Salaam Aleikim, y'all. If it seems like you just read my last blog entry, it's because you have. We're finally in a place with reliable Internet, so I thought I would just do a quick entry to bring you up to speed since our last one. We were not sorry to leave our last city, Dahab, a smallish resort on the Red Sea. It wasn't the place itself that drove us away, since it's quite a picturesque location with sparkling shorelines, an active promenade of shops and restaurants actively vying for your dollar, and one of the most spectacular resorts we have stayed at. No, it was the flies! THese buggers would make the locust plague from the sedar story seem like a national holiday by comparison. At the pool, on the beach, at restaurants, inside or out, the flies reigned supreme. And we were the SWAT team. Bonnie's mission was to kill even a few, in retribution. They must have sensed this, as they seemingly applied tactical moves to counteract our efforts. In the end, the score was Flies 1, Liliens 0. We fled in retreat,choosing to continue our journey north to Jordan via local bus (where the station bathroom would certainly rival any nuclear waste dump in terms of its potential threat to mankind!) Kudos to Bonnie who braved it, and survived. I will spare you the details.
After the bus, we boarded a ferry across the beautiful Gulf of Aqaba, but only after a boarding procedure which was Byzantine in nature. So convoluted, mismanaged, overstaffed, underskilled, laden with procedure and protocols that it would make your head spin. It was like a game in which you learned the rules as you go along but feel you have little chance of winning. FIrst, when you arrive, you hand in your passport, then talk to Mohammed, he directs you to Ahmed who looks at your passport, then go back there, and Sayed nods his head, writes something on a piece of paper, then fill out this form, then give it to another Mohammed (there are tons of them here!). Now you wait in a smelly dark building with the locals and the backpackers, and then go to this building where your passport is taken, you are asked questions by Mahmoud, who thenpasses you to Abdul, who screens your bags, says something threatening sounding to you in Arabic which turns out to be either "enjoy your visit' or "have I got phlem in my throat this morning or what" You next board a bus with your suitcases after showing your passport to Mohammed (#3), Finally, you hand in your ticket, one last look at your passport (for good luck, I assume), and you board the ferry. They still have your passport and you go through Immigration,several more passport checks (more Mohammeds galore), and finally you are allowed to continue on your way. It takes an hour to recover from the shellshock of the process After this, I felt ready to enter TV's The Amazing Race.
Now at last, we made it to Aqaba, and it's a nice cool 40 degrees here, so hot that even the camels here are wearing shorts. We are perpetually hot, and feeling tired from the heat. We will be going for a swim shortly, so that should relieve us greatly. We are drinking the equivalent of Lake Erie in bottled water daily, just to stay even. But, comparedto the cold that I'm hearing about at home, I'll take the heat. We are excited because we just booked a desert safari which leaves tomorrow. We will be doing a days jeep tour through Wadi Rum, an UN protected desert area that Lawrence Of Arabia raved about for its scenic beauty,and a must-see while here. We will be overnighting in a Bedouin camp, having traditional meals, and living the lifestyle for 36 hours. Can't you just see us at camel-wrangling? Hopefully, I'll have the pictures to show. Bonnie is not too sure about the camel-riding sunrise-viewing portion of the trip (up at 5 am), and we may have to pass on this. We shall see. Anyways, our next blog will contain details, assuming that we survive! After this we head to Petra, an anciant stone city built deep in the granite mountains of the desert. If you;ve never seen or heard about it, it's worth googling just because it has a reputation for having an awesome effect on its visitors. Again, more to report in the next blog entry.
From Petra, we head to Eilat and the beginning of the Israel portion of the trip. We are thrilled to be going there. Eilat is so close to Aqaba, that we saw it across the Gulf as we landed here in Aqaba. I felt like Moses, able to see Israel, but unable for the moment to be there. Time is passing so quickly, as it always does on good holidays, and we already see the end of our journeys in sight. IT will be difficult to get back to reality after this 3-month life-altering trek.
We wish you the best.
David and Bonnie
Our Jordanian Interlude
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Aqaba, Jordan
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Comments

2025-02-10
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sdpotter
2009-06-02
Romancing the Stone
Reading your blog I could only picture you as Michael Douglas and Bonnie as Kathleen Turner. And speaking of Kathleen, could we get some of her thoughts in the next blog? And i believe the new axiom shall be ' to live the life of a Lilien!'
We are all very jealous. Enjoy Petra.