Travel Bugs

Finally, the pièce de résistance, a place I have been hoping to see for a decade: Petra and more specifically, the famous Treasury. Wow, what a wonder! It is such an achievement for me to visit wonders-of-the-world and I was very excited to see this one. I’ve always wanted to see it because it fascinates me when impressive structures are carved into rock, like Michelangelo releasing his sculptures from marble. The sandy golden colour, the reverence of the canyon…all seem so exotic.

We stayed at a hotel a five-minute walk away from the visitor’s centre. We politely declined all the hopeful taxi drivers wanting us to take us ‘the back way’ so that we could walk more easily to ‘the Monastery’. We knew this would happen and just ignored them as kindly as we could. We wanted to do the 2.5kms walk (from our hotel) to the Treasury. It’s part of the experience. We also had to decline about three or four repetitive offers to ride a horse the ‘long distance’ to the Treasury. We started to wonder if we were looking a bit infirm, with all the offers of rides that we got.

Walking through the canyon is an experience itself. The path is fairly easy to navigate; paved in some places, hard-packed earth in others, flat stoned areas as well. We bought a three-day pass and walked the distance back and forth each day. Our first morning we were keen-beans so started our walk around 8am. It was chilly, being December, and there were hardly any other people. I think we saw two other tourists but plenty of workers—guards, cleaners (the whole canyon is fastidiously barren of rubbish which I really appreciated), and café or shop owners who were driven in by golf carts which whizzed past us and whose electronic whirrs echoed throughout the canyon, somewhat changing the ethereal ambiance of the place, but thankfully being short-lived.

The first slip of a glimpse I got of the Treasury made my heart flutter and I immediately took up my camera. We were lucky to see it with only a few other people around. We were also offered to have a camel experience, and, we were greeted by three kittens who call the area around the Treasury home. One in particular, took a liking to Callum, instantly finding a warm place on his lap. We spent some time appreciating the place before having a look around at other sites.

The area of Petra is a lot bigger than either of us imagined. It has a lot to discover, and we took our time climbing up different pathways, poking our heads into carved buildings, and trying to find where the trailhead was to see the Treasury from above. We found it eventually. Though it was steep and we had to take several breaks to catch our breath, it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the top.

This is the view that I had been dreaming about for all those years. We were alone save for two guards in police uniform and a cat I named Philomena who like the one down below, made friends with Callum the moment he sat down to appreciate the view. We spent about an hour up there, taking it in. I popped around the corner and did a sneaky costume change so I could pose in my green dress I brought with me. I thought the contrasting green would look nice against the ruddy rocks and dirt. I don’t always seek to get the attractive Instagram picture, but if I’m going to do it, I need the right outfit. Since no one else was around, it was not an inconvenience to anyone, and Callum long-ago learned the lesson that it is important to get the pictures you truly want, because you might never return to the same place again in your life.

We hiked back down to ground level and made our way out of the park, aiming to get back to our hotel room for a rest and to take it easy. We bought the three-day pass and didn’t need to rush seeing everything in one day. Besides, we were ready to have post-lunch naps at this point in our trip. We both realised we were still recovering from the previous school year.

Before we left though, I stopped at one of the many shops to have a look. On our way through I noticed that one shop owner was a woman, and she had greeted me with ‘It’s free to look, don’t worry’, which is something I say to my patrons when I’m a shop keeper at markets. (For those of you who don’t know, I am an artist and I sometimes frequent farmer’s and art markets selling my prints and products in Australia.) I gave a friendly wave and made a mental note to browse after our hike.

I bought a necklace from a man in the shop next to hers (10 JD after explaining that not all white tourists have USD and that our Aussie exchange rate wasn’t that great—he wanted 25 JD from me!) and then bought a pair of earrings at Amal’s shop where we had a good conversation, and she seemed like a genuine person. She explained that she was one of 7 women who took care of her shop, and that she thought I was a good person because I didn’t look down on her. She wanted a lot more money than I wanted to give for the earrings, but, as she explained, it would go a long way to improve the lives of those running the shop and that it would be the first sale of her day. It was already nearly 2pm. The park closes at 5pm. I gave her the 15 JD she insisted on (down from 20 JD) and left feeling only slightly ripped off, but mostly positive about the exchange.

The next couple days showed me that there are some lines that these shop-keepers have learned: “I’m a single mother, women support women, support local people,” etc. It’s hard to know when people are being genuine.

Our second day we started a bit later in the morning and hiked to the Monastery, which was a much longer and tougher hike than either of us anticipated. It was also the half of the park where we were beckoned to buy things a lot more than the first half. It was a bit dingier with hundreds of tents and people selling wares that were all exactly the same.

 “Come visit my shop, after! I’ll wait for you,” was a common phrase we heard. This is something I don’t understand about travelling around the world. Why do all the souvenir shops sell the exact same thing? We saw pashminas, silver camels, beaded jewellery, cheap arcade-prize rings, and the same five magnet designs over and over. I wish every person sold different things. I also wish the prices were fixed and posted or tagged. I want to say to everyone selling souvenirs: if you priced your items and sold different stuff to the guy next to you, I’d buy more stuff.

It’s still intimidating for me to barter, especially when I am 100% more well-off than the people I purchase from. I don’t want to be ripped off; I don’t want to rip anyone off. I want to pay a fair and truthful price for the golden camel in the window, and I want to feel good about it! Is that so much to ask?

