Entering Petra From Israel

The Ruins of the Nabatean civilization reached a world famous status after appearing in the Indiana Jones Movie The last crusader and also recently voted one of the new seven wonders of the world. Located in the Arabah desert in southern Jordan this ancient city is an impressive archeological achievement with buildings like the Treasury carved into the mountain slopes.

Getting there from neighboring Israel is an easy task specially after the peace treaty signed in 1994 and a enjoyable trip through the desert. I departed with a good friend of mine in evening from Hertzelia to Eilat. For that we had to take a minibus to Tel Aviv main bus terminal and there a bus to Eilat.

The port city of Eilat is the southern most point of Israel on the banks of the Red Sea, from her you can literally see Jordan and Egypt. The city is quite small and the waterfront is covered by massive 5 stars hotels and resorts. To get to Eilat is a simple but long ride or an expensive plane ride. Israel is a very small country and its relatively easy to move from point A to point B with the local government busses called Egged. The main terminal in Tel Aviv is called “Tagana a merkasit” and there are Egged and private lines operating.

The terminal is a quite busy place, with a shopping mall in the first 2 floors and with tight security operating at all times. As in all Israel but here in particular you must be really careful of never leaving your bags unattended and be cooperative with all security matters, bags and people are checked at all entrance points to the terminal. Eilat busses depart from the last platform on the 4th floor you can either buy the ticket to the driver or in the window located at the center of the building in the 4th floor. its recommendable to buy some snacks and water before boarding since the ride can be long, dry and tiring.

Busses leave every hour or so and its an average of 5 to 6 hours to get there although sometimes can take longer depending on transit conditions and the route the bus takes. They are all equipped with AC There are 2 main routes to get there but different bus numbers, including the 790 (direct bus), 390, 393 and 394. Additional busses leaved from Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashdod and Afula. The main road goes through the Negev desert, and passes by the dead sea, Dimona and Be’er Sheva. Advanced booking is available and recommended on summer times or weekends.

As we approached the city it became clearer that we were not going to be able to cross the border that day, it was getting dark and we were unsure about the operation times of the border. Also we had no idea of what could happen after we crossed. I started talking with some people in the bus to gather some information but no one seemed to know about the border. Suddenly a Woman kindly offered a space for  us to crash at her house until the next morning arguing that would be safer for us.

We both agreed happily knowing that the hearts of Israelis are always open for visitors, and actually once in the house we were amazed by their hospitality as they served us diner, coffee and even left us a whole room for us to sleep in a bed (we didn’t care to sleep in the floor either!). Next morning we got woke up and took a cab from her house to the border. There is no other means for transportation between border and the city. It was a 10 minute ride at that early time and when we arrive at the Arava border crossing we were almost alone.

The border crossing was pretty straight forward, we exited Israel with no hassle at all. After paying the exit fee of 90 shekels we got our passports stamped and carried on into a walkway of around 100 meters surrounded by barbed wire. I got the impression that we were under someone’s watch all the time (and it was probably true…). We arrived at the Jordanian side and got our luggage lightly checked we proceeded to get a stamp but we needed visas. The person working at the office was not there at the time and we had to wait for the officer around 20 minutes or so. Finally he arrived and stamped a total of 3 stamps, using a whole page for the entrance!

After this we left the terminal and found ourselves completely lost, the only thing after the gate was a taxi with a fat guy on it with a huge I-can-charge-you-any-price smile on his face, we negotiated a fair deal for a round trip and took of. Actually the white cab stopped a few minutes after leaving the border telling us that he could only take us up to that point and we needed to change cars to proceed. I noticed when I got down the cab a inscription on the door that said border taxi only or something like that so I relaxed until the other cab arrived.

Once on the second cab is a easy 3 hours ride through the arid desert to the town of Wadi Musa. This small town is pure hotels and mosques with its main activity being Petra’s base. We got dropped at a Hotel with an extremely cheap room 5 Dinar. It was still early so we decided not to wait and go straight to Petra, and it was worth it, we stayed until 8 and watched the sunset from the Monastery.

To go back the cab picked us up in the morning from the hotel as we agreed, after all we were going to pay for him only at the border. During the way back we fell in love with the desert so we decided to stop for a few hours in Wadi Rum, near the border with Saudi Arabia. It’s one of the most mystical places I have ever visited, and you could just stare at the vast emptiness for hours.

We got dropped at the border, were a Bedouin officer checked our bags and let us pass, not without playing with us a little bit asking if we had drugs in our bodies, not fun at all!! We got stamped out of Jordan and back to Israel, this border actually was very relaxed and empty but we got delayed because some Jordanians wanted to enter Israel with a lot a LOT of things including plants and animals, to which the border officials didn’t know what to do.

After entering Israel we walked all the way back to the Bus terminal, since there were no taxis at the border… it took us about an hour and we had just enough time to have a falafel and catch the last bus back to Tel Aviv.

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