Amman to Petra
Dahab, Egypt
After three nights in Amman it was time to move on. From the hostel, I caught a taxi down to the main mini-bus station. While you can take a full luxury bus from Amman down to Wadi Musa, most budget travelers just take a direct mini-bus which costs around 4 JD and takes about 4 hours. At the mini bus station, it took a little bit to find the right bus, but I eventually found someone who was a little more specific with their help then just "over there". It was almost like the bus was waiting for me because as soon as I boarded it, we were off. Last seat on the bus, though instead of being in the back I was actually in the front, right behind the front passenger seat. My initial enthusiasm for having a single seat (versus a bench) quickly wore off as I realized I had absolutely no leg room.
This bus ride, like most others I've been on in the Middle East was hot. Driving through the Jordanian desert, even during the month of December is hot. That said, I was of course the only person on the bus not wearing a sweater and heavy coat. How the locals don't get hot I have no idea because I was sitting there in my t-shirt beside an open window and still sweating on my back.
Half way in, the bus pulled into a local gas station along the side of the road. Nothing special, but it was funny to see local vendors just cruising around the gas station pumps trying to sell leather coats. I'm standing there in a t-shirt trying to cool off, and someone is trying to get me to try on a leather coat. Sorry buddy, wrong customer. However, some sales must get made because several of the men on the bus certainly looked close to purchasing a jacket or two. No idea what kind of deal you get but I'm sure it makes for a good story back at the dinner table... 'Hey honey, check it out, while waiting for the mini-bus to refuel, I picked up this nice leather jacket at the gas station."
One of the things I hate when arriving in a new city is not having a local map that shows you were the bus station is and where the hotels are. This was the case when I arrived in Wadi Musa and it proved somewhat costly. You see, Wadi Musa isn't all that big a town, but it's built on a steep and has around 80 hotels to cater to the tourists who come to see Petra. There's a main little roundabout in town, but everything else is just spread out over the hill. So unless you know exactly where you're going, it's easy to get a little turned around.
I had done some research ahead of time and knew that I wanted to go to the "Orient Gate" hostel and figured that maybe I would just stumble upon it while walking out of the bus station. Of course, a solo traveler with a backpack immediately attracts the attention of the local taxi drivers. Normally I just keep walking, but this driver was really chatty as he sort of drove along side me. Eventually I stopped and actually started talking to him. I told him I wanted to go to the "Orient Gate" hostel and only to that place. He sort of did that waving hand gesture and indicated that it was in the other direction, quite a ways back. I didn't believe him but since I didn't have any other info to go on, I was sort of at a loss. He, of course, kept insisting that he had a better hotel and would take me there. After going back and forth for several minutes on a) how much a taxi to Orient Gate would cost, and b) that I wanted to just go to Orient Gate, we finally agreed that I'd pay him 0.75 JD and he'd take me straight to the hostel...
But not, of course, without first driving to his "friends" better hotel... Arg! I actually got out and looked around the hotel just so I had a reference of what else was out there. It wasn't bad, and the price was decent, but I still wanted to see the Orient Gate. Annoyed, he reluctantly drove me to the Orient Gate, which, surprise, was about 300 meters from where he picked me up... Asshole... Annoyed, I handed him a 1 JD note and demanded my change. He said he didn't have any, and that the drive cost at least 1 JD. Grr... Finally, he found some loose change in the ash tray but not before just really pissing me off.
Turns out, the Orient Gate is a shit hole. However wrote the glowing comments on Hostel World clearly hasn't stayed there. My room has basically a bunch of rundown IKEA furniture, with an armour that would have killed me had I not insisted it be fixed. I didn't even get a great price on the room, though I did get breakfast included. Sadly, the place was empty even though the reception guy insisted he was "65%" full. Oh, and the "24 hour" hot water, yeah, that doesn't work during the day, or, apparently, on the day/evening you arrive. I also made my second travel mistake that day and that was to pre-pay for two nights. Unless forced at gun point, never pay for extra nights ahead of time because you'll never get your money back if you want to leave after the first night. Just pay for the first night and then keep paying each morning. Never believe the "we're almost full and you need to reserve your room" line... So yeah, I paid for two nights, which was at least better then pre-paying for the three I was planning on staying.
That night, I bumped into Katharine and Eddie, the Australian couple I'd been leap frogging since Aleppo, Syria. The three of us went out for dinner at the local "cheap eats" place where we got befriended by a local Bedouin named Abdullah, and his friend Sapri. The "in your face" hospitality is sometimes a bit much, but in this case, meeting Abdullah would prove to be one of the best experiences of my trip so far. After exchanging basic pleasantries and small talk, Abdullah and Sapri headed out, with the open invitation to join them down in Petra the following day for tea. (Abdullah rents out camels in Petra to all the tourists.) Apparently, all I'd have to do would be to ask any of the other local Bedouin where "Abdullah" is and they'd know...
With little else to do in Wadi Musa, and no one else that I could tell staying at the Orient Gate, it was a relatively early night to bed.
