Day 420: It Dawned On Me

Wadi Musa – Petra – Amman, Jordan

With Laura gone back to Amman, I went back to Petra on my own. Since I had done the main path, I wanted to hike up some alternate routes.

Being on my own also set me as a target to all the guides. Though persistent, they’re pretty harmless. I was honest with them telling them I had no money for tips and in the end they’d just engage me in conversations. I got myself some information on the routes, a couple free rides on a horse and a donkey, and invitations to stay in their Bedouin caves for the night.

The alternative route that I aimed for required some climbing. After what happened to Amit, I wasn’t about to risk falling off the cliff without anybody knowing and ended up trapped for 127 hours. I approached a solo traveller that I had seen since morning. Anthony is from San Francisco and he was open to the idea of hiking together.

Wandering up and down the hills and along the valleys, we chatted all the while. It made the whole day under the sun a lot more enjoyable and the hike less strenuous.

A Bedouin guide who chatted us up told us it’s possible to do 4-5 days hike from Wadi Rum all the way to Petra and camping out in the desert and mountain. A local girl also told us she just bought a donkey the day before and it cost her JOD70. My brain started putting two and two together and thought it a neat idea to get myself a donkey and go trailing for days with it… Of course, I wasn’t crazy enough to attempt anything like that. This reminded me of a story I was told about this Couchsurfer who did buy himself a horse and travelled around Mongolia.

Next time when I travel, where time is of no constraint (ie. No pre-booked flights to catch and time limit), I’ll finally be able to pursue all the crazy ideas and opportunities that open up to me.

So far, I’ve let go of my chance to hitchhike all the way to Brazil, my desire to land myself a gig on a sailboat in Australia, my possibility of interning for a marine conservation center in Indonesia, and an offer to stay in Petra to wait out for a Production Assistant job in major Hollywood movie projects in Jordan.

I almost can’t wait to embark on my next trip