Home to the Ancient City and Bryan McFadden's barber

After a 45 minute hike up, I was too tired to pray or drink wine in the monastery
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Day 38 - Petra

Another early morning start for the 6.30 bus to Petra. The bus was full and the three hour drive was rather uneventful apart from the fact that the landscape starting becoming more desertified and the percentage of blokes on the side of the road wearing traditional arab head dress and white robe increased.

The bus dropped me right off at the entrance to the visitor centre which was not good since I needed to drop my rucksack off at the hotel which was in the nearby village of Wadi Rum.

Nothing inside the tombs except an unwiped camera lense
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It was not that much of problem as it just put my schedule back by an hour. I had hoped to see everything possible in Petra but I now realised that was gonna be impossible. Not for the time factor but the fatigue factor, it was hot, hot, hot.

And what can I say about Petra that has not already been said before.....not much really. It does deserve its tag as one of the seven present wonders of the world.

The carvings into the rock are fantastic and look incredible even if they do look as if they are wearing away really quickly. It's also the setting of Petra that makes it incredible with the multicoloured and varied rock faces that are also in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

Please, Mr Prince Barber - can I have the Westlife cut?
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The pictures of Petra really say it is all about the place - it is really beautiful and everybody in  their lifetime should see the place.

However, I will still give my two cents worth on the place.

Firstly, I think that I preferred Palymra - they are both on the same par as regards beauty but Petra is a more of a tourist nightmare - people at every corner selling everything imaginable (from trinkets, postcards, drinks, donkey + camel rides, souvenirs and all kinds of rubbish imaginable) to too many tourists to overpriced and poor quality food.

No money was to be found in The Treasury
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Secondly, the walk to the main start of Petra (ie the postcard Treasury picture) seemed to take ages (and seemed much longer on the uphill walk back). However, it is truly magical moment when you walk through the thin narrow gorge of Al-Siq and you come out on to the treasury.

Thirdly, I soo wish that I had worn shoes and not sandals. It was generally sandy or hard underneath but there were loads of parts that were sandy with small and sharp stones in that kept getting between my sandal and foot. Not only painful and irritating but I kept having to stop and shake my sandals.

Mind the gap!
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Fourthly, there is such disappointment when you go inside one of the caves and find......nothing but a hollow cube shape. No carvings, no intricate designs, no etchings, no anything.

Fifthly, the gruelling 45 minute hike to the Monastery is probably worth the hike. In many ways, the Monastery is more impressive than the Treasury. What was not impressive was all the advertised view points that had lots of different paths leading to them. The paths led to views of average canyons and it was not possible to see that far from them. There was an end of the world vantage point which was poor - the only way that it could have any relevance to the end of the world would be if you got pushed off it.

H.R.H. Adrian at the Royal Tombs
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Sixthly, there was far too much donkey and camel poo around the place. In fact, I felt sorry for the donkeys who did not look happy bringing fat tourists up and down the rocky paths.

Seventhly, the sacrificial point was ace. Yes, it was high up and the views were good but the best bit was when I walked up some steps to the actual sacrificial point and I looked all around and I could easily imagine someone saying,"We will sacrifice this to our gods to make them happy." It was cool (even if sacrificing people and animals is generally not cool).

I loved Petra but it was hard not to look down on the place
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Finally, far too many flies.

I had wanted to stay for the sunset but I was just too tired from the walking around - I just hope that I did not miss anything spectacular.

Back in Wadi Rum, it was noisy as there were street parties where music was being played at deafening levels. Also, I found a barber in the town which Bryan McFadden (formerly of Westlife) was advertising. Rather odd and strange - I wonder if he knows about it.

There was only one normal non 5 star place selling ale so I treated myself to an £8 can of Petra lager. It was nothing special (perhaps they were still using a brewing technique that was as old as Petra).