From Egypt to Jordan... Worlds apart!

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July 18
I'm writing this journal entry for a day that I don't really want to remember. But still for our memories it must be documented! We woke up casually and the plan was to go snorkeling in the red sea. I (elysia) tried to go snorkeling the day before with another girl from the group, but I got as far as the reef and I saw huge sea urchin and a huge fat fish and I got scared and swam back to shore (which was actually quite far away). For those who don't know, im afraid of things under the water. Usually if i can see them (snorkeling) and the tide is high so i don't have to rub up against it, i'm okay (it helps if mike is there too)  but the tide was very low and I was especially afraid of those sharp urchins! Anyways I figured we'd both go the next day. Well I woke up and did not feel well at all (was ready for another round of yellow pills). This was my second sickness from this country; we all kinda thought we'd be over it after one round. So we just took it easy for the morning and relaxed in the sea (did mike mention how neat it was to see Saudi Arabia across the water? We were so close to it at the resort!) Then it came time to  take the ferry from Nuweiba, Egypt  to Aqaba, Jordan. Our guide took us to the port and even came into the waiting area (thank god!). Let me describe the port for you first. It was hectic, with tons of egypians/jordanians running around. Many of them had luggage that made them look like they're moving away forever, and they were hurrying like they wanted the last seat available (not true).  Everything is extremely dirty and run down, from the benches to the roads inside the port. We got there and it was during the call to prayer, so some people were pressing their faces to the dirty floor to complete their prayers. There was actually even a mosque on the inside. You also could see the odd person who decided that the ground was the best place to have a nap and just parked their bodies down. Filthy,gross and unhygenic are too nice of words to describe this port. For most people they could easily just walk through and ignore it all, hoping that they didn't accidentally touch anything. It's a different story when you're sick. First of all coming into the port, all the canadians in our group got stopped and pulled aside while the others (including the Americans) were free to go through.  Apparently they had received some intelligence that day that 3 small Canadian white girls and 1 guy were going to illegally clean the washrooms in the port's waiting room. Seriosuly though, they had apparently received intel about canadians and had to make phone calls to god knows who and they had to ask us exactly where we live (which is a hard question for mike and I to answer at this moment). Anyways with our guides help they finally let us through and we joined the rest of the group. Inside like I said, it was really dirty. It was quite a hot day, and I was feeling sicker by the minute but i was determined to make it to the boat. We had to get our passports stamped with the Egyptian exit visa before entering the waiting room. As I waited in line I'm looking at the filth around me and am really praying now that I could make it to the boat. As I reached the front of the line I realized that there was no way I was going to last and I very desperately asked the guide to show me the way to the bathroom and I ran. My vision started to get darker and I was overheating and I very hesitantly stepped into the bathroom. It was worse than I expected; a filth that I could never imagine. I wont go into the details because you don't need to know it and I'm sure I'll never forget it, but it was disgusting! I felt so out of it and just needed a place to get sick, but I'm sure it would have made me sick if I ever walked into something like that. Anyways after that I managed to make it into the waiting area to lie down for a bit and mike very sweetly fanned me to keep my body temp down. I think that scared us both. Anyways the thing about these ferries is that they do not run on a schedule. It's common knowledge that at some time in the afternoon a boat leaves from nuweiba to Aqaba, but the time is not known. The window is usually between 2 and 6 o'clock, so you want to get there early but you might have to wait for hours. We were lucky that day because the ferry was already in the port. It still took 2 hours to have us board but it could have been worse. When they were ready to load, they brought the tourists out first ( to prevent us from being trampled by the antsy locals ). I should mention that our guide apparently hired an Egyptian police officer to escort our group all the way to Jordan. Well we never saw him after the waiting room. What a crook! After the waiting room they had the most useless system ever- they loaded us onto a bus for a 1 min ride and then we walked onto the ferry from there. On the ferry they were adamant that we dumped our bags right on the vehicle deck, which for some it was scary but for me I was way too sick to care. I have no real comments about the ferry (although mike in sure will later comment on this). On the ferry they actually were pretty nice to the tourists; they told us where a good place to sit was and later they helped us with passports and  getting off. Once we were settled, then they stared letting the locals in. Apparently there was lost of pushing around and arguing when these guys were lining up . Needless to say we were sitting in the port for almost another 2 hours (the trip itself was only supposed to be 1.5 hours long). When we left, their custom with the tourists is that they collect all their passports and then give it back once they're off the boat in the next port. For people who didn't do any prereading for their trip, giving their passport to a total stranger for a few hours might be very stressful, but the guidebooks were bang on about them doing this, so fortunately most of us were not surprised. 

Although the trip with this "fast ferry" was only supposed to be 1.5 hours, it took at least an hour longer than that (but i was too sick to pay attention to it- feeling better though because of the air conditioning). It was neat because as we approached Aqaba, you can see Saudi Arabia on the right, Jordan just right of that, then Israel (specifically the city of Eliat to  the right of Jordan) and on the left you see Egypt. We waited on the boat for some time before it could dock. Finally they let the tourists off first and the locals had to wait a long time until we cleared customs. Let me say, we could tell right off the bat that Jordan is another world... We had to do the same stupid bus to the customs area again but hen we got inside it was miraculously clean! There were still a few people napping on the floor, but it was a spotless floor. I didn't see the washrooms but I can imagine I would have preferred them on this side. The people were even happy to see the canadians! We met our new guide, Ibrahim who is not unfortunately Albert but he's a really nice guy. He took us to a nice fancy restaurant for dinner. THe town of Aqaba is much cleaner than the Egyptian towns, and there was no sign of anyone looking for a baksheesh for doing nothing. Jordan however is much more expensive... So far we really like it here!

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