Incredible Petra Series in Jordan: Lunch at the Basin Restaurant and more fotos of the Bedouins
It’s now past 12:00 and although there were only a few people in the restaurant we knew that in an hour’s time it will be hectic here so it’s all good that we are early, we can eat in peace while enjoying the beautiful landscape scenery around us =)
We chose the Basin Restaurant mainly because of its location and the ambiance. We have a table nicely situated in the terrace and a magnificent view of the surroundings, of rose-red cliffs and tombs far ahead in the distance but visible enough to enjoy. What more can we ask for?
Our view during lunch from our table.
Arabic translation of Coca-Cola.
Need to have my green salad and this biscotti was quite good.
Oh yeah I ate all these and everything on the table that I skipped dinner, well, we both skipped dinner.
Arabic flat bread, humus, falafel and the biscotti again.
Tiny servings of desserts. Blondine loved their Baklava.
The outer part of the terrace. We did not sit here because we did not like eating in front of the Bedouins who were touting their camels.
Lunch was buffet, something that I always try to avoid as a personal mandate. Why? You always pay more for what you can actually eat. Waste of money and definitely not healthy because it tempts you to eat more. But this restaurant doesn’t offer a la carte so we have no choice. Average food rating: 3.5 stars out of 5. It was quite good but nothing super spectacular. The Baklava was 4.5 stars though.
Our lunch took 2 hours. We just talked and talked. We laughed. We looked at the fotos we made, again and again. We just enjoyed really the surroundings and the inside-the-old-city-of-Petra-with-the-towering-cliffs-around-us ambiance. It was nice to lunch at a slower than normal pace for a change, without having to hurry, it was very relaxing.
True enough just after 13:00 the hordes arrived. We were so glad we came early!
Now, the minus point here was their payment facility. They have a manual system for credit card transactions—they have to call the bank which means they really must speak to someone from the bank on the phone in order to process each transaction and sometimes the remote processing doesn’t always work.
My Mastercard and Amex didn’t get any signal and fortunately Blondine’s Mastercard went through. You see we only have about 25 JOD in our wallets and if Blondine’s card did not go through we might have to forget climbing the Monastery as we might have to wash the thousands of dishes waiting in the kitchen. Gulp. Oh dear, that would be a major catastrophe. Can you imagine our beauties washing dishes???
I also took some pictures of the Bedouin locals hanging out in the area:
The above kid in the foto tried to offer us a donkey ride to the Monastery, and of course, since our plan was to hike, we declined. He said, 'No problem. Welcome to Jordan!' So I asked if I can take a picture of him and he agreed. He was quite happy to see his foto when I showed it to him. Shukran little boy.
Next, the 1-hour climb to the Monastery
Travel Period: April 2011
We chose the Basin Restaurant mainly because of its location and the ambiance. We have a table nicely situated in the terrace and a magnificent view of the surroundings, of rose-red cliffs and tombs far ahead in the distance but visible enough to enjoy. What more can we ask for?
Our view during lunch from our table.Arabic translation of Coca-Cola.Need to have my green salad and this biscotti was quite good.Oh yeah I ate all these and everything on the table that I skipped dinner, well, we both skipped dinner.Arabic flat bread, humus, falafel and the biscotti again.Tiny servings of desserts. Blondine loved their Baklava.The outer part of the terrace. We did not sit here because we did not like eating in front of the Bedouins who were touting their camels.Lunch was buffet, something that I always try to avoid as a personal mandate. Why? You always pay more for what you can actually eat. Waste of money and definitely not healthy because it tempts you to eat more. But this restaurant doesn’t offer a la carte so we have no choice. Average food rating: 3.5 stars out of 5. It was quite good but nothing super spectacular. The Baklava was 4.5 stars though.
Our lunch took 2 hours. We just talked and talked. We laughed. We looked at the fotos we made, again and again. We just enjoyed really the surroundings and the inside-the-old-city-of-Petra-with-the-towering-cliffs-around-us ambiance. It was nice to lunch at a slower than normal pace for a change, without having to hurry, it was very relaxing.
True enough just after 13:00 the hordes arrived. We were so glad we came early!
Now, the minus point here was their payment facility. They have a manual system for credit card transactions—they have to call the bank which means they really must speak to someone from the bank on the phone in order to process each transaction and sometimes the remote processing doesn’t always work.
My Mastercard and Amex didn’t get any signal and fortunately Blondine’s Mastercard went through. You see we only have about 25 JOD in our wallets and if Blondine’s card did not go through we might have to forget climbing the Monastery as we might have to wash the thousands of dishes waiting in the kitchen. Gulp. Oh dear, that would be a major catastrophe. Can you imagine our beauties washing dishes???
I also took some pictures of the Bedouin locals hanging out in the area:
The above kid in the foto tried to offer us a donkey ride to the Monastery, and of course, since our plan was to hike, we declined. He said, 'No problem. Welcome to Jordan!' So I asked if I can take a picture of him and he agreed. He was quite happy to see his foto when I showed it to him. Shukran little boy.Next, the 1-hour climb to the Monastery
Travel Period: April 2011
