Aqaba, Jordan - Day 2

Friday 11 November – Aqaba, Jordan – day 2. A wake-up call at 5:15 AM seems a little inappropriate when you’re a cruise. But that’s when we got up, so we could be at the Windjammer Café when it opened at 6 AM for breakfast. Then our group of 16 was off the ship at 7:30 to begin our second day of tours with Petra Nights Tours. 

Right before we arrived at the rose red rock city of Petra, certainly the highlight of the tour, we stopped at a shop above the town. Darlene saw a hand-made jacket that she wanted, a jacket requiring over one month of hand stitching in the local patterns. It is a beautiful jacket that she will probably wear for one of the formal nights on the cruise. We also bought a book on Jordan and on Petra. As our group was about to leave, we were told that as we were the first group of the day, postcards were five for 1 JOD (Jordanian Dollar). As we returned to get cards, the owner said we could get six for 1 JOD. As I got my six cards and went to pay him, he said, “No pay, you already paid today,” meaning I had already bought enough items from him that it wasn’t necessary for me to pay for the postcards. That was a nice gesture.

We arrived at Petra before the crowds; there were a few coaches there, but not the masses that were on their way. My few words would do an injustice to the beauty and magnificence of Petra; the picture here is of the facade of Al-Khasneh, which means “The Treasury.” We were at Petra for only a few hours, and after looking at the book we bought, we realize that a stay of three or four days would be needed to truly explore all its beauty and charm and hidden wonders. But we didn’t have that much time, so after walking down to the Theatre and the Royal Tombs, we turned around for the return 2.5 mile uphill trek across uneven rock. Along the way we were besieged with swarms of 40-person tours from our ship who were just arriving; it’s a good thing we were just leaving. We had one more place to go – Wadi Rum.

“Wadi” means “valley” and this desert valley was quite an amazing view. Even driving along the roads was an interesting experience. We’ve all heard of free-range cattle and free-range chickens, but I’d never heard of free-range camels before. I didn’t see it being served on the menus, but the Yield sign says that drivers better watch out for camels on the road! Sometimes we would see camels and goats with a shepherd or other tender, but many times there would be two or three just roaming around on their own.

Once we arrived at the off-road area, we switched to small trucks where we sat in the back on over-used patio furniture pads bouncing across the desert in trucks with no suspension. We were being jarred in multiple directions and dimensions.

We visited an area where there were inscriptions on rocks, and then we went to a tall dune. We were challenged to climb to the top of the dune. Many started, but if you’ve ever tried to climb a sand dune, you know how hard it is to ascend. Gary, Kurt, and I made it to the top, and here’s our celebratory photo. Getting down was 90-second jog down the dune. 

We returned to the teeth-jarring trucks for a ride to one more photo spot for more inscriptions, and I liked the view of this tree against the backdrop of the rock wall. A group of Bedouins arrived as we were getting to depart, and they were quite interested in chatting with us. Back aboard our uncomfortable trucks for the now-shorter ride back to our van, and then back to our ship.

It’s been a marvelous two days in Aqaba, Jordan. We found everyone to be very friendly, and it’s a place we would be comfortable going back to.