Exploring The Lost City of PETRA | A Rollercoaster of Emotions

110% worth the hike.

What?

You've changed with my smile.

Change. You have a nice smile.

This don't like, like this. You can eat something.

That's important.

It's day five in Jordan, and today we are exploring Jordan's most iconic location. If everything goes as planned today, we're going to start with a tour, learn as much as we can about Petra, then head off on our own to explore and try to find the secret trail that leads up to a view above the Treasury. And then tonight, we're actually going to come back and see Petra by candlelight.

I'm so excited about this day. And Nano has us doing it in style. I have the traditional Jordanian headdress and a traditional Bedouin coat, which is good.

Because it is absolutely freezing today. It blows my mind that we were swimming yesterday.

So we're currently walking through a super narrow canyon called the. And it's like we just keep going further and further down and the walls keep getting higher and higher. At this point, they're probably over 100 meters high. And so I think after about a kilometer, I'm not getting ran over by horses.

There are horse carriages that come so fast through these tiny roads.

We're going to emerge from this narrow canyon straight in front of the treasury, which is like the iconic site that everyone knows, Petra.

It's not the best weather for our first view of the treasury, but it is beautiful. One of the seven wonders in the world.

It's honestly a bit of a chaotic mess. Like, as soon as you come out of the gorge, there's just tons of people. Everybody's trying to sell you something. Either get you on a horse, get you on a camel, sell your souvenir, take you to a secret viewpoint.

It is chaos, but it's super lively and exciting.

It's just absolutely incredible. Like the feeling of coming out of the gorge and then just having the treasury appear in front of you, even though it's raining, like, it's so beautiful. We also learned on our walk down here that Petra was discovered by a sneaky Swiss explorer. So the Bedouin tribe has lived here for a very long time. And he knew that there's no way that they would bring him to this secret city. So what he did was he learned some Arabic and he told him he wanted to go pray to Moses brother. And which he knew was buried around the area. He knew that's the only way that the Bedouins would take him here.

So when they did, he was actually documenting everything. And then he went and Told everybody about it. And so that's why everybody knows about Petra now.

For better or for worse. That's why we're standing here today.

But the good news is all the Bedouins still live here and basically run the place. Like anything that you spend money on inside of Petra is going straight to them. And they're very friendly. I like the Bedouins. So incredible, especially the little kids.

The Treasury. The name of the treasury, why they call it the Treasury? Because they thought that it used to be treasure. Upside over there, you can see the earth. You can see some of the ghosts over there. So they used to shoot fire. Fire and guns over there. They thought that there will be goats.

You don't see this every day. Goats hanging out in ancient Roman ruins.

The sun has come out. It is a million times warmer. And I am so happy. And we just left the treasury, which we've learned is not actually a treasury, but we still call it that. They used to think there was gold in there, so that's where it got its original name. But it's actually a tomb of a king that they had for like 50 years, who they loved. And it's in this perfect location where the weather doesn't hit it. So that's why it's in such good condition.

And before we came to Petra, the only pictures I had seen were of the treasury. So I thought that was Petra, but it's actually a massive ancient city which we're about to start exploring more of now. But before we do, we thought we should give you a quick history lesson. Petra was actually built by the Nabians, and they basically were robbers in this area. This was a very popular trade route and they would steal everything that was coming through. And that's how they were able to build such a huge, impressive city.

So apparently the Bedouin men actually wear eyeshadow to protect their eyes from the sun. And then they also wear these headdresses that have like, points on both sides. And for some reason, they all look like Johnny Depp and Pirates of the Caribbean to me.

Okay, one more fun fact. We're just learning so many cool things that I had no idea. There are carvings all over the place in Petra, and some of them are really beautiful. And some of them are just holes, like caves in the rock. And apparently the ones that are just holes with no carvings or decorations at all were people's homes. That's where they lived. But the ones with the beautiful carvings are all tombs. Back then, they were scared of death. And so the way they kind of dealt with. It is really honoring the dead. And that's why they would make these beautiful, detailed carvings around the tombs and worshiping gods. And I never really thought about it that way. So it's kind of sad when you see they all lived in these ugly holes in the wall in the dead people had the beautiful one.

Hi again.

Hello.

Hi, Autobaht. Later take you up to the monastery.

Suddenly there are dark, scary clouds again. And it's windy and it's gotten really cold. And lunchtime couldn't have come at a better time.

As usual, our Jordanian feast for lunch was delicious. However, the weather has really taken a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, it is pouring down Ra and freezing cold. So we're gonna wait it out and hope that it goes away so we.

Can go explore somewhere.

