the beginnings of Wonderlust...Petra and the Dead Sea, Jordan

I cannot deny the most amazing thing about living in Abu Dhabi…has nothing to do with Abu Dhabi. I’ve been amazed with the UAE, I have. But for someone who has discovered that she has a little ‘wonderlust’ in her afterall, the most amazing thing about living in Abu Dhabi, is how easy it is to be ‘out’ of Abu Dhabi.

We apparently had a long weekend coming up. There was some debate over this. The actual holy day was Monday, May 26^th, but it was upto the government to decide to keep the holiday on that day, push it back to the Sunday (May 25^th), or place it on the following weekend (Thursday, May 29^th). Living in the Middle East, you have to be patient with announcements like this. Before it was confirmed Tara asked me, “Hey, do you wanna check out Petra on the long weekend coming up?”. Throwing caution into the wind, I decided to go for it, and was prepared to take a ‘sick day’ if needed. Now tell me, how can you take a 3 day weekend from Canada to Jordan? See what I mean?

Now, I may have known where we were going, but not really having a clue with what we were going to do until Tara asked me what clothes I was packing. Luckily she asked me ahead of time or else I would have ridden horseback in a sundress. I also must admit, that despite being a practicing Catholic (ok, much of my teaching career until I moved to Abu Dhabi), I was also the student all throughout high school falling asleep in religion classes (except for the likes of Mr. Kalenchuk and LaBatte, but even they couldn’t help me some days!). This didn’t change in adulthood through my religious specialist courses. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot do the Holy Lands justice in it’s environment, the centuries of war and politics, the Middle Eastern way of thinking and culture, and so much more from the Canadian classroom. I am by no means any kind of an expert now, but I can now confidently say that I have started to chip away at the challenge of beginning to understand. If I’m ever teaching religious education in the Canadian classroom again, I hope I’m able to inspire my students to see Jordan and surrounding areas for themselves.

Last Thursday evening, we took off from Abu Dhabi, and arrived in Amman, Jordan. Our first hotel was called Petra Moon and was located footsteps from the entrance of Petra. Getting there may have been an invisible challenge. We rented a car and were confident in the GPS. At first, it seemed easy. Before we knew it, we were in the dark besides our headlights, and the only ones on the road besides a few that respectfully passed us along the way. The roads seemed narrow, but we couldn’t be too sure. One giveaway was the popping of our ears. We must have been hitting some pretty high altitudes. The man behind the desk at Petra Moon welcomed us with a smile and said we didn’t even have to show him our passports. He had our reservation and showed us how to get to our room. Quickly we were in bed as tomorrow was going to be filled with walking and mule-

riding.

Well rested, we picked up our friend who came along but stayed at a different hotel, and ma

 way to the entrance of the once forgotten ancient city of Petra. Before long, we were talking to a group of local men who owned their own horses and made a living taking tourists up and around the countryside and down the steps of Petra on horseback. We negotiated a price and wer

e on our way. Once on the first hill we could see our hotel and the entire region from above. The layers of sediment, rose coloured rock will always be in my memory. Although all 3 of us were comfortable on the horses, worry struck when we realized we were alone. There were no other tourists in sight. About half way through, wanting to turn around because of uncertainty, we knew we had to keep going. Our tour guides were great; they took our photos, stopped to tell us what we were looking at, helped us on and off the horses (there were times the rocks were too steep for the horses to carry people AND keep their balance at the same time), and were ready to stop and disinfect a nasty wound. We were down to 2 tour guides for a while and then it was time to say goodbye to Khalid. He would take our horses, Suzie (mine), Suzanna (Tara’s), and Sherri’s to a resting spot while our main guide, Yusuf, would take us down the steps of Petra and into the area of the Treasury.

As our initial plan was to take mules UP the steps, I’m glad that we went the way we did and walked DOWN the steps. A dear friend back home wanted a simple souvenir in the form of rocks (if it was allowed). The rocks of Petra are like no other. We came across a number of loose rocks, but none that were small enough to fit in Tara’s backpack (LOL). To our delight, our guide picked up our favourite, easily crushed it, and gave pieces to each of us to take back. I’m not quite sure if this is actually allowed so ssssshhhh.

