I grabbed another icecream from Movenpick and entered back into the magical world of Petra.
Today I didn't meet up with Yaser. He had given me his phone number but I wanted some peace and I decided to walk up to the High Place of Sacrifice on my own. It was a bit of a scrammble up these hewn steps but within an hour I was right at the top where the Nabateans used to have a sacrifice table and kill animals. (No human sacrifices here unfortunately.)
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| Sacrificial Table at top of High Place of Sacrifice. |
But here are some of my photos...
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| Some winter foliage as I wandered down the Siq |
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| More Nabatean action. |
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| Horse and carts were up and about early too. |
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| Desert greenery...it had rained just two days before. |
Ancient fountain in the shape of an elephant. Unfortunately all the water has dried up now.
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| A tomb I came across on my wandering about. |
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| The stone which made Petra. |
I sat in a Bedouin tent with a young girl of about 20 and had tea.. She wanted me to buy junk off her stall too but I said no, I really didn't like her stuff that much. But she was friendly. She told every tourist to turn right...turing left was the way to instant death. A tourist a few months back had not listened to her and had turned left and ended up falling to his death down a cliff. There are no signs or guided pathways anywhere in Petra really. It's up to you to listen to the advice of the Bedouin or pay the price if you don't!
She guessed the nationality of every person who walked by. Only a couple of people went by but she guessed correctly...Polish and Canadian. She said she could even tell Ukrainian women from Russian by the shoes they wore. She also told me that the Bedouin of Wadi Rum were the best looking men in the world...I think I must have got short changed there then!! Damn!
Once I set off again I got completely lost and had mad images of me falling off some cliff and being picked at by eagles when as if by magic some travel angels suddenly appeared. A British couple who were wandering around lost too but who had an infinitely better sense of direction than me. God knows what would have happened if I hadn't bumped into them. He was a bit morose...I think he wanted a quiet day with his wife in the Petra wilderness but she was so CHATTY and was telling me all about her job in Orange Mobile headquarters and how difficult the change over to EE had been. It was all pretty surreal and weird listening to her considering the magical environment we were in. I never even found out their names but without them I feel that I would never have found my way down from the high plateaus of the far reaches of Petra!
We saw a mad old woman right up high who seemed to be living all alone. To me it looked like she had been literally banished to the hills. maybe she got lost about 100 years ago and never found her way back down. Tombs and carvings appeared around every corner but our maps were not really good enough to tell us what anything was. All I can say is when the woman stopped talking about Orange Mobile it was 100% amazing.
We finally ended up climbing down onto the main Roman Road and I said goodbye to my two navigators...we hadn't met another tourist for over 2 hours. I had been so unbelievably lucky to bump into them!
I then went off to the museum. It was pretty tiny and rubbish really. I suppose it's not really needed, the history is just around you. I sat under a tree wrote some postcards, had some lunch and then headed back.
She guessed the nationality of every person who walked by. Only a couple of people went by but she guessed correctly...Polish and Canadian. She said she could even tell Ukrainian women from Russian by the shoes they wore. She also told me that the Bedouin of Wadi Rum were the best looking men in the world...I think I must have got short changed there then!! Damn!
Once I set off again I got completely lost and had mad images of me falling off some cliff and being picked at by eagles when as if by magic some travel angels suddenly appeared. A British couple who were wandering around lost too but who had an infinitely better sense of direction than me. God knows what would have happened if I hadn't bumped into them. He was a bit morose...I think he wanted a quiet day with his wife in the Petra wilderness but she was so CHATTY and was telling me all about her job in Orange Mobile headquarters and how difficult the change over to EE had been. It was all pretty surreal and weird listening to her considering the magical environment we were in. I never even found out their names but without them I feel that I would never have found my way down from the high plateaus of the far reaches of Petra!
We saw a mad old woman right up high who seemed to be living all alone. To me it looked like she had been literally banished to the hills. maybe she got lost about 100 years ago and never found her way back down. Tombs and carvings appeared around every corner but our maps were not really good enough to tell us what anything was. All I can say is when the woman stopped talking about Orange Mobile it was 100% amazing.
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| Lack of tourists was due to the Israeli border being shut. No day trippers. The Main Roman Road. |
We finally ended up climbing down onto the main Roman Road and I said goodbye to my two navigators...we hadn't met another tourist for over 2 hours. I had been so unbelievably lucky to bump into them!
I then went off to the museum. It was pretty tiny and rubbish really. I suppose it's not really needed, the history is just around you. I sat under a tree wrote some postcards, had some lunch and then headed back.
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| Interesting thing in the museum one: King Abdullah of Jordan at the top. The previous King, his Father Hussein on the right. Actually pictures like this can be found all over Jordan. The King is everywhere. |
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| Interesting thing in the museum two: For anyone who wants to brush up on Jordanian historical periods! |
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| Interesting thing in the museum three: Nabatean artwork. I liked it. |
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| Outside the museum Donkey having a good scratch |
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| My goodbye photo of the Treasury.
I walked slowly back stopping off at coffee houses and reading and looking at more jewellery. I bought myself a birthday bracelet on my way out. It's really gorgeous and was my treat to myself. I decided I was just too knackered to go into any more tombs and about 4pm I said goodbye to Petra and left.
What an amazing two days I had had. I will never forget my wonderful time here. Made even better by the lovely weather; cool enough to walk all day and the total lack of tourists.
That evening I chatted to a a guy in the hotel from London who was really interesting and I then went out to meet Yaser for a goodbye drink. We met in the only pub in Petra and had just a couple of beers. Travelling in Arab countries is good for my liver A pint of beer is nearly 8 quid and incredibly difficult to find. I got home and packed. The next day I was meeting a new taxi driver at 7am and was excited about going to the Crusader castles along the King's Highway and down into the Dead Sea region.
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