To Petra!

Here begins the Traveler-tourist Circuit experiment. Each day or so another post will come online, detailing our experiences and a play-by-play of what we did. So...

…on to Petra...

After picking up our guests at the Amman airport, we drove back to the apartment for the night. We awoke early, leaving about 8:00am and taking a leisurely drive to Wadi Musa (the town at Petra’s gate). En route we drove on part of the King’s Highway, and attempted to visit Karak Castle. We found ourselves driving through a couple souks, and getting lost in the process. Very lost. We finally found a main road and, in the interest of time, decided to push on and explore Showbak Castle.

Side note on “Highways” and signs:

I use “Highway” in King’s Highway loosely. It’s not a very well-maintained road, but it follows the Roman Via Nova Triana, meaning it follows a pretty well-traveled route. Oddly, however, not many tourists take the road. Maybe even though it is a beautiful drive, people avoid it because it is slow going. Or they may get lost like we did. A lot. Which I think a Traveler should do J! Regardless, the term “highway” in Jordan seems to be used for any main road, sometimes what in the US we would call a “street”. So it can be confusing for the driver. Road signs are also very haphazard, not only when and where they occur, but also in which language. What’s more, Google maps doesn’t keep their road maps very up-to-date here—a tough thing to do given the rapid expansion due to immigrant and refugee population influx. Still, with a few questions to locals here and there when you’re lost, everyone is eager to point you in their version of the correct way.

To get to Showbak, we followed another very roundabout road (we couldn’t find where we were on the paper map or the mighty Google), driving over hills and back to the Desert Highway, before turning off for Showbak a little while later. The drive on this little road, however, was beautiful. Just what a Traveler likes. And by the time we arrived in Showbak during the late afternoon, the sun afforded us some pretty great lighting. It was a little chilly, and some snow was still present on the ground here and there, but we were the only people there aside from a single caretaker and a Bedouin selling rugs out of his truck bed. We bought a couple. A true Traveler experience: buying Bedouin rugs from a guy’s little Toyota truck and being in a pretty magical setting alone. It’s also nice to support the local economy when possible.

Showbak Castle. A superb example of a highly defensible position, what with the naturally-made moat surrounding it and the line of sight in every direction. The accompanying geomorphology also isn’t bad!

We finally rolled into Petra around sunset, dropped our bags, and watched the sunset from our hotel. Tired from a long day of exploring, we wandered to a nice local restaurant for dinner. The place is so starving for tourists, that our restaurant had to actually go out to the store for ingredients. So, although it took a while for our dinner to arrive, it was certainly fresh! We had Jordan’s national dish: Mansaf with lamb. It’s yummy. Google it.

The next morning, we arose early and wandered into Petra proper via the Bab al-siq, purchasing our two-day tickets at the newly-built visitor’s center and museum. We decided on two full days in Petra (it’s only 5 JD more for a two-day pass), using the first day to wander the Valley itself, and the second day to spend at the Monastery. It’s always fun to see people’s reaction to such grand sites. Someone once said, you can read a book about a place, watch all the videos in the world, and even talk with world experts about it, but until you walk in the landscape, you won’t understand it. My sister commented on a Facebook picture I posted while in situ at the Monastery: “Unless you're there, the majesty of Petra is not comprehensible”. It’s true. The place is vast. And everywhere you turn, there’s a ruin or a cave carved right out of the sandstone. It’s magical.

Looking out from the Great Temple, in Petra towards the Byzantine Church (the small white-colored building on the far hill). My father-in-law kept commenting on how unbelievable this Temple was. Even neater? In the courtyard, there are indentations and cracked paver stones from where the columns toppled during an earthquake in the late fourth-century. Really. The dents are all aligned, indicating the pillars fell in the same direction, it is speculated, from the earthquake's p-waves. Kewl!

The first day in Petra went well. We were able to show the folks major sites, and watch them ogle in disbelief as they walked along a 1500-year-old colonnade and had lunch sitting on a column that was centuries old. We also wandered to the Royal Tombs, marveling at their artistry. As we were relaxing under one of the tombs, a little Bedouin boy, perhaps five years old, came wandering over to us singing some song. He had a small collection of rocks he found and was selling them for, “one dinar”. He hung around as we looked at his rocks and, seeing the rocks were similar to any you could just pick up anywhere in Petra, my mother-in-law asked if he would sing for us. He got all embarrassed, as five year-olds do sometimes, and ran off around a corner. As we started to feel bad that we had scared him off, his little voice rang out across the valley. Apparently, he just didn’t want to sing for us in person, but a behind-the-curtain event, well...that was okay. After a couple songs, he ran back to us, where my mother-in-law had put a couple JD under his rock collection. Just then, what appeared to be a family member called to him and, leaving his rocks and the JD there, he scampered off to them—singing the entire way.

