October 12, 2016

Sabah al-khair (good morning)...good news....you are reading this blog so it means I survived the 6 mile trek in and out of Petra. And as Lyle Doherty told Gary it is indeed a highlight for anyone travelling to this part of the world.

So where are we? We docked at 6:00 am in Aqaba (population about 100,000) the port for Jordan. Just next door, and I mean literally, is Eilat, the port for Israel. Jordan is a small country with a population of 9 million plus 2 million mostly Syrian refugees in the northern part. One of the camps has over 1 1/2 million refugees...Vancouver and Burnaby combined is about a million. Just trying to comprehend the scale of the issue facing this tiny country. Aqaba's economy rests on transport and tourism.

Our young driver Osama said having so many refugees was a problem because they take up jobs and drive the wages down. On the other hand he said thank Allah that Jordan never had any oil so the USA, Britain, France and Russia did not fight over them. And he added Muslims are taught every Muslim is a brother so you must help them. So asked Gary "What about Saudi Arabia...how many refugees have they taken?" None says Osama..."Even I am not allowed to go there and they make it really unpleasant for the pilgrims to Mecca...treat them dreadfully. Holy land; bad people" was his comment.. As for him, Osama prefers to holiday in southern Israel! "

Osama picked us up dockside at 7:00 am and we headed north to Petra 120 kms away. The southern half of the journey was on the main and only highway to Amman, the capital of Jordan, and was filled with transport trucks heading north from the port to Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. It felt like there were trucks, tourist busses and us. We turned off on to the Kings Highway and we were on our own as we zipped across ridges looking down on valleys. small settlements and a couple of Bedouin camps.

By 9:15 Gary and I joined a few other tourists at the Visitors' Centre at Petra to begin our "pilgrimage" to see the lost city. I think I should introduce you to Petra just on the off chance you have only vaguely heard of it, or if like us it has never been on your must see list.

Petra is more than 2.000 years old and began to prosper as the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC through the trade in frankincense, myrrh and spices. Caravans of 1,000 to 2,000 camels brought goods for trade to Petra to then be shipped north and west...to Greece and the Mediterranean area and east to India. It could be called the Arabian counterpart to the Silk Road of Central Asia. I included a map showing the ancient trade routes; they converge on Petra.

Petra, like many great cities at the time, was annexed to the Roman Empire and continued to thrive until a large earthquake in 363 AD destroyed much of the city and trade routes moved to the sea, leading to its downfall and abandonment by the 7th century. It was "rediscovered" in 1812 and since then has been attracting visitors.

Petra is known as "the rose red-city" from the shades of sandstone many of its structures were carved from. Sedona in Arizona or the parks in Utah are the places I have visited with a similar colour of rock.

The Nabataeans buried their dead in intricate tombs that were cut out of the mountain sides. The city also has temples, a theatre, and following Roman annexation and later Byzantine influence, a colonnaded street and churches. Many of the monuments including the Treasury are remarkably preserved today. Gary and I thought the site was absolutely magnificent and surpassed in terms of carved detail ancient sites we have seen in Cambodia or Machu Picchu. No doubt the dry climate has helped...no trees or roots growing through and around Petra temples.

We began the gradual downward trail for 1 1/2 km until we reached the gateway to the Siq, the spectacular gorge that leads into the city. As we approached the Siq we passed the first massive blocks or squared monuments carved from rock in first century AD and a dam that was built to divert the flash floods from the Siq. A tunnel 88 meters in length was cut into the rock for this purpose by the Nabataeans. There were also two springs 5 miles away which were damed, diverted and brought to Petra via aqueducts and ceramic tiled courses sloping at 4% and channels cut to collect rain water. It has been estimated that 12,000,000 gallons of water per day were fed into Petra for a population of 20-30.000 at the peak. These guys were superb water engineers.

The Siq is absolutely stunning. It is the triumphant entrance to the city through which caravans
passed. Before the earthquake there was a triumphal arch. In part there is an ancient paved road. Two rock carved water channels run on either side. The Siq is a a full kilometre...as we walked donkeys pulling carts rushed by us carrying folks up and down...we stepped quickly out of the way. We were ahead of the crowds so we enjoyed a cool lovely morning stroll down.

 
 
 
We rounded a corner looking at the ground as so instructed by our guide and then looked up to see our first glimpses of the Treasury. It is not a sight we will forget soon. It's carved features stood out in the morning sunlight. I of course, have a photo of Gary documenting the moment. To create the Treasury, the artisans started with the massive rock face, removing thousands of tons of sandstone. What remained is what you see, an intricately decorated facade showing the Greek influence with Corinth columns. The Bedouins thought the funeral urn at the top contained gold so tried to scale it or shoot it off. Alas...only stone.
 
 
 
Oops...just tried writing this on our deck but the water condenses on the screen...so back into air conditioning. We are cruising down the Red Sea...33 degrees and very humid...alert on our door about our pirate drill tomorrow...sounds like flee to your stateroom at 10:00 am, secure all doors and if you can fit under the bed with your suitcases do so. Maybe not the latter but you get my drift. Friends with an inside cabin said we could join them and drink wine since no pirate would ever check an inside stateroom. Joking aside, tomorrow we do go through the waters where there were a few years ago pirate assaults on ships. Gary says he has been told there is a "robust" plan in case of anything remotely looking like a Somali pirate ship.

