Tel Aviv Travels

I went to Jordan last week with two friends from Haaretz, Grace and Patricia. We call ourselves the Three Musketeers because, well, there are three of us, we like to travel together and it was either that name or we call ourselves ‘The Three Amigos’ – and it is no easy task finding sombreros in this country.

We started our journey last Wednesday. Our plan was to head to Jerusalem after work and then catch a shared van to the border, which is only about a 30-minute drive from the city. As often happens, things didn’t go according to plan. Turns out the boarder, like your grandparents in Florida, shuts down at 4:30 p.m. We ended up spending the night at a friend’s place in Jerusalem. Frustrating, indeed, but I did get this pic of the Old City out of it.

We used this great website couchsurfing.com to find accommodations in Petra. For those of you unfamiliar with this site, it’s basically a way for travelers to find a free place to stay wherever they are in the world. Hosts list what kind of space they have and why they are willing to take in wary (smelly) backpackers. We found a Bedouin with good references on the site and gave him a ring. He didn’t have any room, but he called a friend, Nawaf, who did. We called Nawaf on the phone and arranged to camp out with him in the desert.

There are no busses going from Amman to Petra during the evening so we decided to take a cab. We haggled with a driver for about 10 minutes and got him to agree to make the three-hour drive for 70 Euro. Everything was great for the first hour and a half. The scenery was beautiful. We talked about school and life.

Then all of a sudden the driver pulls over the car and says he has to go back to Amman and that his “friend” will take us the rest of the way. We looked out the back window and sure enough, there was sketchy A-Team looking van. I’m sure in Jordan this is rather common, but to us Westerners it’s a little disconcerting, to say the least. Well, I guess this is part where we all get kidnapped, I thought.

We told the guy this was not an option, but he kept insisting. We argued with him for about 45 minutes, trying to make rational points like he agreed to provide us with a service from which he was now backing out, and that it’s not really good business to ask your customers to get into a random car. He kept countering with, “but I’m tired and it’s a long drive.” Hard to argue with that.

We finally convinced him to take us the rest of the way. He drove really fast with a scowl on his face. By the grace of the universe, we made it safely.

Nawaf was waiting with a big smile for us at a gas station just outside of Petra. We all piled into his truck and headed out to the desert. He was really smiley and talked effusively about couch surfing and Bedouin culture. He took us to his place, made us all tea, and cooked us diner.

After we finished eating, Nawaf asked if we’d like to see his cave. How can you say no to that? We got in his truck again headed into the desert. The ride was amazing. It was like driving on the moon.

It’s hard to describe what it was like sleeping out there. The stars were so bight and close. And it was completely quiet, like being in a vacuum. You feel like you are the only living thing in the entire universe. (photo by Damiano Beltrami)

We decided to sleep outside of the cave. This is the view we woke up to.

Here is Nawaf talking to his cousin. (photo by Damiano Beltrami)

Here I am with Nawaf’s cousin, Talal. (photo by Damiano Beltrami)

Here’s a little background on Petra from our friends at Wikipedia:

Petra (Greek “πέτρα” (petra), meaning cleft in the rock; Arabic: Al-Batrāʾ) is an archaeological site in the Arabah, Ma’an Governorate, Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor[1] in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. The Nabateans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BCE.

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was introduced to the West by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as “a rose-red city half as old as time” in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage.”[3] In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site.

My classmate Damiano and his flatmate Jose start their hike through Petra.

Al Khazneh, or ‘The Treasury’, is the most famous site in Petra. Some of you might remember this structure from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

They call Petra the Red Rose City because of the color of its rocks.