Adventure in Jordan

‘Taxi?’ the boy asks.

He is perhaps twelve years old, dressed in dusty western clothes with a traditional keffiyeh wrapped around his head and neck to protect from the blazing sun. He sits astride a donkey, saddled with brightly coloured woven blankets –his ‘taxi’. Next to him, ancient Roman pillars rise up from the desert sand. The boy and his donkey are framed by clusters of caves carved into the sandstone hills surrounding the dead city of Petra, one of the 7 ‘New’ Wonders of the World.

Welc...