Jordan

The Treasury peaking through the end of the Siq canyon way in Petra

I landed in Jordan to rain, which might be why the flight was delayed. Yaser, my driver, was waiting for me outside Passport Control. Fortunately it wasn’t really raining as we rolled my bags to the car but, as we made our way down the highway, it got heavier and heavier. When there was a break in the rain, Yaser asked if we could take a short break. We were standing outside the car as he drank some coffee, and he says “It was really raining cats and dogs!” I smiled at his use of the idiom and replied “Yes it was!” The second half of the drive also had downpours and dense fog/clouds, but Yaser drove well and we safely made it to Petra shortly before midnight.

After sleeping in a bit (with morning rain as my excuse), I was ready to see Petra. All I can say is “Wow!” There are not enough words to describe Petra, and the pictures below are each worth a thousand words. The natural beauty is unreal. Designed to capture and funnel rain water, you walk through deep canyons of red rock. There were points during the initial walk through the Siq that I was alone and it was so peaceful. Once I reached the Treasury, it was busier with tourists and locals trying to sell you horse rides, donkey rides, take your picture for a tip, or sell you something. Being a quieter tourist season, some of them were relentless. The first time I heard the line “Hey, you dropped something. Your smile.” I thought it was clever. By the fifth time, it was annoying, and the tenth was grating. The women played on heartstrings with “Ladies supporting ladies” and got me one time to buy a cashmere scarf, but then it also got to be a tiring line.

At the end of the 4km main trail, I started climbing to the Monastery. I am very glad I decided to walk up the 800 steps and 1.5km instead of taking a donkey because the people riding donkeys mostly looked terrified - especially going down. The downside of walking - other than the physical exertion - is avoiding donkeys and donkey shit along the trail. It’s a narrow path and you do not want to get in the way of a donkey. Seeing the Monastery and the view from the top made it all worth the effort. I rested a few minutes then turned around and went back down. 20,000 steps later, I returned back to the hotel - conveniently located across from the visitor’s center - and sat on the hotel room couch for about 4 hours before peeling myself off and heading down to dinner.

The next day, Yaser picked me up from Petra and we headed down to Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a protected area of the desert inhabited by Bedouins. I learned that the village near the entrance is populated by 2,200 people descended from one man! One of those descendants was my Wadi Rum tour guide, Yusef. Not only did Yusef share the history and culture of Wadi Rum Bedouins, but he had me climbing up all kinds of rock formations to see the view and take pictures. Despite a few sites being named after T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia), he is not a man liked by the Bedouins and Jordanians. If you watch all 4 hours of the movie, you probably know why. [If you haven’t - go watch the movie to the end. If the combination of Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, and Claude Rains isn’t enough of a draw, then watch it for the beautiful Wadi Rum setting.] After watching the sunset solo from the top of a rock formation, Yusef returned me to the Memories Aicha Luxury Camp, where I was staying in a Panoramic tent: a geodesic dome that was about half plexiglass so I could fall asleep under the stars and wake up with the sun. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this glamping experience, but it beat my expectations. The food was pretty good, but the draw is seeing the stars with almost no light pollution.

Again, Yaser picked me up the next day. We did a quick stop at the Ottoman railroad station at Wadi Rum before heading up to the Dead Sea. He took the road that goes parallel to the Israeli border (or, as the Jordanians called it, the Palestine border). I was a little surprised that seeing into Israel from Jordan had me feeling a little regret that I wasn’t visiting. This was especially true after seeing notifications about the shootings at Bondi Beach and Brown University during the drive. I thought about standing atop Masada 17 years ago (almost to the day) and seeing into Jordan over the Dead Sea. This time, I was in Jordan looking across the Dead Sea to the mountains of Masada. A full circle moment.

More than once, I was asked if I’m Arabic because “Susan” is an Arabic name. A quick search told me “Susan” comes from the Arabic for “lily of the valley” or “iris” or “lotus”, and has analogues in Hebrew, Persian, and Egyptian. No matter which language you use, my name means “pretty flower” and I’ll take it! Anyway, my family took it from a Sesame Street character, adding to the multicultural use of the name. May this be a reminder to us all that we have more in common as humans than we have differences.

Salty Beach at Dead Sea, with Israel across the way

Susan BloombergDecember 15, 2025