Petra & the Dead Sea

We flew from Cairo back to Amman and were met at the airport by a driver from the hotel we had pre-booked.  So easy, it was wonderful!  The hotel was outside of Amman at a place called Madaba which is near the Dead Sea. 

We really enjoyed the small town atmosphere of Madaba, with its yummy Arabic bakeries and shops selling Dead Sea mud and skin care.   We had a divine lamb kebab on our first night – unfortunately though not cheap.  Jordan’s currency is very strong to the Aussie dollar and everything here is crazy expensive – compared to Egypt anyway.

We were told over and over that because there was 6 of us that we couldn’t go anywhere in a normal taxi and that we would have to book a large car and driver, with the accompanying large price.  We decided to go out into the street and hail a taxi until we got one who would go where we wanted to go for a fair price with all of us in the car. 

No problem it turned out.  Off we drove to Mt Nebo from where Moses looked out across the Jordan Valley to Israel, the promised land.  It’s absolutely magnificent country around here.

Our next stop was Bethany – the site of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  Unfortunately, the information we had was old and the kids were not excited about the 3km walk to the site on what was a very hot day, while Paul was not excited about the $60 entry fee!    We weren’t sure what would be at the end of the walk so we decided to pass and head for the Dead Sea.

Our taxi driver took us to the beach but this is run by an organisation, which means you have to pay a fee to use the beach and the provided showers – for the 6 of us this totalled almost $100.  We were sure there was a public beach but our driver didn’t seem to know about it and after we drove up and down 3 times looking for a suitable spot, we ended up walking down the rocky edge of the road and just getting in.

It’s a very strange feeling – when you walk into the water it’s just like any other water except that your skin stings a little bit, but when you lower yourself into the water, it’s just like sitting in a chair!  You could easily float for ages without any effort.  It is very very salty.  It tastes disgusting and getting water into your eyes is definately not fun!

As we had elected to bypass paying the fees for the showers, we had to wait until we got back to the hotel.  By the time we got there, we were dry but the water had simply dried to salt on our skin.  Our skin looked like it was wet but when you rubbed it, it turned to powdery salt – couldn’t wait to have a shower by then!

Our next challenge was to get to Petra.  We believed there was a bus from Madaba but apparently the bus had had a little accident (over a ravine!) and was no longer running.  So now the only way we could get to Petra (about 3 hours away) was to go back to Amman and catch a bus or once again arrange the “big” car because “no taxi will take you because there are many checkpoints and they cannot take so many people in the car”.

We went out into the street, hailed a taxi, told him how much we wanted to spend and off we went.  We went through all the checkpoints and none of the police gave us a second glance.  It was a long drive with 7 of us jammed into a sedan but we saw a lot of scenery along the King’s Road which we wouldn’t have seen if we had taken the bus which goes along the faster desert road.

We also stopped at a roadside tent on the top of Wadi Mujib, where the owner Sami insisted on giving all the kids horse rides, Paul coffee and all of us gifts of bone jewellery.  In our experience in the Middle East, when someone says “this is my gift to you” is usually followed by “but if you want to help me feed my family, a small something from you is appreciated”.  However, Sami insisted he would not take them back but wouldn’t accept any moneyand that we should take them and remember the hospitality of Jordan.

Petra is magnificent.  It’s also hot, expensive and full of touts. My advice if you are planning on going there:  Save up; be prepared to be ripped off; be prepared to take deep breaths and if you’re going with kids, you probably won’t make it to the end of the walk.   If you go in the off season, your admission ticket will include a charge for a guide but you won’t get one (or a refund) – hence the need for the deep breaths etc – see list above!

To avoid paying the outrageous prices for accommodation and food to stay overnight, another option is to take the day trip by JETbus from Amman, which leaves at 6.30am and returns at 8.30pm (note that the admission fee to Petra gets higher for those not staying overnight, so you do get stung either way).

We took the returning JETbus up the Desert Highway and spent the night in Amman, preparing ourselves for the border crossing into Israel the next morning.