TODAY IS ANOTHER DOUBLE ANNIVERSARY — twenty-one years of marriage and the beginning of Year Five of our travel odyssey. But we weren’t in a celebratory mood. Our luggage, virtually all of our worldly possessions, is still in limbo. Or Bahrain. The reality of Madaba hardly matched our memories and the Lebanese couple who treated us like family nine years ago recently sold the Moabland, making it feel more hostel-like than a home. The annoying Arabic music from the nearby club banged on until 2 AM. And we had only a single travel toothbrush and the dregs of toothpaste to share this morning. Happy anniversary, Honey!
So after a quick visit to the Church of St. George with its 6th Century mosaic of the Holy Land, we crossed our fingers and headed for the airport to — insha Allah — collect our bags. Things began to look brighter, they had arrived and we were free to continue on to Wadi Musa and the World Heritage Site of Petra. As it turns out, the baggage deal may have been a blessing. I wouldn’t have been comfortable making the trip late at night.
La Maison and the Petra Moon
We hardly recognized Wadi Musa. The sleepy town we remembered has been discovered, rejuvenated by the popularity of Petra. Dozens of new hotels now stand where once there were only three. The Petra Moon where we stayed in ’06 has doubled in size and was fully booked but the friendly folks at La Maison elected not to charge us for our missed reservation last night, tacking on a night at the end. It is one of the new hotels just outside the gate to Petra with an OK room, good wifi free parking and breakfast included.
The ultra-expensive Movenpick costs three times as much as La Maison but we fondly remembered its restaurant from our last visit and we wanted to splurge on our anniversary dinner and launch our fifth year as Vagabonds.
