So, how do you get ready to visit one of the most historic places on earth?

Well, watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade of course!

The movie, now 35 years old, had different scenes filmed in Petra.

Anyway, I popped the movie on my laptop last night and watched it before going to bed.

Today, I was up at 7:30 and out the door a half hour later into the brisk 6C weather.

The UNESCO Heritage Site of Petra is a vast area featuring different structures carved out in the sandstone of the mountains throughout the area.

There’s also alot of walking involved so I had 2 rules today: pace myself and drink plenty of water.

Breakfast

First things first.   I needed some sustenance to carry me through the long day ahead.

I had read that the Aloe Vera restaurant attached to the Petra Guest House hotel located right at the entrance way to Petra offered a pretty good breakfast buffet so I headed down there.

I passed by a handful of souvenir shops with one, ironically, selling Indiana Jones whips.   Yeah, good luck getting that on an airplane.

Unlike my laughable lunch buffet I had a couple of days ago, this buffet was definately worthy of the reviews.

For 12JOD ($24), I had a huge selection of different western and Arabic breakfast items.

There was even an omelette station where the chef would cook up your omelette to order.

Oh, and my waiter brought me some gluten free pita bread!

By 8:30, I was done breakfast and it was time to start exploring.

The plan for today

To explore Petra takes about 4 or 5 hours.

Most people start at the main gate, walk down a long corridor carved out in the rock named The Siq until they reach the Treasury which is the crown jewel of Petra.

From there, they walk past a handful of other rock-carved structures before coming upon the 2nd highlight of the trek, the Monastery.

Finally, they retrace their steps back to the entrance and exit the area.

There is, however, an alternative way and, if you ask me, a better way.

And that is to do the whole thing in reverse by coming in through what’s known as the back door of Petra.

By doing it this way, you start at the Monastery, see everthing in between, visit the Treasury, and then exit.

There’s a couple of reasons to do it this way.   One, you don’t have to retrace your steps and, two, you climb down and not up the arduous 850 steps to get to and from the Monastery.

Of course, there’s a couple drawbacks to doing it this way but I’ll get into that in a bit.

So, to start my trek from the back door, I have to first get to the back door.

Little Petra

Now, I should note, before you make your way to the back door, you have to get your ticket to enter Petra at the Visitor Centre.

You either pay the 50JOD ($100) or, do as most people do, and show them your Jordan Pass to get in for free.

To get to the back door of Petra, you start from Little Petra which is a smaller version of Petra also carved out in rocks that is about 10km north.

There are free shuttle vans that will take you the 10 minute journey there.

Of course you have to walk past all the taxi drivers telling you it will be a long wait for the shuttle and you should take their 10JOD ($20) taxi ride instead.

Now, to be fair, I did have to wait a bit for the shuttle to leave but it was only about 20 minutes and at just after 9am we were making our way up to Little Petra.

When I arrived, I was ushered into a little building to show my ticket and listen to a hard sell of getting a tour guide to come with me.

For only 100JOD ($200), I could have someone guide me the entire way to the Monastery but there was a deal right now for only the low, low price of 50JOD ($100).

Ha!   As if!

I politely declined but it wouldn’t be the first time I’d have to politely decline on my trek today.

I spent a little time wandering around Little Petra with the other half dozen people there.

A couple of times I stopped to take a photo I was approached by a local to take a photo for me.   I turned this generous offer down because here, at these tourist sites, nothing is free and they’d expect a tip at the end.

It only takes about 20 minutes to walk through Little Petra and back to the entrance so, by 10:00 I was ready to begin my trek to the back door of Petra.

Journey to the back door

From Little Petra, it’s just about an hour’s hike to traverse the 5km to get to the back door but most everyone opts to take a jeep for 5JOD ($10) that will drop you off literally right next to the back door.

As I came back into the entrance area I was immediately approached by people who offered to take me.

I just picked the first guy who asked and hopped into his vehicle.

Now, here’s where things get a bit interesting.

For one, this “jeep” was just this dude’s car and then he said something about “government” but I didn’t really understand the rest.

I figured, whatever, paid my 5JOD and we were soon off driving through the desert.

I surprised when, just 5 minutes later, we stopped at a little building with a gate at around the half way point to the back door.

I’d have to hike the rest of the way.

Well, shit.

Oh well, whatever.   I quickly figured out it was about a half hour walk to get to the back door and it was on flat land so I just sucked it up and went on my way.

I surmised later that the official government jeeps will actually take you all the way and that these guys were circumventing the official jeeps by getting to me first.

Apparently when he was talking about the government, what he was telling me was that only government vehicles can go all the way and he wouldn’t be able to.

