mmm-yoso!!!

Jordan (Before Covid) - Petra at Night and Wadi Rum

**** I'm trying to finish up our pre-Covid travel posts, so will try to keep this brief, the photos speak for themselves. Not much food in this one.

After seeing the wonders of Petra in person, we decided to do Petra by Night. I had planned on being in Wadi Musa on one of the three nights the light show was available (Mon-Wed-Fri). We had an early dinner in the hotel we were staying at; Petra Palace.

And then walked over to the Petra Visitors Center to stand in line for tickets. We got there early and were the fifth group of folks getting tickets. Just before 830 we were let in and proceeded to head down the Siq toward Al-Khazneh (the Treasury).

The path was lined with candles.

After getting to the Treasury, we found sat on mats along the candlelit ground.

And soon enough, there was the sound of a flute and the lights shining on the Treasury came on.

And then more music, more lighting effects, a reading/poem.....more lights.....

After a while it got a bit monotonous; but heck I guess it's worth doing once?

And then we marched back out of Petra and back to the hotel.

The next morning we packed up had a quick breakfast in the hotel.....

We checked out and waited excitedly for our driver to pick us up.....well, that is, I waited excitedly. You see, the next part of our tour was for Wadi Rum. Not that I knew a lot about Wadi Rum....but what little I knew surrounded the tales of one T.E. Lawrence, probably more well known in the west from the movie Lawrence of Arabia. TE Lawrence fought alongside the Arab tribes revolting against Turkish rule and is known to have been launched from Wadi Rum. In fact, there's a set of peaks in Wadi Rum named after one of Lawrence's writings. Anyway, Lawrence of Arabia was one of my late Mom's favorite films and without fail, she would watch it everytime it was on television. You can read more about TE Lawrence and Wadi Rum here.

That's the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" above; named after Lawrence's Autobiographical work of the same name.

It's quite possible that I enjoyed Wadi Rum even more than Petra in some ways. Perhaps it was our amazing Bedouin Guides and Drivers, whose sense of humor was great and also the Australian couple, who was on our tour of Petra the previous day who were so much fun and easy going.

From the Nambatean ruins.....

To the amazing peaks and valleys....

The views......my goodness....

We would and take a short hike to one of the peaks.....things were so beautiful, so serene, so colorful....you could have what I call a "Bourdain moment" of your very own taking in the amazing vastness of Wadi Rum.

And our Bedouin Drivers made a pretty good lunch......

That chicken grilled over a live fire was awesome........the Missus and I started talking about returning to Jordan at this point and staying in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum....maybe even one of these places!

After lunch we headed off....our Bedouin driver asked us if we wanted to go "dune surfing"......and having our wonderful Aussie companions in our Jeep it was all go......

Man, it was so beautiful here....I know, I keep saying that over and over.....you get the point!

One of the last stops was the Jebel Umm Fruth Rock Bridge. There were younger folks climbing up the rocks to stand on the formation....

Of course, I'm not a big fan of heights...nor scrambling up the side of the mountain....but you know who the only person on our tour who was all in for doing this was, right?

And here's the photo She took of us "wussies" waiting below.....

    We really enjoyed Wadi Rum and like I mentioned above, hope to return and spend a night here one day. Our Bedouin Guides and Drivers were so accommodating and had a great sense of humor. 

Once our day was done; our drivers took us to the border crossing at Aqaba, where we crossed over to Eilat and then were taken to Ramon International Airport for our flight to Tel Aviv.

Our flight arrived in Tel Aviv we suddenly realized that we were no longer in our "little bubble" of vacation. Our flight arrived and we took the shuttle bus to the main terminal. 

Once we got to the baggage claim and exits, the Missus bargained with one of the cab drivers (our scheduled transfer never showed up) and we got into his cab. Just before we left a young Orthodox Jewish man spoke to the driver who came to us and asked if we wouldn't mind splitting the cab fair into Jerusalem. The young man would pay a third and we two-thirds. We said sure, why not. When the young man entered the front seat of the cab we said hello to him; but he would not speak, nor even acknowledge our presence. I mean, he spoke to the cab driver, but refused to speak to us! 

