10/1/2011
Retired early last night to try and recover from this rotten cold. We had dinner at the Hotel, $9AU each for a full buffet. The selection wasn't great, but the food was very tasty. Went to bed around 9.30pm and didn’t get up till 7am. Didn’t do much good, as we still feel terrible. After a buffet breakfast we make our way to Petra. It is only a 2 minute drive from the hotel.

I have already been prepared for the outrageous price it is to visit Petra. $75AU each. It’s a bloody rip-off. The government in Jordan is really milking the tourist. It wasn’t that long ago, the admission was only $1.50AU. According to the government this is a way of preserving the site by raising the fee so high, it will limit the number of people that want to visit the site. If you are a day visitor (not staying at a hotel for the night) the admission is $135AU.

Anyway enough of the admission fee. Aya gave us a tip when we visit Petra. She told us not to stop at any of the sites, but to walk past them all and go straight to the Monastery (Al-Dier),which is pretty much at the end of the valley, and walk back slowly taking in all the sites.. We continued further up the mountain to what’s called The End of the World. An amazing lookout. Stopped here for a while to catch our breath, as we are about 1.2ks above sea level.

Now we start the slow walk back taking in all the amazing rock carvings, structures, and brilliant colours of the stone. The Treasury is a work of art. The place is full of Bedouin people trying to sell their products, or offering horse or donkey rides. This gave the place an interesting atmosphere. I bought a Jordanian head scarf (only because I forgot to take a hat), so I blended in. It is an amazing place, and I don’t think we will fully appreciate it for some time to come.

We arrived at Petra at 8am, and didn’t leave till 4.30pm. Alan had a GPS monitoring our distance travelled. We walked approximately 16 to 18ks, not all flat walking either. There is a lot of inclines and a many, many steps. Even Aya agreed that we would have walked up to 20ks. Now normally I would probably need some sort of medical attention after walking this far, but it was done at a slow pace. Considering our state of health we did well. Mind you I did have a lot of rest stops.

We were speaking to Aya when we arrived back at the hotel, and she informed us that summer just gone, they experienced 7 days straight of 50 degrees C. The hottest day was 59C. She had people fainting in the foyer. Even the locals have never seen anything like it. The temperate today was in the low teen’s, so we need a jacket in the shade, but that cam off very quickly when we starting climbing up to the lookouts and sights.

We have just returned from the buffet diner the hotel puts on. The food was very tasty, all cooked with lots of interesting spices. We did need a good feed tonight, as we burnt a lot of calories today. Hopefully we won’t wake up to sore tomorrow. I also hope that we will also be feeling a lot better.

Tomorrow we are driving to Amman. Will be about a 4 hour drive, as I will be taking the most direct, fastest route.