Continuing on down the valley we found what is called the "Street of Facades" and the Theatre. The facades are monumental carved tombs. The theatre is carved into the side of a sacred mountain on the south side and could have seated 4000 spectators. By this time Gary and the guide had climbed up opposite the theatre so Gary could take panoramic photos. I thought, since my hip wasn't hurting and I had forgot the Advil I would be smart to continue on the level.

After Gary, the guide and I reunited we sat for a while sipping minted lemonade (could have been the popular pomegranate lemonade) facing the Royal Tombs...four magnificent facades facing us on the central route into the city. We could have hiked up...20 years ago.

A little further along we got to the Colonnaded Street which was an original Nabatean creation, later refurbished during the Roman occupation. It would have been one of the principal shopping streets of ancient Petra. This was where the bartering was done. The houses, unlike the tombs, we're not carved in stone, but were built of stone. They were destroyed in the earthquake.

At this point we looked at our watches, figured out how long Doreen would take to walk back through Petra, the Siq and the entrance way down, and turned around. We left the Great Temple and the Monastery for our next life.

The way back seemed quite full of tourists...but in fact I guess not. If our cruise ship had not been there Petra would have been very quiet. Since the Arab Spring tourism is down 80% at Petra. Now is the time to go. I did get back up again to Jeff's Book Store by 12:30 but it was a bit of a struggle for me...the kms back seemed to have doubled. Gary was patient. A beer and lunch and I revived...so onward.

A final,word...Petra was named a World Heritage Site in 1985, and placed on these various lists as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient world and on a BBC and a Smithsonian list of places to see before you die. Tourism being down it is the time to come. We can recommend Memphis Tours. Operational since 1957. We had a car and driver and guides in both Petra and Wadi Rum. Thanks Dan and Barb for the tip.

Wadi Rum

So at 1:20 we embarked on the second leg of our adventure...onward to Wadi Rum. A few hours in the car flying back over the Kings Highway and we were at Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Jordanians say it is one of the most impressive desert landscapes in the world. It covers 182 acres and sits on the edge of massive mountains whose 1,000-foot ridges have been worn smooth by the desert winds. It is formidably barren.

This is where T. E. Lawrence set up camp prior to leading the rebellion in 1917. It was also the stunning backdrop to the classic 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole. More recently The Martian was filmed here. It is amazing to travel through an area so well documented in books and films.

We climbed into the back of a 4-wheel drive Toyota pickup truck for our 2 hour drive across the desert. The area has been turned over to the Bedouins for operating...so the trip came with Bedouin tents, camels and woven carpets, as well as spectacular desert vistas.

We bounced and jostled up and down over the red sand...grinding up over dunes and sliding down the other side. We stopped at one point to assist a stuck vehicle. Great I thought...we could be stuck out here in no mans land while the Emerald Princess sails off. But no...our driver managed to get unstuck when he got stuck and try other routes to get us up to look out over the vistas. We stopped for tea in a Bedouin tent and to view archeological markings...we seemed not to have passed the 7 Pillars. All good fun. Gary got some terrific camel photos and wide angled landscapes with his GoPro camera. Have you ever tried taking photos from the back of a truck driving over a desert...not all that easy...more luck than skill involved.

Enough got to be enough...we were glad to bounce back to the start, climb out of the truck and start back to the ship. We asked for a brief tour of Aqaba. We really liked the town...lots of flashy hotels and condos going up with money from the UAR, Saudi Arabia and Amman...building in Jordan being cheaper than elsewhere. The Red Sea is 81-83 degrees all year long..so anywhere along the coast makes an attractive seaside escape from the northern winters.

This is very long...so if you are still with me you get 5 gold stars. We are now sailing down towards the end of the Red Sea,. Tomorrow from 8:00 am to noon we pass through the 20 km mile wide Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the bottom of the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of Aden is the gulf located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in The Horn of Africa. We will be upping our speed to 20 knots an hour since none of the pirates have been able to board or catch a ship doing 16 knots or more. There also seem to be some armed destroyers lurking about that we are currently passing. So perhaps the area is still patrolled.

Ah, yes I just heard the Americans knocked out radar installations along the Yemen coast, after the USS Mason, a destroyer, was fired on. That would be off our port side...where I am currently sitting keeping my eyes peeled! Gary reminded me I should be looking off the starboard side! I am not so sure...but we know for sure there are two American warships (from our source of all wisdom...NYT) somewhere not far away and we have not been told to divert because of danger.

We had our Piracy Drill this morning...which as I mentioned is really the passengers staying in their rooms in the unlikely event of a small craft approaching the Emerald Princess...mostly so that the ship can make evasive manoeuvres...meaning I guess to execute speedy turns which might cause things and people to crash around a bit.

On the other hand, as the Captain said...a cruise ship is not really worth the effort to a pirate...with 2200 passengers and 1200 crew on board and no oil...all liability and no asset. It is a nice small up to the brim oil tanker they are looking for. From a high of 220 incidents 5 years ago there have been only 2 this year, none successful.

And so it goes....

Cheers

Doreen