The world is my playground!

I wanted to write just one blog on my entire trip of this past week, but I really wouldn’t do justice to my experience in Jordan if I did that.

There really aren’t words to describe walking through the wadi/cavern and then “happening” upon the world-famous building- the Treasury- that once existed for me only in pictures.

Pictures don’t do it justice….ever.

It’s simply astounding. The sides of the wadi join together to a point, and through the ancient, natural walls, you catch a glimpse of columns, walls, and statues unlike anything.

The sun only shines on the Treasury one hour every day. I am fortunate enough to have seen it twice in the sunlight.

I have literally never seen anything as beautiful, overwhelming, and surreal.

There is also the Monastery- an equally overwhelming building, and the step to the entry is taller than I am! There are similar ancient designs, colors in the rock, and obscenely large statues. The main difference is that, while the building from the pictures is hidden in the rocks, the Monastery is exposed to the harsher climate of being on top of a mountain. Yes, built into and on top of a mountain.

But there is so much more to Petra than the one famous picture that we all know from National Geographic, Indiana Jones, and postcards:

The air, the colors, the sunshine, the aroma, the dialect- just the life in the place! Nabateans lived there thousands of years ago, and the land and mountains are falling apart, but there is still as much life there as before.

This was also a dreamlike adventure because I only spoke in Arabic whilst exploring this wonder of the world.

No, I am not saying that there is some kind of spiritual connection between the speakers of Arabic and the land- but I am saying that my ability to communicate with the native Petraeans changed my interaction with this ancient land.

It got to be a bit of a joke that my friends and I couldn’t possibly be Egyptian, given our looks, but how in the world did we have Egyptian accents?? Needless to say, this sparked tons of dialogue.

I have never been invited to “drink tea” so many times, nor have I been questioned on my heritage.

But what struck me most about these people is their liveliness! That’s a little orientalist, to say the least, but oh so true.

There was a sense of constant business inside the ancient stone city: children running around, men offering rides on camels and donkeys, and the women making and selling handicrafts.

On the subject of these women- I became, along with Clara and Karen (and even Mike, our hero!) great friends with one of the women. Her name is Themiya, and she is Bedouin woman who lives with her husband and eight children in a Bedouin village inside Petra. She made everything she was selling with her own hands, and told me about her life- in great detail.

Yes, she will have a role in the play I am writing.

On a slightly creepier note, I climbed the Mountain of Sacrifice, and have several pictures there. It was only after I had climbed onto the high rock with Mike and Clara took our picture did I realize that I was standing in the place where all the residual blood from the sacrifice ran off to…yeah, not a pleasant thought actually.

I spent a day and a half in Petra- but I could have stayed for weeks. There is something to see in every corner- literally something carved into the side of every mountain.

Adventures in camel-riding will follow later, as well as stories on the good-life in Dahab….