Magic Palace Hotel Eilat

... and billboards of King Abdallah and his fabled father, King Hussein, were everywhere in evidence; though Jordan's Independence Day was approaching (Monday 5/25), I had a feeling these portraits never come down. This was the case both in the city of Aqaba (opposite Eilat), which we toured briefly, and in the sporadic small towns we passed through on the modern, well-maintained highway, which took us into the scrubby desert, bordered by ...

... waves and too much raising of the head). After a break under a beach shelter to recover for a bit, we (OK, I) gave it a go again. Success! We went quite a distance, and the coral and abundance of fish of many colors was impressive. I'm afraid pictures will have to wait as I need to get the film from the underwater camera developed separately at some later date. The rest of the afternoon was indeed restful: reading, snacking, and napping under the shelter, looking at the rocky ...

... must have been at an ebb). We headed back down for lunch at Kherrad's mothers tent. She lives with his sister in the desert still. While most of the Wadi Rum Bedouins have moved from living in tents into stone houses in the little village, retaining their camps in the desert for occasional use - many older Bedouin prefer their way of life in the desert still. She had a typical large black tent made out of woven blankets, divided into the visitor's area, with ...

... it started cooking it smelled like a webber. Dinner was great - salads and dips, mashed potato, pasta salad, roast potatoes (tasted just like webber potatoes), roast lamb and roast chicken. It was the best dinner I'd had in ages. After dinner we went into the tent area that had the fire burning and we listened to the Bedouins play music. I ended up sleeping out here rather than in the tent becuase it was really comfortable. Will write more about the next later. Bye

... our driver because he was a younger guy (although the youngest driver was maybe 8 years old) and extremely competitive. We weaved in and out of the paths of the other trucks. Our first stop on our tour was a large rock and hill of sand. We ran/climbed/dove up the hill of sand first and at the top we ascended a larger rock formation from which we could get a spectacular view of the desert. From this point we walked a distance to a section of a stone mountain where we could ...

... with shops Animals/People: ibex, gazelles, dogs to lots and lots of families Sounds: wind and the rumble of the jeep to kids yelling and calling out WHAT A CONTRAST! TAKE ME BACK TO THE PEACEFULNESS OF NATURE! We go to the breakfast buffet that is in a large dining room packed with long tables filled with families. We are probably the only couple in site! We both make our way to the buffet and upon returning comment about how much pushing ...

... reason for booking a four hour ride. At least that is what I thought. Shor introduces us to the camel guide and informs us that we have signed up for a 1 ½ hour trip tomorrow morning. I comment that it is four hours and they both state that is not the reservation. I'm disappointed, but as Harvey & I talk, my self assuredness about the length of time wavers; I have been having some memory issues and becoming unsure of myself. I wish I had not left ...

Under the hot sun of the Negev Desert we straddled the blurred line between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. At Timna Park in southern Israel, we saw marks in the rock where ancient peoples used stone tools to mine precious copper out of the red sandstone. Even today the green veins of copper ore stand out in stark contrast to the red rocks. It's easy to see how humans chose this site some 6,000 years ago for what may be the world ...

... as part of a hugely popular and successful economic experiment, it was designated a Special Economic Zone, with tax breaks of all kinds attracting business & investment. It has had a dramatic effect on what we hear was, for years, a rather dowdy and uninspiring town. According to The Rough Guide to Jordan, 'business is booming, major construction projects are under way, the city is looking good, its population is growing, and there's a fresh, new ...

Name: Naama Harlev Age: 21 Family status: Single Job: Works on a kibbutz Religion: Jewish . I started chatting with Nami, or rather she started chatting to me, at the border crossing from Jordan to Israel. We were both coming back from a day trip to Petra, an ancient town carved into a magnificent red rock canyon. Petra's Hollywood moment was when it hosted the filming of Indiana Jones III. Remember where he found the Holy Grail? It is that ...