Yesterday I woke up early in Jerusalem, said goodbye to the people I met there and headed to the central bus station bound for Eilat. Eilat is the southern most city in Israel and is right on the border with both Jordan and Egypt. It was once a strategic military port on the Red Sea, but is now a resort town. Getting there was not fun at all. A 5 hour bus ride from Jerusalem on an overcrowded bus, there were not enough seats for everyone. When we finally made it to the city I got off the bus and was overwhelmed with heat, it was 102 degrees! But I only stayed in Eilat long enough to cross the border.
Going from Israel into Jordan to Aqaba should be easy enough right? Wrong! The taxi took me to the border and dropped me off, they're not allowed to cross the border. I had to walk, really I had to walk across the border! My passport, bags, and person were checked on either side, but in between was about a quarter mile of nothing but scorching hot pavement for me to hoof. I then had to get a Jordanian taxi once in Aqaba, one of the weirdest things I've ever done.
When I finally made it into Jordan I took a taxi to my hotel. The driver spoke little English but he was nice, although he smoked the whole ride. Turns out the hotel is in South Beach which is outside the city of Aqaba, like a good 10-15 drive. The bank was closed because of the Muslim holiday so I had to pay him in a combination of Shekels and Dollars, I think I got ripped off. There isn't much to do here other than hang out at the pool and the beach across the street. And there isn't much in Aqaba either, but that didn't bother me. I had spent a week running around seeing shit and on buses so relaxing for two days was a nice change of pace. I really didn't do anything, Tomorrow I'm off to Petra though to recommence seeing shit and ruining around crazy.
Going from Israel into Jordan to Aqaba should be easy enough right? Wrong! The taxi took me to the border and dropped me off, they're not allowed to cross the border. I had to walk, really I had to walk across the border! My passport, bags, and person were checked on either side, but in between was about a quarter mile of nothing but scorching hot pavement for me to hoof. I then had to get a Jordanian taxi once in Aqaba, one of the weirdest things I've ever done.
When I finally made it into Jordan I took a taxi to my hotel. The driver spoke little English but he was nice, although he smoked the whole ride. Turns out the hotel is in South Beach which is outside the city of Aqaba, like a good 10-15 drive. The bank was closed because of the Muslim holiday so I had to pay him in a combination of Shekels and Dollars, I think I got ripped off. There isn't much to do here other than hang out at the pool and the beach across the street. And there isn't much in Aqaba either, but that didn't bother me. I had spent a week running around seeing shit and on buses so relaxing for two days was a nice change of pace. I really didn't do anything, Tomorrow I'm off to Petra though to recommence seeing shit and ruining around crazy.
dude, petra should be amazing. super jealous
ReplyDeletePetra is amazing! Expect a blog post about it soon, my god what place!
ReplyDelete