Yesterday was a lesson in patience and bladder control. At a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at Sally and Joan's, I mentioned to Alix that I was going to Israel, including some time in Eilat on the Red Sea. She told me that I should go to Petra in Jordan, that it was a must see. She was surely right, and I am so glad we went. My only complaint is about the journey. First the good news; Petra is a site in Jordan where the Nabatean culture (2000 years ago) carved a city into the cliffs. There were approximately 50,000 people living in this area at the time. The carvings included a huge treasury building, altars to their gods, and a huge amphitheater. Petra (just Google it) is one of the man-made wonders of the world. On the appoximately (this is being written after 2 glasses of fine Israeli merlot), 1.5 mile walk into the site you walk through canyons of rock that have altars carved into it and simple aqueducts for water to run into the city. One can rent a chariot with a horse or a camel to get you into Petra, but the Romans (them again) paved the way in with large stones, making it treacherous for the horses and camels. Walking in is down hill, walking out the reverse. It's a hard trek, but well worth it.
On the other hand, actually getting to the entrance is a pain in the ass. Going from Eilat in Israel, you get driven to the Jordanian border, get your exit approved on the Israeli side, walk through a strange DMZ kind of area and then meet your Jordanian guide, who has a guy take all of our passports and disappear for awhile. Our guide was Hassan, who clearly was phoning it in. Odd thing about him was that he wore ear muffs the whole time; it was about 60 degrees when we started, sometimes warmer. The Jordanians have cops with the title of "Tourist Police" at the border and have a cop on the busses taking tourists to Petra. All very strange. After our group of 17 (we were 2 of 4 Americans; the rest were Israelis, South Africans, and 2 Argentinians on their honeymoon) got on the bus, we went for a nightmare ride of hairpin turns that tested our nerves. Hassan was droning on in unintelligible English (he's also supposedly fluent in Greek, but I don't buy it). Since only a few of us have English as our first language and he wasn't particularly good at speaking English, most of what he said wasn't understood by any of us. We get to Petra and what should have been a 1 hour walk in took forever. Petra is a little chaotic; horses, camels, old guys selling fake ancient coins, and little kids selling postcards. Still it was worth it all. Incredible site and a tribute to the creativity of humans in tough circumstances.
We trekked back up, got on the bus, and were taken to lunch at what Hassan said was a 5 star restaurant: if that was a 5 star restaurant, I'm King Hussein. Then we went back through the mountains to the Arava desert valley, at breakneck speed with hairpin turns that were truly scary. Most of the folks closed their eyes and prayed for sleep. After all this speeding, which included passing every other tourist bus on the road, we stopped 20 miles from the border so Hassan, the driver and the cop on the bus could smoke. THEN we went on an unscheduled tour through the town of Aqaba. By then, we were all almost begging to get back to the Israeli border. When we did, the process to get back into Israel was long and complex: questons, xray machines, metal detectors, more questions. And not one of us was annoyed by this. The necessity for these tight controls is obvious to anyone who spends more than one day in Israel. I was glad that the process was so efficient and thorough.Petra is a must see for anyone traveling in the Middle East. It is worth the money (with the $45 charge for a Jordanian visa and the $150 pp for the guide) and the hassle.
Today Yehuda the guide (who Michele referred to as Yoda after a glass of wine tonight) picked us and our little tour group up to take us to Timnor, the site of Egyptian copper mines during the reign of Ramses II. Very cool site. I struggled with the climb up some steep rocks, but again it was worth the hassle. We also visited the undersea aquarium in Eilat which was lovely, but (not to be a jaded American) was not up to the quality at Sea World (sorry, folks for being so American). We then went off to a Bedouin village for lunch. Our itinerary mentioned that we would learn about Bedouin culture, have lunch, ride camels. Well, the Bedouins gave us a serviceable lunch of hummus, olives, bread, and vegetables, but the only thing we learned about the Bedouins was from Yehuda who told us that they run drugs, don't pay taxes, and suck resources from the Israeli government. Probably all true, but it felt a little odd eating their food and riding their camels (I did not ride a camel, but Michele did and she has pictures to prove it) while listening to someone say how horrible they are. Then the ride to Tel Aviv.....Yehuda drove like the Jordanian bus driver through the mountain pass after the Arava desert crossing. So, 4 times in the past two days we have been driven through the Arava desert and over the mountains by nutty drivers. Twice on the Israeli side and twice on the Jordanian side. I think I'm done with it.
So, here we are in Tel Aviv for our last night and day in the amazing country. Dinner at Miguel's, where we ate our first night here. Tomorrow a little exploration and then off to the airport for a 1 am flight on December 24th to start the journey home. Very sad about leaving, although leaving with a new appreciation for the spirit of the Israeli people and the tragic history, from Massada to the Holocaust, that has made the survival of this little country so important.
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