Have some time longed for Jordan. When I went it there it was 2010, it was still a bit scary as most people think, though the tense of middle east was not like the magnitude of today. When I looked back from 2018, at that moment Révolution de jasmin was not yet started, the neighborhood like Syria was as peaceful as a good touristic place. Indeed, somethings you cannot wait in life or you can have no chance to do it again.

Nevertheless, the Jordan trip was a great one. At Petra, it is as touristic as other parts of the world, you see so many tourists/backpackers from Europe. The ancient intelligence of craving the rocks into a city really worth the seven wonders. As it is a little bit tense for me to take whatever public transport, instead of people taking different entries point from land travelling from Israel, I made my flight back to Hong Kong with stopover at Amman. I don't want to negotiate with taxi driver or feel any tense of public transport, I chose to rent a car with Avis instead and drove all my way south from the airport to Petra. To me it is a great idea. It's just a straight way by Highway 15, you wont get lost until seeing the Petra exit. It is a very special feeling for myself to drive in an arabic country.

Highway 15

All the way they are the sandy places. Many cars on the road and if not because of the middle east tension, think it is like other parts of the world..

There's a lot of biblical places in Jordan as well. So much to see in Israel and Jordan. The Mount Nebo, close to dead sea, is the place where Moses passed away. Petra's neighborhood Wadi Musa is also famous for the dessert and Aquabate for world-renowned scuba diving in red sea. My main attraction is Petra so I didnt visit those.

Petra

Entrance of Petra called Sig, is a 1.2km long narrow places between rocks to enter the city. Looks pretty like Antelope Canyon in the States but in open spaces. Petra used to be a wealthy city as it was built as a hub of land trade route to exchange goods from sea, which is a clever business in a resourceless land.

Sig
Sig

It's like a placed borned to be a city. As you walk further, the Sig is widen from a narrow space to a big open area, where people lived and traders came to make business.

Sig

Once after passing Sig, I arrived at the Jordan symbol - the Al-Khazneh temple. It is said to be the tomb of Nabataean King.

After that, you will enter the downtown of the city. Citizen lived in the rock-cut houses. Even it is 46 degrees when I visited in July/August, the interior was as cool as air conditioned in modern world.

The Nabatean Theatre, built by Roman after the conquer.
The Roman Theatre, Petra

Palace tomb, Un tomb, are the biggest tomb in the city.

Street of Facades. Another series of tombs.

Nature is wonderful. Though it's 46 degree outside, inside the rocks it's as cool, comfortable as inside an air-conditioned room.

There are a lot of hiking trails here, you can see different part of the city as a lookout . I wish to visit all of them but really, 46 degrees is too harsh to do so.

I always like taking national flag.

The trail to Monastery pretty close my visit to Petra. Really, hiking here gives you an excellent workout.

Monastery, Petra

After a whole day, I visited a nearby restaurant and tried a local arabic food. I am not a smoker but I did try a true Arabic Shi Sha.

King's Highway

On the other day, I drove my way to dead sea via the King's Highway instead of highway. That's another reason why I choose to rent a car so I can experience the King's Highway too. King's Highway is the world's most ancient highway, it was mentioned as early as in the bible -

Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King's Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.'

Then Edom said to him, "You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword."

So the children of Israel said to him, "We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more."

Then he said,"You shall not pass through." So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand.

Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.

On the way I saw nomadics.

King's Highway Nomadics