Petra and Rum and Aqaba

This past weekend was Memorial Day in the US, and our office was closed from Friday - Sunday.  My friend Alisha had planned a low-budget, adventure-filled weekend for her husband who was visiting, and they let me tag along.  We took a bus from Amman to Wadi Mousa, which is the town where Petra is located, spent the day in Petra, then the next day headed to Wadi Rum, camped in Bedouin tents, and finally spent an afternoon in Aqaba before taking the bus back to Amman.

Also known as the Rose City, Petra was discovered about 50 years ago by European hikers, and archeologists have since discovered the huge ruin of a city built by the Nabateans and conquered by the Romans.  You may recognize Petra more from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade than its historical context - I believe it's where he found the holy grail, and the chotchkis are everywhere.  Petra covers a huge area - you could hike your way through there for days and days, get lost, find your way, and get lost all over again.  After the three hour bus ride, we got to Petra along with all the other tourists in Jordan - so we had to fight our way through the crowds to get down to the Treasury, but by the time we got to the amphitheater, the crowds had dispersed a bit.  My favorite part of Petra is the set of houses that you see after the amphitheater - they are so beautiful carved into red stone.  After these houses, we hiked up all 950 steps to the Monastery in the heat of the day!  I do not recommend going during this time - we all got dehydrated, but it was worth it to sit under the shade at the top of the monastery and take a short nap. 

The next day we drove down to Wadi Rum, where we took a jeep tour of Lawrence of Arabia's desert.  Now if you're independently minded like I am, you might wonder why you need a jeep to go hiking.  Did you ever see Lawrence of Arabia?  That desert is huge!  Trying to walk from stop #1 to stop #2 would be a disaster, and we would have gotten extremely lost and dehydrated on our way.  Thankfully, Mohammed took pretty good care of us, and showed us a number of different sites, explained some of the history, fed us in the shade at lunchtime, and didn't even tease us for wimping out of a 3 hour hike at the hottest part of the day.  My favorite part of the weekend was sleeping in the Bedouin camp - Mohammed cooked us an amazing dinner (something involving a chicken smoked in a pit buried under sand), and we watched the stars blink while the full moon rose.  I also don't remember when I've slept so soundly - there is something about the sun, moon, and stars that brings tranquility.

The last day of our adventure was a letdown - suffice it to say that while the Red Sea is exquisitely beautiful (the color of a sparkling sapphire), the public beaches are not even somewhere I would go on spring break in high school.  We got a bottle of wine and burgers to celebrate Memorial Day, rode the 4.5 hour bus ride back to Amman, and were happy to be back 'home.'