Petra by Night

Above:  Petra by Night. Lanterns in front of the Treasury (the pillars of which are seen in the background).

Leaving Madaba

We paid and checked-out from the Black Iris Hotel in Madaba.  We had a nice chat to the owners.  Their son studies in Switzerland (presumably in hotel management) and has an Indonesian Chinese girlfriend.  They hope to go to Bali and open an Italian restaurant.  It’s quite normal for Italian restaurants to be owned by Arabs (especially Lebanese), Turkish restaurants by Iranian and Japanese by Koreans.

Today we are headed to Petra with Jamil.  We opted not to stop in Umm ar-Rasas to see more mosaics so our first stop enroute was Wadi Mujib on the King’s Highway for a view of the canyon.

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Karak Castle

We continued south to Karak Castle, one of the largest Crusader castles in the Levant.  It dates back to about 1140.  Fiona waited as the three men explored the castle.

To me it didn’t have the same grandeur and mystique as Krak de Chevalier in Syria.  Maybe, Krak de Chevalier appeared in my travels earlier when I was more impressionable.  The area was a lot dryer and the layout allowed more light, meaning that Karak didn’t have the same dark mossy nooks and crannies.  [Edit:  I later learnt that it was less sophisticated than Krak de Chevalier and didn’t have the concentric design which offered greater protection.]

 

We took lunch across the road at Al-Fid’a.  The pita here was a different type.  Nice round thick pita which we had with hummus, baba ghanoush, labneh and fattoush.  Today, even Fiona ate up.  Then came a light vegetable stew/soup, chickpea-rice and grilled chicken.  We had a nice sage tea to accompany.

 

Dana Nature Reserve

Continuing to Dana Nature Reserve, the road off the main road was quite steep downhill.  Fiona got quite dramatic.  We relied on Jamil to suggest the stops en route and since we weren’t hiking in the nature reserve, this stop wasn’t particularly valuable.  We merely looked out of the viewpoint at the guesthouse/hotel and visitor centre.  The smells emanating from the kitchen was quite heavenly but alas we had already eaten lunch.

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Shobak Castle

We continued to Shobak Castle, another Crusader castle from 1115.  It is also called Montréal castle.  Entrance was free and it was more in ruins than others we had seen before.  Because of that and the fact that it was getting close to sunset, we didn’t stay too long.  This was our last stop before our final destination and there was a golden glow in the landscape.

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Wadi Musa

We got to Wadi Musa, the nearest town to Petra, at sunset.  It had been a long day because we had taken the slower road with stops en route, as opposed to the highway which would have made it over 2 hours.

Jamil purchased a bottle of water on my behalf at local price, as we were now in a highly-touristed area.  We said our goodbyes with him and settled our bill and checked into the Petra Palace Hotel.

The rooms weren’t as nice as the reception area.  Fiona took forever deciding between the rooms.  Our assigned room had a spacious room and a poor bathroom ad theirs the opposite.  She had to weigh up the pros and cons.

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Petra by Night

I had very carefully organised our itinerary so that we would be here in Petra on a Monday or Thursday night for “Petra by Night”.  This is a lantern-lit experience of Petra.  We went to the visitor’s centre to organise the tickets.  As it turned out, we only needed the night-ticket without also having to hold the normal entrance which we will get tomorrow.

We took dinner at Aretas Café and had our first bad meal this trip.  The sandwiches were so dry I could have choked on them.

Kim and I rested briefly before heading to the entrance of Petra around 2030, without his parents.  The crowd grew to about 200 people.  We were led by an Arab with a red Jordanian headscarf, who spoke with a very posh English accent.

The whole way from the gate, through the narrow rock corridor known as the Siq, to the Treasury area was lit by candles in brown paper bag lanterns.  Each bag was about the size of an airline sickbag which had been filled with sand and a candle.  They were spaced about 8m apart along the way.

In the opening in front of the Treasury, there were over 200 such lanterns.  So, in total there may have been about 500 lanterns.

A lone flautist added to the magical atmosphere and later on, taken over by a rebab (violin-like string instrument).

The atmosphere (apart from the crowds) was truly special and I was glad I made the effort to plan the itinerary to be here tonight.  It’s not the first time I’ve planned around very special events.  The very first time was planning our trip to Egypt to include the once-a-week camel market at Imbaba near Cairo. “Letting things happen” isn’t always the best way of travelling.

We lingered here and simply didn’t want to leave.  We did eventually walk back and finished at the hotel around 2230.