Although Jordan has many religious sites, the main attraction is Petra. Our plan was to get an early start and beat the crowds and heat. Our day began with a hurdle. The ATM machine outside of Petra wasn’t accepting any of our cards and we didn’t want to enter without some cash. The next nearest ATM was in the city center over a mile away and we really didn’t want to add 2 miles of walking to a day of hiking. There is however a large private 5 star resort nearby and as we walked by we noticed a tour group entering the resort so we snuck in pretending we were in the group and found their ATM machine inside, grabbed some cash and were back on schedule. We made our way to the Treasury like we did the day before when we saw Petra by Night and took our day time pics. The crowds at the Treasury can be a bit much so we only spent a few minutes there before moving on. Petra is basically one main trail from the Treasury to the Monastery with dozens of side trails. There are ruins scattered everywhere to explore and vendors selling souvenirs at every turn. The Monastery was our favorite part of the day. When we got there we climbed up to view point where there was a lady selling drinks and snacks but we saw that she had a hookah so we paid $4 and perched ourselves above the Monastery with a hookah watching tourists below. What an epic experience for us. Having done hookahs all over the world this location will be a top smoking memory for sure. After that we spent the rest of the day wandering around checking out sites like a 450 year old Pistachio tree that covers a famous well, a bunch of tombs and endless side trails. Overall we ended up walking over 14 miles. We finished our day by sampling Jordans national dish Mansif for dinner. It’s lamb with rice and a yogurt sauce. Lamb is not our favorite meat but it really wasn’t too gamey and we both enjoyed it. Although after a 14 mile hike I could have ate a shoe and enjoyed it.
After dinner we ended up having one of those amazing travel experiences you can’t plan for. The day before our hike we were at a local gym and I met a guy who said he owned a hotel and he invited us for dinner. I told him we had plans already so he invited us to stop in for tea and dessert. So after dinner we walked through town and found his hotel. When he saw us he seated us and insisted we try some traditional dishes from his buffet and then served us tea. Before we knew it we each had a plate with 5 different desserts to sample and another plate with several cakes to take home with us. He also gave us fruits and drinks that he insisted we take. When we finally got up to walk home he grabbed his keys and again insisted to drive us home. After a day of hiking we didn’t resist. When we got in the car he asked if we had time and we replied “of course”. We assumed he was just going to stop at a shop where we would be shown things to buy but before we knew what was happening he was heading out of town and up a mountain road. Turns out he wanted us to see his city from his 3 favorite views points at the top of the mountains. His little side trip took around 40 minutes and the views were amazing.
This gesture is far from uncommon here. One afternoon after we ate lunch, the shop owner where we ate saw us walking home and he jumped in his car and came after us to offer us a ride. Everywhere we go the people of Jordan have been amazing. Its like they take pride in hosting people and no request is to much for them. When you approach a stranger here they don’t say “Hello”, the all say “You are welcome(here)”. We only have a few days left here in Jordan to explore the capital of Amman but we both agree we will be back. There’s more to see and do of course but mostly for the people. The culture here is more like Turkey than Egypt and we love it.
