5 days in Jordan--Petra

06,March,2009 Petra

by Wing

We three spent half an hour on making the decision of going to Jordan, now, tonight. It was 4 or 5 in afternoon, we were talking about Jordan on the roof of our dorms in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a Jordan map from National Geography and a Lonely Planet guide book. Only Judita, my roommate from Lithuania, had been to Jordan before. She is a blond girl, a young writer, an interesting traveller who has many adventure experience in Middle East during the last 4 years. Neither I nor Joe had been to any other country except Israel since we began our MA study in Tel Aviv University--both of us spent all day on our hopeless Hebrew homework. He came from Washington States and I came from Beijing, China.

So, we'll write our travel dairy in turns, I(Wing)--Joe--Judita.

We rushed down the roof and went back to pack quickly. At night, We took No.27 bus at the opposite street of the university to go to old bus station, then waited for the bus to Elat, a small city at the south of Israel, where the Jordan border was. There were many soldiers waiting at the bus station, and we were dragging our bags and hugging our food--pita, rabbit salad, boiled eggs--like refugees. Judita and Joe were talking excitedly while I was sleeping fast from the very beginning. During the 5 hours on bus to Elat, I was still asleep.

It was about 6 in the morning and Elat was so dark and cold. The Red Sea looks like black ink, with orange lights blinking from the other side. We looked for a warm nice cafe for a long time but failed, at last we had to eat our breakfast at the chill beach. A weird guy suddenly appeared, without even looking at Judita or me, he only staring at Joe, excited, and talked to him so warmly. When we finally sit down at a breakfast cafe, Joe said that the guy must be gay. The shopkeeper looked at us angrily--not because we were laughing, but for what we ordered was only the cheapest coffee.

We paid a lot to cross the border and even more for the taxi to Petra. In the middle of the day, finally we were in Petra, the most famous ancient city in Jordan. We stayed in Petra Gate Hostel, 9JD(about $13) per person/night. The room was clean and people were friendly and helpful. We also had private bathroom and free breakfast.

What happened at the border was something I should not forget to mention. I almost failed to pass. "People from China, Romania, Columbia all need visa." The officer said when he gave back my passport. I was a little mad on him. China is not a rich or developed country, but not the same as those two countries at least. However, things turned to a happy way after I showed them my student ID card and told them I really don't know visa is required for Jordan. They took me to the chief officer's office. He was very nice and gave me a visa stamp without asking me any questions. "Welcome to Jordan." He said. Even I myself couldn't believe it.

There were many Arabic taxi drivers waiting at the other side of the border as usual. "They will tell you there is no bus to Aqaba." Judita said," they just want to cheat you to take taxi." She was very right that just after we crossed the border, an Arabic driver came to us:"There is no bus to Aqaba today, you have to take our taxi."

Petra is a totally tourists' place, but I still recommend it strongly. "If you only go to one place in Jordan, you'd go to Petra." That's what the advertisement says. It's a huge area with old city ruins and nature views for people to explore by foot or "taxi"--camels. Those ancient ruins, unlike roman style, are very unique with a heavy atmosphere of religion and mystery. I like the tombs, temples, carvings, huge red rock valley, and the feeling of desert. Everything made me felt that we were in a great adventure story, like Indiana Jones.

At the end of hiking, there were 800 steps up to the top of the hill which was called "sacrifice place" and "the end of the world". When we finally got there, it was late in the afternoon and we were almost only half alive. However, it's quite worth it .We laid down on the big stone of the mountain, pretend to take a nap at "the end of the world"--so close to the sky, so quite and clean.

On our way back, some Bedouin friends invited us for tea and Arabic smoke. They were very warm and hospitalized people. We sat down and talked for a while. I felt so familiar with my experience in Tibet. Bedouins and Tibetans have very similar values. Bedouins say "mountains never meet, friends never apart", and Tibetans say "Money, just paper; alcohol, just water". And Bedouins also say "strong like desert, soft like sand, quiet like wind".

It was deep dark when we said goodbye to them. Moon was shinning brilliantly on the sky while no one except us were walking among the tombs, rocks and temples. The black shadows of big rocks were in some strange shapes that brought a creepy feeling. The valley was deadly quite when suddenly some weird cats rushed towards us and followed us for a long way.

We were terribly tired and I was starving to death. Luckily we were not spoiled kids and finally made our way back to hostel. The Arabic restaurant nearby was wonderful that humus with pita only cost 1JD, and my Arabic BBQ chicken with bread and salad cost 5. I'm happy because I think here is the real Middle East, Tel Aviv is just a luxury city for rich Jews.