Petra
Dahab, Egypt
The reason that people go to Wadi Musa in Jordan is simple, and that's to see Petra. You can read all about Petra here, but the short version is that it was the former capital of the Nabataeans. The city is composed of dozens of structures carved out of the canyons rock walls. While the remains vary in their level of preservation, two structures in particular, the Treasury and the Monastery are simply amazing and forth the trip on their own.
From Wadi Musa, it's a short walk down to the main gate entrance of Petra. From the gate, you walk along a rather uninteresting path/road towards the canyon itself. Before long, you're dwarfed by the vertical walls that towering overhead. The narrowness of the canyon, which at times is less then the width of car, amplifies the size of the area.
After walking some ways through the canyon entrance, the first significant structure that you come across, and probably the best structure in the entire city, is the Treasury. It's hard to understand the size of it until you walk up to it. Since my pictures aren't available, you can simply look at this site to get a better understanding. Pay particular attention to the size of people in the pictures to get a sense of scale.
At the Treasury, I befriended three fellow travelers who I had sort of been walking with through the canyon. Atila and Teena from Australia, and Rob from the UK. All three were traveling by themselves but had met on the ferry from Egypt and decided to make the trip up to Petra together. Chance encounters like this while traveling alone would lead to Rob and I sharing a room in Dahab, Egypt days later...
I spent a good amount of time hiking with the three of them until around mid-day when they decided to return to Wadi Musa to get some food. I continued on and hiked up to the Monastery, arguably Petra's second most impressive carving and reached after a moderately decent hike up out of the canyon.
Throughout Petra, there are small little "tent-cafes" run by local Bedouin that sell drinks, snacks and souvenirs and the Monastery is no exception. With the light fading, I decided to hang out at the cafe to watch the sunset behind the Monastery. It didn't take long before I had struck up conversation with the locals. It probably helped when I name dropped "Abdullah" and "Sapri", the two Bedouin who had struck up conversation at dinner the previous night with Katherine, Eddie and myself. With few other tourists up at the Monastery, I ended up enjoying some local Bedouin hospitality that most travelers don't get to experience.
With the sun set, I started the long walk back to the park entrance under an almost full moon. Along the way, I'd stop and entertain the odd offer for tea from the shop keepers in the other tent-cafes. At 6pm at night, I was one of the last people in the park and since the Bedouin just live in the cafes, they are always eager to chat up a conversation with passer-bys.
Once outside the park, you get approached by just about anyone who has any form of transportation for a lift back up to Wadi Musa. (Which is probably about a 2km walk, mostly up hill). Taxi drivers, donkey and camel owners, everyone is looking to "help" you out for a fee. I just wanted to walk and went right past them, but not far away a truck pulled up alongside me insisting that I get in for a ride to the top. I just kept saying "No thank you" but soon realized that it was Sapri, Abdullah's friend, so I took him up on the offer and got a free ride back to Wadi Musa.
Back at the hostel, I learned that the hot water still had not "arrived" which didn't go over very well with me. I met up with Rob and Teena for dinner, and we were later joined by Abdullah and several other Bedouin. One great thing about going out to eat with the real locals (and the Bedouin are about as local as you can get) is that you get food at the "correct" price. The previous night, Katharine, Eddie and I were excited when we found schwarma (chicken in pita bread) for 1 JD each. Turns out they can be had for 0.4 JD if you know who to ask. Abdullah knew, and hooked us all up with more schwarma then we could eat, all for 60% less then the night before (same restaurant I might add!).
It's hard to capture the hospitality that the Bedouin show towards you in an email. At times, and probably for most people, it's a little too "in your face" and over the top. It's not normal for us Westerners to be offered so much within minutes of meeting a stranger. I think the third or fourth sentence out of Abdullah's mouth the previous night when we met was an invitation to come stay with him in the Bedouin village. Granted, you shouldn't take up an offer like this from just about anyone, but in Abdullah's case, accepting his hospitality would prove to be a highlight of my trip so far.
From the restaurant, Rob, Teena, Abdullah, Kalet, Sapri, Gassam and I all hoped into their cars (Kalet had a sweet pimped out sedan with white shag on the dash and all over the back seat!) and headed to one of the local hotels for some drinks. Quite an interesting group I must say.
I've since lost track of how they are all related (friends, brothers, cousins, etc...) because all the Bedouin consider themselves related like family. But the quick recap is that Abdullah, Kalet and Sapri all work down in Petra. Most of the time you can find them renting out donkeys and camels to the tourists. Gassam actually lives in Zurich and works as a taxi driver there. Sapri is probably the most traditional of the group, as he doesn't drink and wears the white rob with red/white turban all the time. Abdullah only wears that sometimes down in Petra to get the ladies, according to him the robe seals the deal most times... /shrug
So we spent the night together having drinks down at the hotel, then playing pool back up in Wadi Musa. By the end of the night, Teena and I had agreed to spend the following night with Abdullah and friends up at the Monastery. Since my hostel was shit, it didn't take much to convince me to sleep somewhere else. Normally I'd suggest that you not accept open invitations to sleep with strangers, but in the case of Abdullah and friends I didn't have one ounce of concern in my body. These guys are genuine and true ambassadors to the Bedouin way of life.
I headed back to my hostel, again to discover that the hot water had yet to arrive, yet excited to see meet up with Abdullah the following day.
