Jordan Signing Off...Egypt by Way of Eilat

Jordan the Last Few Days

There was a slight detour in our plans of heading directly to Aqaba from Petra and as it turned out, it was for the better. Our last night in Petra, the proprietor of the hostel that we were staying out (I should amend my entry on it...it turns out it wasn't the worst place that I could have stayed in, just one of the weirder ones), hooked us and two other guest up with a "reduced" rate trip in Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is the name of the most well known tourist desert in Jordan. Most of the lower half of Jordan in desert, but Wadi Rum is actually protected by the government and is a natural preserve. During tourist season (August to October), the place is crawling with crazy people entrusting their lives to 16 year old bedouins that probably don't have licensees and Jeeping out to the remote parts of the desert. Seeing as it was low season, there were only about 15 crazy people in attendance for the day that we were there. Our trip included a 5 hour jeep ride through this hot, dry, arid climate in a rickety jeep that needed to be fixed three times (over heated I believe) during the trek, a teeth clenching trip up a hill at a 75 degree angle, a two hour nap in the shade of a rock face, a little freehand bouldering, a marriage proposal, dinner, scary toilets, strangling cat singing, and then the bribing of locals to get out of town the next morning (the bus was full and would take us). It was quite and adventure and I loved every moment of it and am very happy that I got to sidetrack there.

I'm sure that some of you caught onto the "marriage proposal" part above, so I thought I should elaborate. Arab men are very forward if they see a Western girl that is not accompanied by a male and is not in a relationship. Our driver for the jeep trek decided that since he was the last of 8 siblings that wasn't married and he wanted out of Jordan, a nice American bride was the ticket. But apparently no one taught him any lessons in finesse. This was the proposal:

"How old are you"
"24"
"That's old! My sister is 17 and already has two kids. You marry me!"
"No"
"Okay, we be friends then. You come and live with me. I cook for you and then in a few months, you marry me."

I hope someone got a good laugh out of that (I know Jenni did). Needless to say there will be no wedding anytime soon.

The next day we actually made it to our intended destination of Aqaba. To get there required a bus to the crossroads, an hour wait and then paying two separate drivers to take the nine of us (and all of our huge bags) that we clustered at the bus stop (probably the reason none of the buses would stop and pick us up) the 50km to town. It was an interesting experience. I have a picture of seven of us squished into the back of a extended cap (basically and area meant for three people).

Aqaba may be the resort area for the Jordanians, but it certainly doesn't give off a warm or fun vibe. Women are gawked at and don't dare go near the water in anything less than an over coat as the guide book states. It's also god-awful hot and only gets more stifling as the sun goes down. We were there for less than 24 hours and that was plenty too long. I wonder if going when there were actual tourist might have been better?

Via Eilat

Due to the supposed meeting of two friends we'd acquired at Heritage House in Jerusalem that stated an interest in accompanying us to Egypt, and the fact that it was somewhat cheaper to cross to Egypt via Eilat (the party/beach town at the tip of Israel that sits on the Red Sea), we opted to spend a day in Eilat and pick our friends up there. The transformation from one country to another was amazing even though they are almost stone throwing distance away. Whereas Aqaba was drab and kind of freaky, Eilat was alive and gave off a youthful and vibrant vibe. We were quite happy we decided to stop by, besides we were really craving an Ice Coffee (like a frappacino, but cheap as in so far as Israel prices go and oh so yummy).

Sinai, Egypt

As it turns out one friend had a family emergency and the other got sick, so neither met us and we carried on by ourselves. At the border we ran into two Americans (quite ironic seeing as we hadn't seen any since leaving Israel the first time 2 weeks previous). On was going to the tip of Sinai for the weekend and the other lived in Cairo. We split a taxi with them to Dahab to save money and pumped the current denzien for information on what to see, where to go, what to avoid, and so forth. It was a nice chance occurrence.

So this brings us to our current location: Dahab, Sinai, Egypt. This town sit on the coast of the Red Sea and sport some fantastic diving and snorkeling. Almost everywhere that you turn, there is a dive company offering tours or certifications. It is so tempting to do as many of the locals have done: arrive as a backpacker, take an into dive course, and wake up on morning 6 months/7 years down the line to realize that you are now a dive instructor and you love it. This town is so laid back and reminds me of the depictions of the Caribbean Islands or Hawaii. You've all got to come down here sometime...especially those of you that dive.

