Aqaba and the Red Sea

---

Ahlan wa Sahlan!

I can't believe the time has come and passed of my last full weekend of Jordan. I knew I had to have a spectacular trip for my last big hoorah. That is exactly why I decided to go to Aqaba and Wadi Rum this past weekend!
To get from Amman to Aqaba I and the two girls I live with, Tara and Laura, and their friend Pat, took a Jett Bus (again gotta love the AC) that was four hours, and a double decker (full) to Aqaba. The bus ride was pretty uneventful until right outside of Aqaba where there was a checkpoint and a solider came on to check everyone's passports. Other than that (and the annoying "in transit entertainment") the ride was good.
Aqaba is Jordan's only port city and is located on the Red Sea. Unfortunately, two weekends ago a rocket hit Aqaba that was supposedly aimed at Eliat, Israel from Egypt. One Jordanian taxi driver was killed. While this is extremely sad, one could see how this was possible. While standing on the beach in Aqaba you could see Eliat as clear as day, and also the mountains of Egypt all at one time. One hopes something like this will never happen again to any of these countries and that peace will one day come to the area for good. Jordan has peace treaties with Egypt and Israel respectively, which always makes a fault like this worse.
Aqaba is also home to the 2nd tallest free standing flagpole (137 meters) in the world which is clearly seen on the beach. We were first under the impression that it was the flag of Palestine, because unlike the Jordanian flag, this flag had no star. But, this didn't make sense to me because, like I mentioned before, Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, which could clearly see the flag from Eliat. So, after I googled it, the flag is actually the flag commemorating The Great Arab Revolt of 1916.
Anyway, once we got into the bus station we walked south until we hit our hotel, right near the flag. We met up with another group from Qasid, where I study, and we walked down to the beach. After watching the sunset we went to look for a place to eat. We ended up going to Blue Bay, a seafood place that was very good. I splurged a tad and got calamari, which was really good! After dinner we got gelato from Gelato Uno. I got three scoops of Strawberry, Mango and Chocolate, and it tasted so good. After dessert we headed back to our hotel on the beach, and the lights from Eliat looked so pretty! Finally we went back to our hotel and went to bed because we were getting up the next morning to go to the Red Sea!
The next morning Pat, Laura, Tara, and myself took an early morning mini bus to the south of Aqaba where there are private beaches. To give you an idea of how far south, it was only around 3km from the Saudi Arabia border. We finally found a beach to stay in the morning and our fun began. We all decided to go snorkeling, which was very fun. After a few issues with water getting in my mask, I was finally off to look at the reef. While the formations were very awesome and the fish were extremely colorful, nothing can compare to the Great Barrier Reef. None the less, it was still really cool, and the water was really comfortable! After early morning snorkeling we laid on the beach, and I finally, FINALLY, got some semblance of color! It was also really funny that it was the four of us, and the rest of the tourists were European. They were rocking their bikini's and speedos, something I never thought I would see in Jordan, but Aqaba is a resort town, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Now for the exciting part of our day. We took the 1:30 mini bus from the resort back to Aqaba because we wanted food before our trip to Wadi Rum. We knew since it was Ramadan, that most places would probably be closed, so our best bet was McDonald's. Once we got there and put our stuff down and got in line to order, the cashier told us we couldn't eat inside our outside. We now had a problem because we had already checked out of our hotel and didn't know where to eat, because it is impolite to eat in front of people who are fasting. We finally decided to try to head back to our hotel to try and eat there. We walked in and asked the gentleman if this was ok and he actually gave us a room key to go inside and eat, complete with some nice leopard print sheets. It was definitely an adventure to say the least, and we've never ate faster in our lives. But, it was definitely worth it, because now we were off to Wadi Rum to explore the desert with some other friends who were waiting for us....

---

Photos

Aqaba
Sunset

Aqaba
Gelato-Myself, Laura and Tara

Aqaba
Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Aqaba
McDonald's, which actually has an iftar special for Ramadan