Stubborn? And how! - Petra part 2

Petra is not a small place. In fact you could probably hike non stop for days and not see it all. The Treasury is just the beginning really. After that, there are multiple directions to head in. Our group decided upon a route that would afford us the best possible locations and most impressive scenery for our hike. (It's nice having a friend with who has been before.)

One of the sites we saw, but didn't hike up to due to time.

Walking out of the first canyon after the Treasury we found a market of sorts. Bedouin shops selling various wares to the visitors. There was one guy in particular who was playing a stringed instrument that caught my attention. It sounded very much like snake charmer music, but I'm pretty sure he was attempting to charm us to come to his shop.

He really was good at playing whatever this instrument may be.

This was the path that took us further into Petra and away from the market area.

The next thing we came across was an early church that had been excavated out of the ground. And when I say early I mean like 5th century AD. It had amazing mosaics crafted into the floor. I just can't imagine the amount of work that went into making something like this, and 15 centuries ago no less.

Incredible. Click for a bigger version showing the intricate tiles laid.

Looking out across from the church you can see the remains of some ancient Roman ruins. The Romans apparently thought Petra was impressive and wanted to add their mark to it. It's funny how little remains of the Roman buildings when compared to the Nabataean portions even though the Nabataean structures had been finished hundreds of years earlier.

Roman ruins are always impressive....

Especially when in the middle of the desert next to other ruins.

Before we continued on any further, I turned back to see where we had come from. And wow, what a view.



Then we started a hefty hike up to the Monastery. The Monastery is every bit as impressive as the Treasury; the thing is that it's a ways back in the mountains and you have to really work to get there. The hike is exhausting. I think it gets less tourist love because of this. And maybe because it wasn't in Indiana Jones.

This is the beginning of the "thousand stairs" leading to the Monastery. I dunno if there really were a thousand stairs, but the locals must've told us there were a thousand stairs a thousand times.

This is from a point overlooking how high we had hiked - maybe 3/4 of the way up at this point.

We finally made it up to the monastery. It too, was gigantic.


Then we noticed a Bedouin climbing around on top. See the red shirted guy sitting up there?


So, naturally I had to climb up there too. I had to. See the white speck?


Two of my friends climbed up to the top with me. It wasn't SO hard to get up there.


It's really hard to give a sense of how high it really was up on top. I didn't dare take my camera up with me. I hope this picture of the central circle shows just how massive it really was.

Funny story: We saw the Bedouin up top and immeadiately we wanted to climb up. There were some men dressed in police fatigues sitting around and we proceeded to have a discussion in Arabic about whether we could go up too. They explained it was very difficult and that it was not a good idea. We said we'd be careful and those of us climbing up had experience with rock climbing. They then told us it was "forbidden." The word meaning "forbidden" in arabic apparently has nuances of meaning that I don't yet understand because right after this another police guy gave us the head nod "okay." But they kept saying it was hard, and forbidden but they didn't seem intent on really stopping us. I think they meant we "shouldn't" not that we "couldn't." We would not be denied though! As we were walking off, one of the police says to the girl in our group who was arguing the most "anideh." It took us a bit, but we figured out this meant "stubborn." Stubborn indeed haha.

That's all for today. Still more Petra to come later.

Walking in the steps of Indiana Jones - Petra part 1

So I know it's been a long time since my last post; for that I am sorry. But here I am with the first part of a multi part picture entry. I got to go to Petra recently. And yes it was amazing. Being told how amazing it was in advance, I was still blown away with how just mind bogglingly outrageous it was. It's hard to put into words. Hopefully my pictures will tell a better story. And yeah, it was pretty cool to be where they filmed Indiana Jones....haha.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Petra, it's one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World, and considered as impressive by many accounts as the Taj Mahal. It's huge and mighty impressive. Apparently, the ancient Nabatians who lived here thousands of years ago carved these structures straight out of the rock cliffs. Some were used directly for shelter whereas others carried more religious significance. It's crazy to see just how perfectly done the buildings are. And they are massively big.

While on the way, we drove by a few signs like the one above. I had to get a picture with it. I mean how many chances will I really get to pose with a "camel crossing" sign?


This was the view before descending down into the town of Wadi Musa which is the city bordering Petra.


Here is the obligatory Indiana Jones mooching at the entrance. I knew Indy had a gift shop, but snacks and coffee?? He's branched out!


This was the first rock carving we came upon.


This is where we first entered the canyons leading to everything...


I love how the locals are just chilling while we marvel at everything.


Passing by one of the many horse drawn Bedouin carriages.


The canyons that we walked through were amazing.


This is right before we rounded the corner to walk out and see....


The incredible Treasury building!


I made friends with this camel.


See? He really liked me. (Meaning he didn't spit at me.)


I also made friends with these Bedouin guards. I was pretty envious of their cool outfits. I still am actually.

Don't worry, I have several other posts on the way showcasing more of Petra, the people there, and their animals. Also, we did some climbing. More to come.

By the way! For those of you who haven't realized this yet, you can CLICK on the pictures to pull up a bigger version to view. Enjoy!

The Nanny is Sleeping?

I've been searching for a place to live for over the past month and a half. During this time, I've met a lot of interesting people and been privy to some pretty odd experiences. Usually I walk away laughing having gleaned some new bit of information about this culture.

