Christmas in Petra
I am writing this from Petra, admittedly while rather tired and ready for bed, all because I would like to be able to put "Wadi Musa, Jordan" in the Location section below. So forgive me my errors, I'll be sure to clean this up later. And make it interesting. And even funny. I swear.
I do intend on writing about my trip in Israel, but it was so quick of pace that I have not been able to write much nor clean up what little I have. So for now I'll tackled most of Jordan, since it's all recent and I head back to Israel tomorrow morning. Immediately following the conclusion of our Birthright trip - and I do mean immediately, I believe - they set us free as of 9:00pm that night as they headed to the airport - I hopped into a taxi with two other people from my trip and headed to the Central Bus Station of Tel Aviv, Israel. There we camped out for a few hours until we were able to get on our midnight bus down to Eilat. All of us were exhausted and rather out of it, so much so that at one point, asleep, I fell across the aisle and managed to lay there awkwardly until I finally woke up. Of course, when we arrived a few hours later, we had to sit in the bus station for several more hours before grabbing a taxi to the border. One of our folks, Adam, was headed to Egypt, so he caught a taxi to a different border. Mike and I pressed forward to Yitzhak Rabin border crossing, where we met up by chance with another tourist headed to Petra who was willing to share taxi costs.
The border itself was not much to report, mostly a lot of standing in queues and some minor confusion about what exactly was going on on the Jordanian side. The moment we were out of the station on the Jordinan side the taxi folks descended. The first one offered what seemed like just a hair more than the cost indicated in our guide book, so I said okay. After the taxi drivers yelled at each other - all in Arabic, so I was not entirely clear what it was about - we loaded up and headed out. Then things got a bit strange.
Instead of heading to the main road, we turned the wrong direction and headed into a housing area. Our driver stopped and we were all rather concerned about what was about to go down. Never a great feeling to be in a foreign country, not speaking the language, and suddenly find yourself at someone else's mercy, especially someone who is local and does speak the language. Once stopped, our taxi driver told us "his friend" was coming to get us, and that his friend was the one that would take us on the two-hour-or-so drive into Petra and Wadi Musa. Sure enough, another taxi showed up shortly. So it seems our guy was not really a taxi at all, just an English-speaking middle-man who got a cut from these types of deals. The price stayed the same - somewhat to our surprise - and the drive itself was uneventful. We stopped twice, once for snacks and once for a few snaps of scenic overlooks, and arrived in early afternoon.
The hostel that we booked was staffed, and possibly owned, by a cheerful women of indistinct UK-origin accent. After some discussion, Mike and I decided to grab lunch and then rest the remainder of the day. Our cab-companion opted otherwise, and was eager to get to the sites. He was a strange guy - a Vietnamese-Canadian who oddly and sadly fit oh-so-many of the terrible US racist-tourist stereotypes - and headed down on his own to catch the end of the day. Good riddance, honestly.
Because of the way the hostel was set up, it was only a few more dollars up from the dorms to stay in nice, private rooms, so Mike went up to his for a nap and I had a good rest and eventually a shower in mine once the hot water went on. Eventually we met up again and meandered down to dinner.
As we walked back into the common room of the hostel, we spied our cab-friend again frantically typing away on his computer. It seemed he found a local quasi-taxi who was going to give him a roundabout tour of Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea that he was leaving for as soon as he finished some work emails. The guide was in fact sitting on one of the couches waiting for him. As one does when one is a taxi-driver in Jordan, he asked after our travel arrangements. We told him we planned to head back to Jerusalem by way of Eilat. He suggested a different route, going up to the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing into the West Bank. We had to go the long way to get to Jordan because the Allenby crossing does not issue the necessary visas. However, since we're returning to Israel this time around, we can perfectly well go through that more direct route. We cut a deal with him to pick us up at 5:00am on December 26th, leaving us a day to explore Petra but also leaving early enough to get into Israel at a decent time for further sightseeing there. He made us swear up, down, and sideways that we would be there, ready to go at the assigned time. This will come into play when I write up tomorrow.
After that I briefly checked email then headed up to my blessedly private room for some sleep. Woke up on my own around 6:30am this morning and headed down to breakfast. There I met an unpleasant, sympathy-sucking older Swiss woman who told me again and again how she was "starving" (while at a hostel "all you can eat" breakfast) and "freezing to death." It's cold here, but not that cold. Mike came down finally and I fawned her off on him and escaped to finishing getting ready for the day. We headed out a few minutes later, walking the steep but short road to the Petra gates.
Pera is best known, sadly, as one of the filming locations for a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That bit when they ride up to the temple in the hillside where the old Crusader is protecting the Holy Grail, remember? It's also one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and also rather more extensive than you would imagine fro the Indiana Jones spot of glory.
Let me add here that Jordan is not a cheap place to visit. Much, much more so than I expected. I feel like it's at least twice as expensive as I imagined, and every time I felt like I had enough cash to get me through the trip, something would come up and sap my finances again. So frustrating!
