Our tour guide Majid (also called Abu Ahmed out of respect, if you are keen for a tour, please contact Abu Ahmed on +962 7 9939 7856) asked us to be ready by 7am actual time and not “Indian time”. So today was an early morning – straight from fajr to the car.

We jumped into the car as the sun was rising and began our journey to Petra. As we drove out of Amman, we were once again chasing sunrises. We stopped at a roadside cafe where we bought some turkish coffee which was the perfect wake up call. 

We drove 2.5 hours out of Amman towards Petra passing through towns and desert. Abu Ahmed pointed out a place where people can stay for free – accommodation, food, everything. We were like “oh wow, why is it free?” to which he replied there was only one condition you had to meet to stay there: “be a criminal”. 

Jordan is relatively safe like most countries in the Middle East. There are checkpoints along the way with the nicest policeman who make sure that everything is in order with permits and passports making you feel even safer. 

We then entered Wadi Musa where Abu Ahmed pointed us to Mount Hor (Jabal Haroon) where it is believed that the grave of Nabi Haroon A.S. is situated there. 

We then drove down to Petra and before we knew it, could see the I heart Petra sign. Entrance into Petra is 50 JD per person (with an additional 2.5% if you pay by card).

We walked a little more and then we came to the entrance where the guard stamped our tickets with a huge smile. 

We were warned by Abu Ahmed to not accept any horse or camel rides and to decline any guides offering to take pictures for us.

The first stop was the Djinn Blocks – they are square monuments. We then saw the Obelisk Tomb which was carved by the Nabataeans in the 1st century AD. Above the tomb are four pyramids and a niche with a statue that symbolises the five people buried there. 

We then carried on walking down to the Siq. The Siq is a narrow passage that leads to Petra. The Siq resulted from a natural splitting of the mountain and is 1.2km long. The more we walked, the prettier it got. 

Before we knew it, we caught our first glance of the Treasury. The Treasury felt like it was out of my dreams. It was like we were transported to a different world. The Treasury is 40m high and decorated with figures. 

There wasn’t many people around when we were at the Treasury and no one really bothered us about taking pictures or going on camel rides which was lovely. 

We spent almost an hour being mesmerised by the Treasury and I still feel like I didn’t get to soak it in enough. 

We then started walking down the Street of Facades which is a row of Nabataean tombs carved into cliffs. We spent about half an hour exploring this area even climbing up a bit and soaking in the views of the Street. 

Our next and final stop was The Theatre which is carved into the side of the mountain. It consists of 3 rows and has 7 stairways that go down to the auditorium and it can accommodate 700 spectators. It had the most beautiful shades of pink and purple and I absolutely loved it. 

We then began to walk up to the entrance again but we couldn’t help stopping at the Treasury one more time. By this time (12:30pm) it was much busier and we were so thankful that we came earlier because we got to enjoy it almost by ourselves. If anyone is tired at this point, I would suggest taking the cart back to the entrance (this is 15 JD per person). 

We carried some padkos from home and water with us which was honestly the best thing we could’ve done as all that walking really makes you hungry. 

It took us half an hour to walk back to the entrance where we had a big decision to make – which magnet do we take home as a souvenir? Nevertheless, we chose one and made our way to our meeting point with Abu Ahmed. 

He picked us up and we began our drive back to Amman. We stopped at a little shop and got some snacks and then began blasting the Maher Zain nasheeds for about an hour. This really made me think of the drive from Makkah to Madinah with my entire family so it had me missing all of them. Along the way, we saw a railway line which used to run from Istanbul to Makkah for people making haj and umrah, it would be so cool if the train worked today. 

We reached the outskirts of Amman city around peak hour traffic so it took us some time to get to our Airbnb. But we reached safely and all of us were super excited to get to the room. 

We packed up all our things to get ready to leave Amman tomorrow while my mom warmed some homemade chicken curry and rice which was the best reward after the long day. 

After sorting everything out, I sat on swing on the balcony, admiring the view of downtown Amman and thought to myself that I’ll never be 25 and writing blog posts on a balcony in Amman ever again. This thought terrified and excited me equally. 

Please note: the only graves that we are 100% sure of is the graves of Nabi ﷺ, Sayyidina Abu Bakr R.A. and Sayyidina Umar R.A., all the graves we see throughout this trip – Allahu ‘Alam – Allah knows best.

Step count: 14 186