Three Countries in One Day

December 8, 2010

After a week or so of travel we’ve landed on the southern coast of Crete. I’m looking out at rugged mountains and calm seas. The unseasonable warm temperatures make the Christmas decorations in the stores here seem very out of place.

Ten days ago, we left Dahab reluctantly after an eleven day stay. We spent several more days scuba diving and the kids took a bit of a break from school as everyone back home had the week off for Thanksgiving. Underwater, we saw a large octopus, a school of barracuda, clown fish swimming in anemones, unicorn fish, crocodile fish, several very large puffer fish and a “garden” of eels sticking out of the sand waving about like stalks of grass. On days when we didn’t dive, we just hung out. We walked and played on the beach, caught up on our journals and emails and read.

Sunset in Dahab

The night before we left we decided not to take the ferry to Aqaba, Jordan as it was rather expensive and a lengthy process. Instead, we took the bus to Taba, Egypt and walked across the border into Israel. After the terrorist attack in 2004, tourism ground to a sudden halt and never picked up again. The beautiful coast edged by high barren mountains was populated by empty backpacker camps and hotels. We passed through numerous police checkpoints along the way. At the end of the line, we simply got off the bus, collected our luggage and walked into another country. It was our first border crossing on foot.

The difference between the two countries was staggering. Israel is certainly very prosperous. We were only there for about an hour. It was long enough to see all the American and European stores and the busy, thriving city of Eilat. Our cab driver was very entertaining. On our short 20 minute drive, he enlightened us on his economic and political world view, he informed us about the local economy as well as giving us his opinion of the past three American presidents. All too soon we arrived at the border with Jordan and we walked into our third country of the day.

We boarded a small bus in Aqaba filled with a few tourists and some very friendly Jordanians. We drove north to the small town of Wadi Musa outside of Petra listening to Arabic music and the pleasant conversation of the passengers.
-Margit

Truck with Camel