Petra: A Drop in My Bucket List

Do you have a Bucket List?

If so, you've got to add a visit to Petra if it's not already on there.  If you don't have one, let me help you start one right now:

                                        (Your Name)'s BUCKET LIST 

                                        1. Petra

You're welcome. 

A few weeks ago,  I left you in the Wadi Rum Desert, after having tea with our Bedouin friend, and a "Meet and Greet" with some camels.

Now, it is on to the main event...Petra.

Petra is one of Jordan's major tourist attractions. Let me put that into perspective. Petra' is one of the world's major tourist attractions, in fact, it is one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. 

You probably know it best from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Remember the temple at the end?

It is a city dating back some 2600 years, where temples, tombs and other buildings were carved into the rocks, but...

...it remained hidden in the mountains until it was discovered in 1812 by a Swiss explorer. 

I can see your eyes glazing over from here. If you are interested in more history, click here.

Petra is so...so...visually stunning, that I took a gazillion photos. Lucky for you, I'm only going to show you a million of them. OK, 26. Now that I put it that way, it won't seem like a lot.

When you finally arrive, you don't get out of the car, and say, "Wow, so this is Petra!" No. You can't even see it from the entrance, and let me tell you, it is a shlep to get there. 

But, there are options. You can ride a horse or donkey, rent a horse-driven carriage, or walk. 

We walked. 

And I would suggest, if you are physically able, that you walk, too. It's about a mile. You're going to want to stop, and gaze... and say, "WOW"... more times than you've ever said WOW in your entire life. The walk to Petra is almost as incredible as Petra itself.

In order to get inside the ancient city, we had to walk through the "Siq"...which is a narrow gorge in the rock. 

I hope you can get a sense of how high these rocks are...

See that little dark spot in the center (below)? That's a carriage. Now do you have an idea of how massive it is?

I am forever bringing up the rear, snapping photos along the way...which means I always end up with lots of photos of "rears" -- I've got more photos of Mr. and Jr. Goo Shoes from behind than I do of their faces. 

Around every bend, the rocks are different colors and formations. 

And then...and THEN...we caught our first glimpse. It literally took my breath away when I saw this.

...and finally, we were inside Petra.

We were standing in front of the famed Treasury Building, which, in the final scenes of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, was the secret temple that was lost for hundreds of year. 

Once inside, there was lots more walking to be done...

...and more camels to see.

More buildings to behold...

Notice how tiny the people are.  These buildings are enormous!

Does anyone have a time machine I can borrow? I'd love to travel back a few thousand years, and see them being built.

We watched the sand sculptures being made. Kinda still feel bad we didn't buy one after ooh-ing and ah-ing.

The only thing I wish we would have done, was rent a carriage for the return trip to the main gate. The walk seemed twice as long on the way back, because at the end of the tour... 

...we were Petra-fried. 

After a few hours of viewing antiquities, and that loooooooong walk back, we were starving! Fortunately, our tour included lunch at the Petra Magic Restaurant, which was a short drive away...

 

 and overlooked the Black Mountains.

They had an a-MAZ-ing buffet. You know by now that it's always about the food for me.

The best part of the meal was dessert. On the right is a bread pudding-like dessert called Um Ali. Or better yet, Yum Ali.



Our day at Petra may well have been one of the most memorable days we'll ever have...

...but I've got a thousand more things I still want to do. 

As enormous as Petra is, it was just a drop in my Bucket List. 

What's at the top of your List?

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Walking To Jordan To Have Tea With Camels

If you had to pick one passion, what would it be?

I'm talking about something other than family, friends, etc. You know, more like a hobby...

For me, it is travel...without question.

I want to go everywhere...well, almost. There are a handful of places in this world that I could skip. 

Last December, we were fortunate to take our dream trip to Israel for two weeks. Since I am the travel agent in the family, I insisted that we do a day trip to Jordan in order to see Petra, one of the Seven New Wonders of The World. I didn't know at the time that getting to Petra would be almost as exciting as Petra itself. 

I mean, it isn't everyday that you get to have tea in the desert with camels! 

We were staying in the resort town of Eilat, Israel, which is the southernmost tip of the country. From our hotel, we could look across the Red Sea -- yes, the very one Moses parted -- to the mountains of Jordan.  We'd be driving through those mountains on our way to Petra.

A view of Jordan from our hotel in Eilat, Israel

But before that even happened, we had to get to Jordan...and since Moses wasn't around that day to part the waters for us, we had to take a different route. From Israel, there is only one way to do that...

WALK.

You heard me right. Walk.  As in across the border. 

We were escorted to the border by an Israeli tour guide. She could only take us so far. After many security checks  of our passports, we had to walk across the border on our own, and we were met on the other side by Elias, our Jordanian tour guide. 

Words cannot explain this experience. Were we scared? No. We knew a lot of people who had done this same walk. Nervous? A little. I mean, here we were, crossing into a middle eastern country that formerly was an enemy of Israel...on foot...by ourselves. But mostly, it was flat-out incredible. And once we were in Elias' hands, any jitters we had were put to rest.

Our drive to Petra would take 2 hours. We started in Aqaba, which is supposed to be "THE" next luxurious resort destination.  Then we headed up into the mountains we had seen across the Red Sea from our hotel in Israel.

Driving through Aqaba to Petra.

 


Very soon, we were in the Wadi Rum Desert, riding along the only road that runs through it. 

Aerial view of desert flying into Eilat, Israel

I asked Elias if we would see any camels.

"Camels? You want to see camels? I can arrange that."

Next thing we know, we're pulling off the side of the road, to a little tent in the desert...and there were camels! Their quarters were a little shabby, don't you think?

We were greeted by a Bedouin man. Seems he had some tourist gig going with Elias. Did we care that these were touristy camels? No, we did not! We were in a real desert, with real camels, and a real Bedouin man. Hello, photo op! 

The man was lovely, and offered us some tea, which we accepted, because it would have been rude not to. Uh, yeah, I was totally skeeved to think about just how he washed (or didn't wash) those glasses, and how many other tourists drank out of them. But, we survived, and none of us got sick.

We got to take our photos with the camels, and the Bedouin man...which was really what it was all about. I'd show you pictures of us with the camels, but Mr. Goo Shoes, Junior Goo Shoes and Aunt Goo Shoes (yes, she was with us) are shy when it comes to showing their faces on my blog.

You know how camels store water in their humps? Well, who knew they got their supply from bottled water! 




After enjoying our tea with the camels and our Bedouin friend, we continued on our way to Petra...up, up, up into the mountains. 

From one vantage point, we could see Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Unbelievable.

But nothing, and I mean NOTHING...could prepare us for the spectacle that is Petra. 

More on that next week...

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