Once we were near the bottom, we came to the beginning of the lost city. Despite 2000 years of wind, flashfloods, and deterioration, much can still be seen. The steps of the old amphitheater, numerous houses carved out of the rock with family tombs above (I confirmed with our tour guides later that the Nabateans believed it was so the dead could be closer to God), and places of worship could easily be made out. After stopping to rest at a snack and drink area, we were on our way to the treasury. You've seen pictures, you know what to expect, but your mouth still drops in awe and amazement at the incredible skill and craftsmanship it must have taken to create such a magnificent piece of work. The rock being soft was made even more pliable by adding water. We also learned that it was carved from the top down rather than the bottom up. Even though it was made more possible to our imaginations, I still struggle to picture this being done before any modern 

technology.

Our travels continued after the treasury to what seemed to be a never ending winding trail of lowlands in between high cliffs. The sun was always shining brightly but hidden away from us at times. It was amazing to see the odd tree and flowering bush against the seemingly barren rock. I was also taken a back by their water system that lay against the walls of the rock at about waist height that was carried out all through Petra. It would have taken incredible ingenuity to manipulate the water by a dam and have it run through the city. No wonder it has been named one of the New 

Wonders of the World and a protected site of UNESCO.

Our tour guide Yusuf got us back to the gates. We said our goodbyes with a picture, and were on our way to lunch. Well fed, we were going to be back on the road on our way to the Dead Sea. Trusting our GPS again, we were about to encounter a very bumpy ride. The roads outside of Petra were not congested, similar to the night before, and now we figured that we had the advantage of daylight so we can now see where we were going. We saw numerous Bedouin settlements and camel crossings, even the random camel. We could feel our ears pop again as we headed down the twisty mountain terrain and we knew we were on our way. We thought we may have hit a snag in getting to a gravel road. This turned out to be our travel for just over an our. We figured that due to the flash floods suffered by the area, we were now driving on ‘roads’ that are sometimes a seabed. Chunks of the road were missing at times, and we were all silently praying for us not to go off the edge, get stuck in a pothole, or have one of the tires blow. Tara was driving, 

and she did great, but no roads should be like the ones we were on.

Once down the mountain, it may only have been a turn or two, and we were on the coast of the Dead Sea. The water was shining as if it were a sheet of diamonds. Before too long, we got out to take a picture of the coastline. We knew our hotels would be close to the Dead Sea, but weren't sure of any views or accesses as of yet.

Tired, we came to our hotels, checked in, relaxed, had dinner, and were in for the night. There was something that we noticed about the main road along the coast near where we were staying. Even within the hotels, there seemed to have been heightened security measures in place. Tara’s fingerprints were taken off the steering wheel upon entering the hotel parking lot, airport-like scanners in the hotel’s lobby entrance, and military personnel on the street. We were wondering if Jordan was always like this as tensions always seem to pester the Middle Eastern regions. Then, we opened Facebook. There were numerous posts of the Pope meeting with a Muslim and Jewish leader, and holding mass…yes…right here at the edge of the Dead Sea….a mere 5 kilometers away. There were no actual dates or calendars for His schedule, so we figured his mass that he was leading must have been on Sunday. Friday night was coming to an end, and we looked forward to taking a dip in the infamous Dead Sea where the salt concentration is so high, you have no choice but to let yourself go, and float.

Our hotel, despite being on the coast, had no current access to the sea. Luckily for us, Sherri’s 

hotel did. So we were off to sea what this was all about, getting a daypass to let us in for the day. Hot mud awaited us. It was difficult to keep your balance (in the salty water, and trying to walk on the natural rocky terrain). The water itself was warm with cold spots but relaxing. The cool breeze and temperatures under 35C are some things that we have missed in the UAE since the winter months. We weren’t sure how Tara was going to be after being hurt the day before by the unforgiving rocks of Petra, but luckily, she was ok and we were all able to enjoy ourselves flopping around on the top of the water.

Next, we had lunch and decided to follow the GPS/signs that we saw to THE Baptismal site that we noticed on the way in. Just further on down the road, there seemed to be a soldier every 20 meters or so. Maybe they were here a day early? Then, we noticed a bishop on the side of the road talking on his mobile. We knew we happened to pick the luckiest (or unluckiest) day to visit the site. As the Pope was holding mass Saturday evening, there was no way we were going to get passed the gates. The guards were nice about it, allowed me to take a quick picture, and had us turn around. Our flights were in the morning so we tried again by being there at open, but the tours didn’t start until later, and there was no way that they were going to let us go down to the site on our own. We had somewhat heavy hearts leaving the Dead Sea and making our way to the airport, but we knew that we would be back. Across the Dead Sea, Israel is visible. At the Southern end of the Dead Sea, it was the site where Lot took refuge. Along the way we would see The Prophet’s Cave. We know that we are going to be back. Besides…from Abu Dhabi…all you need is a long weekend to help see the world.