Day 8: Dead Sea & Petra or Camels, Horses and Donkey's Oh My!

We left Amman for the dead sea at 8am. We got there at 9am before the first tour bus. Heck I had to ask them to open the women's bathrooms, they were still locked!!! It was awesome floating in the dead sea. We stayed close to an hour, just floating and enjoying the feeling. I couldn't bring myself to put mud all over myself though.

After we drove till about 1pm and made it to Petra. On the way we stopped so we could buy some local apples and sample them. They were great. It seemed like a mix between a granny smith and a red delicious. I didnt find much difference in taste between their green and red apples. However much like any fresh fruit recently picked off a tree, as opposed to a fruit that is picked before it is ripe for travel, it was sweet and delicious tasting.

We had lunch at the Sandstone restaurant in Petra which caters to vegetarians - like myself and our driver as it turns out. Around 3pm we got to Petra, and then rushed to get to the top - the monastery. We didn't get there till around 5:30 pm. It's impressive. Once up there I sat on a bench while Samer went up some more to a look out from where you can see the valley and Petra and the whole site. I figured my knee needed resting. While I was there I heard a cat's meow, so I responded. This yellow tabby male came out of nowhere, and jumped on my lap. I petted him and talked to him some, and he promptly fell asleep on my lap. I had to pry him off when Samer came back and we decided to go back down and try to see as much as possible before the sun sets.

The road leading to the Monastery from the entrance is about 4-5 km and there is 800 steps to get to the top. We didn't stop to take too many photo's walking up, and walking down towards the end it was too dark. Spending 5 hours at Petra was not nearly enough. I want to go back. We just barely covered the beginning. I want to see it all. I didn't get to see enough of the Treasury. All of this of course many people have seen in the Indiana Jones movie.

We had dinner around 8pm at the Sandstone restaurant. Not a bad idea. Although the Panorama hotel in Petra had a spectacular view of the town in the valley and felt much more like a hotel in Jordan, I didn't want to risk that it didn't have the right type of food.