Lost in Time

Today I experienced Jordan's single greatest attraction (Petra) and I'm left in awe as is everyone who comes here. Petra is ancient city that was the home to wealthy merchants who controlled the frankincense trade and carved elaborate temples and homes out of the sandstone cliffs that snake through the local topography. The city thrived for over 1000 years and in its history was attacked by Alexander the Great and his Greek forces in 300 BC, the Romans in 300 AD, and eventually a great earthquake in 500 AD that destroyed half the city and precipitated its abandonment. It was rediscovered by the West in 1810 when some Swiss explorer, disguised as an Arab, ran across it and publicised its mysteries.

Since then a small town, Wadi Musa, has sprung up on the cliffs above the site to handle the masses of tourists who come here to see the city. It should be mentioned that it gained a lot of notoriety after it was used in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the site of the holy grail. I checked into the only hostel in town with dorm accommodations, everything else in Jordan is unaffordable, and found it to be a well managed place. They have several 9+ bed rooms for about $7 per night and offer free shuttle service to Petra, packs fairly cheap lunch boxes to take, and offers a very nice dinner for $6 that served buffet style. That's cheaper than anything else in town, and they are the only place serving beer, so it's a no brainer to stay there and catch the evening showing of the aforementioned movie whose poster is prominently displayed all over town.

I went to the site with my new-ish friends Min from S. Korea and Patrick from Texas. We had spent the better part of the previous evening discussing Americas many triumphs and failing and Min told us more of S. Korea. The three of us actually met several days previously when we shared a van and happened to run into each other once more. It's a common thing on the backpacker trail. Anyways, at the site we found Petra to be very expensive... $45 for one day and it's scheduled top go up to $75 at the end of the year. That's pretty harsh, but what can we do? Petra rocks.

After a winding walk down into the canyon and into the hordes of other tourists we reached the first site and arguably the best: the treasury. It's called that because there's some dumb rumor of treasure hidden in the carvings that got a lot of it shot up by Bedouins looking for it to fall out, but other than some holes it's pretty spectacular and it's also the place used in the movie.

After that we hiked out to see more carved temples, went up narrow stone stairs high onto one of the plateaus overlooking the ruined city, and at the peak ran into my friend from the other day, David, who got separated from us when he went off to pursue a couch surfing connection. Instead of staying at the hostel he stayed withe a Bedouin family that takes in several backpackers at a time for entertainment and doesn't charge anything. I've got to try that some time in Syria. After that we took some pictures, lunched on pita bread, cheese, and fruit, and talked a lot. The hike back to the entrance was hot and then we rode the free shuttle back to the hostel in time to get a rare hot shower (they only turn on the gas 3 hours a day) and afterwards I ran out to write this.

The plan for tomorrow is to share a minibus with Min and Pat, and to ride to Amman, stopping at a dozen sites along the way, so that we can wrap up Jordan quickly and get on to Syria where everything is much cheaper. I'll try to spend some real down time there and soak up as much of that country as I can stand.