After such a fun experience, we headed to our Bdoul friend’s souvenir tent to say hi. She wasn’t there—her son was in the hospital (he’s recovering well)—so we chatted with other ladies. One of them invited us for tea, and we spend a good hour talking, sharing stories, and listening to little kids get chided by their mothers. Moms are the same in all cultures ;-). We wandered out of Petra a little before sunset and drove to a lookout point to watch for the Green Flash. Although no Green Flash occurred, the sun did seem to “set” twice: once through the dusty haze, and then again at the horizon.

Side note on the Sun “Setting”:

A quick geography reminder here. The sun doesn’t “rise” and “set”, but rather the Earth begins or ends its diurnal rotational cycle. “Sunrise” and “Sunset” are leftover terms from an Earth-centric time—when we thought the Earth was the center of the universe. Granted, “sunrise” and “sunset” sound nicer than “diurnal rotational cycle”. But just so you’re now informed J.

Our post-diurnal cycle evening was just as wonder-filled. After a pleasant meal of traditional Bedouin food at a place called “The Red Café”, we wandered up to a shop owned by two brothers. Their tribe are glass blowers, using the colorful sands of Petra. You may have seen the sand designs people make in bottles—everywhere from Mexico to China—but these folks take it one step further and create fantastic vases, sconces, and other figures out of the brilliant Petra sands. We spent perhaps an hour after dinner there, sipping fresh cinnamon tea while chatting.

With shop owner Ayman in his Wadi Musa store. We discussed many things, including (lack of) tourism impacts, migration, cost of living, music, and Facebook. A pleasant way to end the day. And a new friend.

And then, before we left, the owner said, “And now, music!” He took out his homemade rambabah and began playing and singing. When I say “homemade”, I mean it. Picture a metal oil can with a table leg stuck to it and holes punched into it in strategic places to provide reverberation. With a violin-like bow. “This is where they got the idea for the violin,” he said. We listened to him play and sing for at least a half hour, and after each rendition, her would tell us about the song. Quite a rich Traveler experience, and a potentially life-long friend. And yes, of course we bought something, even though it is NOT expected here. They’re just happy to chat and sip tea with you. As the great Mel Marcus said, support the local folks: you get something great out of it, and so do they. I’m paraphrasing of course, but hopefully you get the idea.

Day two in Petra was spent mostly at the Monastery and at Teyfla’s (our Bedouin friend). Nothing can really prepare you for seeing the Monastery. You just stare at it as you round the final corner of your supposed-800-step hike, mouth agape. It’s big. Once your brain catches up with your mouth, you walk up next to it where you feel pretty insignificant. Especially when you realize it has been there for centuries (millennia?), and that there is probably more underneath it.

Quintessential picture of the Monastery (al Dair). Notice the two small things in front of the entrance? Those are people.

We had the time, so after a short lunch break, we also hiked out “behind” the Monastery where we could overlook the Wadi Araba and see Jebel Haroun (Aaron’s Tomb), high on the hilltop. “This makes the Grand Canyon look small,” my mother-in-law said. Indeed, it’s not that the Grand Canyon in Arizona isn’t a spectacular sight. It’s just that the view over the Wadi Araba give a whole new meaning to the word “grand”. Both are humbling.

View west from up an behind the Monastery, looking over the Wadi Araba. The mountains in the background under the distant clouds are actually Israel.

We headed back down to the valley and, a couple language lessons later from a Bedouin tween gal, we wandered to Teyfla’s and spent the next half hour or so catching up, drinking her wonderful homemade tea (Kaelin says it’s the best!), and giving her a box of Celestial Seasonings tea from Colorado (it’s made in Boulder, you know). As the sun was setting, we wandered out of the Bab al-siq, pretty much alone and in silence, except for the occasional hoof beat from a carriage. Dinner was at the same place as the previous night, and we all ordered different items, reminiscing about things so far. Already we’ve seen so much and experienced so much. And it’s only day three! The trick will be avoiding sensory overload. After tomorrow’s adventures, we have a plan for that. Rest and recharge...