There was another round of price shell-shock at Petra, taking the form of a 50JD (approx. $71) just to get in, but seriously, we're all the way there, all the money to get there and get out is already ostensibly spent, who's going to turn back? And honestly it's well worth the price of admission, however high.
Without going step by step through our hiking in Petra, I'll go through a few highlights.
The walk into the main area of Petra is called The Siq, a long winding corridor through sheer rock walls. We were there in the early morning, so the light was quite dramatic in ways my camera (and it's operator) just could not capture. You can see the channels on the side cut into the rock where piped water flowed into the city cisterns below.
When you get to the end things come to a dramic ending when the narrow passageway opens up into Al Khazneh, featured in the affore-mentioned Indiana Jones scene. It's pretty jaw-dropping in person, far more than will ever be conveyed in photos.
Of course, when you turn around, there's a tourist shop.
Unlike a US monument, peddlers and vendors of all sorts pepper the landscape, right up to the point of being in the momuments themselves. It's a little sad, really, as preservation is definately an issue, but the government seems to sanction them unconcerned for the destruction. There are also scads of four-legged critters available to ride, specifically donkeys, horses, and camels. The camels are the more picturesque.
From there we progressed further down the hill and into the city, exploring the various facade-tombs and climbing up to scenic overlooks.
Most things aren't exactly ADA-accessible, or even always safe.
After much exploring, we had a late and horrifically overpriced 10JD buffet lunch, a look at the two small museums on site, and then, after much heming and hawing, decided to take a pair of donkeys up to the "Monestary." Mike thought the ride was death-defying, I thought it was pretty mild as those things go, but either way, they saved us much huffing and puffing for a mere 5JDs each. Our "guide" was perhaps 12 years old, and he kept pace with us without much trouble at all.
While "the Monestary" (aka Ad-Deir) was anything but, it was impressive. Well worth the price of the donkey ride 3/4thss of the way up and the huffing and puffing to reach the top on foot. The scope of it is baffiling, and it's hard not to stare (while you catch you breath) at a respective distance. Thankfully there's a shop at the top with nice plush benches and expensive mint tea.
For the truly adventurous, the path continues father out of sight to a few different viewpoints into the valleys beyond. we chose the one calling itself "The End of the World," and the view was indeed impressive.
After that the sun was starting to go down, so we hoofed it with some rapidity down the 800-steps and back to the main area in Petra. The slight incline up felt like another mountain after a long day of walking and hiking, but we made it out eventually just as the sun was setting. We met up with another guest at the hostel who led us to a great little dinner place, and after that it was an early bed to prepare for the early-morning departure back to Israel.
So this post is totally incomplete, but dangit, I need to post something. Expect major overhaul soon. I'm alive, loving adventuring, and heading home soon.
I do intend on writing about my trip in Israel, but it was so quick of pace that I have not been able to write much nor clean up what little I have. So for now I'll tackled most of Jordan, since it's all recent and I head back to Israel tomorrow morning. Immediately following the conclusion of our Birthright trip - and I do mean immediately, I believe - they set us free as of 9:00pm that night as they headed to the airport - I hopped into a taxi with two other people from my trip and headed to the Central Bus Station of Tel Aviv, Israel. There we camped out for a few hours until we were able to get on our midnight bus down to Eilat. All of us were exhausted and rather out of it, so much so that at one point, asleep, I fell across the aisle and managed to lay there awkwardly until I finally woke up. Of course, when we arrived a few hours later, we had to sit in the bus station for several more hours before grabbing a taxi to the border. One of our folks, Adam, was headed to Egypt, so he caught a taxi to a different border. Mike and I pressed forward to Yitzhak Rabin border crossing, where we met up by chance with another tourist headed to Petra who was willing to share taxi costs.
The border itself was not much to report, mostly a lot of standing in queues and some minor confusion about what exactly was going on on the Jordanian side. The moment we were out of the station on the Jordinan side the taxi folks descended. The first one offered what seemed like just a hair more than the cost indicated in our guide book, so I said okay. After the taxi drivers yelled at each other - all in Arabic, so I was not entirely clear what it was about - we loaded up and headed out. Then things got a bit strange.
Instead of heading to the main road, we turned the wrong direction and headed into a housing area. Our driver stopped and we were all rather concerned about what was about to go down. Never a great feeling to be in a foreign country, not speaking the language, and suddenly find yourself at someone else's mercy, especially someone who is local and does speak the language. Once stopped, our taxi driver told us "his friend" was coming to get us, and that his friend was the one that would take us on the two-hour-or-so drive into Petra and Wadi Musa. Sure enough, another taxi showed up shortly. So it seems our guy was not really a taxi at all, just an English-speaking middle-man who got a cut from these types of deals. The price stayed the same - somewhat to our surprise - and the drive itself was uneventful. We stopped twice, once for snacks and once for a few snaps of scenic overlooks, and arrived in early afternoon.
The hostel that we booked was staffed, and possibly owned, by a cheerful women of indistinct UK-origin accent. After some discussion, Mike and I decided to grab lunch and then rest the remainder of the day. Our cab-companion opted otherwise, and was eager to get to the sites. He was a strange guy - a Vietnamese-Canadian who oddly and sadly fit oh-so-many of the terrible US racist-tourist stereotypes - and headed down on his own to catch the end of the day. Good riddance, honestly.
