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Swimming with the Fishes

Friday, April 28th, 2006

Aqaba doesn’t have the historical draw of much of the region. History happenned here, but it’s left relatively little trace. However, there is excellent diving, in the limited available coastline between the port and the Saudi border.

So we went scuba diving today. It was something we’d intended to do in Dahab, but kind of missed out on. I haven’t gone in a long time (probably close to 8 years, shortly after I learned to dive), and Kathy had never gone before, so we just did a shallow dive from the shore. There was still some amazing coral to be seen, and lots of colourful fishes. My only other diving experience has been in the Jasper lakes (where there is almost no life), and among the Gulf Islands off of Vancouver, where there is tons of life, but it’s all ugly and dull colours. So the tropical view was a pleasant change. Kathy saw a couple of octopi that I missed, but there were fish everywhere, as we saw a few eels as well. There was also a fair bit of coral around.

We’re off to Wadi Rum tomorrow morning, 10 am, so we’ll be out of touch for a few days, until we get to Petra.

– Neil

Welcome to Jordan!

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

We have arrived safely in Aqaba, Jordan, and so far we have noticed quite a difference from Egypt. The cab driver that brought us to our hotel took us straight there, without trying to sell us on a different hotel, and he was quite adamant that Jordan is different than Egypt. He appeared to be quite proud of his country, something that we noted was lacking in Egypt.

Immigration was remarkably easy, hassle free, and the agents were quite friendly. So far our experience has been, “Canadian? Ok, you go.” A smile and a wave, and barely a glance at our documents or bags. They had us unlock and open our bags at the port, to ask about my shampoo and then send us on our way. (A mere formality, I suspect)

Internet is more expensive here, so we will try to limit it a bit, at least until we can find something a bit cheaper.

We are in Aqaba for 3 nights (including last night), as we plan our route through Jordan. We’ll post the plans once we have something figured out. Today we are heading to Aqaba Castle and the tourist office, to get some information (hopefully it’s better than Egypt, where the tourist offices simply pointed you in the direction of their favoured travel agency, or so we were told – we didn’t actually investigate for ourselves).

Stay tuned for more from Jordan!

-Kathy