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"Jordan Jubilee"
See also
Excursions from Petra
Early views of Petra : the drawings of Laborde, Linant and of David Roberts
David Roberts in the Holy Land GENERAL INFORMATION
Weather in Jordan
GENERAL INFORMATION
JORDAN OUT OF DOORS
Trekking in Jordan Two Bedouin friends and their camels
HISTORY OF JORDAN MEETING THE PEOPLE
THE MIDDLE EAST AROUND
THE WEBSITE FUN
STUFF The Gates of Damascus More Jordan links
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Towns and Tourist Sites in
Jordan
ALL THE PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE CAN BE ENLARGED This is the village nearest to the site of Petra, and hence the official destination of buses and so forth going there. There was a movement a year or so ago to change the official name of the village to "Petra", but this was quashed by the government. In many ways it would have simplified life for the visitor. The village is up in the hills, about a mile - call it a kilometer and a half - from the entrance to Petra, and most of the cheap hotels are here. You can see a few recommendations on the page about hotels in Petra. The distance, not to mention the rather steep hill, makes it important to choose a hotel which offers free transport to Petra. Restaurants : To be honest, I so seldom eat in restaurants that I don't really know many to recommend. The big hotel restaurants are mostly fairly bland and monotonous. The restaurants in the village seem quite acceptable, most of them serve the local dishes : mansaff, maglouba, galaya... I do give a special mention to a Yemeni restaurant called the Arabian Nights and another alongside it called El Siwani. And recommended by all the locals another almost opposite these two called the Bokari Restaurant. We got a very good take out "mandi" from the Arabian Nights a while ago. If you are into picknicking and want to buy provisions to take with you, there is a fair choice of simple food in the village. All the fruit and vegetable shops have been moved out, however, and now can be found in a special market just behind the bus station, which is to the south of the village - head for the main mosque and keep going another hundred meters or so. I draw your attention to a largish "supermarket" (well, large for the village) just opposite to the mosque, which is almost remarkable in that it charges the same prices to tourists as it does to local people. There is another handsome "supermarket" near to the site, close to the Sunset Hotel, of which the same can most definitely not be said! In fact locals seldom shop there at all.
Night life? Um... The Cave Bar of the Guesthouse (right alongside the entrance to Petra) is just about the only place that is on occasion a hot spot. If there is a big group of tourists staying at the hotel, there is often dancing until midnight, sometimes even later! (My goodness!) If you check there, they have a "programme" which will tell you the nights that something is scheduled. For a quiet drink in the evening, I usually go to the Crown Plaza Hotel where the terrace beside the pool outside has a lovely view of the sunset over the Petra mountains and down to the beginning of the Siq (just visible if one knows exactly where to look). This is quite popular with the local tourist guides, who often congregate here in the evening and talk shop with each other or with visiting guides accompanying groups. If there is a "pool barbecue" the terrace is crowded and noisy and in that case I make for the Roof Garden Bar of the Mövenpick Hotel nearby. Few locals go there but it is very pleasant. If you still have the energy after a day in Petra, the Crowne Plaza also offers tennis courts and a few other sports possibilities. There is a charge, less for guests, but still a charge.
Beer and alcohol : there is no "liquor" shop in Wadi Mousa. The bigger hotels have bars, a few of the smaller ones and a couple of coffee shops serve beer and wine (but since they don't always have a permit to do so, I am not naming them here!) You can buy beer, wine or alcohol from all of these hotels, usually at bar prices (!) - if you ask a few of the locals, you will be directed quickly to the non-licensed places where you can find what you want. Again I warn you that you will be charged more than in the specialised shops elsewhere. Incidentally, one of the best places to buy beer is the Mövenpick, you don't always think of asking one of the most expensive hotels for take-away beer, but it's noticeably cheaper there than in the small hotels in the village. However, it is much better if you stock up before you arrive in Wadi Mousa.
Internet in Wadi Mousa : there are now so many Internet cafes in the village that it's no real use recommending one over the other. All that I have tried have broadband, some are open at more convenient times than others. Besides hotels and restaurants/coffee shops, there are sufficient banks, drugstores and ATMs, to serve most people's needs. There are also plenty of taxis, etc. For trips outside of "the Wadi", as Wadi Mousa is generally known in Jordan, bargain hard. There are "official" prices, but since the price of petrol has been increased sharply several times since the official prices were set, almost nobody respects them - fairly understandably, actually. The standard fares applied are now 35JD to Wadi Rum or to Aqaba and 10JD to Ma'an. Amman would be somewhere around 55/65JD but here you have a good chance of bargaining. If you are looking for a reliable (and honest) taxi driver, then call Ali Salameen at 0777.533.958 or +962.777.533.958 from outside Jordan. He can meet you at airports etc and his prices are on the modest side. He speaks fluent English. And if you are travelling in a small party, Yussef Salameen owns a minibus seating 8 people and has a licence to drive tourists anywhere in Jordan. He speaks good English, knows the tourist sites and how to get to them and is very reliable. He is also a nice guy! His phone number is +962.795.596.288 and his fax is +962.3.215.6466. Charly at the Mariam Hotel in Madaba (see www.mariamhotel.com) could also put you in touch with minibus drivers who work with his hotel. You can read more about the non-tourist aspects of Wadi Mousa on the page about it in the "Meet the People" section. You might also like to look at the web page entitled "Excursions from Petra : Humeima, Disseh and the north of the Wadi Rum area"
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