Finally after almost 9 hours of the hectic but fascinating journey, we reached Wadi Musa, a place claimed by many Islamic Scholars where Prophet Musa a.s struck his stick for the twelve springs for his followers – the Israelites, at around 18:45 hours. We decided to do Jama’ Takhir, i.e. gathering our Maghrib prayer with ‘Isya during ‘Isya time. This is what you called the ‘gift’ given by Allah swt to His servant, which entails His Gracefulness and Mercy.Our first impression of Wadi Musa was… wow!! It changed our perceptions 180 degrees. The ambience, the colors and the chemistry was just right.
We went straight to the Sun Set Hotel, a 3 Star hotel, situated at the downtown of Wadi Musa, sandwiched by the popular Moevenpick and Palace Hotel. I must put in the record that, despite its status – 3 Star, the service, the staff and its facilities were at least 4 Stars standards, reliable and efficient. The check-in was executed in not more than 5 minutes with no hustles, which was actually a blessing for us.
The kids were tired and all of us were dragged to death by hunger. Immediately after storing our luggage inside the rooms, Harir took us to the up-town area, I mean really on the up-hill side of the valley to a decent restaurant famous for its Mensaf, Bukhari Rice and Beriyani Rice (could not recall the name). We ordered and tried all the dishes of the Arabic cuisine and grilled Kebab, Kofta and chicken that came together with the fresh salads. Gosh…well, Alhamdullillah, SubhanaAllah, within 15 minutes or so…………all the plates were extremely cleaned! I mean literally cleaned with no left over except the lamb ribs and empty cans of the soft drinks! I think, because of the chilly evening of Wadi Musa, our 120 horsepower engines need more ‘fuel’ for combustion to boost its power for the main agenda tomorrow. All those 'fuel' energy booster had cost us 54 JD.
After the elaborate splendid dinner, we performed our obligation at Masjid nearby, 3 minutes walk from the restaurant. The Masjid was very clean, organized, seem to be well managed, and its ablution area is fixed with warm and cold water conforming to the weather demand and its user’s requirement.
We asked Harir’s help to buy us fruits at the nearby grocery shops, but instead despite his fatigue, he brought us to the Wadi Musa’s market. Lucky us the market was still open. We spent around 10 minutes enjoying ourselves with the colors and shapes of varieties of fruits and vegetables displayed by the local vendors.
We returned to our hotel around 21:00 hours. To help better smoothen the operation of our biological engines, we roamed brisk walking the downtown alley while enjoying the nightlife amid the beautiful Wadi Musa’s weather. There were many gift-souvenirs shops; restaurants that offer you all kind of cuisines with reasonable price; moneychangers, and grocery stores within the vicinity. Almost all the local people that we met were very friendly and kind.
Tired roaming the small downtown alley, the kids and Nana spent sometime browsing the internet at the hotel’s internet corner, while I had the chance meeting and chatting with the owner of the Hotel. A very decent man at his mid 40s, speak good English, he offered me tea and shared me good interesting stories.
Anyway, either we ate a bit too much or were still recovering from the hectic 8 hours journey on the Kings Highway, but for one reason or another we all had a deep sleep that night.
Below are some of the photos of the Wadi Musa's shophouses, flats, Mosque, etc. Wadi Musa is under the Ma'an Governorate, which accomodates about 104,000 inhabitants. Most visitors who planned to explore the nearby Petra or Wadi Rum, will make Wadi Musa as their base for at least a night, hence its prosperity.
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