I had a ticket in my hand but I didn’t know what it represented. The ticket was for the overnight ferry journey across the Red Sea from Sudan to Saudi Arabia a crossing that would take 15 hours. The car ferry was large enough to have plenty of cabins but I also saw rows of chairs when I boarded the ship. There were signs pointing to a reception, something that seemed like a novelty coming from Africa. But behold, there was a proper reception and it was staffed with a uniformed man behind a counter. I showed my ticket and asked what I could expect from it, was a cabin included or should I go look for a chair?
Immediately when I had put forward my question another man that was on the outside of the counter stepped in and grabbed hold of my ticket. He didn’t look like one of the staff but he said with an authoritarian voice that my ticket was for a chair only but before I had time to ask about any chairs he had produced a pen and scribbled a signature on my ticket. “With compliments from the company” he said. I thanked him profusely. I now had a cabin.
There were two bunk beds, very comfortable. The cabin was air conditioned as was the entire ferry. There was a window, an electrical outlet, lights in the ceiling and by the pillow, both with diffusers. There was a shower with hot water, a working toilet, a mirror and a floor drain placed at the lowest point in the floor that actually made the water disappear. I was not in Africa anymore.
The crossing went smoothly. I slept very well in my cabin and the sea was flat as a frozen lake. When the Jeddah port came into view I could see at once that this was a totally different world compared to Sudan.
It was still hot, perhaps 35 degrees and I was a bit concerned. I had no idea if the Saudi customs would demand a carnet from me. Neither did I have the slightest idea what I would do if they did. I had only a three day transit visa with a daily 750 USD penalty tagged onto it. I just didn’t have time for any delays. The ferry docked at the wharf before noon but the offloading was not very efficient so by the time I had cleared immigrations the time was after two.
To my relief there was no mentioning of any carnet by the customs. I paid a port tax and insurance for the bike and got the paperwork done without delay. But for some inexplicable reason they didn’t release any vehicles before five o’clock. This is normal procedure I was told by a traveler that said that he comes this way on a regular basis. He didn’t have a reason for the delay probably because there wasn’t one. So, the first of my three days was almost over when I finally got on my bike and drove out of Jeddah. I had 1200 kilometers to cover before arriving at the Jordan border. I still had enough time but there was no margin for any mishaps and definitely not for any sightseeing. I have to assume that this is the whole purpose with an extremely short transit visa; so that foreigners shall not spend any unnecessary time in Saudi Arabia. What exactly is their concern? What do they have to hide? There must be something they are hiding, something they don’t want foreigners to see? Why else would they not allow for a longer transit visa, or a tourist visa for that matter?
I didn’t see anything that needed protective measures. It is mostly desert, desert and yet more desert. Occasionally I was stopped at road blocks and once by a civil police patrol. The police was very polite and twice was I given a bottle of water.
For the first time on the entire trip I ran out of fuel. I turned on the reserve shortly before reaching a town and I stopped at the first gas station to refuel but there was no one there so I drove off to try another station and that’s when the tank ran dry. I still don’t see why it was empty. According to the trip meter I should have had almost 100 kilometer worth of fuel and I could only fit 38 liter in my 43 liter tank. Strange.
I was still not within the town but very timely there was an abandoned building by the side of the road with a very suitable parking lot where my bike rolled to a stop with a dead engine. Even more fortunate, there was a car on idle out by the curbside. There was someone in the car talking on his phone. I knocked on the window and asked for a ride to the nearest gas station. He didn’t speak any English but explaining an empty tank was no problem and the guy didn’t only give me a lift, he took me around to no less than four different gas stations before we found one that was open. It was in the middle of the day and they had all been closed for some kind of siesta or perhaps prayers. The guy found me a four liter plastic water jug at the side of the road in which I could get some fuel for the bike, then he drove me back to where my motorcycle was parked and waited until I had it up and running. Nice guy.
