Petra

When we woke up for the sunrise in Angkor Wat, we were up and in the bus by 4am, lots of walking in the dark, finally arriving at our destination, many hundred smartphone equipped tourists ready for that photo, just in time for the completely overcast sunrise. Not worth it.

This time we were up at a much more leisurely time, ready at the gates (which felt like a theme park entrance) at 6am, in a queue made up entirely of our own tour group. Petra is on pretty much everybody's bucket list so I found this quite surprising. But this plan was, worth it.

Khader guided us along the gravel path as the sun slowly started rising. For the uninformed (me) we actually had no idea how far the Treasury, the main attraction, was. I thinks it's because of this and the expectation of 6000 visitors descending on Petra that made everyone anxious to get moving. Khader was unfazed and maintained a sensible walking tempo.

Khader stopped on a few occasions telling us about the attractions on our walk, but once we were in the canyon (the Al-Siq), taking photos was too distracting to listen. Then after the anticipation was high, we were rewarded with a peek through the canyon walls of the treasury.

The canyon opened up and there it was, the Treasury. A mausoleum that became known as the Treasury by local Bedouin who found it to be full of treasure. Makes sense. The area wasn't empty but we had arrived in good time, and managed to get a photo each in front of the Treasury.

For 5 Jordanian Dinars we were led up a tricky but not especially hard path of rocks and steps to a ledge approximately 30m from the base. It provided us with a far superior viewing aspect of the treasury

We did some more group photos and climbed back down the many rock levels. Khader continued to tell us about the tour and in our distracted position, a donkey wanders over to our base of bags and steals a watermelon that one of our group had bought. Classic donkey behaviour. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in Petra city.

Once we were all done with the Treasure, we set about exploring the rest of the city of Petra. We walked North West, stopped for a breather at one of many coffee shops wandered past the Nabatean Amphitheatre. We stopped at another souvenir shop that pour coloured sand into bottles for art.

Khader took us to one of his friend shops and showed us the benefits of men and women wearing eye liner.

With such few stops it definitely felt like we were on a goal oriented walk. At the West end, we stopped at another coffee shop where Khader told us to keep walking until we arrived at The Monastery. He also told us he would meet us at about 4pm at the entrance to Petra.

The climb up the hill was mostly rock steps, some polished steps and very few shade that wasn't also a coffee shop. Coffee shops with vendors that strangely have a better understanding of many languages than most.

At the end of the water sparse Ad-Deir Trail, through the canyon, the area opened up into an impressive large sandy open area, with the Monastery standing ominously to the side.

Now the Monastery was stunning, but they did not compare to the two view points to come.

Believe it or not, the first viewpoint was nearest to the Monastery and no Google Maps entry. That was the left path on the photo above.

And believe it or not, the second viewpoint IS on google maps. End Of The World Coffee didn't provide views of the Monastery, but the valley it smashed. There was no coffee though.

Here are some photos before I wrap it up.