I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't been to Petra yet... Mada'in Saleh was sort of ok, but I believe Petra is much more impressive. The problem in getting to Mada'in Saleh is that you need a letter from the Ministry of Archaeology to be admitted to the area. That is if you are a foreigner, Saudis get in without papers and consequently there's all sorts of picnic trash all over the place and some of the tombs have been used as toilets. Not nice.
If I had been on a dirt bike or even a dual-sport I would have followed the base of the Hijaz railway to some trains blown up by one of the earliers bikers in the area, Arabia Lawrence, but I didn't think that would have been such a good idea on a fully loaded Blackbird 2-up. I wouldn't recommend Mada'in Saleh for a streetbike either, especially if you're unfamiliar with soft sand.
Anyhow, I think I'll have to skip Aleppo this time, and I'd like to leave something unvisited so I'll have an excuse to ride back down later.
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