Kenny
The reason that people go to Wadi Musa in Jordan is simple, and that's to see Petra. You can read all about Petra here, but the short version is that it was the former capital of the Nabataeans. The city is composed of dozens of structures carved out of the canyons rock walls. While the remains vary in their level of preservation, two structures in particular, the Treasury and the Monastery are simply amazing and forth the trip on their own.
From Wadi Musa, it's a short walk down to the main gate entrance of Petra. From the gate, you walk along a rather uninteresting path/road towards the canyon itself. Before long, you're dwarfed by the vertical walls that towering overhead. The narrowness of the canyon, which at times is less then the width of car, amplifies the size of the area.
After walking some ways through the canyon entrance, the first significant structure that you come across, and probably the best structure in the entire city, is the Treasury. It's hard to understand the size of it until you walk up to it. Since my pictures aren't available, you can simply look at this site to get a better understanding. Pay particular attention to the size of people in the pictures to get a sense of scale.
At the Treasury, I befriended three fellow travelers who I had sort of been walking with through the canyon. Atila and Teena from Australia, and Rob from the UK. All three were traveling by themselves but had met on the ferry from Egypt and decided to make the trip up to Petra together. Chance encounters like this while traveling alone would lead to Rob and I sharing a room in Dahab, Egypt days later...
I spent a good amount of time hiking with the three of them until around mid-day when they decided to return to Wadi Musa to get some food. I continued on and hiked up to the Monastery, arguably Petra's second most impressive carving and reached after a moderately decent hike up out of the canyon.
Throughout Petra, there are small little "tent-cafes" run by local Bedouin that sell drinks, snacks and souvenirs and the Monastery is no exception. With the light fading, I decided to hang out at the cafe to watch the sunset behind the Monastery. It didn't take long before I had struck up conversation with the locals. It probably helped when I name dropped "Abdullah" and "Sapri", the two Bedouin who had struck up conversation at dinner the previous night with Katherine, Eddie and myself. With few other tourists up at the Monastery, I ended up enjoying some local Bedouin hospitality that most travelers don't get to experience.
With the sun set, I started the long walk back to the park entrance under an almost full moon. Along the way, I'd stop and entertain the odd offer for tea from the shop keepers in the other tent-cafes. At 6pm at night, I was one of the last people in the park and since the Bedouin just live in the cafes, they are always eager to chat up a conversation with passer-bys.
Once outside the park, you get approached by just about anyone who has any form of transportation for a lift back up to Wadi Musa. (Which is probably about a 2km walk, mostly up hill). Taxi drivers, donkey and camel owners, everyone is looking to "help" you out for a fee. I just wanted to walk and went right past them, but not far away a truck pulled up alongside me insisting that I get in for a ride to the top. I just kept saying "No thank you" but soon realized that it was Sapri, Abdullah's friend, so I took him up on the offer and got a free ride back to Wadi Musa.
Back at the hostel, I learned that the hot water still had not "arrived" which didn't go over very well with me. I met up with Rob and Teena for dinner, and we were later joined by Abdullah and several other Bedouin. One great thing about going out to eat with the real locals (and the Bedouin are about as local as you can get) is that you get food at the "correct" price. The previous night, Katharine, Eddie and I were excited when we found schwarma (chicken in pita bread) for 1 JD each. Turns out they can be had for 0.4 JD if you know who to ask. Abdullah knew, and hooked us all up with more schwarma then we could eat, all for 60% less then the night before (same restaurant I might add!).
It's hard to capture the hospitality that the Bedouin show towards you in an email. At times, and probably for most people, it's a little too "in your face" and over the top. It's not normal for us Westerners to be offered so much within minutes of meeting a stranger. I think the third or fourth sentence out of Abdullah's mouth the previous night when we met was an invitation to come stay with him in the Bedouin village. Granted, you shouldn't take up an offer like this from just about anyone, but in Abdullah's case, accepting his hospitality would prove to be a highlight of my trip so far.
From the restaurant, Rob, Teena, Abdullah, Kalet, Sapri, Gassam and I all hoped into their cars (Kalet had a sweet pimped out sedan with white shag on the dash and all over the back seat!) and headed to one of the local hotels for some drinks. Quite an interesting group I must say.
I've since lost track of how they are all related (friends, brothers, cousins, etc...) because all the Bedouin consider themselves related like family. But the quick recap is that Abdullah, Kalet and Sapri all work down in Petra. Most of the time you can find them renting out donkeys and camels to the tourists. Gassam actually lives in Zurich and works as a taxi driver there. Sapri is probably the most traditional of the group, as he doesn't drink and wears the white rob with red/white turban all the time. Abdullah only wears that sometimes down in Petra to get the ladies, according to him the robe seals the deal most times... /shrug
So we spent the night together having drinks down at the hotel, then playing pool back up in Wadi Musa. By the end of the night, Teena and I had agreed to spend the following night with Abdullah and friends up at the Monastery. Since my hostel was shit, it didn't take much to convince me to sleep somewhere else. Normally I'd suggest that you not accept open invitations to sleep with strangers, but in the case of Abdullah and friends I didn't have one ounce of concern in my body. These guys are genuine and true ambassadors to the Bedouin way of life.
I headed back to my hostel, again to discover that the hot water had yet to arrive, yet excited to see meet up with Abdullah the following day.
Kenny
posted by Kenny Carruthers at 12/27/2005 07:13:00 AM
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