After three nights in Amman it was time to move on. From the hostel, I caught a taxi down to the main mini-bus station. While you can take a full luxury bus from Amman down to Wadi Musa, most budget travelers just take a direct mini-bus which costs around 4 JD and takes about 4 hours. At the mini bus station, it took a little bit to find the right bus, but I eventually found someone who was a little more specific with their help then just "over there". It was almost like the bus was waiting for me because as soon as I boarded it, we were off. Last seat on the bus, though instead of being in the back I was actually in the front, right behind the front passenger seat. My initial enthusiasm for having a single seat (versus a bench) quickly wore off as I realized I had absolutely no leg room.
This bus ride, like most others I've been on in the Middle East was hot. Driving through the Jordanian desert, even during the month of December is hot. That said, I was of course the only person on the bus not wearing a sweater and heavy coat. How the locals don't get hot I have no idea because I was sitting there in my t-shirt beside an open window and still sweating on my back.
Half way in, the bus pulled into a local gas station along the side of the road. Nothing special, but it was funny to see local vendors just cruising around the gas station pumps trying to sell leather coats. I'm standing there in a t-shirt trying to cool off, and someone is trying to get me to try on a leather coat. Sorry buddy, wrong customer. However, some sales must get made because several of the men on the bus certainly looked close to purchasing a jacket or two. No idea what kind of deal you get but I'm sure it makes for a good story back at the dinner table... 'Hey honey, check it out, while waiting for the mini-bus to refuel, I picked up this nice leather jacket at the gas station."
One of the things I hate when arriving in a new city is not having a local map that shows you were the bus station is and where the hotels are. This was the case when I arrived in Wadi Musa and it proved somewhat costly. You see, Wadi Musa isn't all that big a town, but it's built on a steep and has around 80 hotels to cater to the tourists who come to see Petra. There's a main little roundabout in town, but everything else is just spread out over the hill. So unless you know exactly where you're going, it's easy to get a little turned around.
I had done some research ahead of time and knew that I wanted to go to the "Orient Gate" hostel and figured that maybe I would just stumble upon it while walking out of the bus station. Of course, a solo traveler with a backpack immediately attracts the attention of the local taxi drivers. Normally I just keep walking, but this driver was really chatty as he sort of drove along side me. Eventually I stopped and actually started talking to him. I told him I wanted to go to the "Orient Gate" hostel and only to that place. He sort of did that waving hand gesture and indicated that it was in the other direction, quite a ways back. I didn't believe him but since I didn't have any other info to go on, I was sort of at a loss. He, of course, kept insisting that he had a better hotel and would take me there. After going back and forth for several minutes on a) how much a taxi to Orient Gate would cost, and b) that I wanted to just go to Orient Gate, we finally agreed that I'd pay him 0.75 JD and he'd take me straight to the hostel...
But not, of course, without first driving to his "friends" better hotel... Arg! I actually got out and looked around the hotel just so I had a reference of what else was out there. It wasn't bad, and the price was decent, but I still wanted to see the Orient Gate. Annoyed, he reluctantly drove me to the Orient Gate, which, surprise, was about 300 meters from where he picked me up... Asshole... Annoyed, I handed him a 1 JD note and demanded my change. He said he didn't have any, and that the drive cost at least 1 JD. Grr... Finally, he found some loose change in the ash tray but not before just really pissing me off.
Turns out, the Orient Gate is a shit hole. However wrote the glowing comments on Hostel World clearly hasn't stayed there. My room has basically a bunch of rundown IKEA furniture, with an armour that would have killed me had I not insisted it be fixed. I didn't even get a great price on the room, though I did get breakfast included. Sadly, the place was empty even though the reception guy insisted he was "65%" full. Oh, and the "24 hour" hot water, yeah, that doesn't work during the day, or, apparently, on the day/evening you arrive. I also made my second travel mistake that day and that was to pre-pay for two nights. Unless forced at gun point, never pay for extra nights ahead of time because you'll never get your money back if you want to leave after the first night. Just pay for the first night and then keep paying each morning. Never believe the "we're almost full and you need to reserve your room" line... So yeah, I paid for two nights, which was at least better then pre-paying for the three I was planning on staying.
That night, I bumped into Katharine and Eddie, the Australian couple I'd been leap frogging since Aleppo, Syria. The three of us went out for dinner at the local "cheap eats" place where we got befriended by a local Bedouin named Abdullah, and his friend Sapri. The "in your face" hospitality is sometimes a bit much, but in this case, meeting Abdullah would prove to be one of the best experiences of my trip so far. After exchanging basic pleasantries and small talk, Abdullah and Sapri headed out, with the open invitation to join them down in Petra the following day for tea. (Abdullah rents out camels in Petra to all the tourists.) Apparently, all I'd have to do would be to ask any of the other local Bedouin where "Abdullah" is and they'd know...
With little else to do in Wadi Musa, and no one else that I could tell staying at the Orient Gate, it was a relatively early night to bed.
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 12/26/2005 06:54:00 AM
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