The Rose-Red City

Lia and myself recently visited the Tel Aviv in Israel and were lucky enough to have a free day and so we decided to head to Jordan, for Petra.

We must thank Faith for suggesting Petra, frankly, before she mentioned this 5 letters word to us, we have never even heard of it before! And to tell you the truth, even when we saw the pictures in google for the very first time, our reaction was: 'ah! UNESCO heritage site' - our interest went up by maybe 20% and then we saw 'filming site of Indiana Jones - The Lost Crusade', the interest level rocketed by maybe another 30% and we went on reading and there it is: 'filming of Transformers!' SET! WE MUST BE THERE!!

Plus, of course, also the attractive idea of having an additional 'chop' in the passport to 'prove' that 'I've been to Jordan" somehow sealed the deal, we proceeded with the plan though the initiator 'Faith Ng' didnt make it to the trip with us. We DO feel bad, REALLY!! But she was in our hearts that day, seriuosly! No joke! Faith, if you are reading this, we DO think of you a lot on our Petra day!

The Treasury is magnificent! It was carved out of solid rocks and stands over 40metres high. The purpose of the Treasury remains a mystery. Though the bedouins believe that there are treasures hidden in the 2nd level of the Treasury. In an attempt to release the treasures, the bedouins fired gun shots fiercely at it and bullets holes are still visible on the urn.

 

Jordan is really a mystic place, though The Petra is all I have seen. But the reality of seeing war-torn houses (ok, i'm exagerrating, maybe not...), you know, houses you seen in Matt Damon's Greee Zone, earth colour, small window, quiet streets.....the whole city is really in just one colour and as if time has stopped here....

Our adventure actually started from the very beginning at 5am. We were both separated by immigration officers in Tel Aviv for questioning and thereafter they compared our stories. When I couldn't prove that I have booked this Petra tour through a tour agency online (coz careless me left my iphone in Gabriela's car the night before!), they made me go online on Lia's phone to check my mails!!! Yes, they have excellent wireless (free!) in the airport! After one hour of questioning, we were let go and we barely made it to our flight! You see, Jordan is a Muslim country and they'll question you like a criminal as long as you're visiting or coming from a Muslim country (they even questioned my numerous Malaysia stamps in my passports!).

Petra was created some 2000 years ago when a group of nomadic tribe, called Nabataeans, arrived from Ariabia and saw the opportunity and took great advantage of the narrow opening of the narrow mountains and taxed passing caravans as well as providing them a rest stop enroute to trade markets.  For centuries, this  city hidden in the moutains, was lost to the world until a young Swiss explorer rediscovered this place again in 1812.