Aqaba
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2008
1
11
17
Trip End
May 16, 2008
Aqaba,
Jordan
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
So...it was a quiet town. I only spent a day there because I was using it for its ferry to Egypt. While there, I didn't do much aside from swim, sit in the shade, eat shawarma (twice!), and try to sleep through the warm night. The first time I ate, it was late afternoon, and I found a restaurant with an outdoor "air conditioner"--a machine with a large spinning belt that created a very strong wind
the mountains behind aqaba
. The staff all had a good laugh at me as my napkins and dinner and drinks were barely kept from flying off the table while I dined in relative cool.After returning home for the night (I spent the evening in downtown Aqaba about 15 minutes to the north), I found that the accomodations were a little bit lacking. With the wheeler/dealer in Petra, I had arranged to stay outside of town on the South Shore. The beaches on the South Shore are much nicer, and it's also where the good diving holes are. Another neat thing about the South Shore is that I could see Saudi Arabia to my left, Egypt directly across the water, and Israel to the right. Well...to save some money, and since it was only one night, I booked a tent. While most tents have doors that can be closed, this one was more like a series of blankets laid over a metal frame with large openings to keep it ventilated. Unfortunately, ventilation also means mosquitos...of which there were many buzzing in my ear. Even with repellant on, they kept buzzing up to me to see if they could get a bite to eat. Eventually, I took the pillow and blanket and slept in the back seat of my rental car. When arranging the car rental, I initially wanted the teeny-tiny one, but that evening I was happy that they only had the mid-size model available!
And that was about all for Aqaba...
