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It was still stormy this morning and the mountains of Saudi Arabia, usually clearly in view from our hotel, had disappeared into the mist. We packed up after breakfast and waited for our car that was to take us the hour and a half down the coast to Nuweiba.
When the car arrived it turned out to the same driver as our Mount Sinai trip. After the obligatory stop at the “Tourism and Antiquities Police” office to file the details of our trip, we headed down the coastal road. Our plan was to spend one night in a hotel in Nuweiba before catching the ferry to Jordan the next day. The trouble is, the area where the hotels are is 10 km from the port. As we would have had to make a trip to the port today to buy tickets anyhow, on our arrival in Nuweiba I suggested that we skip Nuweiba and try to make it on the ferry to Jordan today. Either way, what we had read about the ferry trip had us ready for a long and frustrating day.
As is typical in Egypt with official places, it was a bit confusing to figure out
where to go. We finally found the ticket office where tickets were $80 US per person one way - with no child prices. This was a bit more than we had planned for, but it was a bit late to change plans.
After buying the tickets, we then drove a few hundred meters to the port departure area, passing a camel wandering the streets on the way. In the departure area we had our bags x-rayed and then entered a huge warehouse like building where about 400 people were seated, lined up, or milling about. Again, it was confusing as to what the next step was, but we asked the tour guide from a group and found that we needed to fill in departure cards and have our passports processed. After this step we waited. It was now just after 12:30 and from what we understood we now had a 4 to 5 hour wait before boarding the ferry. Why they need to process everyone so early is beyond me. Even international flights can handle these detail in a mere 3 hours.
There were only a handful of foreigners in the hall which was dirty, dark and full
of flies. Most of the Egyptians seemed to be lined up for an earlier ferry. Occasionally their line would suddenly surge forward as a bus arrived to take a load of people to a ferry. There would be lots of shouting and pushing which would not end until that bus has loaded. Then the line would settle down again.
With our plans now a day ahead of schedule, we called our Nuweiba hotel and cancelled. It was interesting to see how fast the price began to drop when we did so until I finally convinced the hotel that we were not leaving them for a cheaper deal.
There were no restaurants in the waiting hall, only a few stand selling pop and chips. All around us people were smoking.
Eventually, about 4:30, the foreigners were ushered out of the hall to a waiting bus. Once again things were confusing. It appeared at first that we would have to take all our suitcases up onto the bus with us. Eventually though, one of the drivers opened up the cargo holds for us to put them there.
When we arrived at the ferry, it was remarkably new and modern
relative to the arrival hall and buses that had taken us to it. We stowed our bags on the car deck and headed up to a modern looking passenger level. Here we had our passports taken for Jordanian customs and visa before ordering boxed dinners from our seats.
By about 8:00 pm, we were arriving at the port near Aqaba. I was thankful for the wheels on our suitcases as we had several hundred meters to wheel our bags from the dock to the arrivals terminal. On the way, we heard news from another foreigner that there had been a bomb blast in Cairo. Ironic given that we skipped India to avoid a political potshot.
In the arrivals hall, we had another long wait while our passports got processed. Benjamin and Joshua amused themselves making friends with a cat that wandered in from the docks. While we waited, a sea of Egyptian people entered the terminal, transforming it from almost empty to packed in a matter of minutes. Finally, after about 45 minutes of waiting, our passports were delivered to us.
We ran the usual taxi line and ended up paying too much for the ride but
we were too tired to argue at this point. As the taxi driver pulled on his seat belt and asked me to do the same, it quickly became obvious that this was a different kind of place from Egypt. The streets were much cleaner and cars seemed to actually pay some attention to lane markers.
We hadn't been able to contact our hotel in Aqaba to tell them that we would be a day early, but this didn't seem to be a problem for them. The place turned out to be fairly nice, but with no INTERNET which was a bit of a pain for planning the next part of the trip.
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