When the evening approached I came to the town of Duba. I had done the longest stint of this trip, 658 kilometers but it had been a good highway all the way from Jeddah and it would continue all the way to the Jordan border. Just before Duba there was a police checkpoint where I showed my passport and answered a few general questions. Ten minutes later as I was standing at a traffic light in town a car came up by my side and someone wanted to talk to me. It was the police from the checkpoint. He was off his shift and wanted to help me find a hotel. He took me to two different hotels, the first was way too expensive but the second was acceptable. It is considerably more expensive in Saudi Arabia than in Africa. The police officer made sure they had a room and also made sure I didn’t pay a tourist price. There was not the slightest hint that he wanted anything in return. He just wanted to help.
The following day, the third in Saudi Arabia, I reached the Jordan border with plenty of time to nightfall. Just before reaching the border the road had climbed over a mountain pass at 1100 meters. It was freezing cold up there. I was shivering and my fingers were like twigs on a tree. I had difficulty operating the clutch. Two days ago it had been thirty five degrees in Jeddah and up at the pass it couldn’t have been more than 10 degrees. I wouldn’t have thought that one of the coldest moments on this trip would occur in Saudi Arabia of all places. I’m getting further north. It is quite noticeable but I expect it to get a lot colder getting into Europe.
When I skipped Egypt in favor of taking the detour around Saudi Arabia I missed out on a lot of historic sites along the Nile that I had looked forward to see but instead I got the chance to visit one of the most intriguing places on earth and a place that’s been high on my must do list for as long as I can remember: The historic city of Petra in Jordan.
If you have ever heard of Petra you probably have an image in your head of a spectacular stone temple carved out of a vertical rock face somewhere in a tight place. That is exactly what it is but it is also a lot more, very much a lot more. The main entrance to the archeological site of Petra goes through a narrow slot canyon called the Siq. The slot canyon winds its way through a very rugged rock landscape for more than a kilometer. As I walked between the cliff sides towering above me on both sides the anticipation rose. Behind every twist and turn in the path I expected to find that fantastic image imprinted on my mind since sometime in childhood. Would it be a disappointment, would the picture in my mind be exaggerated, would the encounter turn out to be an anti climax?
Not at all.
When I finally got “The Sanctuary” in sight it fulfilled every expectation. The slot canyon came to an abrupt end at its narrowest point where a slit of light parted the massive, dark rock walls and revealed a stunningly beautiful sight. In contrast to the black rock sides the temple stood out as a shining beacon of orange, yellow and pink sand stone shining like a revelation on the rock face of a slightly larger canyon running perpendicular to the slot canyon. The location is in every bit as spectacular as any image from luring tourist brochures. It is just a mind blowing sight to behold.
Already in the early morning hours the tourist shops were prepped and ready for business, the obnoxious sales touts were high on profit acid, the camels were dressed up in cheesy attire, parked in the prime spot in front of the temple, ready for the bus loads of selfie chasing tourists to immortalize themselves with yet another famous decor as a faint backdrop. Being a top spot on the world tourist trail, I had anticipated Petra to be a busy place and was therefore up and running early in the morning.
The highly scheduled tour groups usually don’t appear until late in the morning when the tour guide has managed to get everyone through breakfast, through toiletry business, on to the bus, off the bus, through the ticket booths, through toiletry business, informed about today’s schedule, going through today’s history lesson with a group of zombie looking drones and a last visit to the loo before descending on today’s attraction.
Wise from experience I scheduled my own days to interfere with the drones as little as possible, visiting the main sites in the morning and heading off to less visited places that the tight scheduled tour groups never have time to see, towards midday. And there were a lot of less visited places to see in Petra, more than I could fit into the two days that I spent there.
The famous “Sanctuary” temple is far from the only temple that Petra has to offer its visitors and the temples carved out of vertical rock faces are not temples at all but tombs. The city of Petra was constructed by the Nabateans sometime between 100 BC and AD 400. The city center was laid out across a valley running through the rugged rock landscape and the tombs were carved out of the rock faces on both sides of this valley as well as on walls of side canyons. There are hundreds of tombs, caves and grottos in the area and a three day visitors pass actually makes good sense here. Three days are needed to cover the complete historic site of Petra. That the steep ticket prices are set to 70/75/80 Euros for 1/2/3 days does not favor the one day visitors and certainly not the midday drones.
More photos from Petra here.
/AB
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