AA Seb World Tour: From Amman to Wadi Musa and our first visit to Petra, Jordan

We have been in Jordan for 2 nights now, it's quite a different experience compared to Europe or North America. We decided to try to use the public transport to go to Wadi Musa. There is an easier way to get around like paying a taxi, which seems to be the way most tourist do it or take the Jett bus (a tourist bus more expensive but supposedly more comfortable). The taxi from Amman to Wadi Musa was 70 JD, around 110$ CAD, way too much for our budget. We found online that we could use a minibus, leaving from the south bus station. The minibus system is quite different than what we are used to in Canada; we have to wait until it's full enough before it leaves. It could take a long time to fill out but we were lucky and waited only 30 minutes. The drive was really cool as we were now officially in the desert! Desert views are amazing, and it's just the beginning...

The drive to Wadi Musa was around 3 hours. We didn't exactly know where our hotel was going to be in Wadi Musa, but the bus drove right past it when we got in town. The bus station was down the hill closer to the city center. The Rocky Mountain Hotel is very good for the price. It offers a free breakfast and a free shuttle down to the visitor center in the morning and for the way back at the end of the day visiting the amazing site of Petra. The view from the hotel balcony is amazing! We also watched a great sunset right out our bedroom window, a great bonus.

We spent the next day walking in Petra. Visitors should make sure to have good shoes if they want to see everything as it involves a lot of walking. One day is definitely not enough to see the whole site, plan at least 2 days. As a start, we walked through the Siq, which is a 2 kilometers long path, with 80 meters cliffs on both sides, it is a narrow and sinuous canyon. At the end of the Siq, we got face to face with the Treasury (Al-Khazneh). It is a really impressive tomb carved in the face of the cliff. A few minutes past this, we turned left to go up some stairs, all the way to the High Place of Sacrifice. On our way we saw the two Obelisks. The views overlooking the valley at the top of the High Place of Sacrifice were simply spectacular. We enjoyed the scenery and then we went down the back way, which hides a lot of carvings and tombs most people miss. We saw the Roman Soldier's Tomb, looking a lot like the Treasury, the Garden Temple Complex and, the Triclinium. We walked down in the valley, and up again to the Al-Habis Fortress. We followed the path that circled the Fortress. The views from up there were again impressive. After climbing 800 steps, we got up the mountain of Ad-Deir where we discovered Petra's second most famous attraction; Ad-Deir Monastery. The Monastery is huge and really impressive, as it is the largest carved building of Petra. We walked all the way to the End of the World viewpoint past the Monastery. It offers a great view all the way over to Israel, west of Petra. On the walk back, we were really tired already so we didn't stop anywhere. This first day was a 16 km walk and took us 7 hours.

To be continued ...