Our first stop - Kingdom of Jordan

Welcome to Petra, my friends!

 I thought it would be a good start in my travelling diary. So let's the magic begin!!!

It took us 2 hour-drive from Wadi Araba Crossing (international border between Eilat, Israel and Aqaba, Jordan) to reach this amazing place – Petra, the place where Sam Witwicky discovered the Matrix (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), as my youngest brother says, ^_^ or a place, where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail in the movie Indiana Jones and the last Crusade (by the way, pretty interesting, even though unrealistic, movie)

[The image acquired via http://maps.google.com/ directions Aqaba, Jordan and Petra, Jordan]

So, this is how we ended up in Petra. Early in the morning, we crossed the border between Israel and Jordan in Eilat (there are 2 places through which you can get to Jordan). The boarder area was not equipped with all the fancy hi-tech stuff that we see in other countries. It (boarder) was full of tourists, especially Russians, because they buy 1-2 days tour to Jordan in a package with visits to Israel. So, in order not to wait in the longest lines I’ve ever seen, one should get to the border as early as possible, but the border opens either at 8 or 9. Why don’t I remember?! Because we were a bit late, mostly because of me, I decided that I want tight curls on that day, instead of waves or braid =)

When we got to the border, there were more than 80 people already, and only 3 counters working, and the ladies were working extremely slow (and this was only on the Israeli side), in comparison to the same 3 counters on the other side, where it took us around 20 min to pass the passport control.

By the way, here is how my Jordan visa looks like, more like a stamp, than the usual visa that all of us used to see ^_^

After all, even though we were at the border around 9 am, we arrived to Jordan around 12 p.m., where we took the taxi to the center of Aqaba. Since it was Friday, most of the places were closed, due to the Friday praying, so we could not rent a car and were forced to get a taxi to Petra. And honestly speaking, it was better solution, since the taxi driver, Rezik, was 1) funny; 2) friendly; 3) showed us the panorama places on the way; 4) charged the camera battery; 5) got us on his way back the canon camera charger, since we could not find it in Israel. 

Going further, since we visited Jordan in January, it was pretty cold. Honestly speaking, I did not expect it, I was hoping to walk around without the winter coat, but instead, I had to put on my warm scarf (I love-love-love the color of the scarf, and the handmade flowers on it make it look so cute and girly ^_^). I was unlucky to step to historical place in boots, and not sneakers, believe me, you would not want to repeat my “experiment”, unless you have the new pairs that are 0.5 points smaller than your actual size, in this case, after the walk they will become the most comfortable one =)

When you buy the tickets and go inside, don't believe the guys that insist getting the horse or carriage saying that it is free of charge, that the price is included to the price of the ticket, and so on. This is not true at all...we asked for 2 horses and 1 carriage and my father paid additional fee which was almost equal to the price of the ticket, which is not fair, especially since it is only one way trip. Moreover, the horse riders are so insolent, even if you start bargaining to lower the price, they start begging to leave them tips since you have paid only for the horse, and at the end you will end up with paying double just to get rid of them. Most of the people say that in the Middle East one should bargain the same way as in Asia, but believe me, people in Asia are not that clingy as the one we met in Petra. Of course, there is the positive side - you don't have to walk all the way long, and save energy for the returning =)  

Petra is amazing...not only because it is a historical place, but because it is fascinating how back in 1550 BCE people managed to cut the city out of the stone. Actually it is not the stone, it is more of a mountain, probably. Petra is amazing on sunset (and I believe on sunrise as well), when all the shades of red mixed together glow and..and...the words just fail me. In general, I can say that Petra looks rosy, if you are not taking a closer look, that is why, probably, historically it is known as a Rose City (due to the color of the stone).

Take a look at the most known building in the city (even though the most famous is the monastery that we didn't manage to walk to, it was too far):

The top:  

Someone without the head and almost without the horse =) 

This was exactly the place where the Matrix and the Holy Grail was found, but unfortunately, we couldn't get inside. The closest look that I was able to take is here: 

This is only the beginning of the journey =) Fasten your seat belts, Ladies and Gentlemen and enjoy your travelling :)

Yours,
Makhina  

Jordan Tourism Board