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[AquaDame]

The picture of the donkey with the heavy chain wrapped around the muzzle made me extremely sad. I can't imagine what the flesh looked like underneath.

I won't lie, it was a little bloody. I felt so badly for them as well, they did not spare the whip getting the donkeys up and down. The horses seemed better taken care of, but they were only used down below, there was no way they could traverse this trail. Its donkeys or walking... we walked.

We made our way down the rest of the trail earlier than I would have thought, but I was thankful as it was getting quite hot. There were more tourists heading our way, and most of the groups would ask us how much further to go. I am not sure the ones towards the bottom that were already incredulous made it, but I hope they did. I can imagine what I'd think of this trail if I dealt with only the bother and none of the payoff at the top! It never did get crowded on the trail, but maybe it does in the afternoon.





It was before 11am when we made it back to the Basin restaurant which we had intended to have lunch at, but they did not open until later. We didn't much feel like sitting around hot and sweaty amongst people who may keep trying to sell us things so we carried on, to the Nabatean Tent restaurant which is far more basic. It is just a counter with outdoor grill but had plenty of shaded tables. Folk online knock it for having high prices but... look where you are. 6 Jordanian dinar for a chicken shawarma IS high compared to other places in Jordan, but it's in the middle of Petra! And it was tasty, AND enough for us to split. No complaints from us!



As we ate we discussed whether we wanted to hike more or not, and decided we were good. I was still a long walk back to our hotel, and was only going to get hotter. I know, seems crazy, but we had already been hiking around for six hours at this point and had seen our must dos already. We just killed it and made it through both much faster than the internet had us believe.





We passed of course by the Treasury again and finally found a significant number of people. They were still mostly stuffed into the entrance from A-Siq, but plenty were running around in the plaza area. The cafe was by now stuffed full of folk too.



That's me for scale in the below picture!





They also had the golf carts running now, carrying tourists to and fro as an alternative to riding the horses. FWIW I only saw horses from the entry to Al-Siq; I'm not sure they are allowed to go any further.



On this part of the trail you can see they keep them VERY separate... horses to one side, carts on the other. I'm sure the tires appreciated it as much as my shoes did.



As we walked riders were going up and down calling out to us to rent horses. They really were beautiful!

 

[AquaDame]

While we were in Al-Siq I entertained the thought we could come back after a rest, but by the end of the long walk between that and the entrance..? Nah. It was SO hot! Folk streamed towards us though, undaunted and hardier than us in the strong sun. No shade on this part..!



View from the entrance to our room:


We made it back before one, and rested for awhile. Kyle would have been quite content to stay, but I was getting restless and convinced him we should head over to the Petra museum and then over to the Movenpick for afternoon tea. Yep I snuck another one in there..!

Turns out the museum is free! It IS small, but it's still surprising they did not ask for anything at all. On entry there are signs explaining that it was designed by a Japanese firm on a Japanese grant. Thank you, Japan! Inside are ancient artifacts from the city and explanations on plumbing and other aspects of life. It was definitely worth stopping in, though it only took about 45 minutes to see the whole thing.





I was then blown away by how extremely ornate the Movenpick hotel here is...! The entire tearoom seemed gilded and the main entry opens up impressively as well. If we make our way back I think I'd stay here instead, after all. I'm a sucker for interesting places. The tea menu is expansive though there is no true "afternoon tea" just drinks and plates of sweets. Kyle opted again for a coffee instead.







We talked about whether or not we wanted to buy any souvenirs and decided we didn't really want anything in particular other than some coffee and snacks for our family and coworkers. We went to a couple of different little markets - including one in this hotel which was quite expensive as the owner does special blends and such - and made our purchases. On the way back we popped our heads into the Cave Bar, expecting it to once again be packed and smoked out, but it was empty! SCORE! We snuggled into one of the caves and enjoyed some drinks. The orange kitty from the night before joined us for awhile on my lap.





When the bar began to fill up we gave our spot to a family that wandered in and went on another long walk down the main drag looking for dinner. We purposely waited until much later, thinking surely the restaurants would have guests by 8pm but... no. No they didn't. We knew there were a lot of people around.... we had SEEN them streaming into Petra! We also walked through some kind of large gathering in the plaza by the I <3 Petra sign. They had music and lots of people dancing. I'm not sure where they all eat though... there were no food booths or anything like that. The only places packed that had food were the hotel restaurants it seemed. We decided to take the hint and ended up going back to the same lounge in the Movenpick and split a large platter for dinner. I am so glad we did not order two meals...!

 

[AquaDame]

At home my breakfast beverage of choice is a matcha latte, and I hadn't had one since that morning oh so long ago when we left home, making do with steeped tea. So I was a little... enthusiastic... when I saw a coffee shop called Qahwa BLK right there with a big ol' matcha sign. I was able to hold out until we were ready to leave (I was still concerned about caffeine what with my insomnia), but did get one to go as we were leaving and it was delicious. No regrets. I got a cookie for the road too. They had a few types I'd never had before, Lotus lattes and Rose lattes... really I should have just accepted my American-ness and gone sooner to try them all. I fight with trying only local things sometimes, but honestly? This isn't an American chain and even if it was the local bent on a McDonald's hamburger in Japan or squid and corn on pizza hut and stuff like that IS a window as well. We should all be less hard on ourselves... life is short. Get the latte. Don't worry about what folk think.



Our route took us through some very steep roads on the way out of Peta and we finally hit a highway with a nice overlook (and another I <3 Petra sign). I filmed the route we'd wandered through the day prior from above but only took a picture of our hotel and the entrance.



We didn't have too far to go today - our goal was our camp in Wadi Rum. It was an easy couple hours to get there.







On our way in we talked about lunch but weren't yet hungry, so we decided to head straight in to the JHRC Railway (Jordanian Heritage Revival Company). Kyle had really wanted to do this https://jhrc.jo/BookingInfo2.aspx?TripId=11 but it was not running on the days we were in Wadi Rum. Basically they drive the train out into the dessert and robbers attack you. Fun? Sure is, because of course its all fake. They do park the train and leave it there as a photo op, so we were able to walk around and take pics of the train and cars.







We decided to go ahead and head to camp and check in, THEN figure out lunch. There was not much around (of course) so we'd need to backtrack anyway.



Definitely could not read the signs which are mostly in Arabic.



Thankfully Google Maps did not steer us wrong! When researching camps some had made it seem like you have to leave your car at some sort of visitor center and have them take you the rest of the way, but that was not at all the case. We drove right up to our camp at Sun City and checked in.