I digress. We got to the Monastery and tried to enjoy the view. We met some cute dogs and some less-cute teenagers, as well as a very chatty woman clothed in a niqab and her pet kitten Luna, who—gasp—took a liking to me and sat on my lap comfortably. The woman was friendly enough but along with the friendliness there was an aura of deception. I participated half-heartedly with her while Callum disengaged. He was getting tired of saying ‘no’ to people, and wished he could tell them to f-off. We are way too nice to actually do that though. About 30 minutes later, she finally got the hint that we didn’t want to talk to her and she left us alone with a final ‘enjoy the view’. I managed to get Callum smiling for a picture that I set up with our tripod and we did take a moment to enjoy the view, unaccompanied besides a menagerie of furry friends.

We went on the hunt for lunch but I came to the conclusion that if I held out until we exited the park, we’d get a lot more food for a lot less money than what was on offer. Jordan was a cheaper country to be in, but, at tourist sights everything was a lot more expensive, of course.

The third day we went back to the Treasury where we did another couple of photoshoots (with a costume change again). We waited for this as we thought the weather would be better on our third day and we wanted us much sun as possible. It was still very cold—without gloves your hands would get too cold—but I braved it for the pictures I hoped for. We also did a camel experience. It cost us 10 JD (about  $24 AUD) to get on the camels and have several photos taken with our camera and phones, and walk around for five minutes. It’s pretty expensive and I am not sure how ethical it is. I did some research about camel rides in Jordan and wished we could have afforded to do it in the Wadi Rum, but that was out of our price range (especially after paying for the 4-hour tour). The camels we sat on seemed healthy. The government does encourage tourists to report people if they seem to mistreat their animals, so this gives me hope that I didn’t perpetuate some sort of nefarious business venture where camels are tortured and then bedazzled with intricate carpets and pom-poms. I do like the pictures we got.

I worked in my sketchbook for the next hour and a half and Callum did some further exploring and hiking. We met up around lunch time and said our final goodbyes to the Treasury. It is truly a remarkable place and though it is by far the most expensive wonder-of-the-world, it was worth it.

For those of you interested but not enough to research it yourself, here is a table I compiled of the 7 Wonders and their entry tickets. For fun, it’s in the order that I have seen them (or not–we have never been to China, so the information I got for the Great Wall is pure research, not based on experience).

Wonder	Location	Entry	Hours	Difficulty	Thoughts
The Colosseum	Rome, Italy	18 Euros ($30 AUD) *includes entry into Roman Forum and Palatine Hill	7 days a week	Easy. Train station right outside of site. Queues are long but there are multiple entry points.	Grand but hard to enjoy because of so many people. Go early in the morning.
The Taj Mahal	Agra, India	1100 INR ($20 AUD) *200 INR extra to see main mausoleum ($3.69 AUD)	Closed Fridays	Long walk; we took a tuk-tuk. Several entrances; different lines for foreigners	Go as early as possible (even lining up while it’s still dark) to get the pics you want. Definitely the most beautiful building.
Christ the Redeemer	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	56-65 BRL ($15.50-$19 AUD) *includes train up and down	7 days a week	A bit complicated. We visited through a tour, so we were driven up in a van.	It is actually so big. Lots of tourists. Great view of Rio (if there are no clouds).
Machu Picchu	Cusco, Peru	152 Sol ($65 AUD)	7 days a week	Very complicated. Books out long in advance. Different tickets to view it from different angles. Requires a lot of planning.	It’s accessible via the town of Aguas Calientes, or a very long day-trip from Cusco where a bus, train, and a bus. Worth it; looks amazing. Very cool place.
Chichen Itza	Yucatan, Mexico	648 Mxn ($50 AUD)	7 days a week	Easy. Will need a taxi to get there.	Seems overrated. We didn’t use a guide and perhaps should have. Long lines to buy tickets in June. (Consider pre-booking and paying a bit extra to do so.)
Treasury at Petra	Petra, Jordan	50-55-60 JD (1 day, 2 day, 3 day) ($112-$123-$135 AUD)	7 days a week	Simple if you stay in Wadi Musa. Easy to walk there, or there are multiple taxis around.	*Jordan Pass gets you into multiple sites & gets the visa into the country: 70,75, 80 JD ($157, $168, $180 AUD) *We bought the most expensive Jordan Pass to get us in multiple sites and have 3 days at Petra
The Great Wall of China	China	40 CNY ($8.73 AUD)		A bit complicated. Many places to visit. Most popular is Badaling. Mutianyu is less crowded. Many transportation types seems to be required (for Mutianyu).	To get there you will need a bus ($6.50 AUD one way), a taxi ($1 AUD), then a shuttle bus ($3.28 AUD), and a cable car or chair lift ($26.20 both ways)

We loved our time in Petra and would highly encourage others to visit. There is more to see and do than just looking at the Treasury. By the way, we could have seen it at night with candlelight which is a popular tourist trap. After much deliberation (and blog reading of other people’s opinions), we decided to forgo the expensive experience. Seeing it in the daylight was enough for me and for once I didn’t feel FOMO about not returning at night. Besides, with all the walking, cold temperatures, and the picture editing I have been doing, another activity at night would have taken away time and energy that I wasn’t willing to give up.

Jordan as a whole was fantastic and will go down in our personal history as a favourite country we have visited. The next part of our trip was a complete surprise to me! I had no idea where we were flying the next day…