And we wallbirds weren't made.

It was worth the wait. It stopped raining, and we're making a run for it.

I think it might actually even work out better because we're about to start hiking one of the most popular trails in the whole complex. It's usually packed with people. From everything that I've read. We're hiking up to the monastery, which the pictures of the monastery actually look almost as impressive as the Treasury.

We have 850 steps to go.

It's gonna be quite the hike. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

There's two options. You can either walk up. Hello. Good. I'm good. You can either walk up, or you can take one of these guys up on their offer to ride a donkey up to 850 stairs.

So we forgot to mention that in about an hour, they start rounding people up and kicking people out. And we're still like an hour away from the interns, at least, so we gotta hurry.

I think you're more hurt than me.

How are you feeling after the first 100 steps?

Very tired.

Yeah. 750 more to go. Yeah.

I'm so happy right now. I was starting to go into a little bit of a depression while we were sitting in the restaurant. It was raining, and I was thinking I was gonna only have that, like, first hour in Petra, and that was all I was gonna get to see. But now the weather couldn't be more perfect. Also, we are the very last ones. There's no one behind us, and we're still going into Petra right now. So I have a good feeling we're gonna be the last ones out unless somebody stops us before this trail ends.

Feels good to walk off all the bread I've been eating.

But we about to get something here one dinner. I think I'm gonna be in my underwear by the time we get to the top of this trail. Honestly, though, you know, it gets to be like 40 degrees here in the summer. This is much better.

Awesome.

Cool.

Honestly, no matter what, the monastery looks like it's worth it just for the views. And the light is perfect right now.

Hello. Yeah, I feel like such a dad at the moment.

Good practice for you.

Petra. Can you believe this? We made it to the monastery and no one's here.

Just the donkey.

110% worth the hike.

Tips for coming to Petra come during a rainstorm. Wait till everyone leaves and then run to the top right before it closes.

Yes. This is incredible.

I'm so happy I could just cry.

I think it's because we're pretty much alone. But this, to me, is more impressive.

Than the treasury and the fact that the rain stopped. I just can't believe it.

I really thought this video was going to have a sad ending. We need some joyous music. Cue joyous music.

This is amazing.

Okay. There's a guard dog.

We made it. I can't believe it.

I thought, I'm gonna die.

Seriously.

Like, I was like, oh, why?

I made.

I say we should go up. This is all Nanno's idea.

Yeah.

I regret it all the way up, but now I don't. It's worth it. It's worth it. And it's all for us. It's all for us.

How good is this? We've taken like 10,000 photos. We've stayed way longer than we should have. And we're about to have to run back down the mountain.

It was totally worth it.

The very last.

850Th step. Going down is hard work when it's slick, sandy and wet. I'm tired. Thank you, Nate. He made it do it.

Feels like we're the last ones left in Petra. It's just us and the better ones.

Like, we're on the main road and all the Bedouins are starting their fires. Chilling now. Not selling anything anymore. It's cool to be here right now.

The day worked out perfect, but it's been such a roller coaster of emotions. I was super excited when we got here. As we were walking through the seat to the treasury, it started to rain. So I got a little bummed.

And then there were so many people in the treasury and it was wet and cold and I didn't think it was going to stop.

We got to lunch, it started pouring. I was super bummed.

And then we still didn't know if it was going to stop. We just thought the day was over.

Yeah, that was like big time at low point. And now it couldn't have worked out better. Ended up being like the perfect day. Sometimes the perfect day isn't always perfect. If there's a lesson to be learned from this video, which there's usually not. But in this one, maybe there is.

We are at the treasury all alone. Us and the Bedouins. There are about a billion people here.

Earlier.

I can't believe this.

The key to having the treasury all to yourself is staying until it's dark and it's closed. I'm not even sure if you can see me right now, but the Sikh has a totally different feel at night. When we were walking in this morning, all the horse carts were racing by. There were a bunch of people trying to sell us stuff. And now it's just a few people talking and the sound of my footsteps. But we just learned that Petra by Night was canceled. Where they light up all of the candles in front of the treasury, which is a little bit of a bummer. At the beginning of this video, I said if everything goes to plan. And I'm not sure why I said that, but it was very foreshadowing of today because today did everything but go as planned at the same time. It was an incredible day. I don't think I would change anything. Petra is an incredible place.

I feel like I've got my goat down.

I can't do it.

They're coming closer for the pictures me.

But my head scarf also came off. So now it's the next scarf.

The Bedouin coat was a much better idea this morning.

Did not think I would be without a coat on today.

Hope this can't be really warm out here today.