Next day we had to take a taxi to the bus stop where we were met by another ever friendly Taxi driver.
“No, the bus doesn’t leave for Petra from here”, he said helpfully.
“Sorry mate we have been assured by a few people we can.” Because we had.
“No, no, but I can help you out. I will generously help you and take you to another bus station which goes to Petra, all for only 4JD.”
“No thanks we will just go in and buy our ticket.”
“I will come with you.” He offered.
So we go in and ask for a ticket but before the man can answer out trusty Taxi driver bursts in with rapid Arabic, obviously telling him to say there are no buses from here. So I turn to the Taxi driver but see Hannah look at me so I left it and politely said, “What do you mean no bus? We know there is one.” Anyway Hannah starts talking to the Taxi driver so I sneaked over to another counter and asked for a ticket to Petra. He looked down and started typing on his computer and was about to book us in when the hawk eye of the Taxi driver spotted what was happening and rushed over and started talking in Arabic. So the man at the counter stopped what he was doing and said,
“Sorry no Bus. Next!” The Taxi driver then must have read my mind because he asked, “You don’t trust me because I am a Taxi driver do you?”
I smiled at him politely, “Too right I don’t. I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you, every Taxi driver I have ever met I can’t trust, you especially included.” I stopped from telling him each and every reason why I not only didn’t trust him but didn’t like him, because Hannah was looking at me.
“What I didn’t get mad at him? Why are you mad at me?”
Anyway to calm the mighty Hannah rage we took him to this other Bus station. During the trip Hannah had time to think over things and I had to restrain her from launching into a furious tirade. When he kindly told us the bus is usually 5JD but he had done us a deal for 4JD I almost hit him because I was so furious. I knew it was only 3JD normally. So when the driver asked for the money I refused to give him more than 3JD each. In the end I got my own way.
“Hannah see that’s what getting angry does, it gets you your own way.” At that stage she agreed with me.
At the toilet stop I had an emotionally scaring experience. A squat toilet which had poo floating in the wee covering the whole floor. I had to wade through crap just to get to the hole in the ground to pee. I refused to speak or eat or drink for a few hours to recover from my traumatic experience.
Hannah and I can be called speed tourists. If we sit still for more than a few hours we get bored and then cranky and start to fight so we have to be active all the time. We had done Ephesus in 2 hrs and that was with the added off limits parts where you are not allowed to go. We did Istanbul in 3 days and repeated everything on the second day, so we figured we would do Petra in 3hrs tops. We got to the hostel.
“How long do you think you need for Petra, 2hrs, 3hrs max?” The lady laughed long and hard.
“It takes 1hr just to get to the first building in Petra. Most people do it briefly in 2 days.” We gasped. “Some Australians are going back for their 4th day tomorrow.”
“We probably need a day then.”
She laughed again heartily, “You won’t even get from one end to the other.”
So instead of going to Petra we went to the internet where the man tried to rip us off.
“5JD, 1.5 hrs each”
“No, I think you will find that its 4.5JD” I replied politely.
“5JD”
So I carefully spelt it out for him, ‘2 of us with 1.5hrs so 3hrs all together at 1.5JD an hr is 4.5JD.”
“5JD, 1.5JD for the first hour and 1 for the next half an hour” he said ridiculously
“Don’t be crazy you’re the only place in the whole country which would charge more for the longer you use the internet, actually in the whole world.” I said calmly and with a big smile, just to make Hannah happy. It didn’t seem to work because she was looking quite furious. I didn’t want to be ripped off again so I stop my ground and got it in the end for what I wanted, 4.5JD.
“I don’t think we can go back there Hannah.”
“You think, do you…?"
We went to the bank to change some money and the man needed Hannah’s name, “Name.”
“Hannah” she stated simply and in the same breath continued, “So should we change our Cyprus money as well?”
“hanasosuldwechangorcyprusey?” the man replied
“No, Hannah”
“Nohana?”
“Han are”
“Han argh?”Hannah then grabbed a bit of paper and chicken scrawled her name in lovely flowing running writing as if that would help the clearly Arabic man. He looked at it blankly for a minute before handing it back for her to write legibly. Some she attempted to do. We got our receipt under the name Hcmurb Izupmc.