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I was awoken at somewhere around 5am, there was utterly terrible noise blasted into my bedroom, putting the pillow around my ears didn’t help, a deep bass male Arabic voice drones in this dream like dirge, it seem to go on for ages before I eventually had some silence.

After wondering what it was, I realised it was because it was Eid, an important Islamic festival, hence people buying goats and sheep for slaughter the previous day, outside the hotel is a mosque with a large minaret, it was this that broadcasts the Muslim prayers at an uncomfortably early hour.   Getting up and using the shower it was clear why the hotel was cheap, plumbing and electrics in the middle east and not the same as they are in the west.   The basin was partly coming away from the wall and the toilet only had one (loose) bolt holding it to the floor so it wobbles, when you flush it, water (clean fortunately!) comes out of the cistern.   Two other toilets I have seen in other parts of Jordan had the whole top of the cistern missing requiring the user to put their hand inside and pull the ball-cock lever thing to flush it.

There are several well known hotel chains in Wadi Moussa, one of them is the Movenpick (think this is also a Norwegian brand ice cream?)  right next to Petra’s entrance, the others are much further up the multiple Z shaped bends, being out of the way of the noisy chants of the mosques.

But for all this the hotel staff were very friendly, the younger chap was about 22 and said he had been to a University (Leeds I think he said) in the UK, and his Dad was the main owner of this place.

So I headed out to the famous historical site that is Petra.

The price to get in is I think was 22 Dinars, there were discounts for two or three days visits, this required a signature check to stop tickets being resold.  The Jordanian Dinar is close-ish to the value of the UK Pound, something like 85-90 pence.

The front of the place was a amusing Indiana Jones banner on a van with gifts for sale, there are many stands all over the park, some up the top of the mountain tents, providing local made jewellery and souvenirs to those who climb up to the top.

Well not a lot to say that cant be said in pictures, Petra is truly spectacular!!!!

Will put on pictures of Petra very soon.

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