Second day in the grand city. We headed towards the monastery today, which was quite a climb, at more than 200 steps. Add that to 30+ degree Celsius temperature, and you can conclude that it was not the most pleasant climb. Others did cop out and take the donkey ride, but that looked kinda scary, and also, we still had our 26-year old pride. 😛
Anyway, if seeing the Treasury was a marvel, I’m going to say that the Monastery was even better! We walked round and round and round not knowing what to expect, and then, when we turned the final corner, this huge structure carved into the mountains just appeared in front of us. To give you an idea of scale, the first step to the entry was at least 1.5 m high. I’m guessing it’s easily 20-30 m high. Another nice thing about the monastery? There were fewer people. So, trying to take photos of the place was easier without unintentional photo bombs.
After gawking at the marvel of the Monastery, we headed towards the lookout points. The climbs for some of them were harrowing, but it was definitely worth it. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I was quite amazed by how some of the Bedouins actually moved their shops to these lookout points to try and sell their wares. We didn’t patronize their shops, but nonetheless, they were really nice, and shared their chicken and pita with us.
After sitting there for maybe about 3 hours, we went back down, and headed back to Petra town center, where we had dinner at a restaurant. I guess I had some sort of kebab-y thing, and that ends our trip to the city carved in stone.
Our first look at the Monastery
That’s how it looks like, from afar
View from the look out
Dinner of kabab with lamb
Mood – non-alcoholic beer
Wanderlust 