Having called so many different numbers about houses for rent, I've noticed a few patterns. Invariably the person I call will be dumbfounded that I have their phone number. A common question I get is "How did you get my phone number?" To which I simply respond, "Well, it was on a giant banner/sign in front of a building so I called it..."

Then, usually at some point in the conversation they will ask what I do. I explain to them that I'm here working and studying Arabic. This is then followed by, "What country are you from/What nationality are you?" I reply, "I'm American." After which they say, "Oh good, good." This is a curious response to me. Are Americans just seen as good tenants or what? This further begs the question, what nationality response would cause them to unhappily say, "Oh...."

Some places I go to look at are nicer than others, but each person who shows me a house/apt. plays it up like it's wonderful and would enrich my life to live there. They love to point out the nice aspects and pretend the detrimental points are non existent. Now, I'm not looking for an estate home or anything, and I'm content to live in something run down, but I really wish they wouldn't try to pass off a house as something it's not. A typical situation will look like the following:

The owner is saying something like, "Over here is the kitchen and you can see...."

We walk into the kitchen which has a particularly glaring hole in the wall and I interject, "Hey, um, there's a hole in the wall..."

And they say, "Yes but look at this new stove, it is brand new."

I say, "Yeah.... but there's a hole in the wall!"

They divert and say, "Let me show you the new water heater."


Sometimes going to look at a house will result in a hilarious and utterly absurd experience. Recently I went to look at a house that was quite nice. The owner arrives to show me around, and we knock on the door and ring the doorbell since there are currently tenants still living in the house until late January. No one answers even after repeated knocking and ringing, though we can hear a baby crying inside. The owner calls the tenant on his cell phone. The tenant is a french woman who works nearby so she says she is coming to the house. After 15 minutes of this, the french woman arrives and beats on the door. Apparently there is a nanny inside who should be letting us in. The nanny finally opens the door clearly having just woken up, and the french woman becomes irate.

I quite understood her anger at the irresponsible nanny, but I felt kinda uneasy having to stand there and witness it all. The owner proceeds to show me around, and I just smile and nod and do whatever I can to get out of this absurd situation as quickly as possible. While he was showing me around, I almost started laughing at the ridiculousness of the entire situation, but I stifled any laughter for fear of seeming insensitive to the whole situation.

It really is funny how farcical some of these situations have been. I try to take them as learning situations. Like next time I encounter a sleeping nanny and an angry french woman I will just think, "Oh, this again."

Hiking in Wadi Ma'in

A few months back, right after I arrived in the Middle East, I had the opportunity to go on a hiking trip out by the Dead Sea. I would have written about it sooner, but for various reasons I held off. I decided that the time was right to share about this amazing place.

A large group of us loaded up into two vans to make the trip out to the Dead Sea. The drive was an interesting view of the countryside which surrounds the Dead Sea. Also, considering that the Dead Sea's "shores are the lowest point on the surface of the Earth on dry land" there was much yawning to equalize the pressure behind our ears.

We finally arrived at our destination, a valley named Wadi Ma'in, and unloaded. Our plan was to hike from the entrance of the canyon through the river, all the way to the hot springs about 5 km back.

We entered the wadi and the first thing I noticed was that this hike was going to be much wetter than I anticipated. I was told beforehand that I would get soaked and the majority of the hike would be in and through a river that ran down the wadi so I expected to get wet. I guess I was just overwhelmed by the amount of water.


The above picture shows me standing in the stream right near the beginning. You can see that my shorts are already wet above the knee as we had already waded through water near two feet deep.


I'd say that about 35 -45% of the hike consisted of us hiking through canyons like the one above. There was always water running and if we weren't slushing through it with, we were at least walking right next to the water.


The other 65 - 55% of the hike allowed us to be fully immersed in water. Several points required us to swim upstream. While other spots simply afforded us the opportunity to push our way against a strong current that was up to five feet deep (see the picture above). It was amazing! I had never hiked through water like this before, and I must say it was pretty outstanding.


The surrounding landscape was incredible. It was so nice to see so much green and lush vegetation. The contrast between the high canyon walls, the blue sky, the green plants, and the rushing water was really stunning. It was almost surreal in its beauty. I almost felt like I was in a movie.


Just to reassure you though, this was a hike and not a swim. The picture above shows the amount of rock climbing we had to do. Granted, that was the most difficult of the rock climbs, but it shows that we didn't just wade through water the entire time. I have been rock climbing before, but never soaking wet. That new factor made it quite challenging.


There were some pretty drastic elevation changes, but they gave us some good photos. The above picture shows me triumphantly standing on top of a particularly interesting climb.


And since there was water involved in these drastic changes in elevation, naturally there were waterfalls. They were absolutely beautiful. Like I said earlier, the scenery was quite fantastical.

We had a lot of fun playing in the many available waterfalls.

This last photo shows the hot springs pool that we hiked back to. The wadi and river continued much further back, but we stopped here. This gigantic waterfall was exceptionally breathtaking.

This trip is hard for me to put into words. Much more happened, but I truly wanted to share about the amazing beauty of the hike. I am looking forward to other hikes in the coming months once it warms up again. (PS - All the pictures in this entry were taken by my friend Kacy who was gracious enough to give me copies.)