and be waiting at the hotel reception for a guide at 7.30 ready for our Petra tour. This time it wasn't Achmed, but a man called Khamal, who's obviously used to the British grasp of names and languages and was keen to stress that his name isn't Camel.

We have been making some effort with Arabic, although those efforts have, so far, only stretched to "Salam" ("hello"), "Sabah El Khair" ("good morning") and "Shikran" ("thank you"). Khamal also introduced us to "Yalla Yalla", which means "get a move on".

We were a bit dismayed to see all the coaches parked outside the Petra entrance. It's clearly going to be busy in there! Something that was also parked outside was the tourist police, who we have consistently seen everywhere we go, sometimes in big heavily armoured vehicles. They are obviously not taking any chances of anything interfering with tourism. The one time they weren't around was when some tourists were climbing all over some ruins, leaving Khamal to go and have a very forceful word with them.

Petra is absolutely amazing and easily rivals Pompeii, which we visited with the same friends last year (see No, That Isn't Vesuvius Coming Back to Life). The jury is still out on which is better (in our view at least). Also like Pompeii, much of the site remains buried (around 25 percent), presumably following the earthquake that destroyed much of the city in the third century AD.

We passed by the collection of shops at the entrance (one of which was clearly exploiting the Indiana Jones connection) and walked along the canyon again. It looked completely different in the daylight as we were now able to see what was around us. The long, narrow canyon reminded us of the Antelope Canyon in Utah USA (see Fun and Games on The Water).

Much of the canyon is peppered with hundreds of tombs, leading historians to wonder if most of the city was actually built for the dead rather than for the living. We could also now see all the layers of different colours in the rock.

Camel, I mean Khamal, showed us the drainage system that runs alongside the canyon. Much like Pompeii, that was a major part of the infrastructure, but in this case due to the high risk of flooding, which still occurs regularly. At various places, dams have been built, although those there now have been rebuilt more recently.

We reached the Treasury again. Your assumption would be that this was some sort of bank or where taxes were paid, but, actually, it is where the Nabataean people believed some ancient treasure was hidden. The façade that can be seen is actually just that, a façade, carved out of the rock with no actual rooms behind it. It's not known how long it took to carve out, but it's clearly an astronomical achievement. In fact, there's a lot that is not known about Petra, its history and its construction.

Amongst the crowds was a group of extremely overdressed women, who it was safe to assume were a group of Instagram influencers out to get the iconic shots posing in front of the Treasury. According to Khamal groups of people often turn up with several changes of clothes for their Instagram posts.

We carried on past the Treasury and the canyons opened up into a much wider space. Again, there are a lot of tombs, some of which, known as the Royal Tombs, overlook and dominate the space. These are spectacular, almost on a par with the Treasury, so we walked up to them for a closer look.

There was also a small amphitheatre, which, for once was not built by the Romans. It's understood that it served a religious function, probably for ceremonies relating to all the tombs.

There were a few market stalls and shops scattered around and Khamal was duty bound to translate what they were selling to us. He had pre-warned us that we should say "no" if we weren't interested, but he would not be doing himself any favours if he refused to translate or said "no" on our behalf.

The merchandise for sale included frankincense and myrrh, which, for obvious reasons, we had heard about for years, but we had no idea what they actually were. We didn’t buy any, but if they were good enough for the baby Jesus, then they'd be good enough for us! It was interesting to see what they actually looked like though.

There was now a decision to make - do we go for the climb to the Monastery or not, knowing that there are 850 steps? Two of us decided to go for it, whilst the other two decided to relax with a drink, make use of the free wifi and then get a shuttlebus that runs from that point back to the entrance.

It was a long, arduous climb with many of the steps being very worn and precarious. It also wasn’t helped by all the donkeys passing in both directions, carrying supplies and people, and also leaving a never-ending trail of donkey shit that we, obviously, wanted to avoid stepping in.

It was also lined with lots of makeshift shops (surprisingly more so than the lower canyon despite the lower number of potential customers). Presumably people are more inclined to stop for a break to catch their breath during the tough climb. We'd timed it well, as most of the shops were offering happy hour prices (for that hour only of course), but we were determined to carry on to the top.

We both agreed that it was worth it. The Monastery is very similar to the Treasury. Actually it's bigger and, for obvious reasons, it's nowhere near as crowded. And, if the 850 steps are not enough, there are additional climbs up to two viewpoints overlooking the Monastery - both of which were advertised as the best views in the world. I picked one and it was worth the additional climb. There was a small tent at the top where they were serving Arabian tea and coffee (for a price) and a fantastic view.

