Aqaba, Jordan & Onward
We took a car from Petra to Aqaba this morning.
Our driver asked us how Ramadan was going for us. We didn’t know how to answer, so we said, Good. He asked if we were fasting and then said he didn’t like Ramadan. Again, we were unsure of how to answer. jim asked if he didn’t like it because of the fasting, and the driver sort of snapped back, No, that’s not it. He said it is very difficult to fast and not drink water all day as a cab driver. We didn’t say anything else.
We have been having a had time figuring out what we are going to do next. We wanted to go to Jerusalem but the visa situation is confusing. There are 3 border crossings between Jordan and Israel. There is one very conveniently right between Amman and Jerusalem, but of all the crossings, that is the only one where you need to have your visa ahead of time – you can’t just get it there. That sucks.
But today I found a cheap flight from Tel Aviv to Amman on the 13th. This means tomorrow morning we can cross the border to Eilat, Israel (which is very close to Aqaba, Jordan) and take a 4.5 hour bus to Jerusalem. That will give us 1.5 days there. It will be tricky finding transportation from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv on Saturday because none of the buses will be running, but we’ll figure it out.
We are diligently working on booking the hotels and flight for the remainder of our trip now. We’re sitting next to each other, each on a computer, while Jim books hotels and I book airfare. Credit card numbers are flying off our fingertips. Even the other backpackers we’ve met think we are crazy how we don’t plan ahead.
In Aqaba we are staying at the Moevenpick resort, a Swiss hotel chain that is everywhere here. It’s really swanky. (Jim was able to get it with these gift cards he can use on the internet.)
Future topics:
Food: The food hasn’t been great. I can’t remember anything that really knocked our socks off. The hummus is good, though.
Jim’s Lack of Cultural Sensitivity: Jim has absolutely no consideration for other cultures. For example, we walked in to a new guesthouse and it was about 3pm, during Ramadan – meaning no one had eaten in many, many hours. He exclaims to the room, “I’m so hungry! Where can we get some food?” Argh!! Or when we were talking to a cabbie and Jim compared something to Christmas lights. I asked him, “What makes you think he knows what Christmas lights are?!” It’s not that he is ignorant, he just doesn’t care. He says he wouldn’t expect people coming to our country to visit to suddenly observe Lent or something like that. So anyway, that’s the kind of stuff I had to deal with.
Tags: Egypt, Egypt, Petra, Jerusalem 2007, Jerusalem 2007, Petra, Travel
Kelly
É incrível fazer uma visita rápida a este site e ler as opiniões de todos os colegas
sobre o tema deste artigo, embora também esteja ansioso para obter familiaridade.
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