Thursday began our Middle east experience in earnest, and the day was committed to Petra. Hear me please when i tell you it is not at all smart to do this on 3 hours of sleep after having crossed 8 time zones in the last 36 hours or so. This seems like common sense, I know, but we had no choice. It was Thursday or bust for us so we chose Thursday.
Quite honestly, it was very close to being bust. The night before, after our kind but pushy hotel manager had tried for 10 minutes to push private tours on us, he finally agreed to meet us 6am the next morning to help us get to the bus station and get tickets, since he insisted we should have booked seats before hand and we would be "very lucky" to get a seat at all. So the morning began with trepadation and become more frantic when 10 minutes rolled by past 6 and he was still a no show. We now had only 20 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave from the station. That's when our unknowing savior of the morning arrived. A man pulled up to the hotel and got out and was very insistent and pushy on giving us a ride to the station. For several minutes we insisted back that we had a ride already. We didn't want to blow off our hotel manager and we had no idea who this guy was or what he was up to. He walked into the hotel to try and wake up the manager's son, Odai, who was sleeping on a couch behind reception. Odai was not having any of it, so after our guy tried calling the manager from the number we had, he convinced us to go with him. It was 15 or 20 past and we no longer felt guilty for not waiting for our ride. The man was very cordial and friendly in the car, telling us he had relatives in Chicago and we should look them up. A couple minutes later at the bus station, he personally walked in with us and made sure we got two tickets on the bus and even saw us to the bus door. After vehemently refusing any kind of payment for his ride and extreme helpfulness, he left and wished us a great day. We were floored, still in a whirlwind about the whole experience and excited that Petra would indeed work out.
Note: Kris has long stated and now has my full agreement, that the hospitality of the Arab culture is both overwhelming and humbling. Examples begin with this man, who had no personal benefit to anything he did for us. He wasn't looking for anything in return but took great pleasure in making sure we were taken care of. We could list others from this trip as could Kris make a laundry list from her past experiences in the Middle East as well as our experiences in Chicago of amazing Arab/Middle Eastern hospitality. I just felt like that needed to be said.
There are definetly no shortage of superlatives that could be linked with a visit to Petra. Awe-inspiring, exhausting, HOT, enourmous, incredible, HOT, breath taking, thirst-inducing, HOT HOT HOT!! We made it to the entrance by 10:30 after grabbing snacks, extra water and hunting for and finding an ATM after we learned with suprise that Petra only takes cash (In fact, I'm not sure Jordan takes credit at all!) There was worry that Tina's knee would be a big issue for the day. It had been giving her trouble for a couple days and was really acting up today. But by the grace of God, as soon as the real hiking began, it completely subsided and did not return. Pain everywhere else in our bodies DID set in by the end of the day however. A combination of about a billion stairs and an easy propensity for dehydration, even though we both drank about a gallon each of water. It's really hard to put Petra into words. Earlier into the foray you reach the Siq, which is the famous caverned walk that you can see in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. This area is both jaw-dropping and pleasing to walk in as it creates gobs of shade for the road. It takes you right to the Treasury (also in the IJ movie) that is the symbol of Petra. Photos insue, camel rides are refused and we moved on. The rest of the site is filled with really cool tombs, mosaics, walkways and houses but the other site worth really noting would have to be the Monsatery. (2nd picture above) Similar to the Treasury in look and feel, what made this place so awesome was the fairly grueling hour-long hike up 900 steps to get to it. It would often serve as a pilgrimmage to the residents of Petra to hike up there and reach the Monastery. It was a perfect oppotunity for me to praise God for the awesome things of this world he created or blessed His people to create. The top also included an even higher lookout of the whole surrounding desert (3rd pic)
By 3:30, a complete exhaustion that I compared to how I felt after by Chicago Marathon, had set in, complete with dry-mouth, whole body ache, and a good headache to boot. We managed to get back to the visitor center in time for our bus, feeling and looking, I'm sure, like death warmed over. But it was all completely worth it. Worth our energy, time and money. Got back to Amman by 8 with our new French friend, Greg, in tow, since he was looking for a place to stay in Amman. Hooked him up with our hostel before the three of us had super yummy and super cheap falafels and kebabs near-by. We were hoping to get to bed early to rest up for the border crossing the next day but it ended up being later do to unforseen cash withdrawals and money fretting since our hotel manager, though nice enough, still insisted we pay for the night we did not stay there that he thought we were coming for and the taxi cab he sent to the airport we weren't at. CRIPES!!! Oh well, such is life and travel sometimes. $50 later we hit the hay, not necessarily looking forward to waking up 5 1/2 hours later for the border crossing.
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