Petra

It took us 24 hours to get from Luxor to Petra:

• car from boat to train station
  


• overnight train to Cairo


• taxi from train station to Brie's apartment


• taxi from Brie's apartment to Cairo airport


• flight from Cairo to Amman, Jordan


• taxi from Amman airport to Petra

Whew! But relatively uneventful. The only hassle was when the Nile river tour company insisted on taking a photocopy of Kim's credit card and passport. We asked "why", and were told that it was a bank requirement. Since we had used credit cards several times in Egypt without having to do this, we said that it wasn't possible. We couldn't get a straight answer from our guide. So, we refused, which led to a big hassle. Brie called a friend of hers who is a bank manager, who backed us up. She talked to our guide, who then backed off the requirement for a copy of the credit card. It turns out that they were trying to protect themselves from tourists who refuse to pay their credit card bill after getting home, claiming that they didn't take the cruise or they paid in cash. We were very glad to close that chapter with the train pulling away from the station, leaving the cruise guide standing on the tracks waiting for his boss to come to add some horsepower to their side.

Once in Amman, we needed to catch a taxi. Again, a leap of faith to get into a taxi with a stranger and drive 2 1/2 hours across remote desert to Petra. Our driver was Saleem, a young man from Palestine-very nice. He spoke a little English and he and Brie enjoyed chatting and joking in Arabic. He offered to come back and get us when we were ready to leave Petra, despite it being a 2 1/2 hour ride back to retrieve us. Our taxi ride from the Amman airport to Petra looked very similar to the desert southwest in the U.S. -- not like the all-sand desert of Egypt. We saw scattered mining operations, factories, chicken farms, etc.

We got an early start to see Petra in the morning while the temperatures were cool. We hired a bedouin guide who was born and raised in Petra (born in a cave in 1983), and who now lives just outside the park. The 2500-person bedouin tribe was relocated when it became a national park, and now live rent-free and tax-free in government provided housing less than one mile away: it's not tents, but concrete structures with amenities (like internet). Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

There are over 800 tombs and structures in Petra, and the park covers about 30 square miles! The most famous one, the Treasury, was featured in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". the facade is exactly like the movie, but it is only one room deep, like all the structures. Essentially all the structures are carved into the canyon and mountain walls. Only one free-standing building is standing because a huge earthquake in 363 AD knocked them all down. There are a lot of breathtaking tombs -- it is so amazing! Check out www dot tourism dot joe/historicalsites/petra dot asp.

We explored many of the tombs and climbed up the the highest one, known as the Monastery, which is about 4400 ft. above sea level. It was a strenuous climb, but mostly on carved steps in the mountain. Many people ride up on donkeys-and most looked very uncomfortable. A little above the Monastery we followed "VIEW" signs to the top of the mountain, from which we had fantastic views (all the way to Israel they say), and the girls bought jewelry from an enterprising bedouin who had set up a tent that occupied essentially all of the tiny peak!

We spent a lot of time talking with our bedouin guide. He had a very laissez-faire attitude toward different peoples, including Israelis. He said that there were now 20 European and 1 American women who had married bedouin men and were living in their tribe. One of them has written a book entitled "Married to a Bedouin", which we plan to read. Most of the beduoin men wore eyeliner and were very dashing looking-like Lawrence of Arabia, especially were they went galloping by on their beautiful arabian horses.

There were lots of bedouin peolple working in the park, renting camels, burros and horses and selling things. There were lots of approaches with offers of "air-conditioned taxis"(burros), one with stereo :). One guy had a BMW patch on his burro's forehead! Most again were friendly and funny and not aggressive. There were lots of kids, racing around on burros, climbing high rocks like mountain goats. Some enterprising kids had boxes of rocks they were trying to sell to tourists. One adorable little girl came up and asked for "lipstick for mother". Brie offered her chapstick and she shook her head then asked for chewing gum-we didn't have any, but Kim looked in her bag and came up with a Nuvaring pen-she was very happy with that!! The pharmaceutical company would be proud of me :). We bought 20 brightly colored pens at Target to give to kids, but we never seem to remember to bring them with us on our outings...

We ended up spending over 10 hours climbing and exploring Petra and it was nowhere near enough. We relaxed by the hotel pool with our delicious "Petra" brand beer after and looked out over the mountains-we'd definitely like to go back to Jordan.

We found Jordan to be clean, more industrialized than Egypt, and the people to be very friendly and open-minded. There are only 6 million people in the whole country, almost half of whom are Palestinian refugees. Amman, the largest city, has a population of 2.5 million.

Sadly, we're leaving Petra now. But, the Red Sea awaits, so it will be ok :-)