Jordan: Wadi Musa, Petra

Spring Break Day Five (continued from part four)

The next day I returned to Wihdat Station and took a bus from Amman to Wadi Musa. Wadi Musa is a small town surrounding the site of Petra, which is by far Jordan's biggest tourist attraction. This trip was 5 dinars (about $7), a little more expensive than normal, but it was almost a three hour ride, so it was worth it. This was a standard inter-city bus, so it was much cheaper than going with the traditional tourist transportation. My cab driver told me that wihdat means "unity", representing the unity between the Palestinian and Jordanian people. The Wihdat neighborhood is mostly Palestinian and is quite poor.

al-Widat Station in Amman.


Road into Wadi Musa.



I arrived in Wadi Musa a little after noon, and I went to this place called the Valentine Hotel, which a guy from the Cliff Hostel in Amman recommended to me. This one was a little more than dirt cheap - about $18 per night including a full buffet meal - but it was very clean and had a great atmosphere about it. Originally I was planning on going back to Amman that night, but I realized that wouldn't be possible.

After checking in, I went straight to the Petra site, which was only a two minute drive from the hotel. As expected, Petra was heavily commercialized and immensely popular, judging by the thousands of tourists visiting that day. There were tourists from all over the world, though there was a disproportionally large number of French tourists. The admission charge was a whopping 21 dinars (about $30) per day, about twenty times the price of every other attraction in Jordan.

The weather in Wadi Musa and Petra was very hot, perhaps above ninety degrees at some point.

Petra was constructed by the Nabateans around the year 100 BC, and is now considered to be among the New Seven Wonders of the World. The entrance to Petra involves a route called the Siq, which is a narrow path through a massive carved canyon. The Siq is almost a mile long, and is cool and dark, but some light seeps in from above.

Before entering the Siq.


Views from the Siq.



After the long walk through the Siq, the next landmark is the Treasury. It's a massive building carved into the side of the cliffs.

The Treasury.


Some unknown structures not far from the city center.


Tourists getting a camel ride.


After passing by the Treasury, there are a number of smaller structures. I decided to take the less popular route up the mountain along this way, and it turned out to be a good move. The route consists of a long hike (at least a half hour) with thousands of well-placed ancient steps. It is one of the highest places in Petra.

Along the route to the high place.



At the summit of the mountain is the High Place of Sacrifice, perhaps the most impressive place in all of Petra. It's skipped by most tourists since it's a relatively strenuous climb. Atop the High Place are flat stones were sacrifices took place, though whether they were human or animal is unknown. The view from the High Place is amazing, and quite dangerous since there are drops on all sides of the cliff of hundreds of feet.

Views from the High Place of Sacrifice



After climbing back down to the main level of Petra, the other main sites to see are the theater and the Temple of Urn. After that, I passed through the city center with its Roman-style road and various structures on either side.

Theatre.


Temple of Urn.


The city center.


The only vendors that are allowed to sell anything within the Petra site are the bedouins. They sell crafts, donkey and camel rides, food, and drink and they all speak fluent English. It seems like some of them actually live in Petra.

I then began the long walk to the Monastery, which is the furthest significant point in Petra. It took me about twenty-five minutes, although the guidebook suggested allowing an hour to climb the summit. The walk was definitely worth it, however, since the Monastery is the best monument at Petra.

Walking to the Monastery.


The Monastery.




Further beyond the Monastery is what is called the "View of the End of the World." From this view you can see Mount Harun, where Moses' brother Aaron is buried, and parts of Saudi Arabia.

View of the End of the World.




I've heard it suggested by multiple people that you need about two days to see all of Petra. I disagree, as I was able to see everything at Petra in a total of five hours. I was moving fast, since I wanted to see everything in a single day, but I don't think it is necessary to spend more than a day there. However, Petra makes for a very worthwhile and memorable visit.

After that, the hotel staff ran a pickup trick back to the hotel. There was a good buffet that night and the weather was nice enough to sit on the deck until the evening. The hotel had people from all over - France, England, Australia, Spain, Korea, Germany, US, and other places.

Driving back to the hotel.


View from the hotel.

Ras Shatan bedouin camp, Sinai Peninsula

With Taba Liberation Day just being announced last week, this weekend turned into a vacation weekend. I went with my roommate Nate and his co-worker Mohammad (an Egyptian) to Nuweiba on the Sinai Peninsula. Although on the surface it was a simple trip to the beach, it was much more interesting than that for me.

We left early on Thursday morning, getting to the bus station in Heliopolis around 4:00 AM. We found out the bus to Nuweiba didn't leave until 6:45 AM, so we had to wait for awhile, and believe it or not, we were freezing sitting on that bench for a few hours.

