Little Petra and a Rest Day
07.03.2010
Hillary and I met up this morning after breakfast to go to Little Petra, which is about a 15 minute taxi ride away. It’s free to get in and there are less tourists than Petra proper. We shared a taxi to save money and also to be safer. The Bedouins “operate” Little Petra and it is well known that single female travelers sometimes have “issues” with them. All of the guidebooks recommend not going out there alone if you are a woman. Ibrahim, the co-owner of the hostel, called us a cab and negotiated a price of 15JD for the two of us. This included the taxi driver taking us to Little Petra, waiting for us while we walked around for an hour and bringing us back to Wadi Musa. It was a pretty good deal.
The cab driver was very nice. He stopped several times so we could get out of the car and take pictures. We arrived at Little Petra and agreed on a time to meet up to go back. Hillary had forgotten to change her sandals so we decided to take it easy on some of the scrambles we came across. We walked straight back to the main sight, up a moderately difficult rock formation, and past a Bedouin woman’s table of goods for sale. The view was pretty cool and there were hardly any other tourists there. On our way back to the taxi, Hillary and I stopped at the Bedouin woman’s table and Hillary bought two bracelets to help out the woman.
We made it back to the hostel by late morning and I had decided this was going to be a day of rest for me. I basically hung out in the hostel for the rest of the day working on planning the next steps of my trip. I left a few times to go get a soda or some sweets. I also watched the World Cup game between Argentina and Brazil, as well as the one between Germany and Uruguay. The Jordanians are big soccer fans, it seems! We had the internet café across the street from the hostel full of Jordanians, as well as travelers from the UK, Spain and I was the sole American (and one of two females!)
Hillary hadn’t been feeling well, so she went up to her room for the remainder of the day. She had mentioned to Gail, the co-owner of the hostel, that she and her friend Jen were going to be driving back to Amman the next day. My ears had perked up and I asked if I could hitch along for the ride. I offered to pay for gas and whatnot. Hillary and Jen both warned me about the car they had rented and had to PUSH up hills on the way here from Amman! They also had plans to stop at a University on the way back to look for a book for Jen’s graduate studies. I told them it sounded fine to me, that I was up for the challenge and looking for adventure. Their response: “Oh, you’ll get an adventure!” I didn’t realize how true that statement was going to be
Hillary and I met up this morning after breakfast to go to Little Petra, which is about a 15 minute taxi ride away. It’s free to get in and there are less tourists than Petra proper. We shared a taxi to save money and also to be safer. The Bedouins “operate” Little Petra and it is well known that single female travelers sometimes have “issues” with them. All of the guidebooks recommend not going out there alone if you are a woman. Ibrahim, the co-owner of the hostel, called us a cab and negotiated a price of 15JD for the two of us. This included the taxi driver taking us to Little Petra, waiting for us while we walked around for an hour and bringing us back to Wadi Musa. It was a pretty good deal.
The cab driver was very nice. He stopped several times so we could get out of the car and take pictures. We arrived at Little Petra and agreed on a time to meet up to go back. Hillary had forgotten to change her sandals so we decided to take it easy on some of the scrambles we came across. We walked straight back to the main sight, up a moderately difficult rock formation, and past a Bedouin woman’s table of goods for sale. The view was pretty cool and there were hardly any other tourists there. On our way back to the taxi, Hillary and I stopped at the Bedouin woman’s table and Hillary bought two bracelets to help out the woman.
We made it back to the hostel by late morning and I had decided this was going to be a day of rest for me. I basically hung out in the hostel for the rest of the day working on planning the next steps of my trip. I left a few times to go get a soda or some sweets. I also watched the World Cup game between Argentina and Brazil, as well as the one between Germany and Uruguay. The Jordanians are big soccer fans, it seems! We had the internet café across the street from the hostel full of Jordanians, as well as travelers from the UK, Spain and I was the sole American (and one of two females!)
Hillary hadn’t been feeling well, so she went up to her room for the remainder of the day. She had mentioned to Gail, the co-owner of the hostel, that she and her friend Jen were going to be driving back to Amman the next day. My ears had perked up and I asked if I could hitch along for the ride. I offered to pay for gas and whatnot. Hillary and Jen both warned me about the car they had rented and had to PUSH up hills on the way here from Amman! They also had plans to stop at a University on the way back to look for a book for Jen’s graduate studies. I told them it sounded fine to me, that I was up for the challenge and looking for adventure. Their response: “Oh, you’ll get an adventure!” I didn’t realize how true that statement was going to be