Jordan: Petra to Wadi Rum

📌 We arrived in Wadi Musa, where Petra is located, a small city with a nice hotel. The agenda on night one was to visit Petra by night, a candle lit display of the iconic treasury. We enjoyed a maqluba, a delicious dish of chicken, rice and vegetables all cooked together and then flipped upside down. We then headed off to Petra by night which was a beautiful experience, walking approximately 2km along a candle lit path through the canyon was amazing, particularly as it opens up into the candle lit treasury. We sat here for an hour or so listening to music and looking at the stars, it was a beautiful perspective of one of the wonders of the world.

📌 The next day we had another early start, which was tough, however, it meant that we were the first people into Petra in the morning. We learned about the Nabateans who inhabited the area, had the treasury and monastery to ourselves and we explore the colourful rock tombs. It was an amazing place and definitely a wonder, the size of the city and how they carved everything into rock in the middle of the dessert mountains was incredible to imagine. By the end of the day we had walked about 15km and we were glad that we had started early as we avoided the crowds and the peak sun.

📌 After a long day in Petra, we had decided to go ahead with the Turkish bath, something we skipped in Turkey but is popular throughout the former ottoman empire. It was a hilarious experience, I had never been exfoliated so roughly, and the massage was intense, he put all his effort in, unfortunately for Chloe and the girls (who are seperated), their experience seemed less authentic and a bit lackluster. It was worth doing to know what the traditional experience is like ☺️

📌 Our time in Petra came to an end after a well earned sleep in, we were heading to the nearby dessert of Wadi Rum for a night in dessert accommodation. We checked in and headed off for a sunset/desert 4wd exploration. The dessert was beautiful, the rock formations and colours were mars like and it only got prettier as the afternoon turned into sunset. It was obvious why films such as Dune, Star Wars and The Martian were filmed here. In the evening we had a traditional dessert meal, Zarb, where meat, rice and vegetables is cooked in the sand in a large barrel for hours. It was delicious and we were glad to have a fire in the cold dessert night, where it was made the most of by toasting marshmallows.Leggi altro