Judging by a poster pointing the way, the view is even better at sunset, but I really would not want to be negotiating those steps back down in the dark. And my wife would be none to impressed either.

The Instagram Influencers had made it up there as well.

We got back down to catch the shuttlebus, which rather annoyingly made a diversion via a new shopping village where we were all forced to get off the bus for 10 minutes. Nobody did any shopping as we all staged a sit-down protest and refused to go in the shops out of stubborn bloody mindedness for being forced to stop there in the first place.

We'd taken a lot longer to get round than we should have done and we had clearly kept Achmed waiting. He would have been keen to get back to his family whilst it's still Eid (now in the second of its three days). Once I got back to wifi access there were a couple of "Yalla Yalla" like WhatsApp messages waiting for me.

Our next destination was the Dead Sea and we would be following the scenic route through the mountains. No Desert Highway today. The scenery was spectacular, but after a couple of hours of sharp bends and bumpy roads, we were all starting to wonder where the sick-bags were. Apparently this road had been built the way it was for the former King Hussain, who had a thing for rally car driving. Now, that's impressive, having a road built so that you can indulge your personal hobby.

Things flattened out just in time and the road became a lot straighter. We also stopped at a supermarket so that Achmed could take a break from the driving. It wasn't up to our usual Walmart excursions from all our American Road-trips (see Two Different States Were More Like Two Different Countries for example), but we stocked up on some chocolate to give ourselves a break from all the humous.

A quick check - no, there's no alcohol on sale. No problem, we're not addicts!

The Dead Sea is actually the lowest place on earth at 420m below sea-level and it was considerably hotter and more humid than everywhere else we had been. We were pleased that the altitude at Petra made it cooler as those steps would have been hard work at this temperature and this level of humidity.

Sadly our hotel room is facing away from the sea, but we can't complain - there are much bigger problems going on in the world and actually not very far away given that we can see the West Bank just over the other side of the Dead Sea (or we would if our room was on the other side of the hotel!)

We realised just how close we are when we received "welcome to the country that should be named" text messages on our phones.

We went for a walk down to the beach where it's quite evident just how much the water had dropped. Apparently the water level is dropping by about a meter per year due to all the pot ash extraction that's taking place. We saw all the facilities for that on the way here.

There were a good few people still out there floating and others covered in mud, which is also supposed to be part of the Dead Sea experience. We're really looking forward to going into the Dead Sea to experience just what it's like, but we'll do that tomorrow as it's getting late and they are very strict about people swimming after sunset. I think I'll give the mud a miss though.

For our evening meal, we went to the self-service buffet. The food was amazing and I got to have my usual flat-bread and humous starter. The only downside was that it was horrendously busy, as there were what seemed like hundreds of children running around, some evening kicking a football about. This hotel is, obviously, popular with families, probably even more so at the moment as it's Eid, and Jordanians seem to have a lot of children.

The upside is that there's a tap behind the bar serving draft Amstel. And the answer to the big question was "yes, it does contain alcohol". We didn't get any as we're not addicts. Well, actually, we did, but at the equivalent of £9 for about half a pint and £33 for our four drinks, we made do with one each.

On the plus side, we were told that everything in the minibar in our room is free. Excited, we went straight our room to check what was in there, but were disappointed. Two bottles of water, two soft drinks and a carton of orange. Still, we can't complain.

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Photos

Treasury
Back to the Treasury, but in daylight this time.

Breakfast Pastries
Oh, so much choice.

Petra Canyon
The narrow route to the Treasury.

Reconstructed Dam
To help prevent the canyon from flooding.

Petra Map
The start is in the bottom right and the Monastery is on the top left.

Royal Tombs
Looking up towards these impressive tombs.

Tomb Ceiling
All the rock colours showing through.

Donkey
It's more work, but I'd feel safer walking.

Frankincense and Myrrh
So that's what they are!

Shopping
Shops along much of the length of the path to the Monastery and, by good fortune, most have their happy hour discounts.

Monastery View
One of the two best views in the world, apparently.

Retail Village
NO, I WILL NOT GO INTO ANY SHOPS.

Camels
Walking along the side of the road.

Supermarket
Not exactly a Walmart, but great for some chocolate none-the-less.

Free Minibar
Disappointed but still grateful.

Alcohol
At long last some drinks, although the round did cost the equivalent of £33.