November 10/10
We arrived at the Dahab bus station at 10am, and the only other foreigners there just happened to be Winnipeggers who live in St. Vital! Margeaux and John were also on the way to Jordan, so we hung out with them on the 2 hr bus ride and passed through into Israel together, sharing a taxi over to Jordan. The bus route was along the Red Sea and the view of the sea was spectacular, the water was beautiful blues and greens.
Israel charges a $33 CDN exit fee.
We spent 6 dinar on a taxi to Aqaba and arrived at the bus station 1 minute before the last bus left for Petra (2 hour drive). It was 5 dinar each, that's 7.5 cdn. I got a kick out of being on a public bus, being the only foreigners. Tourists obviously don't usually take the public bus. The bus dropped us 2 blocks from our hostel, it worked out great!
We went to the Petra night show, which I didn't find worth it. It was lit by candles and bedouins played traditional music. Thursday, however, was great!
Thurs, Nov 11 We arrived in Petra at 7am to beat the crowds. We began with a horseback ride towards the monuments.
my horse was Susanna, she's expecting!
the outer Siq, Petra
Me and Rosa and her friend.
The sand here is totally a dusty rose color.
Ad-Deir (monastery)
bedouin rest area after 4 hours of walking through Petra
Rosa and her friends made us tea. Notice the kettle and cooking area. the jug was where they washed the glasses we drank out of. totally unsanitary, but the tea was delicious. I bought some things from Rosa and had a good chat. She's 25 and divorced, which she says is much better. She said the problem was that her husband was always listening to his mother. We had a good laugh about that because some problems are universal. She said Michelle was lucky to be single.
another view in Petra
tombs in the background
me in full pack
the rock formations were fantastic
donkey with henna
tombs
built around 3-5 AD
Jordan is a beautiful country, cleaner than Egypt, they actually have garbage cans! They also have a tonne of semis on the highway. I never once saw a semi or large truck in Egypt.
I saw a number of tulips sprouting out of the ground in this dry land.
Petra, Jordan
the rocks had amazing colorings
We arranged a private driver to take us the 1.5 hrs back to the Jordan/Israeli border after 7 hours of walking through Petra. We did this through our hostel, agreeing to 40 dinar. However, our cab driver back from Petra to the hostel offered to take us for 30 dinar. When I told the hostel staff this, the men got very upset, lots of arabic talking because they'd made the effort to arrange our ride and 30 was too low and so we fulfilled our commitment to them and took their arranged ride. Our driver had 7 children.
Michelle has questioned quite a bit at the border because of her last name - Hauri. A manager came and questioned her as well, about the origin of the name Hauri (swiss) and then asked her about how she celebrates christmas, etc. Of course we had nothing to hide, and they let us pass.
It's wild being in Israel, we don't look like foreigners anymore. The grocery store here in Eilat was very much like home, so much more modern and western and clean compared to Egypt and Jordan. We spent the evening at our hostel chatting with a Canadian guy from near Halifax, giving him tips on Jordan as he plans to travel there tomorrow.
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