I travel for work and for pleasure. I like to bring a camera along wherever I travel; it makes me see even short business trips as new experiences. I love food of all sorts and experiencing new cultures. I always travel solo and occasionally by bicycle.
My second day at Petra I got to see some of the main sights in miraculous, wonderful solitude. The first day I’d been harassed by would-be guides and vendors and lost amid throngs of tourists. On my second day, I got to the gate at 6:30, when it opened, and scurried down the Siq to find Petra virtually empty, as if I’d stumbled upon it by accident. I love to talk to others when I travel, but I also like time to reflect and to be alone. Petra is a phenomenal place for that, since it is so stunning that it takes the mind a while to absorb it all. I ate my breakfast atop the Great Temple, then climbed the 800 steps to the monastery where I was one of three people there. I sat on a rock overlooking the Monastery for a long time, absorbing it, imagining it when Petra was a huge and thriving metropolis. It was an amazing day.
