Petra

This past weekend, Saria, Stephanie, Nesma (our friend from class), and I went to Petra and Wadi Rum. The adventure was so epic that I will be dividing it into two posts.

We met up with our driver at 7am on Friday outside of the McDonald's right next to our hostel. We then drove 4 hours to Petra, getting there around 11 am. I got 4 hours of sleep the night before, so I napped a little in the car and got some coffee at a rest stop. Once we got there, I lathered up with sunscreen and bought my entry ticket. Entry for non-Jordanian citizens is 50JD!!!! (About $70ish). It was ridiculous, but well worth it- it was a nice place and I really wanted to go.

The walk from the entry gate to the actual entrance to Petra took about 20-30 minutes. I was amazed that it wasn't too terribly hot outside. We wandered through rocks and sand. Our first stop was the Treasury.

Here, we decided to take camels to the next stop. Stephanie and Nesma decided they wanted to explore that place a little more, so they got off their camels, but Saria and I wanted to stay on them a little longer and head to the Monastery. So we parted ways for a little while. 

Ok, NOW I can actually say I've ridden a camel, since I was on it for longer than 2 minutes. It is a very wobbly ride, but it's lots of fun. The nerve-wracking part is that all you have to hold is some stick in front of you.

Saria and I then rode donkeys up the 900+ stairs to the Monastery. I was told riding a donkey up the stairs is kinda scary. I thought it was fun! Only my donkey was really dumb and walked too close to the rock wall, scraping my leg. He also enjoyed walking really close to the edge. And by the end, he was swerving like he was drunk. Silly donkey.

When we got to the top, we still had some more stairs to climb. At this point, it was really hot outside. We got to the Monastery, took a few pictures, and then went to the café across from it for some juice and to cool off. While we were there, we saw two men at the top of the Monastery jumping from rock to rock. (We later found out they were Bedouins who lived there.)

A little while later, Stephanie and Nesma met up with us. They befriended a Bedouin named Mohamed, who took us into the Monastery. Afterward, he invited us to climb up the Monastery with him. We accepted, thinking it would be fun (which it was), and knowing that he knew what he was doing. (Okay, you're probably reading this thinking that we're really stupid. No worries, though. Bedouins are the most hospitable, trustworthy people in the world.)

So, we climbed up to the Monastery. When we were about halfway up, another Bedouin from down below was yelling in Arabic to Mohamed, then for us to get down. We thought he thought that Mohamed conned us/pressured us into going up, which CERTAINLY was not the case. About 5 minutes later, we reached a platform and hung out there for a few minutes. Then, all of a sudden, the man yelling from below was up there with us, yelling at Mohamed. The two got into a huge fight, and the man almost pushed Mohamed off the monument. So the 4 of us are screaming for them to stop. Eventually they did and we were so relieved. After the Bedouin Brawl, we took some pictures and headed back down.

We were a little bit late meeting up with our driver, so Mohamed talked to him on the phone to have him meet us in the Bedouin village (a shortcut out of Petra). So we walked down the 900 stairs and got on donkeys. (About halfway down, though, we stopped for tea with other Bedouins.) The man who got in a fight with Mohamed decided to descend the mountain with us to talk to the tourist police. The police asked the 4 of us if there was a problem, and we told them that everything was okay, as we did not want to get involved in any personal beef between Mohamed and the other guy. So, the police walked away and the other guy decided he wanted to fight again. This time, a lot of people were involved. Saria, Nesma, and Stephanies' donkeys started to walk away from the fight, but my mule's rope was being held by a guy trying to break up the fight. So, I was stuck in the middle, praying that the mule wouldn't get spooked and throw me off. Luckily, that wasn't a problem. After a few minutes, we just walked away up to the village.

Mohamed and his friends were very apologetic about the man causing the fight. We weren't angry, we just felt badly that he was being such a jerk to such nice people. 

The ride up to the village was fun. We traveled in a herd- us on donkeys, some other Bedouins on donkeys and camels, etc. It was really cool.

We got to the Bedouin village, thanked them for their hospitality, and headed off to Wadi Rum.