Petra, one of the new wonders of the world

Petra, Jordan

16th November 2009

I got to the gates of Petra in the morning and the girls were there already with a French-speaking guide. I couldn't understand much and said I would keep near by. I had told them of my camera and the lenses the night before and they were keen to have their pictures taken. The photos attached to this blog are the result of our efforts.

It was nice exploring Petra, chatting with them and eating lunch together. On a few occasions, sales people trying to sell us stuff referred to the two of them as my wives. It would be funny if they didn't believe it. Monogamy is challenging enough, I couldn't handle the life of a Bigamist.

One interesting thing about Wadi Mousa is that I've run into the people I met on the boat everywhere, in Petra, around town, in restaurants. It's really like a little community.

In the afternoon the girls caught a bus up to Amman.

When I returned to the hotel in the evening, I chatted with the hotel owner. He asked me how the Canadian girls were. I was surprised that he knew of them or that I knew them, I hadn't told him about them and they were staying in a different hotel. It turns out, the night before the girls went for a drink or two in a cave bar and were talking about me and how we took a cab ride up from Aqaba. The bar man heard, told some people working in the hotel next door, they then told the guy who owned my hotel. The hotel guy explained they said only nice stuff about me and that the town was small and there were few secrets.

I had a lovely dinner and then found a small door leading up to a second-floor shesha cafe. There were only Arab men in there, the staff didn't speak much English and there weren't any white people in sight. I thought, holy shit, this really feels authentic. Everyone's tables were full of mobile phones, cups of tea and cards as they smoked their sheshas and chatted away. There were only about 14 of them in total in the room. I had a shesha and a tea and did a lot of people watching.

When I got back I skyped with Anja and then chatted with some fellow guests and the owner in the main room of the hotel. It's more like a living room in someone's home than a hotel reception area. There was free wifi and a bunch of comfy chairs and couches. I chatted with the owner for about 3 hours. We looked at some fancy cars on the internet that rich Saudi men have bought, talked about energy security and what it's like running a business in Jordan.

We both used our laptops so we could show one another pictures and movies of various cars, stunt videos, maps and wikipedia entries to ensure we had our facts right during debates and discussions.

It was really nice and it felt more like sleeping over at a mate's house rather than staying in a hotel.