Bus station in Heliopolis


We took the East Delta Bus for 70 L.E. a head. The bus was only half full, so it was comfortable. Within an hour or so we drove under the Suez Canal. For the first time I saw security forces that actually looked like they took their jobs seriously. The rest of the ride from Suez until Taba was almost entirely desert. Occasionally I would see a bedouin and some camels walking through the desert, but other than that it was barren. We did stop halfway at some coffee shop in the middle of nowhere.

Most of the journey across the Sinai looks like this.


As we got closer to the Gulf of Aqaba, it began to look like this.


After about six hours, we arrived in Taba, appropriately enough for Taba Liberation Day. Taba is on the Israeli border and was Israeli-occupied until 1989. Before arriving in Taba, security forces entered our bus and checked the ID's of the Egyptians and passports of the foreigners. Mohammad and a few others were pulled off the bus for questioning. (He thought his beard looked suspicious.) We made a stop at the bus station in Taba before turning around and picking up Mohammad and the others. From what I saw of Taba, it's really not much of a town. The only things I saw in Taba were beach camps and a few hotels. I saw no homes or stores.

The tiny Taba Airport.


Within a half hour we were in Nuweiba, or at least close enough to reach our destination. Mohammad had stayed at this camp, called Ras Shatan, before. Guarding the camp was an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) and about six soldiers. It seemed a bit overkill for a few huts, but it was certainly reassuring that they were there.

South and North, respectively of Ras Shatan.



APC and Central Security Forces at the entrance.



Ras Shatan is one of the beach camps that line the coast outside Nuweiba. We didn't actually go into Nuweiba, which has a port and a small town. There are camps on either side of Ras Shatan, but nothing else but desert and mountains. The nearest gas station was at least a half hour away. The camp consisted of a beach with about thirty huts, shower and bathrooms, and a kitchen.

The scenery of the camp was striking, with the mountains of the Sinai behind us, the clear Red Sea in the foreground, and the mountains of Saudi Arabia in the background. Unlike Cairo, this place was very quiet, except for the sound of the waves.

When we arrived, the staff took our passports, showed us our khoosha (hut), and took our food orders. The camp was run by a staff of about five or six beduins. They were laid-back guys who were really friendly and fun to be around. They would just walk around the camp all day and bring you whatever you wanted, which is something I'm not used to. The staff had an Arabic accent I hadn't heard before, probably closer to a beduin dialect. The camp probably had about thirty visitors, consisting of Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans. Most people brought their own cars.


Pictures from around the camp.







Here is a brief video of what the Red Sea looks like from the camp.



An unexpected visitor.


Cruise ship off the coast of Saudi.



Our luxurious hotel room.


The food was all Egyptian traditional food, and was exceptionally good. During the weekend I had lamb, fish, shakshuka (an egg omlette breakfast), grilled chicken, tahina and salads, and a few other things. They had a special brew of tea and their own sahleb recipe also.

What's left of my fish.


At night it got very windy and cold, but they had some of the khooshas set up with a fire and some of the local beduins came to the camp and hung out. I met a couple who were living in Tel Aviv for a few months; coincidentally they lived in Brooklyn and both of them also grew up in Central Massachusetts, so we had a lot to talk about. We also talked to some of the Egyptians who were visiting.

Mohammad hanging out with some of the Egyptians.



Some of the local bedouins that visited.


It was a good weekend for me to practice my Arabic, since it took more than a little effort to understand what the locals were saying.

On Saturday morning we woke up at dawn to watch the sun rise across the Gulf of Aqaba, which was a great sight. The sun rose across the mountains in less than a minute.

Waiting in the cold for the sun to rise.




Nate, Mohammad, and one of the Egyptians we met, waiting for breakfast.


Nate with one of the camp's dogs.


The prices of the food were slightly more expensive than food in Cairo, though well worth it. The cost of the trip was basically nothing compared to American standards.

Sisu calculates the bill.


Since Ras Shatan is in the middle of nowhere, the process of leaving took awhile. We stood out along the side of the highway and waited for the first bus to pass by. A minibus driver offered to take us back to Cairo for only 50 LE. We picked up a few others along the way near Taba. The driver was really good at getting places fast; we probably went about 100 miles an hour at some points through the desert, and weaved our way around tankers and dump trucks, the only vehicles on the road.

The way back had numerous security checks. We had picked up another American student along the way, so every time we passed a checkpoint the driver announced that there were three Americans aboard, which the police duly noted. It's a little strange to be given such high priority by the police just for being Americans, but considering the threat of terrorism in the Sinai it's certainly welcomed. For some reason the minibus' stop was el-Marg, a poor suburb to the north of Cairo, though it's the last stop along the Cairo Metro, so getting back to Doqqi was not a problem.