After Rose and I finally tore ourselves away from Dahab, we set out for Jordan. We had decided not to take the ferry from Nuweiba in Egypt to Aqaba in Jordan because we heard it was unreliable and expensive. Often the ferries are overbooked and you just have to wait five hours or possibly til the next day to catch one, despite having a ticket. So instead, we had to endure yet another Egyptian bus ride, but luckily just from Dahab to the border town of Taba, about 2 hours away.
At 10 am we arrived at the bus terminal in Dahab after a somewhat confusing ride there (they seem to block off roads in Dahab at the drop of a hat and for no reason) only to be told that although the bus was schedued to depart at 10:30, we could not buy our tickets until the bus actually arrived. This made us slightly nervous about the liklihood of the bus arriving, but by this point we have discovered that such silliness is actually pretty common in Egypt and were only slightly skeptical, rather than seriousy concerned, as we settled down to wait. We met another traveller waiting (an Aussie named Richard) so we all waited skeptically together, asking each time a bus arrived if it was ours, only to be told no. At 10:45 our bus arrived, and at that point there was a mad rush to buy the tickets that we for whatever reason could not purchase earlier. Ha ha Egypt! In any case, we successfully purchased tickets and climbed onto the shabby (but at least not overcrowded) bus.
When we arrived in Taba, naturally there were no signs directing us to the brder, so we made off in the direction Richard told us to go (he'd been there before) and departed Egypt with no difficulties. This meant we then had to enter Israel, which controls a strip of land along the Red Sea between Egypt and Jordan. This also posed few problems, although Rose had a bit of trouble because she doesn't look exactly like her passport picture, and I was questioned because my last name sounds Arabic (the last name Hayat means "life" in Arabic and I have been told several times on this trip that mine is an Arabic name.) However, when I said that my parents were named Jack and Marjorie, I think that cleared up any possibility that I was from Arabic stock (well, that and my complexion, presumably.)
Once in Israel, we had lunch with Richard in Eilat (the town on the Rea Sea there), and then proceeded on to Jordan. It was nice to see women in Israel - women dressed normally, and women working - both of these things being rare in Egypt.
The border crossing into Jordan was also uneventful, and the Jordanians, even at the border, were all very friendly and helpful. Once we crossed through, we were greeted by a border police guard with a broad grin and a hearty, "Welcome to Jordan!" We smiled back, mostly because of his smile but perhaps partly because he was carrying the biggest gun I have ever seen, casually over his shoulder and pointed right at us. This is not Canada, clearly.
We took a taxi into Aqaba, and decided to stay the night mostly because there were no busses to Wadi Musa (near Petra) after 2 pm, and it had taken until 3 to arrive. Oh well. Saw a bit of Aqaba, which has a clean, spacious and relaxed feel to it, especially after the rather cramped and frantic feeling of most Egpytian cities we were in. We did manage to get lost, however, despite being within about 3 blocks of our hotel so we wandered through various crooked streets tryng to find anyone who spoke English. The people we asked tried to be helpful, but couldn't understand us and couldn't read our stupid crappy Lonely Planet map. Ah, well, saw a bit more of Aqaba this way!
At 6:30 the next morning we made our way to the bus station to get the minibus to Wadi Musa and Petra There wasn't a direct one leaving for a while, but we could transfer at Ma'an, so we opted for this. Busses in Jordan leave when they are full, and this one was almost full so it was ready to depart right away.
The bus ride was a bit of an experience in itself. There is no place for luggage under the minibusses, so everyone just brings their luggage into the bus, which meant there was essentially no aisle to speak of. People just had to move the luggage of step over and around it, and this seemed completely normal to everyone. The scenery out the window was spectacular - desert and canyon and mountains as far as you could see. Shortly before we reached Ma'an, I saw an interesting road sign (which I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a picture of) which had a big arrow and indicated the turnoff for Iraq. Wish I had a pic of that!
We arrived in Wadi Musa, the town next to Petra, around 10:30 or so, and must have looked confused, because people asked us where we were going. We asked for a taxi, and a fellow standing there said he would drive us to our hotel. When we asked how much it would be, he said, no charge, and indeed, drove us to our hotel and refused to take any money when he dropped us off. Love this country!
Our hotel is the Cleopatra, and it is small but clean, and the staff there are great. It's not as cheap as we'd hoped (Jordan is definitely more expensive than Egypt) but it includes pick up and drop off at Petra whenever we want, as well as a small breakfast. Also, one of the guys there, Moslah, has a deal with the restaurant down the road so we've been given a discount on our food there while we've been here.
After checking in, we headed out to explore Petra. We got a two-day pass and also hired a guide to take us in because we'd heard that it was useful to get a guide. Our guide was helpful certainly, but only gave us 1 hr 15 of the 2 hours we'd been promised, and wasn't super fluent in English so we actually felt that was a waste of money - oh well.
Petra is phenomenal in any case. I wish I could know exactly what it must have been like in its heyday, but even just seeing the ruins is amazing. Petra's inhabitants cut their city into a massive canyon, and throughout the 45 or so square kilometre site you can see the remains of the houses, tombs, fountains, temples, and theatre etc. that made up the canyon city. It was a very important city in this area for a long time (I think from about 100 BC to AD 450 , but am not sure of that) and controlled the trade routes of frankincense, ivory, spices and other trade items through here.
In addition to seeing the ruins, what has been nice about seeing Petra is doing a bit of hiking through this incredible landscape and then stumbling upon ruins here and there. The rock is a mix of different layers of minerals and there are streaks of bright yellow and dark red in many places. It is dry, but there is a lot more vegetation than I expected, including some beautiful bushes laden with bright pink flowers and big trees that look kind of like willows of some kind. Rose and I hiked up to two of the highest points in Petra, which both afforded amazing views over the canyon and the desert beyond it.
On our first day of exploring, we kind of stuck to the major tourist route, but on our second day, we got a little more off the beaten path which we both enjoyed. In fact, we got off the beaten path to such an extent that when we came back into the more touristy area we noticed a sign saying that to go beyond that point, a guide, or at the very least a companion was recommended. Ha ha, oops. We wondered if it was because people got lost and dehydrated, or lost and raped or murdered, and concluded that none of these options would be very pleasant. (I'm sure these ruminations were brought on especially since in the canyon we'd been in we'd come across a large white bone, which, to our non-medical eyes, looked like it MIGHT have come from a human - well, ok, more likely a camel - we weren't sure.)
There were plenty of tourists at Petra, but nowhere near as many as we'd encountered at the pyramids or temples of Egypt. Of course, with the tourists come inflated prices and, as in Egypt, tourists mean that you'll invariably be offered myriad camel, donkey and horse rides with the promise that "I offer you cheap price!" The people here are less persistant about it than at Giza. However, on the first day, we got the comment "I like your eyes... I like your body" (eyes affixed to breasts, and gesture as though caressing breasts) and on the second day, a boy who looked about 12 generously offered us to "suck my dick! Suck my dick!" (Where the hell do they learn that language??)
On a slightly darker note, we have been warned by other tourists on our trip and also by our hotel proprieters that at Petra, men claiming to be Bedouin invite girls for a Bedouin barbeque and overnight trek into the desert, and although they may indeed provide those things, they may also either become aggressive, or in some cases drug the girls to sleep with them. It's unclear to what extent these stories are accurate.
However, we have generally had a wonderful experience here so far with everyone we've met. People seem generally relaxed and friendly, and I feel more comfortable here than I did in Egypt thus far, although whether this is because of the country or just because I am more used to it is hard to know.
Off to Amman tomorrow.