Red Sea Crossing

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Minutes before we were about to board our ferry from Nuweiba (Egypt) to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, we received a frantic text message from my parents telling us of a ferry sinking in the Red Sea and hoping we were OK. We were fortunately heading across the Red Sea in the opposite direction and in a much more modern and safe catamaran ferry (like the ones plying the Marlborough Sounds) .

We crossed quickly, comfortably and without incident; taking only 1 hour as opposed to the estimated 5 - 36! hours for the slow ferry. Should anyone head out this way we would recommend avoiding the slow ferry as it is only USD11 cheaper than the fast ferry (USD50) and it is rumoured to be nasty. Immigration at the Jordanian border was a lolly sramble - lots of shoving, shouting and general disorder. Not a lovely sight.

The rampaging and burning of Danish embassies and protests in several countries, including Syria and Lebanon, following the publishing of 'those' cartoons (they weren't even funny) are a bit concerning but we currently feel we have no reason to be worried nor do we see the need to change our original itinerary. We are closely following the events in the news and travel advice from the NZ MFAT.

Things were ok in Egypt when we left and the Jordanians we have come across have been nothing but hospitable and friendly. Yesterday we even received a small sand sculpture from Ali, owner of the Magic Bazaar souvenir shop, as a gift. Ali is one of 15 people in Petra who know how to make these sand things and insisted on giving us a bottle for free even though we refused many times. He also gave us a demonstration on how it was done and created a bottle complete with camels, bedouins, sunset, sand dunes, mountains, birds, clouds - all in about 7 minutes and all he had was some coloured sand, what looked like a piece of wire and a funnel. We are going to bring some baklava (sweets) over tomorrow evening (after our visit to Petra) and have Bedouin tea with him.

In our short time here, we have found most of the Jordanians involved in the tourist industry to be very polite, fair (well, they do have to make a living!) and mostly helpful; a real tonic after Egypt. We have been able to browse in the shops without shopkeepers pushing wooden camels, flashing pyramids and belly dancing outfits in our faces when all we want is a bar of soap. We have also heard stories about the integrity of the people in Wadi Musa, where we are staying, e.g. a taxi driver tracking a passenger to return excess money when realised he had been given 100JD instead of 10 JD, locals rounding on a taxi driver when word got round that he had overcharged a tourist by many many times.

The ancient city of Petra beckons tomorrow. We are thinking of either getting a 2 or 3 day pass. If Rob has his way it will probably be 3. Meeting up with Amy and Duncan for dinner tonight. They are an Oz and English couple who are kind of doing the same thing as us but without the 'stans and Turkey. And like us, they are also heading down under to 'settle down', i.e. get a mortgage and have babies. ho hum.

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