Spring Break: Jordan Pt. 2

April 3

The day after going to the Dead Sea, we went to visit Petra. It is a five hour drive from Amman. We paid 35 dinar for our hostel to take us there. I have been told by other friends who have also been that this was an overcharge. The thing about Jordan is that everything is so cheap, it is really easy to get ripped off because even that price seems cheap compared to prices in Istanbul, Europe, or America. When we would take taxis around Amman, the meter would frequently come to the Jordanian equivalent of 60 cents and we weren't sure if the cab driver was ripping himself off.

For those who don’t know, Petra is an ancient city found in southern Jordan. It was founded by the Nabatean people around the 6^th Century BC and flourished as a trading center for them and later the Romans before being abandoned and completely lost to Western history until the 19^th Century. The buildings were most stone cut from the mountains which surround the city.

Getting into Petra costs 50 dinars per person which was definitely the most we had to pay for any one thing in Jordan. You can also pay another 50 dinars for a tour guide, but being college students we opted not to do that. As you walk into Petra there are also many men trying to get you to ride on their horse or horse-drawn carriage, but trust me, unless you about to drop dead from heat-stroke or are in a wheelchair, it is best to walk.

The first evidence of the ancient Nabatean civilization can be seen before you even squeeze into a path between two mountains that leads to the main part of the city. While we were walking down this path, we noticed the different tour groups with English guides, but we would never have fit in with most of them. One of the funny things about being in Petra was that we were surrounded by more seniors with Southern accents than I think I have ever been before in my life! I guess it makes sense considering how so much of Jordanian tourism is based on religious sites.

Fortunately for us, “Group 23” was made up of Americans our age who were nice enough not to ask why a bunch of people they had never seen before were suddenly part of the group tour. We stayed with Group 23 for at least 30 minutes, and for much of the time, the five of us were the only ones who were actually listening to the guide.

Me in front of the Treasury

After about 45-60 minutes of walking through the narrow gorge, the valley opens and you stumble upon probably the most famous site in Petra, the building known as the “Treasury.” It was actually probably a temple, but the Bedouin, who were the only people who knew about Petra for hundreds of years referred to it as the Treasury. It really is a breathtaking sight to see this beautiful building that was literally carved into the rock. “Our” tour guide told us that it is believed that the Nabateans carved it from top to bottom, which is even more impressive.

After the Treasury, we decided to ditch the group and do the rest of Petra on our own. Actually, we didn’t even cover all of Petra in the six or so hours that we were there, it really is something that you should devote two days to seeing, but we were on a budget and schedule. However we came away very satisfied with what we saw. We also got a hint of non-sketchy Jordanian hospitality from a Bedouin woman selling souvenirs who invited us to drink homemade mint tea with her as she tried to souvenirs to other tourists. We were so grateful we all bought one dinar souvenirs from her; I’m sure if you combine the value of the tea plus the souvenirs the price would equal around one dinar.

The night that we got back to Amman was, as of May 23, 2011, the sketchiest moment of my entire time abroad. The five of us went to a restaurant called Hashems which is right in the middle of the old downtown and is a great place to go if you want cheap (about 6 dinar total for 5 people) and authentic Arab food like falafel and hummus. While we were eating, a Jordanian man at the table next to us started passing his food over to us. Naturally, we weren’t going to turn down perfectly good food so we accepted it and thanked him. The guy could speak almost no English but at first all he seemed to be saying was, “Barcelona good, Real Madrid bad.” After a while, we started to notice that he reeked of alcohol and he started making comments about the two girls in our group. We did our best to ignore him and eventually he stood up and seemed to leave. Our waiter came over to us and asked us if he was bothering us and assured us that if he was that they wouldn’t mind kicking him out because he was the crazy neighborhood drunk. While our waiter was saying this, our dirty drunk friend was outside smoking a cigarette and blowing the girls kisses. Then he came back and for what seemed like an eternity stood directly over us muttering “very pretty” while the entire restaurant seemed to freeze and watch us. Finally, one of the other boys in our group got up and got the manager, who gently but firmly led the guy out. We very quickly finished our meal, paid, and then left through a back exit and made our way back to the hostel as quickly as possible.