After our trip to Sinai, a group of us slogged through a long day of travel to finally arrive in Wadi Musa, a Jordanian town that is most famous for its proximity to the ancient city of Petra. I had the good fortune to be able to spend a day and a half exploring Petra, and I came away from the experience absolutely convinced that Petra is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places in the world.
Three of us (myself included) managed to power ourselves up for an early start the next morning despite the fact that we had just finished such a long day of travel. It was completely worth it. The majesty of Petra is indescribable - it would still be famous for its natural beauty were there not an extensive city carved into its rocks. The initial walk from the town to the city winds through a steep, colorful canyon. All along the sides of the path you can see two channels dug into the rocks. More than 2000 years ago, when Petra was a flourishing city, these channels carried water from the spring at the top of the hill in Wadi Musa to the city of Petra (about 3 miles away). Water from one channel was used for agriculture and water from the other was for drinking. Some of the old clay pipes from the drinking water channel are still intact today.
When you turn the final corner of the path you are hit full on by "The Treasury," Petra's most famous structure and the one that is still in the best condition today. The Treasury, like nearly of the structures still standing in Petra today, was literally carved directly out of the side of a mountain. As we wandered through the rest of the extensive city over the next day and a half we kept stopping in our tracks and staring agape at one stunning building after another. Again, words cannot do justice to the city. Petra is a place that you have to visit and see with your own eyes to fully comprehend.
After Petra, we spent a night in the desert in a place called Wadi Rum. Between the soaring mountains and beautiful rock formations in the desert, the normally barren and sandy ground was actually covered in small green plants that shot up as a result of the recent rains there. This "desert meadow" was a true sight to behold. After taking the obligatory camel ride through the desert, we spent the night at a Bedouin camp (and had the best dinner I have had since I left the US).
We left the camp early the next morning and all that was left after that was a long day of travel back to Cairo. Even though the day seemed to drag on and on (it took 24 hours all told to get from Wadi Rum to Cairo), we also had a number of amazing interactions with random people along the way that happened for two reasons: one, we spoke Arabic, and, two, the people we met were unbelievably nice and generous. We rode a microbus from Wadi Rum to a small town about 20 miles from the Red Sea town of Aqaba where we had to catch the ferry back to Egypt. On the way, we befriended the microbus driver, a student majoring in Arabic at the University of Jordan. In the process of chatting with him while we waited for the second bus that would take us to Aqaba, we also struck up a conversation with a member of the Jordanian Army who was waiting for the same bus. When the bus finally came, both guys absolutely insisted that they pay for our bus ride, and they then shepherded us through Aqaba to a take-out restaurant where we picked up lunch and then connected us with a taxi driver they knew who took us to the ferry terminal. There is nothing I appreciate more than random and unrequested acts of kindness, and such generosity has been a theme that has run strong throughout my experience in Egypt and Jordan.
Finally, as we boarded the ferry for our return trip to Egypt, the captain of the boat recognized us as the Arabic-speaking Americans who had rode the ship a few days earlier. I think he must have been from Jordan because after we greeted him with a Jordanian Arabic greeting that we had learned he doubled-over with laughter and pointed to one of his crew members and yelled "fohk!" (up!). At first we didn't know what he meant, but we realized seconds later that he had told his crew to take us up to the first-class deck on top of the boat. We proceeded to enjoy our ferry ride in the lap of luxury, taking in the beautiful views of Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia all together on the shore of the Red Sea.
But there is still no place like home. I have had a great week back in Alexandria, making frequent trips to my favorite juice and falafel stands and generally enjoying the warm weather tempered by the cool sea breezes here. Today a group of us are about to head off on a 1.5 day bike trip in the countryside. And with that in mind, I'm sure I will have much more to report on when I get back!
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