I'm out of shape

I mentioned the treasury as one of the most well known faces of Petra, today you'll see some pics of the Monastery, the other most well known face of Petra.

 Here is where I left yesterday, on the start of the hike to the Monastery.

 The first of many, many, many stairs.  Luckily, these stairs were in good shape, later I passed some guys fixing the stairs and we had to hike up the sloped rock.

There were a bunch of these "shops" on the way to the top.

Someone's house on the hike up.  Not quite sure how to get there, but I have no doubt the view was great.

 I love big boulders. If you live in Texas and haven't visited Pedernales Falls, I suggest you visit cause its awesome. 

Hike leveled out a little after 20 minutes, there is a rest stop a few minutes later where I stop for the first time and almost buy a bottle of snapple for $5.

 Stopped for the first time, man am I tired and out of shape, its just sad.

 View of the valley where I rested.

 That poor donkey.  There were only a few camels here, a couple of horses, but a bunch of donkeys.  They were smart too.  At the bottom I saw a guy say something and make a few click sounds and the donkey started walking away.  He just walked in the direction of the trail.  Later, on my way down, a donkey passed me.  No one guiding him, like that depressed donkey on winnie the poo, he just kept his head down and walked along the ridge, around people and up the stairs.

 This is the place I stopped to rest, surprised someone carried a baby up here.

 Here is the family.  I saw them a few times before this trail started around the other Petra facades but didn't expect them to hike up here.

 Another of the shops.  They call out "Happy hour, One dinar"  (1 jordan dinar = 1.4 US dollars) Then when you pick up something, they say "For you, special price, 3 dinar" When you ask about the happy hour 1 dinar they just mentioned they grab some small rock or old wore coin from a basket. Sometimes some other small piece of crap but they all start out the same way.  If you ever visit this half of the world or any place that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for tourists, never buy something the first time you see it.  Odds are you will see the same thing a few more times, and you can use the prices they offer the first couple of times to haggle a lower price from another guy.  I still hate haggling, but I am getting better at it.  For instance, I found something I wanted to get my mom and he wanted 6 dinars at first.  I showed a little interest and looked at the other stuff he had.  After picking a few different designs of that type of gift, I talked him into giving me three for 8 dinar.  Now I also have a gift for my current sister-in-law and my soon to be other sister-in-law.

 Nice view from the last rest stop before arriving at the Monastery. 

 Finally, here it is.

 Sitting in the shade at a snack shop, I didn't mind paying $5 for a gatorade.

 While not as awesome as the treasury, it is beautiful.

Here are some random pictures of me, I read its good to sometimes take pictures at an angle instead of directly in front of something, which is apparently boring.

I hope you liked seeing pics of my Petra trip.

Petra, Part A

Petra is a really beautiful place, hard to imagine all that they carved out of rock.  We are such small creatures and what we create is nothing in comparison with what our creator has made, but it is hard not to be a little impressed at what our feeble hands can do.

 Of course this journey would start off with a salute to Indiana Jones whose movie put this place back on the map and has provided so much tourism to this part of the world.

 

 The Obelisk Tomb is the first building on the tour, there are a bunch of tombs within this building.

 

 This is the start into the gorge which leads to Petra.  Pretty fun walk in the shade of huge cliffs.  

 On the left you can see the troughs they cut out to provide water to all the camels in the caravans that passed through.

 More troughs and a another view of the gorge.  See the couple up ahead, the chick looked close to my age and was about 5-6 months pregnant.  Tough girl, I passed them later while hiking up the steps to the Urn Tomb.

 Checking out the sky.  The cliffs were about 60 ft up or so.

 Along the gorge there were many carvings like this one.  I read they were representative of the various gods these people worshiped.

 Crazy that stuff can grow down here.

 Another tree in the crack.

 Almost there, almost to the treasury.

One of the more popular facades.   At almost 40 m (131 ft) it really is amazing.  With columns, statues and an urn said to contain pharaoh’s treasures, it's understandable why everyone is attracted to it.

 Close up of the top of the treasury

Just an example of  some huge facades, I dont think these were on the map I got since they weren't anything important, but man are they big.

 This is the roman style theater.  The steps were closed off or I would have gotten a few more pics.

 Inside one of the smaller rooms across the street from the theater.  At about 10 x 10 foot wide it's not too wide, but when you consider it was all carved out of rock, 10x10 is enough.

 Here is a 'door' on the side of this same room.

 I'm down in another room that had a lower floor.

 This is the door to the same room i've been in facing the theater.

 That big facade at the top is the Urn Tomb, not too bad of a hike up there.

 Closer shot of the Urn Tomb.

 This is the inside of the Urn Tomb, as far as I could see, this was the only room in the tomb.  Not really sure where they put the bodies.  See that guy on the right, he's standing in front of that pregnant girl.  She was tired after the hike and they were eating lunch when I took off.

 This is looking down at the valley to the left from the Urn Tomb.

 This is looking down towards the right.  This is where I'm heading next.   I'm going to head up that range in the background to the monastery next.

They had a restuarant before the hike up, it would have been very wise of me to rest and eat a little here since it was about 1pm at this time and i had only eaten some pastacios on the drive from the Dead Sea.  Unfortunately, I am not a very wise man.

This is where I leave you, on my start of the hike to the monastery.

Floating

I got up early last Sunday so I could float in the Dead Sea before starting my drive to Petra.  It was a short walk down past all the pools to the beach.  Once there I walked down the coast a little before the hotel security showed up and asked me to come back to the area in front of the hotel.  There was a lot of beach sand, i assume imported from the desert side of Jordan.

Once I was near the shore the ground became much less stable, but really cool looking.  You could easily see the layers of sediment in the mud.  Considering every day people take mud baths then wash it off, it's understandable the mud would settle down each night making such a cool pattern.

 It was a little tricky walking in the water since there were spots where the mud was very thin and you would sink in.  In this shot my knee was under water.  Later, as I was leaving to head back up to my room to shower and leave, I hit a very soft spot and my foot slipped until part of my thigh was in mud.  I stepped forward with my other foot hoping to find solid ground and step out, but that food also sunk in and I found myself in 1 ft deep water, but also had the water up to my waist.

 Floating in the water was pretty fun, I could easily see myself swimming long distances in this water.

 Of course the mud from the Dead Sea is what has made this location so popular for thousands of years.  Apparently it's beautifying properties have been known and used for a very long time.  Unfortunately, they haven't helped me much.  While just about every picture I took on the trip involved me holding the camera or using the tripod, there happened to be a girl walking by around this time who took a few pictures of me.  She also asked to take a picture of me with her camera and I assume its because of my ruggedly good looks, and not the hat/beard combo. 

 After cleaning up and packing, I hit the road again heading to Petra.  I drove south for about 30 miles before cutting east past Karak towards the Desert Highway which I took south to Petra. I only got a little lost in Al Karak which I again blame on the lack of road signs.  The drive south along the Dead Sea was beautiful, lots more mountains.

 

You can see the Karak Castle in the upper right corner.