Today I left Eilat for a 2 day tour of Petra, a city in Jordan which holds a huge archeological site with remains of a Nabataean city dating back to more than 2000 years. The tour bus picked me up at 7, made a couple more stops before heading to the border crossing. I was the first in line to have my passport checked and due to misinformation given to me by someone at the visa office in Jerusalem, the last person in the group to enter Jordan.  They held my passport and made me wait for nearly 30 minuted before calling me inside to speak with a border guard.  The lady informed me that since my visa only allowed me to stay a maximum of 4 months I was in Israel illegally. I told her that I was aware of the 4 month maximum and didn’t do anything about it due to the information which was given to me in the Jerusalem visa office where I was told that “it’s noted in the computer that you are staying longer”. She asked me questions like why I was in Israel, what my father’s name is, where I live, and if I’ve ever been to Israel.  Hoping that this would speed up the process I made sure to emphasize that being Jewish is part of the reason why I came. It’s surprising that they know who my father is and the exact year I was first in Israel which was 1996.  After waiting another 20 minutes the lady returned my passport and said I was good to go.  My only thought while running to the border to catch up with the group was if I wasn’t Jewish would the outcome have been different?

The first stop in Jordan was the typical make the tourists walk through a souvenir shop just to get to the bathroom.  I know tour companies make money this way but if it means less time at the site we paid to see I feel it’s a waste of time.  Once we arrived in Petra we immediately began the tour through the archeological site where we saw many different Nabataen tombs which all were pretty amazing until we got towards the end of the tour and began to gain sight of the Al-Khazneh (Treasury) which is a 30×43 meter high tomb and was carved for an important Nabataean king in the 1st century BC. It’s quite amazing and there are many more tombs of this size further along the trail .

Unfortunately for the people who booked the one day tour this was the most they’d see in Petra but for the 4 of us who booked the 2 day tour, we had the rest of the day to walk around the park plus another full day too.  We decided to hike up to the monastery which was 800 steps up and well worth the hike.  At the end of the hike was a Bedouin tent set up for hikers to rest before making the descent down.