Egypt/Jordan part 6: Petra

Part 5: https://medium.com/@timothyteoh/egypt-jordan-part-5-luxor-633e923b294a

Jordan — Day 11&12 (29&30 Oct, 2014)

Wikipedia says that Malaysians don’t need to get a visa on arrival but it seems we indeed need one.

The ATM here obligingly dispenses notes in all denominations. Very thoughtful.

Jordan is much more developed than Egypt though. I could live like a king in Egypt but here I’ll be a pauper wtf

I thought getting to where I am staying which is near Petra would be fairly straightforward but there was a lot of drama getting there.

First I agreed to a 80JOD fare which I was happy with because my host had said it would be 70–90. Petra is quite a distance from the capital, about three hours’ drive.

First sign was that the person who approached me at the airport went off for a discussion with a few other men when I told him I needed to get to Wadi Musa.

Eventually I was bundled into a cab. Then it got weird again because I had Google Maps on and it said we were heading north not south. I thought he could be filling petrol or something. But the whole time he was talking very animatedly on his phones. Yes “phones” he had two

Eventually he stopped by the road where another cab was waiting. They had a heated discussion. Its sometimes hard to tell with Arabs because they tend to talk loudly like Hong Kongers.

But then they actually started trading blows and one of them was holding the other in a stranglehold and knocking the car WTF. Crazy. I took out my swiss knife into my pocket just in case and took a note of the car numbers and told my host.

Eventually they came into some sort of agreement and I was told to go into the other guys’ car wtf. Then he called their intermediary who spoke English (I had figured by now that they were probably some unofficial cab consortium who decided who got what) and passed the phone to me.

Apparently the first guy lacked papers to go to where I wanted to or something like that. But that didn’t explain why they were strangling each other!

The two seemed to come into an agreement after a while. I was told to change cabs. Then the dude started making small talk like nothing happened wtf.

After a while he could see I was shaken so he called his intermediary who spoke English (I had figured they were part of some private consortium that distributes rides).

He explained that the other dude didn’t have the proper papers or something like that. That didn’t explain why they were fighting though!

The kicker was that the second guy started driving in an odd direction too and stopped at yet another taxi. Apparently he too had mixed something up and told me to switch cabs again!

Was getting very annoyed at this point and made a show of taking down their plates and threatening with police. But they assured me this time they were going to take me there. Called my hosts and they spoke to the cab driver too.

Jordanians have their own taxi problems I guess.

Very important to find the right hosts as they make things so much easier.

The shitty thing is that the last cab driver doesnt speak any English so we are doing a three hour journey to Wadi Musa in silence :x.

Good thing I had the foresight to pack dinner it seems.

Ok gap in updates was because I finally got there and have met my hosts. Very nice people who speak fluent English.

This house is the most “normal” Airbnb place so far. Basically an upper class house. Very clean with marble floors the works.

Forgot to take pictures with hosts but this is my bedroom. Suddenly being reminded of Goldilocks haha.

My hosts were being very competitive and insisting that Petra view and Jordan in general is awesome. I guess we will find out tomorrow :). They also said I definitely should have done more time in Jordan instead of Egypt.

Many families seem to own camels and donkeys as a matter of course. Loud brays and neighs into the night.

Been a tiring day and gonna be a physically arduous one tomorrow. Gnite all!

Jordan — Day 12 (29 Oct, 2014)

Man. What a day

First off was a breakfast of champions from Maryam. I’m gonna miss this style of bread dips when I go home. Someone should open a bread dip buffet or something.

This is Ahmad a Bedouin born in the caves near Petra (before it was made into a Unesco site) who is doubling as my host and tour guide.

Ya he does look like a certain famous pirate doesnt he. But most Bedouins seem to have thick eyelashes.

He owns a few camels and also does tours. He was lending then out to a friend today before bringing me to Petra so he let me watch him saddle them first.

Hi Antonio!

There were a lot more tourists in Petra compared to anywhere I had been in Egypt.

Petra was the capital of the ancient Nabataean people whose lives centered on the control of water. They devised ways such as streams, cisterns and dams to store water even in time of drought.

https://www.facebook.com/timothythteoh/videos/10160138877435523/

The most famous landmark in Petra is of course the Treasury, which is accessed through a narrow gorge.

This iconic passage was no less impressive in real life even though I already had great expectations.

Can you imagine how explorers felt when first glimpsing this site?

I had wanted to visit the Rose City ever since I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as a kid

And finally, here I was!

Didn’t mind the number of tourists. At least I don’t have to use a banana for scale!

Sat here for a while admiring the view.

Contrary to what you might think, the Treasury isn’t even the biggest carving in Petra. But its unique position in a narrow canyon shielded it from the worst of the elements making it remarkably well preserved.

