Blogs from Aqaba, South, Jordan, Middle East - page 5

MONDAY 18.6.2013 Up early for earlybirds breakfast and off on our trip to Petra and the Wadi Rum, WHAT CAN WE SAY!!! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! First off the ship and our guides were waiting for the five of us, thought we could not top yesterday but this was certainly up there. Two hour drive to Petra - through the changing landscape of mountains, colours, desert and camels walking (shackled) across the 3 lane freeway- then a 2km walk down into the Siq (following in the footsteps of Indiana Jones, amazing) and then to the Treasury, then another 1km down past amphitheatre, urn thumb etc - absolutely unbelievable the height of the rocks beside you as you walked down through the Siq, and then around the corner comes the Treasury - so beautiful! The walk back out ... read more

I was a young teenager when I first saw the movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” and fell immediately in love with Peter O’Toole as only a teenage girl can. In fact, if you mention “Lawrence of Arabia” to any woman of a certain age, she will get a spark in her eye and sigh, “Yes, Peter O’Toole.” Here was a man, handsome, courageous and strong; you just knew his swash wouldn’t buckle even under the harshest conditions. There is a moment in the movie when Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) and Sherif Ali (Omar Sherif) peer over the edge of a cliff and Lawrence proclaims “Aqaba!” I vowed that someday I, too, would see Aqaba. Aqaba today is a dusty, flyblown, rather dirty town. It’s a shame, really. Aqaba is on the Red Sea, and scuba divers come from ... read more

Friday and Saturday - Aqaba and the Red Sea Jordan After our day at Little Petra and Wadi Rum Desert, next we head to Aqaba and the Red Sea. The area is quite busy as we are arriving on their weekend and because it is a duty free area a lot of people come down from Amman and other parts of Jordan for the weekends which are Friday and Saturday. As I spot the Red Sea I say a little prayer for a friend who had always wanted to dive in this Sea and didn't reach her goal. We arrived at an incredible, beautiful resort right on the Red Sea…We quickly changed and headed for the beach. We made it into the waters of the Red Sea 10 minutes before sunset and Sian was able to ... read more

18 March 2012 4:43 local It's halftime at the lobo/Louisville game. Great game so far, happy Drew isn't injured too badly. My bracket was worse than usual- had Michigan/UNM in the final, well the wolverines lost in their first game. Breakfast got more bazaar after my last posting. Most notably, I tried pickled lemon. Some one cut a lemon into quarters and stuck it in vinegar peel and all. I ate it. I did not like it. English does not have words to describe the flavor. Yesterday, was a much needed rest day. I mostly read poolside (both air temperature and red sea water temperature are cooler than I expected, but still welcome after snowy Istanbul) I had a very nice sunset stroll on the beach. After the game ends, I will rest until breakfast and ... read more

Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, it probably wasn’t the best plan to spend my second-to-last week in the Middle East alone on the beach in Sinai, with my nose stuck in a book; isolated from reality both geographical and mentally. I was stuck between here and there – between the Middle East and India – vacillating between a nostalgic desire to stay longer and a growing anxiety to be gone already. And I had no one to bring me back to the now. I left my private beach and went to Dahab. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of being just another tourist, but it’s there that you’ll find some of the best dive sites in the Red Sea – and it had been far too long since I had accumulated ... read more