Once our driver dropped the young man off, he pointed to the neighborhood and said; "tomorrow evening starts Shabbat....do not come to this part of the city". Our driver was a really nice guy and dropped us off at the apartment we were staying at. Once we unpacked, showered, and got ready for bed, I walked out to the patio......

The Missus and I wanted no part of the politics.......we just wanted to enjoy the history, sights, and food....but people are one of the biggest part of any trip we take. As looked out at the street I wondered; "would we be able" to do that?

Jordan (Before Covid) - Petra

**** I need to dedicate this post to two "FOYs", Kerri, who I know has been waiting for this one and RonR who emailed me - "This morning for the third year in a row I cancelled (postponed?) our 3 month European tour which of course included Tel Aviv, Israel, and Petra. Then, of course I opened up my favorite website every morning and there you are talking about Tel Aviv. Aaarrrggghhh!" Oh man, I'm so sorry Ron, I hope you'll be able to visit Petra and Wadi Rum soon!

Also, not much food in this one....even though I'm going to try to keep verbiage to a minimum, it's pretty looong....so I wouldn't be bothered at all if you decide to come back tomorrow for a more food focused post!

After a nice, relaxing evening at the Intercontinental Aqaba a van arrived to pick us up in the morning. We saw the landscape change as we drove from Aqaba to the town of Wadi Musa.

We stopped twice for bathroom breaks; once at a viewpoint above Wadi Musa and Petra....which was interesting.....you'd never know what lay in the valley below from here.

We arrived a Wadi Musa and transferred to a larger van with several other folks' including a wonderful couple from Australia whose company we really enjoyed! The tour company, Eco Desert Tours was amazing. They dropped our luggage at our hotel while we were dropped off at the rather chaotic ticketing area.

Where we met up with our guide. Once everyone was accounted for, we headed off, down the Bab el-Siq, the path and valley that leads to the Siq. 

There are actually tombs and what is called Djinn Blocks, carved blocks of stone. The word means something along the lines of "spirit" in Arabic, but is also credited with being the origin of the word "genie".

And soon enough you reach the Siq, the narrow gorge which leads to into Petra.

There's a lot to see here as well, like the Niche Monument, a shrine created with two Djinn blocks.

 This of course, is just an "appetizer" as most folks come to see what right ahead. It goes without saying that the last few steps to view Al-Khazneh, known as the Treasury is quite dramatic in its own right.  First, you get a peek, then as you walk closer, it comes slowly into view....the pink-hued wonder, with intricate designs chiseled on it.

One could imagine the moment that Swiss explorer JL Burckhardt, disguised as a Muslim Scholar, became the first Westerner to enter Petra, and laid eyes upon this amazing structure.

It's about a mile to get to the Treasury; which of course, is the most crowded area of Petra. With folks selling Camel rides to various other items......

If you're not inclined to walking...well, you can catch a wagon, camel, or even a mule to get around.......

The portion past the Treasury is called the Outer Siq and is comprised of burial chambers of various designs.

We walked on over to the Street of Facades, a collection of more tombs, these crowded closer together.

Carved into the mountain right past the Street of Facades into El-Khubtha Mountain are what's called the "Royal Tombs".

And then beyond that; the actual city of Petra.

And then, it was lunch time. We had chosen just the simple lunch. We were then told we'd have free time to explore and the meeting place and time were indicated to us.

Which was perfectly fine. Actually, the falafel were not bad at all.

And then we set off exploring........and had a great time exploring the City....the Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint, a Nabataean Temple.

Of course the Missus couldn't help but climb and explore the Royal Tombs.

After which we headed back to the Treasury.

It was amazing how the colors seemed to change as the sun moved across the sky.

The Missus had seen folks standing on the cliff across from the Treasury...and so...She just had to get there.....sigh.

