Breakfast at 6am (Aqaba/Jordan days start at 6am, Petra opens at 6am) and collected by Isham, our taxi driver, at 6.30am for our 2 hour drive to Petra. He stopped at a tourist shop along the way but we didn't buy anything. We arrived a Petra at 8.30am. What a tourist trap! All along the walk down we had to keep saying "no" to the men who tried to talk us into having horse rides.
From the entrance to the Siq (where we paid 20 dinars = $40 each) we were saying no constantly to men and boys with donkeys and the horses with carts. From the treasure onwards it was donkeys and camels.

BUT, the siq was fascinating - they experience flash floods Oct-Apr (and people can drown) and the ancient Nabataens introduced water management. The tomb facades were incredible, the whole walk down to their temple - the Qasr el bint - was fascinating. They had colonnaded streets, and the ruins of ancient shops, and an ancient Roman ampitheatre. Also along the way were locals with their little stalls with jewellery, and nic-nacs and kodak film!! Not to mention the camels and donkeys for rides, and the little old man hiding behind the rock in the ampitheatre jumping out at tourists to sell them ancient coins!! There were lots of Tourist Police keeping a check on the avaricious locals. When we arrived at the end of the valley, the end of the trek, there was a five star air-conditioned restaurant with lots of waiters in white shirts and jackets!! We sat under a gum tree and absorbed the atmosphere before making our way back (12 noon in the desert sun!!!) slowly. The whole valley was wonderful, interesting and amazing. There were so many people there, including Jordanian school excursions! The women have a variety of head-dress - from a simple scarf, to a veil, to a veil with a v-shaped front on their bodice, a veil with face covering so you can see only the eyes, and today we saw a lady with a total veil and no eyeslits. The ones with the total veil, or the veil with the eye slits, also wear gloves and leg coverings so that you cannot see ankles or wrists.

We were supposed to meet Isham at 2pm at the Indiana Jones souvenir shop, so we walked steadily. At the exit of the siq we weakened and were offered horse rides for 2 dinar each. Tom bargained them down to 1 dinar each, we got on the horses and, at the time of giving the change, they argued us back up to the 2 dinars each and then continued, all the way to the top, to tell about his 10 hungry children and how hard he works to try and feed his 10 hungry children. They wanted more money when we got off the horses, but we said no and walked away. We bought postcard stamps, got more Petra maps, and then paid 1 dinar each for a coke!!! What a rip off!!! (we later bought 3 cokes, 2 bottles of water and 3 packets of chips for 3 dinar total at Hannads supermarket!!). Thank heavens we took our own water and lunch!!

We waited for Ishman at Indiana Jones for 20 mins - that little man told us that he has 20 brothers and sisters (and 2 mothers) - 1 brother is a dentist there in Wadi Musa, 1 brother is in the diplomatic service and his father is a sheikh????

We wandered back to the taxi after buying 2 caps (for Jess and Courtney) from Indiana, and then Isman turned up. He had to find 2 other taxi drivers so we could get out. We impressed upon him how tired we were - so he just drove us back to Aqaba without stopping. There was a bit of a sandstorm blowing across the highway for most of the way. Ishman wanted to take us to Wadi Musia, or shopping, and we had to say no several times. We went and bought some food for dinner, showered (we were filfthy - Petra dust and sandstorm sand all over us) - then sat and ate, drank scotch and coke, and relaxed! We were in bed and asleep at 7.30pm!!! Such a day - the beauty of the stone, the wonder of the precise carving, the marvel at the history and the continual assertive "no" to horse/cart/camel/donkey drivers, jewellery sellers and our taxi driver!!!