Petra

There is essentially a nighttime light show around the pyramids and we actually decided to skip this on our tour.

Reason being, we had just come from Jordan where we went to Petra and we did Petra by night.

And even though Petra was amazing, Petra by night was very underwhelming and felt like a bit of a waste of time and money for us.

Now, that might surprise you because I'm typically the person who says, you know, this is a once in a lifetime experience.

When will you ever be back here again? But because of our previous experience, we weighed up our options and just decided that we'd already seen the pyramids.

So the sin of pride.

Edom lived in a mountainous rocky region, Petra, Mount Seir, and believed their high fortifications made them invincible.

Obadiah rebuked them, writing, The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? That's Obadiah 1.3.

Betrayal of Jacob Instead of helping their brother Jacob or Israel, when Babylon invaded, Edom stood by rejoiced in Israel's downfall and even captured fleeing Israelite refugees to hand them over to the enemy.

It stretches south from the Dead Sea down to the Red Sea.

It is famously known for its rugged, reddish, sandstone mountains.

If you visit the region today, the most famous site within the borders of ancient Edom is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Petra.

While Petra was famously built up by the Nabataeans, it sits directly in the rugged mountains of Mount Seir, where the Edomites once thrived.

Now, the Edomites were then wiped out by the Nabataean Arabs in the 5th century B.C., ransacked Edom and leaving only pockets of refugees in the desert, according to 1 Maccabees.

And it was these same Nabataeans that set up a nation called Idumea with its capital in Hebron, and one of its great cities built in the cliffs was called Petra.

But their destruction of Edom was permanent.

Edom in the sense of really true Edomites.

What's America known as? The great Satan.

Now that's an appellation by our enemies, and yet it's not without merit.

But getting back to Petra, I can't touch on this issue.

We'll go forward in Malachi.

So you got like some intrigue there and beautiful mountains, canyons to explore.

I rode my bike from Amman to Petra.

which was super cool I don't know if you've been well you haven't been anywhere else but I recommend Jordan for sure I can speak for that so all right let's leave the Middle East I'm curious to another part of your backstory and before you really became a travel writer even a writer writer in general you moved to Cambodia when you were quite young and lived there for I'm not sure how long so let's hear the story you were 20 when you moved to Cambodia

yes that's right