Southern Excursion: Wadi Rum and Petra

I would have to say that the past two days were the best and most exciting days I have spent in Jordan so far. For our southern excursion we went spent a day and night at Wadi Rum and we went to the ancient city of Petra. Both were very beautiful and like nothing I have ever seen before.

First, Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley in Arabic and long, long ago Wadi Rum was under an ocean. Today, it is a beautiful desert. We did a few exciting things in Wadi Rum. We saw and few historical sights such as the ruins of a small temple and some ancient inscriptions on a rock. There was also some sand boarding, which was basically snowboarding but down a hill of sand. I did not take part in that because I decided I would rather not have sand everywhere. After awhile some people gave up on the boards and rolled or tumbled down the hill, which was pretty amusing to watch. The best part of the day at Wadi Rum was the camel rides. I have always wanted to ride a camel and I have to say it was just as awesome as I thought it would be. My camel got a little aggressive at one point and bit the camel in front of him but he calmed down when he was put at the front of the pack.

Just riding camels in the desert

After our jeep tour through the desert we watched the sun set and headed to the camp where we would spend the night. There some bedouin men taught us a few dances, made us a delicious meal and Emily, Zoeth and I spent some quality time stargazing. The stars were brighter then I have ever seen them and we saw countless shooting stars as well. Needless to say, Emily and I crashed pretty hard when it was finally time to go to sleep in our tent later that night.

Wadi Rum sunset

The next morning we woke up bright and early, ate a quick breakfast and headed out of the desert in order to take our bus to Petra. This ancient city was built by the Nabateans around 200 BC and it is entirely carved out of rock. According to our tour guide, when the city was turned into a tourist site those living there, a tribe of people that descend from the Nabateans, agreed to move out of the city under the condition that they would be the only ones allowed to work at the site. Therefore, all the people working in Petra today, selling souvenirs and offering visitors rides on their donkeys or camels, are members of this one tribe. We also learned that all of the buildings in Petra were carved from the top down, which is crazy to think about. Some of the buildings were so huge and intricate! It just seemed impossible that someone could have carved something like that so long ago.

After an initial tour of the main parts of the city our group ate lunch and then we were set free to do whatever we wanted for the next few hours. Emily and I chose to climb the 800 or 900 steps to the Monastery, which turned out to be even bigger and more impressive then the most well-known building in the city, the Treasury (which is the one that is in the Indiana Jones movie if you have seen that).  From the Monastery we hiked a bit higher to what was, according to all the signs, the “best view.” I think that was probably the most beautiful view I have ever seen. It didn’t even seem real and I felt like I was watching Planet Earth at an IMAX Theater or something. The man running the souvenir shop at the top of the hill gave us some tea and we spent awhile trying to take it all in.

The Monastery

The view from the top

Eventually we reluctantly hiked down and begun the trek back to the visitor center to meet the rest of our group. At a certain point along the way there were men with their horses offering people rides back to the visitors center. Emily and I both love horses so we rode back part of the way, which was really fun and relaxing.

After a four hour bus ride we finally made it back to Amman and I returned home to my host family. I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see my bed. While really fun and exciting, the trip was definitely exhausting. Unfortunately, we won’t be going on any more fun excursions until the end of November. In the mean time I will be busy with quizzes and papers. I only have about two months left here in Jordan. I feel like I have been here forever but at the same time I still feel like there are so many more things that I have to see and do! Hopefully I’ll fit them all in before it’s time to go home.