Discovering the Ancient City of Petra

Well, we just got back from Petra, and it was a place that was as magical as pictures, and full of astonishing juxtapositions. It was ancient and new, young and old, touristy but with decidedly Bedouin features, containing both man-made and natural beauty; ultimately spectacular and… somewhat disgusting, to be completely honest.

 

Maybe it is because I am Canadian, but unfortunately, as we drove away the lasting impression was one of sadness; that the money made from each day of Petra’s existence (a massive amount; each person who is not Jordanian is spending approx. $35 US a day to be in there, and there had to be at least 7-10,000 people while we were there for 2 days) is not being spent to keep the place looking like a majestic tomb representative of the respect Jordan’s government should owe it. as it is one of the largest draws to the country for global travellers. Being from a country that calls things ‘historic’ after 50 years, it is possible that I am a bit more aghast than others that the site is not better kept, but from witnessing the millions of tourists the site draws to Jordan, there is something amiss and inexcusable with the direction the profit share is going. It is one of the most complete and vast representations of an entire wealthy city’s existence from over 2,000 years ago, and it seems the funds garnered from the eager visitors streaming into the huge necropolis are being filtered up to faceless government officials in the ministry of antiquities, while the tombs reek of human waste and there is garbage littering the streets.

 

Those of Bedouin ancestry have resorted to capitalizing off of this huge influx of money into their previously simple culture, and eagerly try to pawn off jewelry, trinkets, camels, and donkey rides as a professional endeavor, not only for the opportunistic adults but the youngest entrepreneurs selling necklaces and postcards for 1JD a piece: ‘Good price, good price miss! Pretty for you!’ All of this combines in a somewhat pitiful cycle; you can imagine eager opportunits from thousands of years ago doing the same thing in this trading route town; ultimately though, should we as a society not be moving forward, rather than recreating the same scenarios over and over in history?

 

Getting there was a bit of a challenge; of course, if we stuck to our guns and looked for the bus we were aiming for when we got the the Walahat Bus Station at 8am on Tuesday, we would have avoided a bit of a cultural clash later in the day; but no, we decided to take the taxi drivers’ stance that no bus existed and that he would charge us ‘fifteen’ dinars a car to get to Petra (3 hours away) at face value. As we had 4 per car, we figured this worked out to just under 4JD each, a good deal – almost too good. Of course when we got to Petra, turns out the drivers’ English was poorer than we thought, and even though we had all repeated ‘fifteen. One-five. Fifteen, right?’ till we were blue in the face, it didn’t change that fact that they understood we owed fifTY JD to them upon arrival. We managed to get the taxis for 45 a piece after a pretty big fight in the hotel lobby (11JD each), and of course an older Aussie couple strolled up and said the bus was great for the 5JDs they paid! Oh well, we know for next time – and for anyone reading this, TAKE THE BUS (its supposed to be really easy)!!

 

We got up to our hotel room; which also had a price hike of 3JD since we called two days before, but was still a good deal at 16JD, and we opened to curtains to a beautiful view of rolling red rocks, like still tsunamis, jutted up against the satellite dish-covered buildings of Wadi Musa (the modern-day home of many tour guides, tourist shops and hoteliers. at the foothills of Petra).  We dropped our bags quickly and headed down the hill to pay the incredibly over-priced entrance feeat the Visitors Center, but all the fiscal challenges were forgotten when we wound through the Siq (a natural corridor with 50m-100m+ high rock walls) to see the Treasury in all its glory, bathed by the afternoon sun.

 

It was hard to be jaded on that first day, when everywhere you looked was evidence of an artistic and very skilled body of people who worked together to carve astonishing tributes to important individuals in the form of exquisite tombs, combining to create a landscape of interwoven designed and preordained beauty. Previously, these tomb facades would have been plastered and painted ornately, but as they stand now their ambiguous identity in amongst the rocks serves as an impressive visual interplay of hide-and-go-seek, as your mind registers that indeed so many of the nooks and crannies in the hilltops and bases surrounding you are tombs or man-made caves, further adding to the vast nature of the site.  The free-standing buildings have not fared as well, with the columned courtyards, churches and corridors now painstakingly rebuilt by such institutional visiting bodies as Brown University (which apparently has an amazing on-line tour of the site, I haven’t checked it out yet), and the Jordanian Orient Commission, who recovered the stunning mosaics of the Petra Church floor.