So, we found a trail across from the Treasury and started climbing up. As I was set to start climbing I saw a gentleman wearing a long black robe and a clerical collar...my goodness; it was a priest climbing and inching his way down the rocks! I stuck out my hand and helped him down the last few steps. He smiles at me and said: "thank you my son"!

Anyway, it wasn't a super hard, but not an easy climb up. But of course, the Missus made it look easy.

I will say, the view was amazing.

Pretty amazing huh?

Of course, the climb down was much harder than going up. But...I'm here right? So I obviously made it.

By now we met our guide, whom we tipped, and told the nice guy that we'd just walk back to the hotel we were staying, the Petra Palace. We chatted on the way back to the hotel and decided to return and do the Petra by Night light show. But first; it was time to check in, hydrate, and most importantly, take a nap!

If you stuck around to the end of this post I thank you.

Have a great week!

From Israel to Jordan (Before Covid) - Masada, the Dead Sea, and the InterContinental Aqaba

**** Not much food in this one as I try to get our pre-Covid trip posts done.

We decided to use guides during our trip to Israel-Palestine-Jordan because things were a bit spread out and transportation a bit more complicated than we wanted to deal with. We also wanted to learn about the sites we visited and also just enjoy the ride. We contracted the company, Desert Eco Tours to help with coordinating our tours thru Israel and Jordan. They were wonderful to deal with and we got a private tour of Masada and the Dead Sea and some really fun group tours to Petra and Wadi Rum.

On this day, our guide, David was perfectly on time and we headed off. First visiting areas near Ein Gedi so we could get a bit more familiar with the area.

From our viewpoint we had wonderful views and could see folks headed toward the oasis and waterfall.

From here it was off to Masada, a place I was a bit fascinated in since I had to read a book for a book report waaaay back in Intermediate School (that would be "Middle School" for most folks). There are three different "paths" you can use to walk/hike up to the fortress, but we took the Cable Car to the Visitors Center and then out into the plateau and amazing views of the ruins.

There was one very interesting thing about David......he does his tours barefoot! He told us that it "keeps him in touch with the earth and history"....

Also, when we arrived he broke out a conch shell and just like Hawaii, proceeded to blow into it!

I came to learn that the "Conch Shell Trumpet" played a large part in many cultures!

And I was captivated by the crows who seemed to "guard" the area.....which belonged to them.

A lot of what is known about Masada was written and compiled by Josephus Flavius, who wrote that the first fortification of Masada began in the 1st century BC; though that has never been confirmed. Between 37BC and 31BC Herod the Great built two palaces. It provided a protected and fortified winter haven, which included cisterns, storerooms, and a casemate wall. If you're like me; the first time you really read about Masada was about the siege where a group of Jews, less than a thousand who then held off the Romans for 2 years before the walls were breached. According to the story, upon having the fortress breached, the Jews dispatched each other rather than surrender to the Romans.

You can still see the remains of the Roman base camps from the mountain.

We wandered the ruins from the Columbarium Tower Ruins.

To the Western Palace, to the Hanging Palace which had three terraces.

You could actually see folks hiking up the mountain. I'm quite glad that we chose the cable car!

The terraces were my favorite part of the ruins.

This complex, called the "Hanging Palace" was Herod's private residence. The views were quite dramatic.....

At least that's what this little fella' kept telling me.....

It was quite an amazing place to visit.

We had a quick bite to eat in the restaurant before heading to our next stop.

Where I got to swim....well, actually float in the Dead Sea. Because of the high salt concentration; over 30%, the water feels very "thick" and floating is easy....I did a back float and because of the density of the water, I had to work to stand back up. An interesting experience.

From here David drove us to the Eilat Border Crossing; where we crossed on over to Jordan.

A representative from the tour company greeted us as we crossed the border and then got us a taxi to our accommodations for the evening; the Intercontinental Hotel Aqaba.

A beachside resort.....the rooms were quite comfortable.

Dinner was a pretty standard buffet.

And we took a nice walk around the pool area after dinner.

We slept well and had a light breakfast.

Before checking out and meeting our driver. Next stop?

Petra!

Thanks for stopping by!