Dissconnected

I traveled to London via Vienna on account of the fact that I delayed my departure from Jordan so I could visit Petra. The direct flights were full due to the fact that it is the end of Ramadan and the Eid
holidays (a bit like the travel rush around Christmas). My travel agent did his best to book a flight with as little time wasted in transit as possible. In the end, he did too good a job!

The flight from Amman to Vienna was late leaving which meant that I missed my connection in Vienna. I wasn't stressed though, since I had misread my ticket. What I thought was my departure time was actually my arrival time in London. You can imagine my confusion (and then surprise) when I couldn't find my flight on the departure boards. The helpful staff at the Austrian Airlines desk informed me that the flight had already left. She looked at me strangely when I replied that it couldn't possibly have left early! Anyway, I think she took pity on me and squeezed me on the next flight to London so I only had
to wait a few hours.

My bags, however, tasted the Austrian's hospitality for considerably longer. I knew my chances of being reunited with my bags on arrival were slim given that (a) I had changed airlines and (b) Heathrow has a
reputation for losing bags. Anyway, I was happily reunited with my bags a few days late and all is good now.

Looking Into the Petra Dish

I feel a bit like a postcard tourist.  You know, the ones that turn up - usually in a  tour bus, to take to postcard shot of them in front of whatever landmark, before bussing off to 5 other countries in 6 days.  Don't get me wrong, here.  I'm not bagging you out if this is your gig.  It's a poor generalisation really, as I'm absolutely sure that plenty of these tourists do their research - and I've been one of them on occasion.  I'm just making the point that I usually like to do a bit of research on a place.  I like to get a feel for the history and culture before I hit the ground.  I'm feeling very under prepared for Petra.  I haven't read anything about the place aside from one solitary (and brief) brochure.


Oh well, not to worry - I've certainly got my postcard shots!!  It's pretty easy to do when you've got one of the seven wonders to work with.  (Actually, I googled the seven wonders just to confirm that statement and found eight different lists - Petra was on at least one, so I guess that makes it legit.)  Now, if only those few thousand other tourists would get out of the way...

Even without knowing much about Petra, it's easy to see why it is one of the Wonders.  Pictures/postcards just don't do it justice, though that didn't stop me taking about a hundred pictures! Al Khazneh, or "The Treasury" is the best preserved ruin, carved into the sheer sandstone canyon wall.  You approach this monument (main canyon) through another narrow canyon (only 3-4m wide in places).  It opens up to a magnificent view of the Treasury.  Absolutely amazing.  As you head further down the main canyon, you come across a spectacular ampetheter carved directly into the rock.  In places, the rock hewn seats are "missing" where the remains of older tombs are.


The colours in the sandstone are amazing.  In places, the coloured sandstone layers looked exactly like those touristy coloured sand-in-a-bottle things you sometimes see (like at Uluru for example).  Actually, you could get plenty of the sand-in-a-bottle souvenirs from the numerous Bedouin souvenir tents throughout the park at the "best price my friend".  I don't know how they do it, but they manage to make great images in the sand - mostly of camels.

The low light of the late afternoon or early morning is the best time to see the rock colours.  Luckily, this is also the coolest and least tour group infested time in the canyon.  I felt a bit like a leper on the two days I was there, as I was heading against the flow of people on both days.  On the first day, I headed down in the late afternoon past the masses retreating to their hotels for a well deserved shower and drink before dinner.  On the second day, I was at the gate when it opened at 6.30am.  Now, I know that this might seem excessive to some of you, but it was definitely worth forgoing some sleep and the breakfast coffee.


I was among the first few people to make it down to the ruins in the morning and was rewarded with being able to view things in the serenity and soft tones of the early morning light (you can tell the morning photos by the lack of people).  Absolutely amazing (have I used that word before?).  Being ahead of the crowds definitely made the place seem more ancient and remote.  I was so glad I had made the effort when I was heading back past the treasury at about 9am as the first of the tour groups hit the canyon.

I took advantage of the cool morning air to climb up to some of the more remote tombs and was rewarded with the discovery of this little gem.  The way the wind had weathered the coloured sandstone walls made for a very pretty site.


Follow this link for some more pics of Petra.

Jordan - Land of Never Ending Power Lines

Well, I’m being a bit disingenuous there, but that’s what it felt like on the trip down to Petra today.  The trip from Amman to Petra is about 3.5 hours on duel lane highway, and it’s fair to say that there isn’t too much to distract you on the way.  This is fair dinkum desert.   The hills are bare of everything but rocks – and even they seem to be trying to get away from the heat.  In many places you can look from horizon to horizon and see nothing growing save the odd tumble weed gasping for life in low lying areas.  With such a lack of vegetation for disguise, the giant skeletal towers of the high voltage power lines stand out for miles.  At points, the desolation seemed so absolute that I began to wonder where all these power lines could be going.  These are the things you think about when power lines are the only feature to look at on a 3.5 hour road trip.

Ah, but its all worth it to have the chance to visit the World heritage listed Petra, with it’s temples and houses carved out of the sheer canyon walls.

Gone Phishing

After that last bit of heavy reading, it's about time I got back onto lighter - though no less serious - matters.

Some bugger stole my email address!

Bastards (excuse the French).  But I guess that's the risk of all this mobile communication stuff.  Still a bugger though as I now have to set up a new email address and sort everything out.

I had to laugh at some of the responses I got to the email I sent about the issue (good to see some healthy skepticism out there).  Now that I look back at it, the email explanation did sound a little like a phishing expedition itself.  At the time I was just trying to get something out there to stop people opening the bogus email that had been sent from my address.

Oh well - live and learn.