An Evening Stroll in Wadi Musa, Jordan

The area around Petra Jordan (home to the world famous buildings carved into stone cliffs) is spectacular. Although there are numerous places to explore while in Petra Lindsay and I, like most visitors, stuck to the incredible stone city. However, one evening we found ourselves with time to kill so we decided to take a leisurely stroll up to the village of Wadi Musa. This is one of those classic travel experiences that was so simple, and extremely uneventful, but for some reason has stuck with us as a cherished memory. Our small little hotel was located near the entrance to Petra but the village of Wadi Musa was located about a mile away up on the hill. We decided to simply go find a shop, get some snacks and head back to the hotel. Although we were planning on leaving Petra soon we had not yet arranged for how we were going to do this (not uncommon for adventurous travel). We needed to some how find a ride from Petra to the port city of Aquaba and were hoping to not have to take a taxi. Anyway, as we were walking we passed a man sitting out in front of his car rental shop. I can’t remember how the conversation started but essentially we ended up arranging for him to drive Lindsay and I from Petra to Aquaba the next morning. He was an incredibly nice guy and we loved chatting with him. The next morning we half expected him not to show up but sure enough he was there right on time to take us. The drive from Petra to Aquaba was beautiful but I don’t remember much of it as I slept (mouth wide open) in the back seat for almost the whole way. I just remember waking up at one point and hearing our driver tell the security guard at the checkpoint that we were Dutch (after which turning to me and Lindsay with a big smile and saying “they don’t know”). Anyway, back to our evening stroll up to the village of Wadi Musa. After meeting our friend we continued up the windy road and eventually made our way to the small village of Wadi Musa. There we found a classic Middle Eastern shop (complete with smiling owner) were we found some snacks. I remember vividly walking through this dusty little store while the owner just smiled at us and watched his little t.v. which was showing the king/queen of Jordan. As we were leaving the store the sun was just starting to set and the view over the desert was beautiful. We just wandered down the road to our hotel just laughing, talking and enjoying the beautiful sunset. Although it was such a simple thing this warm leisurely stroll to the village of Wadi Musa is something we will always remember.