Day 2 - Petra, Jordan (Part 1)

Petra is the new 7 wonder of the world. Since it was made the 7 wonder of the world, every tourist passing along Jordan will make a detour to Petra, according to Andy, our tour organiser from Singapore.

You might be familiar with Petra from the Indiana Jones movie.

We started early in the morning, trying to beat the crowd that will be going to Petra. I think we did a good job... There were not too many tourist at 8am.

Going into Petra itself is a 2km journey. Firstly 800m on a horse pulled by a guide and the rest 1.2km on foot. Unfortunately for me, I had an overzealous guide who pulled me at 120km per hour (a little exaggerated) which resulted in me getting a soar thigh. I was told that it was suppose to gallop, not F1 racing!!! "Slow down", "not too fast", "SLOW SLOW", apparently dropped on deaf ears as the young man ran to the "FINISH LINE". He was sure in a hurry. I suspect that he wanted to return for a 2nd round to get more tips. *sigh* Almost killed me in the process :-/

Smiling because I didn't know what I was getting into

Its a natural rock formation

All along the 1.2km walk into Petra, there are amazing rock formations and interesting stones. There is option of hopping onto a horse carriage which cost USD20 for two person. But I opted to walk instead.

Two elephants side by side... No, not me and Charlotte.... The stone elephants. A natural formation

In front of the famous Treasury

I was personally quite awe-struck with such a piece of art. The artist has to be superbly skilled because a small mistake would have been disastrous.... Can you imagine, having to say, "Oops, I made a mistake, we need another surface to carve the Treasury." Unlike what we can do nowadays with the computer. Any error can be erased with a click of the mouse and redone easily.

The camel and I. After the horse experience, the idea of riding on the camel didn't sound too inviting

This very talented man can speak fluent Cantonese. He stayed in Hong Kong for 11 years. Very impressed... and what a small world! It cost USD7 for a small bottle of naturally colored sand. He can write your name in it too. Cool eh?