Because of the way the hostel was set up, it was only a few more dollars up from the dorms to stay in nice, private rooms, so Mike went up to his for a nap and I had a good rest and eventually a shower in mine once the hot water went on. Eventually we met up again and meandered down to dinner.
As we walked back into the common room of the hostel, we spied our cab-friend again frantically typing away on his computer. It seemed he found a local quasi-taxi who was going to give him a roundabout tour of Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea that he was leaving for as soon as he finished some work emails. The guide was in fact sitting on one of the couches waiting for him. As one does when one is a taxi-driver in Jordan, he asked after our travel arrangements. We told him we planned to head back to Jerusalem by way of Eilat. He suggested a different route, going up to the Allenby Bridge Border Crossing into the West Bank. We had to go the long way to get to Jordan because the Allenby crossing does not issue the necessary visas. However, since we're returning to Israel this time around, we can perfectly well go through that more direct route. We cut a deal with him to pick us up at 5:00am on December 26th, leaving us a day to explore Petra but also leaving early enough to get into Israel at a decent time for further sightseeing there. He made us swear up, down, and sideways that we would be there, ready to go at the assigned time. This will come into play when I write up tomorrow.
After that I briefly checked email then headed up to my blessedly private room for some sleep. Woke up on my own around 6:30am this morning and headed down to breakfast. There I met an unpleasant, sympathy-sucking older Swiss woman who told me again and again how she was "starving" (while at a hostel "all you can eat" breakfast) and "freezing to death." It's cold here, but not that cold. Mike came down finally and I fawned her off on him and escaped to finishing getting ready for the day. We headed out a few minutes later, walking the steep but short road to the Petra gates.
Pera is best known, sadly, as one of the filming locations for a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That bit when they ride up to the temple in the hillside where the old Crusader is protecting the Holy Grail, remember? It's also one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and also rather more extensive than you would imagine fro the Indiana Jones spot of glory.
Let me add here that Jordan is not a cheap place to visit. Much, much more so than I expected. I feel like it's at least twice as expensive as I imagined, and every time I felt like I had enough cash to get me through the trip, something would come up and sap my finances again. So frustrating!
There was another round of price shell-shock at Petra, taking the form of a 50JD (approx. $71) just to get in, but seriously, we're all the way there, all the money to get there and get out is already ostensibly spent, who's going to turn back? And honestly it's well worth the price of admission, however high.
Without going step by step through our hiking in Petra, I'll go through a few highlights.
The walk into the main area of Petra is called The Siq, a long winding corridor through sheer rock walls. We were there in the early morning, so the light was quite dramatic in ways my camera (and it's operator) just could not capture. You can see the channels on the side cut into the rock where piped water flowed into the city cisterns below.
When you get to the end things come to a dramic ending when the narrow passageway opens up into Al Khazneh, featured in the affore-mentioned Indiana Jones scene. It's pretty jaw-dropping in person, far more than will ever be conveyed in photos.
Of course, when you turn around, there's a tourist shop.
Unlike a US monument, peddlers and vendors of all sorts pepper the landscape, right up to the point of being in the momuments themselves. It's a little sad, really, as preservation is definately an issue, but the government seems to sanction them unconcerned for the destruction. There are also scads of four-legged critters available to ride, specifically donkeys, horses, and camels. The camels are the more picturesque.
From there we progressed further down the hill and into the city, exploring the various facade-tombs and climbing up to scenic overlooks.
Most things aren't exactly ADA-accessible, or even always safe.
After much exploring, we had a late and horrifically overpriced 10JD buffet lunch, a look at the two small museums on site, and then, after much heming and hawing, decided to take a pair of donkeys up to the "Monestary." Mike thought the ride was death-defying, I thought it was pretty mild as those things go, but either way, they saved us much huffing and puffing for a mere 5JDs each. Our "guide" was perhaps 12 years old, and he kept pace with us without much trouble at all.
While "the Monestary" (aka Ad-Deir) was anything but, it was impressive. Well worth the price of the donkey ride 3/4thss of the way up and the huffing and puffing to reach the top on foot. The scope of it is baffiling, and it's hard not to stare (while you catch you breath) at a respective distance. Thankfully there's a shop at the top with nice plush benches and expensive mint tea.
For the truly adventurous, the path continues father out of sight to a few different viewpoints into the valleys beyond. we chose the one calling itself "The End of the World," and the view was indeed impressive.
After that the sun was starting to go down, so we hoofed it with some rapidity down the 800-steps and back to the main area in Petra. The slight incline up felt like another mountain after a long day of walking and hiking, but we made it out eventually just as the sun was setting. We met up with another guest at the hostel who led us to a great little dinner place, and after that it was an early bed to prepare for the early-morning departure back to Israel.
So this post is totally incomplete, but dangit, I need to post something. Expect major overhaul soon. I'm alive, loving adventuring, and heading home soon.