Petra Panorama Hotel Wadi Musa

... doesn't blow my mind away, it kicks it into orbit! We all walk 20 kilometers that day exploring the vast forgotten city that is carved into the pink sandstone mountains. I feel like a tiny ant in a wonderful vast sprawling alien world, treading through the passages carved into stone as camels and horse riders thunder past me. So many preconceptions are being broken already on the trip. The middle eastern people are friendly, warm and curious about visitors ...

We took the bus from Madaba to the town of Wadi Musa which is only a few km's from Petra. There isn't much going on in the town, probably not the place you would ever consider visiting except for that it's at the gateway to Petra.

Our Hotel had a great view over the city and the sunsets were stunning. We decided to get a two day pass for Petra so we could take our time exploring.

Wow, what an ...

... sweaty as it was really hot and having not showered in the desert (water is a precious commodity and we weren't that desperate to waste it) we were grotty and dusty. Being in the sun we added sunscreen to the dirty mix on our skin and wandered more till we found a rock in the shade to sit on to eat our lunch. The hotel sold lunch packs which meant we didn’t have to pay enormous dinars for food and drink. So we sat like little kids on a school outing and ate our ...

... had on us. By the time I got back to the camp, breakfast was being prepared and we had to start packing up for our one-hour bus trip to our next destination, the place we are now, Petra, Jordan. Bonnie and I were the only foreigners on the bus, since this was not the way tourists usally travel through these parts. But I had made friends with some well-connected people while in Aqaba, and they made our travel arrangements for us. My Arabic actually helped get us favours that ...

... hooks now as we were so close!

We arrived in our hotel (one of the best ones) although ours were the only room that wasn't ready we dumped our stuff in a friends room and met in the foyer. Once we were all there we started our walk down to the gated enterance to the ancient city that was Petra. Once through the gates it's a 2km walk down to the first big building (the treasury). The whole 2kms is in this really narrow gorge you can see why Petra was never conqured by the Romans ...

... come on such a grueling journey each day, never mind climbing hundreds of steps (not all of them smooth or evenly hewn) with all their inventory. We succumbed to Sara, the very first vendor who approached us (step 135, was it?) to "make [her] day" on the way up, and who remembered us well on the way down. We bargained, but I still think she got the better of us. Lunch in the shade then a long walk back all the way through the city and the long, winding Siq. A ...

... best known to Dave and I from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie. The city is carved into the rock wall by the Nabataens- I think the timeline is around 6th century BC onwards, Pre-Roman. The ruins excavated are mostly tombs, with a few temples and a church as well. The tombs are all empty inside except for a few carvings and loculi (graves) and some are home to the bedouin who live in Petra. To reach the start of the ...

... hanging out at the cafes relaxing over Turkish coffee and tea. Later that night I went to a cooking class put on by the local tourism board, and part of the money raised goes towards a local women's cooperative. It was a fun way to meet other travelers but the Jordanian cuisine is pretty uneventful - the Syrians and the Lebanese have them beat hands down. And now off to catch a 6:30am local minibus to Wadi Rum for some camel riding in the desert!

... killing me after walking for 5 hours. Petra itself has more sights that I imagined and it was awsome just walking around and seeing it all, all the litte caves in the rock and the grand buildings carved into the rocks. I am going back tomorrow to do more sightseeing. Again like Wadi Rum it is hard to describe it but you should defiantly see the photos as some of them are good and gives you a general idea of it. I am off now to eat a 4 Dina all you can eat salad and BBQ.

... some money from nothing. Had a very bad feeling but they were very pleasant apart from constantly asking what hotel I was staying at. Kept saying I had a friend there who had a hotel for us. Having to lie quite a bit to save me from some hassle. So he kept going on and on until he realized I wasn't going to be taken to a hotel of his choosing so he could get commission. I didn't mind him trying but he got on my tits after a while until he stopped.

Some amazing scenery ...