Petra| Jordan, Day 4

Day 4 - Thursday, October 5, 2023

With all of the anxiety getting checked in at the hotel the night before, I didn't sleep well and ended up having to take half a Xanax because I really wanted to be as ready for Petra as possible. Our alarm was set for 6:45 AM, but I was up probably around 6:30 to start getting ready. We headed up for breakfast, but we were like six floors down from the main lobby, and the single elevator only accommodates four people at a time, so it takes a while to get up and down. This time we were at least smart enough to bring our stuff with us so we could just head straight to the bus after breakfast. An older Canadian couple in our group joined us for a quick breakfast session.

We headed over to Petra after collecting the rest of the tour group from two other hotels. On the bus, our guide forewarned us to avoid asking him questions in front of the locals, specifically when it comes to riding the mules that the Bedouins would ask about. He explained that they will often demand very large tips that don't match the expected price. Asking him questions to confirm if the price is okay would put him in a tough spot, and he might not be able to respond to us in a forthright manner. He was doing a lot of talking as we got to Petra and started to make our way down the Siq, but it can be so hard to focus on what a guide is saying in these types of group tours. I get distracted by the scenery around me, and there's often a lot of noise going on, so it's hard to really hear and understand everything that is being said.

The Siq is the main entrance to the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in southern Jordan. It is a dim, narrow gorge that winds its way approximately 3⁄4 miles and ends at Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (the Treasury).

It took a fair amount of time to walk through the Siq and up to the Treasury. It was definitely beautiful. I just feel like the experience was marred by some of the locals. Having to constantly say "no thank you" to everybody trying to sell you stuff or see if you want to ride a horse or a camel or a donkey...it just gets exhausting.

It was honestly the smell that hit me first before we even got to the Treasury. There are so many camels there, it smells like a toilet.

We got to Petra around 9:00 AM, and we were there until about 4:00 PM. Our guide said that "because our group had members varying in their maturity", he would set two leaving times of 4:00 and 6:00, and we could choose which one made more sense for us. I immediately was like, I'm probably going to go with the earlier time because I am "very mature".

Our group walk ended at the lunch buffet. I looked at it, and I was like, you know what, I don't need another Jordanian lunch buffet. It was going to be 12 dinar each, and it's not exactly amazing food. We just went outside and got a falafel sandwich for 6 dinar, and then later ended up buying a pomegranate juice for three dinar and a local snack that was like like a Raspberry Swiss roll for 2 dinar.

We wandered around Petra a bit and then started making our way back to the Treasury. There was a sign posted that specifically said that you don't need a guide to go up across from the Treasury to get a better view. We started going up one way, and a Bedouin came up to us and explained, "oh no, you definitely need a guide to go this way", so we asked "where is it that we can go up then?", and he directed us somewhere but it definitely was not there. Everyone can be so pushy, and you just end up feeling like you can't trust people.

We started the long walk back to the bus. We were a little worried that we were going to get back too early. We didn't have a lot of time after the group split after lunch, because that was at 1:00, and to be back to the bus by 4:00, we really had to start heading there by around 3:00. I called our walk the "Petra trudge" because it was just a slow, steady walk back, and my legs were definitely shaking afterwards. I'm definitely glad we came back at 4:00 because that gave us time to shower and get a little better situated to be ready for dinner at 6:30. Unfortunately, dinner was not ready for us at 6:30. We had to wait until like 6:45 before we could finally get our delicious Jordanian buffet. 🙄

At dinner, I just kind of gulped everything down. I thought to myself, slow down while you eat. Our eating schedule had just been so out of whack from what we're used to, and I'd found myself getting dizzy throughout the day. I ended up with a rush of nausea midway through our meal. I ended up taking an Advil because that dinner really spiked up my headache, plus it had been a long, hard day of being in the sun and walking around. We walked outside a little bit after dinner just to see the view, but it wasn't ideal viewing conditions.