If you look carefully you can see carved footholds to the right that Nabataeans builders used.

The Romans did conquer Petra centuries ago and their influence stayed. They say though that the Nabataeans carved; Romans built.

The next most famous landmark in Petra is the Monastery. You need to climb 800 steps to get there though and Ahmad recommended I hire a donkey (10 dinar) to save my strength for other climbs.

Looking back this was a very good decision there were plenty of other climbs later in the day!

Isn’t this the combo wombo of awesomeness?

The Monastery is less well preserved because it is exposed to the elements.

There are a few lookout points around this area which offer a good view of the monastery and the surrounding area.

More people for scale.

The lookout points are, shall we say, well-marked.

After a half hour or so I headed back down.

Like any self-respecting ancient civilization, the Nabataeans also built grand tombs. Not as deep and intricate as the Egyptians, but still massive.

The inside of the tombs were not very impressive and plain, with whatever that was inside long since gone. Haven’t checked but I’m assuming the Nabataeans were better carvers than craftsmen.

After grabbing a quick lunch that I had packed from Cairo airport, I headed up to another lookout point near the “High Place of Sacrifice”.

It goes up quite high. People were starting to look like ants.

Made it after half an hour or so. The groups were much smaller at these lookout points.

Would you prefer I selfie every pic ah? Then pics would look like this. Can see my handsome face more

Cos I prefer shots like this. Think having a face in the middle spoils the beauty of it sometimes.

Or maybe compromise like this? Then I still prove I was there.

If #feetfies become a thing remember you saw it here first.

Btw these shots may look glam but for someone who’s scared of heights its quite scary wtf

Ok now my kiasu-tourist side got the better of me. I wandered off the beaten path and ran into a group of Bedouins. Got to talking and I asked them where I could find the vantage point to take a shot like this.

They insisted I would need a guide to find the place and it would cost me 10JOD to go there taking about twenty minutes, then bring me back.

I felt a bit dubious but really wanted the shot so I said ok.

By the gods this guy was crazy man. He walks around barefoot claiming its better for his feet and was born and bred on the mountains. He was leaping around like a gazelle and I was huffing and puffing behind him. Hardest hike ever.

I had a feeling he was snickering at me a bit (could be just me) but then he stumbled and grazed his face on a tree. Not so gazelle after all wtf. I handed him some wet wipes to clean it up.

It was actually quite a stressful hike because he was being super annoying about trying to upsell me on this and that other trail and other wadi tours.

We finally arrived. And I realized it wasn’t the same vantage point! It was a different one and I could see across to the other one which was across the chasm. It had an official viewing point area and cut steps meaning it was probably easy to get to -_-

Ah well. Least not many people have this shot then from the upper left side! Too bad the sun was going down.

I then got angry at him because he thought we had agrees on 10JOD EACH way. What kind of idiot would cut that kind of deal! I told him he could leave me here to jump down if he liked but I would rather do that than pay him both ways.

I think he felt quite guilty then gave in. +1 me.

I ended up tipping him anyway so he should be happy.

Another angry emote. I had lost Ahmad who I had been supposed to meet. His phone had accidentally been on silent so he didn’t get to answer my calls and for some reason he never thought to check it -_-

So I walked back to the entrance myself.

Petra has this thing where a horse ride from the gate to the visitor centre (about 1km) comes with every ticket. Its printed on it. But I KNEW that there would be a tip expected and didn’t feel like doling out are more cash so I said I didn’t want it.

The first guy I said no too told me “You are stupid and fuck u!” Wtf right.

The second guy I finally relented and said fine. But I told him I was tired so lets just go to the exit. He was chattering about duno what stupid upsell thing as usual.

Then it got weird because he started threatening me saying he could injure me if he liked since I was on his horse wtf.

And at the end of it he asked for “100”. I told him I would report him to the tourist police and walked off. He then chased me asking for 2 dinar.

The tourist police were very nice though. Which made me feel better but unfortunately it was dark and I hadn’t noticed the horse had a number (he had threatened me again when I had wanted to take a photo).

So do take note if you visit Petra, the touts there can be crazy and downright violent. Even the taxi I took out of there seemed about to throw a fit when I refused his upselling duno wat tour or airport transfer.

High risk high reward I guess. I hear people in less touristy places arent like this but be prepared if you ever go to Petra.

Sat down for a hearty dinner prepared by Maryam and Ahmad’s sister. Its been a long day!

Maryam was indignant over everything and we had a nice chat over dinner.

Am heading towards Wadi Rum then to the middle of the desert for a Bedouin camp the next two days so there may be no updates if there is no Internet there!