So, off I went, trekking through the desert to the back door of Petra.

I was, of course, met up by a handful of men riding donkeys along the way offering to take me all the way to the Monastery.

In fact, throughout my trek, I was approached 6 different times and asked if I wanted to ride a donkey instead.

I don’t know, there’s just something about riding a donkey that seems cruel to me so I just turned all the offers down.

Finally, after walking for just over a half hour, I had finally reached the back door to Petra.

Walking to the Monastery

It was 10:45 and, while it felt like an accomplishment getting here, I still had a long hour plus hike along a pathway through the mountains to get to the Monastery.

700 steps to be precise.

My little map thingy said it was only two and a half kilometers but it also said it would take an hour and 48 minutes to get there.

As I started walking, it was pretty clear why it was going to take awhile.

There was alot of climbing up stairs only to then climb back door and so on.

I did take my advice and rested a handful of times and, of course, I drank alot of water.

When people talk about visiting this way, they don’t even mention that the views along the path are amazing.

I met maybe 10 or so people along the way as we all headed towards the Monastery.

Do you want a donkey ride?

No, thank you.

Hey, sir, where are you from?   Canada?   Do you want a donkey ride?

No, thank you.

Donkey ride?

No, thank you.

Eventually after about a half hour of walking, I came upon another man and his donkey and instead of offering me a ride, he said “you’re almost there, another 15 minutes, good luck!”

Well, hot damn, I was almost there!

And, sure enough, just 15 minutes later, as I rounded the bend, the majestic Monastery carved in the rockface appeared.

Despite what my map told me, it had only taken me 50 minutes to reach and that was with a handful of rest periods as well.

The Monastery

It was 11:45 and I had finally made it into Petra.

All of a sudden my solitary march through the mountain was met with a group of tourists milling around.

Granted, there were only probably a couple dozen people here, so it wasn’t as touristy as I imagine Petra gets to be at other times.

But this was the low season and, honestly, with everything happening next door in Israel, I’m pretty sure tourism to Jordan has dropped dramatically.

The Monastery itself was amazing.

I mean, words just can’t describe the fascinating architecture of this building carved from the red sandstone.

As with every building that I saw today, you couldn’t actually enter inside but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take a ridiculous amount of photos and videos.

In fact, I took over 150 of them today and you can find them all in the Photo Gallery at the end of this blog post.

Finding Todd

As I was walking those aforementioned 850 steps down from the Monastery, I came upon a man walking next to me.

We struck up a conversation which made the 30 minute walk pass by with ease.

He’s originally from Kitchener, Ontario in Canada but has lived in Sydney, Australia for the last 20 years.

On a quick 3 day jaunt to Jordan, he was power traveling through Amman, Petra, and Wadi Rum.

Oh, and the best part?

His name was Todd!

I kid you not!

Imagine, out of all the people to come across, I came across another guy named Todd.

I mean, it’s not like it’s that common of a name and I’ve personally probably only come across less than 10 of us over the years.

But here I was chatting with Todd as we walked through Petra.

Truly, I found Todd today!

So much beauty

At 12:30 we had reached the end of the steps and were now in what is called The Basin.

Since Todd (the other one) had already seen everything, he went off in a different direction from me.

We said our goodbyes and I was now on my own again.

The walk from here to the Treasury was about 2km but there was alot to see in between.

Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.   This isn’t the blog to read up about all the history about the things I saw.

Instead, here’s some photos of the different highlights on the road to the Treasury…

Humorously, I couldn’t find this place on my online map so I stopped for a minute under a shady tree to pull out the paper map I had gotten from the Visitors Center as they have photos of the different highlights on it.

Turns out that the tree I was sitting under was the actual Nymphaeum.

There was one more stop I was “supposed” to see called the High Place of Sacrifice.

When I looked up how to get there, unlike the other places that were within 10 minutes of each other, this one said it was a 54 minute walk away and, well, there was no way I was doing that.

Browsing for gifts

On my travels today I was always doing a quick browse of the different souvenir shops I passed.

I don’t normally buy souvenirs but I’ve kind of made it a thing to put together a little gift bag of souvenirs to give to the people who watch my cats while I’m away.

So, yeah, I’m always doing a quick once over whenever I pass a souvenir stand.

Pretty much every place was just offering the same junk souvenirs.   You know, the magnets and the jade bracelets and such.

I did, however, happen upon a place that had some cool handmade jewelry and one of them stood out to me.

I asked how much it was and she said it was 2.50JOD ($5).

Hmmm… seems reasonable.

