Valentine Inn Wadi Musa

Petra is located 3-4 hours south of Amman so those without a car can take the bus or do what we did and hire a driver. This is where Ahmad and Hassan come back into the picture because we all mobbed down to Petra together for the day and we hired a car. A little ways into the drive we stopped to eat breakfast and to get to-go lunch for inside Petra. Breakfast in Jordan usually consists of pita bread with, among other things, dips like hummus and a dip that is similar to yogurt in flavor but w...

We spent the day in Petra today and the ruins are FABULOUS. i think they are our favorite ruins that we have seen so far, in the whoooole world. there is a lot of indiana jonesy stuff around because they filmed that movie there. you walk down a big narrow canyon that goes for 1.2km and it's the main entrance to the ruins. it's super cool. then you come up to the big treasury (the most famous part of the ruins that everybody knows.) sooo cool!!! it was pretty hot, made worse by the fact that i...

Sunday, Feb 8 Day 4 in Jordan Didn't quite make it up for the 7 o'clock ride to Petra but did make the 8 a.m. ride. We decided to buy the 3 day entrance and have lots of time to get to see everything. It is impressive from the beginning, with a lot of building and caves all around on both sides of the road. There are options for getting around, horse, horse and buggy at the entrance and once through the siq you can take a donkey or camel, of course all for a $'s. All of these buildings were h...

Monday, Feb 9 Day 5 in Jordan We caught the 8 a.m. taxi into Petra. Today we are going through the gorge. There is a warning sign not to go in without a guide, but Arnold and Claudia did it yesterday without any problems. It was an incredible journey, first we were taken with all the coloured stones. These are the stones the local artisans collect and crush to sand to make their sand in a bottle sculptures. The colours are reds, mustard yellows, violets, blues, pinks, and violets so dark they...

Tuesday, Feb 10 Day 6 in Jordan It is cloudy, windy and cold outside. We are glad we're not going into Petra today. Looks like rain and I can't imagine all the dust blowing around down there. We will go out for lunch, mail the post cards and then figure out how we are going to Madaba. From what we were told last night we have to take a bus into Amman and then a bus back to Madaba as a day trip, the same if we want to do the Dead Sea in this area. We might just stay in Amman and do day trips o...

The room at the cheap place we are staying in has a sink but no handle to the tap. If you want toilet paper you have to pay for it. An actual tap for the hot water tap in the shower but no hot water and the toilet door doesn't look in the dorm. But it has an amazing view at sunset.

We have had three early morning starts now, not what we are used to but sometimes you have no choice in the matter. We wanted to be at Petra before the tour buses arrived, our hostel was offering an early b...

Oh my God, was I scared for my life!!!! Crossing the border from Israel to Jordan wasn't too bad. Getting from the border to Petra was the scariest thing in my life. Sorry to be such a pesimist, but I honestly did not know what the hell was happening when my taxi driver got pulled over and had to bring a military guy with us. Apparently it's illegal in Jordan to smoke while you're driving. So my taxi driver got a ticket, but since we gave this guy a ride all was well. Well, I was trying to fi...

At the Syria-Jordan border, I find out that I should have taken a bus from Damascus straight to Amman. As it happened, I again didn't have a way to where I wanted to go. A local Jordanian invited me to his house for dinner at Ramtha, then drove me to Irbid where I stayed. The next day, after some ruins at Jerash, I thought I would get to Petra. I asked the bus driver when I got to Amman where he was headed, "Petra," he assured me. Unfortunately, his definition of Petra differed from mine by a...

Saturday 13 July Charlotte and I took a bus to Petra and stayed at the Valentine Inn. [Valentineinn@hotmail.com] It was run by a Jordanian man and his Italian wife, Valentina, who seemed to like displaying her Rubenesque figure in some non-Muslim garments. This got a French man in trouble with his pretty Thai wife who thought he did not always manage to avert his eyes. They toured the ruins separately, he alone, she with Charlotte [who preferred Char] and I. But the Frenchman knew how to char...