Petra

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Ever since I was a teenager and realized the 'temple of the crescent moon' was actually a real place I have wanted to go to Jordan to see Petra. I admit, like many other tourists a movie inspired me to go to a place. I loved the adventure of Indiana Jones and always wanted to have adventures just like them. As a child I must have watched those movies a hundred times each and in my child's mind I imagined travelling the world and conjured up all sorts of exotic, exciting scenarios of which I was of course the hero.

As an adult I know that Petra is a tourist site, and that it will not be the rugged, isolated, hidden gem that it was in my childhood fantasies. People would be everywhere. Tourists jostling for the prime camera angle, locals crying for your attention to sell you their jewellery or postcards, and beggars demanding pity.

Our tour guide arranged an ungodly early wake up time, so we were all down in the lobby of the hotel bleary eyed and somewhat dazed, but we would be the first ones there. There was another group from the same company we were travelling with up and ready to go as well, but they left a few minutes ahead of us and we didn't see them again until later in the afternoon. We walked from our hotel as it was only a few blocks and arrived shortly after the site opened for business. We made it through the hassle of "horses! horses!" and started our 4 KM trek through the site. The first Km or so was fairly open with only a couple of monuments in scattered rock faces. The canyon began after that. As I mentioned the other group arrived before us, and they were far enough in front of us that we couldn't see them once we entered the twisting walls of peach coloured rock. There were no other people around at the time. It pays to get up early and be the first people there. To be so isolated in this canyon gave it the mystical, inspirational feeling that it had in my imagination. There was no one to spoil the serenity and majesty of the moment. We wandered the canyon at a relaxed pace, taking the time to appreciate our surroundings and savour the early morning atmosphere. At the end, our guide tricked us into looking back and up at the top of the walls trying to see "something", backing us up to see it better, only to say "just kidding, there's nothing there. Turn around." Turning around, our first glimpse of the Treasury! Breathtaking! There are probably thousands of pictures floating around the internet of this first view. The way the rock walls half obscure this amazing carving only adds to the mystery of this unusual place.

Of course, right this instant a carriage carrying an older couple barrels up behind us and almost runs us down. The stream of other visitors is about to begin. There a one or two other tourists at the Treasury already, but they are individuals and are mostly quiet. Not so quiet are the Bedouins working in front of the monument. A recent flood had washed rocks through the site and deposited them all along the pathways so they were busy shoveling rocks and dumping them into metal wheelbarrows. Yelling instructions at each other and generally going about things as if this were a New York construction site. A couple of other carriages rolled up while we were vainly trying to listen to the story of how the Treasury got its name adding to the noise and confusion of the area. As much I was irritated by the noise at this point, it would only get worse later in the day. It was still relatively quiet. We continued our walk to the end of the level path, where surprisingly there are some Roman ruins. I did not expect that. We climbed up to one of the higher tombs (Petra is all tombs, not temples as portrayed in the movie) to get a birds eye view of our surroundings. It was stunning and the upper tomb itself had spectacular patterns in the rock. This one we could go inside, whereas at the Treasury people are blocked from entering. The area past the Treasury is much less regulated so while you can enter the tombs and climb about more, there are also more Bedouins with shops set up to sell you trinkets. Its a bit of a gauntlet getting through them. However, there are also a couple of little cafes which was appreciated. After walking 3Km in the dust some tea is nice. It was also at this point that it began to get very hot. Some of our group decided that this was as far as they wanted to go, and made their way back to the entrance. The rest of us continued uphill to the Monastery...up 800 steps cut into the rock with some of them washed away and slippery. I'm not sure how hot it was that day, but we felt the heat. I felt like I was dying as I neared the top of this climb. I stopped a couple of times to catch my breath, but I still made it up in a little over 30 minutes. My mom was a trooper and met me up at the top in about 45 minutes. The climb itself was worth the effort. The patterns in the rock are beautiful, and every so often you get a glimpse of the valley below you and it takes your breath away. There are still the odd Bedouins with trinket tables set up....they make this climb everyday...and at the top there is a place to relax and again have some tea. The Monastery is amazing. It is much more impressive than the Treasury, even though the treasury is what Petra is famous for. There is less decoration, but the sheer size of the carving and the landscape in the backdrop make it much more stunning (and the Treasury is stunning as well). There were fewer people up at the top. The other group from the morning was there, and a couple of other more fit people who had passed us on the path, and some less fit people who had ridden donkeys up the steps. Still, it wasn't crowded and our group got some great pictures. My camera unfortunately stopped working the day before while I was at little Petra. I think there was just too much dust in the air for it to take. From that point on I do not have a camera. I do have my tablet, but it is awkward to take photos with and you can't change very many settings so I really didn't use it. I actually didn't mind so much though. Going through Petra without stopping every three seconds to uselessly try to capture its beauty in a 2D photo was actually very nice. I was able to just look at what was in front of me and absorb it into my memory. The experience was more fulfilling through my own eyes than it would have been through a camera lens.

We spent some time recovering from the hike and the heat at the café at the top. It faces the Monastery so you can sit and have a tea while appreciating the view in the open air. After tea, my mom and I decided to make our way back down before our legs seized up and decided they were done for the day. The journey back down was a little more precarious as the worn away sections were slippery. We met several more people going up, and by this time it was very hot. I'm glad we made the climb before the heat reached this intensity (It was only 11 am by this time) and before the crowds behind us had reached this point. Going down took half the time, but my legs were shaking from the strain. I think this tells me that I need a little more physical activity in my daily life! At the bottom in the morning we had passed a man with a cooler selling drinks for half a dinar (by far the cheapest at the site) so now we stopped to buy a beverage from him. He was set up in front of a dark little cave and invited my mom and I in to sit down with him and his friends in the cave to enjoy our drinks. He was so nice! He had tea bubbling in a little pot and offered us tea as well, and would make us some sandwiches if we liked. Mom had some tea, but we declined on the sandwiches as the sanitary conditions in a cave to me were somewhat suspect. As we were chatting, two more of our group came along followed by two others, so we flagged them down and we had a little party in the cave. I loved it. I know people who would have been completely disgusted by the surroundings and would refuse to sit with them, but they are the ones who miss out on great connections with people in life. I had a great time.

Walking back from there took us back into the main part of the site. The crowds and the hussle at this time of the day were incredible. I am so so glad we had that early morning wake up call. It was more than I could handle. Going back through the canyon was the worst as the horse and buggy drivers raced up and down one right after the other. I'm surprised no one gets run over, though I suppose they make enough noise that even someone nearly deaf would be able to hear them coming before seeing them.

By the time we got out of the site and back to our hotel it was about 2 in the afternoon. We were hungry and exhausted, and now irritated by the hussle of tourist attractions, but it was so worth it. And it was so worth getting up early to beat the crowds. This site had more tourists than any other place we visited. In the afternoon it was chaos there. If you are planning to go to Petra, go early in the morning.

Petra for me was a definite highlight of this trip. It was one of the main things I wanted to see and one of the few places I've been to that lived up to the hype. From this point on in our trip I had no expectations and no pre-conceived ideas of what the experiences would be like, and sadly there was only a couple more days left of our adventure! P.S.

these photos were taken by other group members so thanks to them!

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