 

The second day we decided to go from (almost) sun-up, till we were walking briskly through the Siq with only the moonlight guiding us as the sun escaped past the hills. I was glad we stayed the second day while others in our party took off to Wadi Rum and Aquaba; I think it is necessary to get past the first impressions, and see the site in a more critical and yet understanding light. Being able to explore it more thoroughly, and with less people there the second day, we were able to get off the beaten path and discover Petra from so many different angles.  The Bedouin entrepreneurs were out of customers, so the camels and donkeys were given a break – able to relax in the sun, albeit with quite a chilly wind that made climbing even in the middle of the day quite comfortable. We took a nap at one point on the warm rocks above the amphitheatre; saw the museum that was placed in one of the caves, and Dan was able to capture the facades of the majority of the most beautiful tombs in the setting sun, along with the Treasury on our way out in the most ideal photographic twilight setting.

 

As we were leaving, a group of Bedouin gentlemen were relaxing around a fire with Jonny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ blaring in their Coffee Shop – I had to laugh, and of course, I thought of Ken and the Smoken Bones crew with love. J Music really does cross all cultures and boundaries.

 

The one down side to the few days was my reaction to the wasp sting, which angrily flared up with all of the brisk blood flow to my thigh and manifested itself in a fairly solid disk of pain about 10cm in diameter with skin stretched over it, that was emanating an incredible amount of heat the more I walked. After the first day I visited the pharmacy and got some after bite, which seemed to help, but the second day of walking was still challenging and painful L. That said, all the walking was worth it in the end – my only regret in our last climb of the day to a fortress erected in 12 AD was that I left my beloved water bottle there! Hopefully it will have many more global adventures, but I am already feeling its absence – any one who wants to get me another from Chapters  for $12 (it was bright green, with a lighter green tree on it – kind of like a flowy arbutus; metal with a screw top) let me know and I will gladly reimburse you the purchasing and mailing costs!!

 

We left completely satisfied that we had seen Petra, but did not make it up to the Monastery – supposedly equally as impressive as the facade of the Treasury, but even farther than the High Place of Sacrifice that we hiked to in the morning. Hey, you always have to leave yourself a reason to go back, right?

 

That evening, we hit up our find of the day before – a delicious buffet dinner with fantastic (and filling) food for 4JD, and headed back to the hotel with full bellies to watch a movie on the Satellite TV. We decided to give the Cave Bar a pass, as it was all the way down near the Visitors center (our hotel was about 3km up the hill from Petra in Wadi Musa – The Al Anbat Hotel II), and a small beer was 3JD, with 26% sales tax… a hard sell to us when it gets dark at 6, the bar didn’t open till 8, and all the restaurants in the immediate area of Petra are pretty savvy to the fundamental economics of supply and demand when it comes to pricing for tourists.

 

 The next morning we woke up and left the Hotel around 10, thinking we would go and check out the bus station, only to walk down and be asked by a departing mini van if we would ride to Amman for 15JD for both of us. We immediately said we would not pay any more than 10, and he was more than obliging – much to the dismay of the 3 French young men who had secured the Van for a trip to the airport sitting in the back, paying 35JD for the three of them! Such is the nature of transport in the area, and we were actually quite lucky to have found the ride. They (the other passengers) were ok; snowboarders and rock climbers from the French Alps who had just spent two weeks exploring some of the premier climbs of the World in Wadi Rum, so Dan had a few things in common with them and a few questions as well!

 

Turned out the driver makes a career out of funneling people around Jordan, capitalizing on the ownerships of his van and his good handle on customer service and the English language. He was full of great insight into the culture, the people, the economy, his impression of tourists, and the area we live in in Amman – as it turns out he has an apartment right down the road from ours! He is actually from Wadi Musa, but tells people he is from the more tropical paradise of Aqaba if asked, as he is very embarrassed of the exploitation of Petra and the surrounding town that has resulted from the false economy of mismanaged tourist revenue. He dropped us right at our door in Amman at the conclusion of a great 3-hour conversation, and we exchanged numbers and promises to be in touch, as he assured us that he would be able to give us a hand no matter where we were planning on going or staying in Jordan, and I am fairly inclined to believe him!

 

We will most likely go to Aquaba for New Years, as it was more than full this week due to the holiday – apparently it is very popular for the whole holiday season, but hopefully will be less so since Eid this year fell so close to the Christian calendar holidays. We will probably go for a day trip to Wadi Rum from there, taking either a jeep tour or (preferably) a four-hour camel tour through the terrain.

 

All in all, the trip was a great way to spend a portion of the Eid, and will be forever ingrained in my memory; the good, the bad and the ugly are what make the most organic memories, and are fast becoming part of our deeper understanding of remarkable Jordan.