Off to Jordan, via Israel

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We are picked up a 6am for perhaps the strangest trip we’ve done so far.

Originally, plan ‘A’ was we were meant to drive to a town called Taba and then catch a ferry to Aqaba in Jordan.

Too simple it seems, so to complicate things, if you catch the ferry over, you then can’t fly from Jordan to another country; you have to catch the ferry back to Egypt and leave from there. So - because our next plan is to go to Dubai from Jordan we have to go to plan ‘B’.

PLAN ‘B’

So we drive to Taba and then will be doing a ‘land crossing’. This involves driving across Israel. Our guide does his best to explain what we are to do (go across the border and just catch a taxi to Jordan he says) but a lot gets left out.

- We go to the first gate (Egypt still) show passports, pay 2 Egyptian Pounds for a stamp, but not sure what to do with it yet, it’s like a computer game, just hold on to it in case you need it later
- Walk, walk, walk (remember it’s about 46 degrees) to the next building, load everything through the xrays, show passports
- Go to customs, get exit stamp (and use our 2 Pound stamp) from Egypt
- Walk, walk, walk to Israel border
- Show passports (now in Israel), go to next building
- Load everything through xray, show passports, open all our bags to be looked through
- Go to customs, play 20 questions, get entry stamp (actually get 2, one discreet Taba one in the passport and an Israel stamp on a piece of paper - a lot of countries won’t let you enter if you have an Israel stamp in your passport)
- Find a taxi, pay 30USD (15USD each) and drive 20 minutes to the Jordan border
- Show passports (still in Israel), get sent to another building
- Show passports, pay 57USD departure tax for having spent 20 minutes in Israel
- Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk to Jordan border - it’s a long way when it’s damn hot, there’s more flies than in the whole of Northern Australia and you’re wheeling all your worldly goods like a homeless person!
- Show passports (in Jordan now), get sent to next building
- Show passports, they don’t even bother with the x-ray here, they open up everything and look through the lot.
- Go to next window and show passports, get visa stamp
- Go to next window and get customs stamp

NOW we are through, YAY, plan ‘A’ sounded a lot simpler didn’t it!

In Israel, although we were there very briefly, you could see the differences to Egypt immediately. For starters there are so many women working there. The border protection is mostly women aged 18-25 (except for the ones carrying the weapons, they’re all men) and none of them have their hair covered and are dressed as we would, sneakers, jeans and a work shirt. The beaches are all very busy and everyone is swimming, men and women. Everyone appears really friendly.

After a couple of phone calls we manage to meet up with our new guide. He’s really tall, maybe 6ft, and has that I’m just too cool to be doing this swagger about him. He’s not particularly chatty, but we hope he will settle in with us and it will get better.

WADI RUM

We meet up with a guy with a Landcruiser four wheel drive for a tour through Wadi Rum. He seems young but friendly and has a genuine love of the area. It’s pretty warm, maybe 46 degrees, and the car has no air conditioning.

We drive through the mountains which are just spectacular with a sea of fine, soft, powdery sand in between. There are camels roaming freely, although we notice that their front feet are roped together allowing them to walk but not run. I have mixed feelings about this, it means that they can (and do) graze where they like as opposed to being tied to a rock as we had seen done in Egypt, but they still don’t have complete freedom of movement. There were some that weren’t tied up and they were all able to walk comfortably at the same pace.

There are a lot of Bedouin people with small herds of sheep and goats, a lot of children were also herding, so I’m guessing that school may not be an option for them.

We are shown some plants that are made into a tea and drunk for stomach upsets and another that is mixed with oil and rubbed on to knees etc for arthritis. We are shown a few interesting rock formations and some places with terrific views, a dam to collect water and then we stop for a break under a rock that forms a bridge. Our guide makes a little fire and boils some tea, adding sage and cinnamon, it’s delicious! It’s a shame Tim doesn’t drink hot drinks because he really missed out this time.

By now Tim is over driving in the hot, dusty desert. I’m still hoping to see the places that we were meant to see! Although it starts to become apparent that the tour itinerary and our guides itinerary are not the same! After 3 hours we head back to find our car much to Tim’s relief.

So we are on our way now to Petra.
The drive took about 2 hours of winding roads alternating through mountains and desert.

PETRA

Petra is a very hilly town! All the houses are built alongside the mountains and are a distinct shade of pink - my kind of town.

Our hotel is the Movenpick Petra and it’s nice, right next to the entry to the old city of Petra, but we can’t see anything, so no sneak peeks. There is swimming pool, but it’s completely in the shade and the water is freezing cold - I think we were spoilt by the pool at Sharm El Sheikh.

We have a wander down the street, there are a lot of restaurants in a row with a few souvenier shops tucked between. There’s a lot of Turkish Baths so we decide to have a look and line up a massage for tomorrow after we’ve been through Petra. We go into one of the less seedy looking places and they guy is really friendly and chatty. He tells us we can get a steam room, hot stones, soap wash and oil massage for 1 hour for 25 Diners. We instead arrange a 1 hour oil massage for 45 Diners, I already can’t wait.

We have dinner at one of the little restaurants; it comes complete with a house cat that is more than happy to go from table to table getting treats.

A couple of observations on our short time spent in Jordan:
1. We’ve yet to see a single woman that isn’t a tourist
2. People here are very, very friendly
3. There is no expectation for tips, in fact when we have tried to tip they have refused to take it
4. The weapons and fire power is a lot more intimidating here than Egypt, although you don’t go through the same check point processes that you do in Egypt
5. It’s damn hot, apparently they are going through a heat wave here at the moment, great for me, Tim not so much…

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