I asked her if she would give me a discount if I bought three and that’s when I found out that the price she had quoted me was actually 250JOD ($500).

Hahahahahaha.

I quickly declined and told her I misunderstood her and started to walk away.

But, you know, salespeople that they are, she started dropping down here price.

And then she told me to offer her a price.

I just replied that any price I would tell her would be an insult to her since she was expecting 250JOD for it and I only wanted to pay a fraction of that price at 2.50JOD.

Even with that, it took quite awhile to detach myself from the situation and continue walking along.

Eventually I did find another place and the owner outside enticed me in with the proclamation that everything was 1JOD ($2).

Well, that was enough to get me to head inside her shop.

Of course, I was immediately met with the ‘ol bait and switch and was told the things I was looking at were actually 5JOD each.

Ha, ya got me!

I did end up buying 3 things and talking her down from 15JOD ($30) to half the price at 8JOD.

I know it was still way too much to pay for what I bought, but, hey, they were pretty cool souvenirs.

The Treasury

After walking past all the other sites, it was finally time to make my way that final stretch to the crown jewel of Petra.

The grand daddy of them all…

The Treasury!

At just after 2pm I turned the corner and there it was!

So magnificent and beautiful!

As I looked up things for this trip I had seen countless pictures and videos of the Treasury but it still took my breath away when I actually walked up to it.

Again, there were only a dozen or so people hovering around so I got to enjoy this site unencumbered.

Alot of people opt to pay someone to guide them up a hill on the opposite side to get “the shot” from themselves from above but, by this time, I was getting pretty tired and, honestly, I just felt I didn’t need that “shot”.

I was satisfied with everything.

I had set out on this long adventure today and, here I was hours later with it all accomplished.

Exiting Petra

Now, I say accomplished, but there was still the matter of a half hour walk back to the Visitors Center at the entrance to Petra.

Luckily most of that walk is through what is know as The Siq which is a winding narrow pathway that’s been carved out of the rock face.

I walked the entire stretch pretty much alone with the occasional golf cart passing by with people who had ponied up the 15JOD ($30) to avoid the walk.

Again, as with the walk from the back door, The Siq isn’t really given it’s due and is kind of overlooked as a highlight of Petra.

I’ll tell you though, the sheer majesty of how the route was carved out is so impressive and so, so photogenic.

Now, because I hadn’t previously entered through this way, I had no idea that The Siq didn’t take you directly back to the entrance.

It actually exits onto another normal pathway that eventually gets you there.

As I exited onto this pathway, I was immediately offered a “free” horse ride to the exit by a couple of different people.

It’s included with the ticket price, they would say.

Of course, as I said before, nothing is free and I’m sure there was a big tip expected at the end of the journey.

Eventually I was out of range of their constant hounding and I finally approached the exit.

It was 2:45 and, man, my feet were sore.

A late lunch

Luckily the place I’m staying at was a mere 5 minute walk away and I was able to stop in the attached restaurant next door pretty quickly.

The hostel/hotel had a special offer of free non-alcoholic drinks if you ordered a meal at their restaurant.

Well, sounds good to me.

Plus they had a good selection of genuine Jordanian dishes available.

Yes, I was still paying more than a meal should cost here in Jordan but I was also in the tourism capital of the country.

For lunch I was finally able to cross another dish off my list of Jordanian foods to try – Maglubah.

Maglubah is an serving of chicken and rice served upside down.

Yup, I got a little show with lunch today as Abed, my waiter, brought out an upside down pot sitting atop a plate.

He slowly lifted up the pot to reveal a tower, and I mean a tower, of chicken and rice.

Jesus!   How the hell am I gonna eat all that?!?

I did the best I could and eventually threw in the towel and headed back up to my room.

A late dinner

I got back to my room at 4:30 and, after a much needed long shower, I just crawled into bed to relax for awhile.

After a few videos and a little bit of trip planning, I was finally hungry again around 9:30 and headed back out to the same restaurant.

For dinner I was trying yet another new Jordanian dish, Kofta bi Tahini

The dish is flat kebab, or basically lamb patties, made with potatoes and tomato sauce.

Oh my God, another hit of a dish.

Man, the food here in Jordan is amazing!

I was also given a complimentary little dessert of Hareeseh which is a coconut and honey dessert made with semolina flour.

Yup, a celiac can have semolina flour.

And that was it!

By 10:30 I was back in my room and this epic day had come to an end.

Tomorrow I’ll have a later start as I head another 100km south to the village of Wadi Rum where I’ll be camping overnight in a authentic Bedouin camp.

Yup, I’m turning in my king size bed for a little cot in the middle of the desert.

Should be fun!