It was a few degrees above freezing in Ammam when the plane landed – a stark change from the heat on Socotra. I put on all clothes that I had in my backpack to keep myself warm. The bus from the airport brought me to Amman’s 7th Circle, I walked to the hotel from the bus stop. I was in Amman for one night. The plan was to take the 7 a.m. bus to Petra next morning.
I left the hotel early. A drizzle turned into a steady rain and I had nothing to protect myself from it. I put a plastic cover on the backpack, did not secure it well and the wind blew the plastic away. Ignoring the rain, I kept walking to the bus station which was about 20 minutes from the hotel. Mercifully, the ticket office was already open. Heating was on and the room was blissfully warm. I took off my wet upper layers of clothes and spread them on the bench to dry and waited for the bus that came exactly at 7 a.m., practically empty.
I got to Wadi Musa at 11 a.m., left the backpack at the hotel and went for a walk around Wadi Musa. The town has one main street with restaurants and souvenir shops. They were open but customers were few. February is a low season. After a meal and a visit to the free Petra museum, there was nothing to do. The sun was going down, so was the temperature and I retired to my hotel room.
Petra is a popular tourist destination, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. So, I am not going to write about its history and the Nabateans who lived there. All this can be found in guidebooks. My posts are about my experience.
I started as early as possible in the morning and walked fast. I had only one day in Petra. The bus back to Amman departed at 5 p.m. – a serious time constraint. Besides that, a quick pace kept me from freezing in my thin jacket. I took all side trails that branched off the main one and climbed a lot of steps taking pictures as I went.
I came to a small covered souvenir stall. The seller, a Bedouin woman, had a fire going. I sat down by the fire and struck a conversation with the woman. She put the kettle on, made tea and toasted flatbread for me. Soon, her two young sons joined us. I offered them dates. We sipped strong black tea, ate, and talked. She complained that the trade was slow. The hot tea warmed me up from inside. I thanked the woman for her hospitality and left. There was still a lot of ground to cover in Petra.
When I was sure that I saw pretty much all of Petra, I stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants inside it, then returned to the hotel, grabbed my backpack and rushed to the bus to Amman that was about to depart. My mission was accomplished – I saw the famous Petra that everyone visited and I had not.
My next destination was Saudi Arabia. I initially planned to spend more time in Jordan and to see more of the country, not just Petra. Then, I hoped to cross the land border near the Saudi Arabian town, Qurayyat, and to take the train to Riyadh from there. According to the online schedule, the train runs once a week. It departs at 9.25 pm on Friday and arrives at 8 am on Saturday. I searched travel forums and Facebook groups for the current information from someone who actually took that train and found only reports from travelers that said that they showed up at the station and the train was cancelled.
There are no public busses in Jordan that run in the direction of this border crossing. The other options were expensive taxis or unreliable and risky hitchhiking. What if I could not get to Qurayyat by Friday evening? I would have been stuck in this small town for days until the next train if they actually ran. The bad weather helped me to decide. I did not want to stand on the road in the freezing rain waiting for someone to take pity on me and give me a lift. I gave up on this idea as unrealistic and bought a plane ticket to Riyadh for the following morning.
My stomach felt queasy all night and I hardly slept. I got up when it was still dark outside and left the hotel. It rained with sleet. I pulled the hood over my head tighter and started toward the bus stop. A taxi appeared as if out of nowhere.
“Airport?” asked the driver.
“Uhm,” said I being cold, hungry, and sleep deprived, and therefore in a foul mood, and walked past him. I had only 10 Jordan dinars left ($14). This money was more than enough for a bus ticket but definitely would not pay for a taxi ride. The airport in Amman is quite far from the city, it takes 50 minutes to get there.
“Ten dinars,” the driver shouted after me.
I turned around, walked closer to the taxi and showed the driver my wallet with a single 10-dinar bill in it. He nodded and I got it. I do not believe in such coincidences. Everything happens to us for a reason. A cheap taxi and comfortable ride to the airport confirmed that the decision to fly to Riyadh rather than take the train was the right one.
I had breakfast with a cup of strong coffee at the airport. The rumbling in my stomach began to settle down. In the afternoon, I landed in Saudi Arabia.