Petra

Petra, Jordan.  Photo Credit: RABolo

Jordan is amazing. There's no other way to describe it really. There simply just so many places of interest. If one loves history and ancient places, there are loads. If you're a Christian, there are a lot of Biblical places mentioned in both the Old and New Testament. I've spent two days for leisure and it was hardly enough. Had to give up some, to have a more thorough experience of those that I went to.

Petra. No words.  Amazing, awesome are not enough to convey how beautiful it is. Petra is what first comes to mind when one speaks of Jordan.

The elephant rock. RABolo

It takes a lot of walking to get to the first and most featured attraction: the Treasury building. The path towards it is an attraction in itself. One has to pass in between a canyon that is rendered golden by the sun's rays. Along the way there are a lot of interesting stone formation, like that of the elephant rock. One also passes through broken, marbled path lined with water canals that served as the ancient city's highway and water system. Amazing engineering.

Every now and then, horse-drawn carriages pass by, making it not difficult to imagine what life was like in the past. It was easy to picture an ancient version of me, swathe in colorful, Bedouin garb, trudging along...

As one nears the Treasury building, the canyon wall rises significantly, enclosing one in a dark, tunnel-like path. And then all of a sudden the building's facade leaps at you, splendidly bathe in sunlight -- a huge, imposing, golden-russet structure that takes one's breath away.

There are more of the carriages and some camels and donkeys littering the building's grounds.  They are for catering the tourists to the next attraction which is the Monastery. This one is located some distance away and at one point, can be further accessed through an 800++-step of rocks carved through the mountains.  There are places where one side of these steps is a deep ravine which actually made passing through it by means of 'donkey-back-riding' seem like a crazy idea! It is, by the way! And that's exactly what we did! (Which totally cemented the notion that we all have some varying degrees of insanity.)

The famed, Treasury Building. Credit: RABolo

Yep, the donkeys do go up and down these steps.  

And in most parts, they are not quite safe as shown here.  

Shakira (shown here), countless of times, veered so close 

to the edge I was having heart palpitations!

It is not for the faint-hearted like me. On the third time that my donkey -- aptly named Shakira -- veered so close to the edge to make way for an approaching donkey and rider tandem on their way down, I opted to just walk the rest of the way. It was a long walk but I'm a hiker anyway. And I don't fancy finding the answer to my question whether Shakira would also manage to 'save' me should she accidentally take a hind-mis-step!

The Monastery was a lot bigger than the Treasury but less dramatic, well at least for me. Must be because it lacked the latter's golden, reddish hue. Of interest was seeing some locals doing some hand-head-stand on the building's highest steeple. It was crazy.

Up ahead was the highest point which overlooked a deep ravine that looked really ancient. The deep canyon opens up like the earth's old,  gaping wound that dried up over the years -- rendered black, mysterious and nonetheless beautiful.

On our way back down, we stopped by the ancient temples we've passed by earlier. Our last stop for the day was the Royal Tombs. We have to do a bit of climbing again but it was so worth it. By the top we got there, the sun was setting, rendering the entire complex orangy-golden and dramatic. Simply beautiful.

From there, it was a long way down and back to the entrance where our car was waiting. We then took a long drive to Amman, concluding the day with a dinner in the mall, dusty boots and all.