April 2015 – Page 2 – tRNscontinental

March 28th, 2015
Petra to Wadi Rum: Yellah! We set off bright and early from Saba’a on our mini road trip with new friends, Wei Wei and Dawson. A short 2 hour drive later we found our way into Wadi Rum with ease. Truly, if you have a map, a smart phone, and keep your eyes peeled for signs, you do not need a GPS to find your way around Jordan.

We encountered a slight hassle at the gate as Mehedi said we would with people hassling us and saying they would take our money and give it to the visitors centre, etc. Ignoring them and going to get the tickets with success, we proceeded on. I don’t know why I was thinking that we were looking for a Bedouin Directions sign but we carried on through the village, despite the multitude of killer speed bumps and the 4Runner that flashed its lights at us…after pulling up the directions and realizing that we should have met Mehedi at the rest house (first building on the right) and the car flashing its lights was probably him we turned around and sure enough, found him waiting there. We left Wei Wei and followed Mehedi to him house for some tea and to meet the rest of our group, a lovely set of three friends studying at uni in Singapore and our guide Ayed.

A brief synopsis of our stops (included in the ‘Mehedi Special Jeep Tour’):
1. An old Nabatean temple just outside the village. If you haven’t seen ruins before or are a big fan of ruins then it’s worth a visit. Otherwise, skip it.

2. Lawrence’s Spring. Situated on a hill
a short drive from the village you can scramble up the rocks to see it. The spring is not too exciting but the view is great and the resident lizards are charming (if you’re partial to amphibians, that is).

3. A short canyon with pools of water at the bottom and some beautiful inscriptions along the sides.

4. Inscriptions and a red sand dune. Dune: hard to climb up, extremely fun to run down.
Inscriptions: used many years ago by the caravanserai to show the way and leave messages.

5. Lawrence’s House – again not too too much to see here in terms of historical structure, but it’s an easy scramble up the rocks for another stunning view.

At this point we broke for lunch, which involved starting with dessert, always a good sign in my books. Ayed and Muhammed (who was going to lead us up to Burdah Arch) set to cooking lunch while the rest of us charged our batteries and chatted in the shade. We enjoyed the simple but filling veggie stew-esque meal they prepared along with the ever-present pita and hummus accompaniment.

With our bellies full, Ayed dropped us off with Muhammed to do the hike/scramble to the arch. This was absolutely beautiful and super fun to climb up, but also challenging at points. The long legs really came in handy at this time!

We made it to the top and enjoyed the beautiful view immensely, the occasional gust of wind as we crossed the arch itself just adding to the thrill.

While coming up, we had asked if it was the same route down as up because it seemed quite treacherous at times and we were told it was. So, the journey down was interesting to say the least! Firstly, Muhammed would essentially run down these cliff faces with the ease of a goat with suction cups for feet then look back at us and go, ‘Yellah!’ (Arabic for let’s go, a phrase we heard numerous times!). Secondly, he kept trying to trick us with the direction, then giggle, and point in entirely the opposite direction. And our supposed pal Dawson, a climber extraordinaire himself, did his best to lead us off track once or twice. It’s ok, you can still come to Everest Base Camp with us. 😜

Anyhow we did make it back down, and Ayed said we were quite fast in fact! We headed for the small arch next, no big deal after what we’d just done!

Our final stop was to try and view sunset. As we pulled up to the dune we were to watch from, we couldn’t believe our eyes….it was Green Dress from the day before! In the same green dress, prancing about on the dune. Unbelievable! Luckily they didn’t stay too long and we were able to enjoy a little sunset (and make a sand angel, if you were me!). Because it was sandy, our sunset wasn’t the best, but we enjoyed the relaxation!

Finally, we headed back to camp for some delicious dinner. It was very filling and some of the veggies and some chicken were dinner in the traditional way in the fire in the ground. Yum! A few games of cards later and we were headed to bed to recover from a long day.

Dead Sea to Petra

What a wonderful day we had today! We reluctantly left the DSSH after having a spectacular breakfast buffet and a final toe dip in the Dead Sea.

Our drive to Petra was to be via the Dead Sea road past Wadi Mujib, Dana Biosphere Reserve, and Shobak Castle (which is Anglicized roughly 12 different ways on any given combo of road signs and maps – just adds to the fun of navigation!). The road along the sea is really nice, as far as views that it, and the road winding up through the mountains is equally lovely with exceptional views over towards Israel and south to Aqaba. Let me briefly clarify however that in referring to drives as lovely, I am always, without fail, speaking of the scenery and never the quality of the actual road and how it drives as this, without fail, is always rather crap!

There was a lot of haze and possibly sand in the air so there really wasn’t much visibility over Dana unfortunately. Time was also marching on so we opted to maximize our time at Shubak and Petra.

Shewbuk was amazing. It’s perched high on a hill overlooking the valley and commands attention even from a distance. It was free to go in for us (not sure that this is always the case) and it’s a short but steep walk from the parking lot up to the entrance. There were two guys dressed up in traditional soldier gear hanging out, one of whom was really keen on dressing us up in the helmet, shield, and sword. We evaded him for most of our visit but couldn’t turn him down in the end. He also pointed us to the tunnel that disappears into the darkened belly of the castle, a purported 365 steps in all, emerging somewhere down the hillside, but for the sake of pressing on to Petra we chose to forego it.

Leah and our new friend at the top of the tunnel

We arrived to Petra around 2:30 and purchased our 2 day ticket (JD55). Passport is needed for this as they charge up to 90JD for visitors who’ve been in the country less than 1 or 2 days I think it is. Highway robbery, if you ask me. Anyhow, pretty much as soon as we set out for the entrance from the ticket booth we were consistently harassed: “Would you like to ride my Ferrari?” “Do you need a guide?” “Looking is free – please look at these souvenirs!” “Hey, take a picture with me!”

In case you were wondering, a Ferrari is a donkey or mule and they are everywhere around Petra being used to haul weary tourists around the expansive site. As two young, female travelers unaccompanied by males, Leah and I might as well have had targets on our banks and flashing neon lights surrounding us drawing every tout and teenage schoolboy in the place to us like magnets. Combined with the heat, dust, and garbage all over, it’s really a bit of an experience ruiner to be honest and by about 5:15 PM, with the light leaving us we decided to call it quits for the day with rather a sour taste in our mouths. I mean, when you’re cooking up plots to escape from the 8th huddle of teenage boys conspiring ways to take a photo with you, you know it’s bad.

We had walked from the front entrance to the base of the Monastery trail and seen the sights along that trail including the famous treasury, Roman theatre and the tombs, and I will say, people and garbage aside, the actual site itself is rather stunning.

On our way out, a beautiful sunset blooming behind us, we noticed two guys coming down from a hill and asked them if it was worth the climb for a sunset pic or two. They said it was so up we scrambled. It was refreshing to get above the madness and the view was worth it.

Our hotel, Saba’a, was a short 5 minute drive from Petra and we were most happy to arrive to a warm welcome (and tea!) from Gail, the owner, and as it turned out, one of the guys we received directions to the sunset from, Dawson.

After such a long and taxing day, a dinner invitation to a buffet with Dawson, from California, and Stefan, from Germany, was just the ticket. Can’t say that I’d go to that buffet again, but the company was lovely, the conversation enjoyable, and it really helped to offset the scuzzier males of the day – thanks guys! 😉

Month: April 2015

Day 28: Yellah!

Day 26: Want to ride a Bedouin Ferrari?