We decided to take advantage of the various adventures offered and procured to 4x4 ATV. Got to love a place that gives you a fiver minute introduction and then sets you free to follow. I had no idea what I was doing and stalled the ATV out about 4 times. Apparently , if you try to change the gear at the wrong time, the vehicle hates you and refuses to move.

We road out to a place about 10 miles away called "The Three Pools." Here I took Em out of her element (she did quite well on the ATV and impressed the instructor) and dropped her in the ocean. She hated it. I loved it. We had rented snorkel gear (cause if I caved in to my desire to get scuba certified I might never go home), and went out to check out the reef. The water here is a beautiful turquoise and is teeming with life under its depths. The only thing is that you have to get past the first parts of the coral that are about 7in below the surface to get to the pools where you don't need to worry about scraping yourself up on the reef. We swam around for about an hour and invade the sea communities and then headed back to shore for the ride home.

The ATV that I had ridden out on broke (what is it with me and things breaking down?) so while we were snorkeling, the instructor went back for a new one. He ended up not being able to fix it, so him and his friend who came to fix the vehicle rode back with us. I think that the friend that was riding with me will think twice before riding with a novice in the future. We repeatedly asked that I not kill him and then thanked me when we reached the relative safety of the village. I swear, I'm really not that bad....I just need a bit of practice.

Yesterday, and technically today, we hiked Mt. Sinai. This is where Moses is said to have received the 10 Commandments from God. As we hiked up we all wondered why God couldn't have given Moses the Commandments on a little hill. The hike from the Saint Katherine's Monastery at the base to the peak where we watched the sun rise is a vertical climb of 1850ft and took about 3 hours to go up.

Our trip started at 11pm when we and 10 other sleepy passengers were loaded into a too small minibus and driven the two hours to the Monastery. There we bought our entrance tickets and joined the other 200 or so tourist that had picked this morning to make the daunting climb. You're supposed to have a guide lead you up, but it seemed ridiculous and all of us pretended to be part of another tour group to avoid the guide fee. The guides practically run up the mountain anyways and you're trudging along trying not to trip off the mountain in the dark, that a guide seems quite pointless anyways.

Em and I made friends with a Netherlands from Amsterdam and spent the hike chatting with him. He being in far superior shape, was often waiting for us to catch up. By the time that we had all become exhausted and decided it might be worth it to shell out the 30 or 40 LE (Egyptian pounds) that we thought a camel ride to the peak would cost, we found out we were at the top point that the camels could go to. Apparently camels aren't very good at climbing stairs, much less 750 crooked ones at that. We be dragged our tired bodies to the peak and rewarded ourselves with overpriced Twix and tea.

The sunrise was beautiful and many ooohs and awws ensued in between the flutter or camera shutters.

Now came to what was supposed to be the easy part, going down. But if any of you have ever climbing a really tall mountain before, you know that going down can be more painful than going up. Em and Will (the guy from Holland) decided that it was a good use of funds and time to take a camel the whole way down. If any of you have ever ridden a camel before, then you know this was a very bad idea. We paid our fare, and were jostled, bumped, dipped, and generally tortured by the animals for about a fifth of the trip down before we decided it was better for certain body parts to forfeit the money and walk down the rest of the trip. Camels are semi okay on flat trails, but walking down steep paths and occasional stairs is just stupid on the riders part. So we got off and walked down the rest of the way laughing at the faces of those that decided to tough it out and stay on the torturous animals all the way down.

At the bottom of the mountain we were rewarded with a quick tour of St. Katherine's Monastery. The Monastery is named after Katherine that was martyred for her believe in Christianity. She was tortured and then her throat was cut (because the wheel that she was on broke and actually killed over-zealous onlookers). Inside the Monastery is the Burning Bush where God supposedly talked to Moses, Moses' Well, A great wooden bell that rings 30 times once every morning to remind people of Christ, and a library containing great mosaics.

So that is the culmination of our first few days in Egypt. Tomorrow we head on an eight hour bus ride to the heart of the country, Cairo.