Today was the day we would leave Egypt behind and cross to Jordan. We did the usual early enough get up, shower, pack, eat breakast, buy some supplies, get in the van routine, and then we set off on our journey north to the por city of Nuwebia. This is from where we would get a ferry to cross to Aqaba in Jordan. By taking the ferry we would avoid going into Israel which would have complicated things. Apparently it can take hours to cross the 6 or 7 km of Israel that you have to negotiate to cross by land.
The journey to the port was fairly short, only an hour or so, so we were there in plenty of time to register and collect the tickets. So much time so that we were able to go to the beach part of Nuwebia, north of the port, and have lunch in a nice beach front restaurant. It turns out that our tour leader Mezza is looking to take over this particular place and he wanted our opinion on it. I have to say it was very nice, but needs a bit of marketing. Still with Dahab becoming ever more commercialised, it could be the next big hippy hangout in Egypt.
After lunch we headed back to the port to wait for the boat to arrive. It was supposed to leave at 2pm, but like much travel in third worl countries it is very much a case of who knowsn when. We fairly quickly realised this was going to be late as 2 came and went with no sign of the boat arrivin from Jordan. There are two ferries, a slow one and a fast one, and we were on the fast one so I'd hate to see what the slow one is like. We sat around the terminal waiting for the ship to arrive, until we got fed up as it was even worse than Holyhead, so we went and sat in the air conditioned van instead. Eventually the ship arrived at 4 and we got on, and eventually departed at 5. The only problem was that as it was getting dark the fast boat had to travelmore slowly, so it was 7 by the time we got to Jordan. It should have been 3.30. But we passed the time by playing cards, there it little else you can do, and at least the shop on board was well stocked.
Our entrance into Jordan was fairly OK, there was a hairy bit where our passports were taken while we were on board and not given back until we reached immigration on land, but even that was alright (although a few other travellers panicked when their passports went out of sight, some people take the warnings in LP about keeping your passport with you at all times a little too seriously).
We met up with Yasser, our Jordanian tour rep. He then drove us to Wadi Rum where we were supposed to watch the sun set, but as it was after 9.30pm when we arrived we were a bit late (sunset was at 5.30). It turned out it was actually 10.30 local time, as Jordan and Egypt come out of Daylight Savings Time at different times, but as the change in Jordan was later that night it didn't seem worth changing the clocks just to change them back in the morning. It did confuse me that the clock chage was on a Thursday night instead of a Saturday like at home, until I remembered Islamic country, weekend starts here and all that.
Our first impression of Jordan was the port city of Aqaba and I have to say it seems like a much more modern city than any in Egypt. The roads are a lot better, and traffic lights and lane discipline are back as well. So it is more first world. But we did have the amazing sight of a camel in the back of a pickup truck. Yep, as we were driving along we saw a camel sitting down in the back of a pickup truck, or ute for any Aussies out there. Alas it passed by too quickly to take a picture of it, so it is just one of those amazing sights that you have to remember instead.
We got a bedouin dinner in Wadi Rum (and I have to say the lamb was some of the nicest lamb I've ever had), and then we were shown to our tents. I was a slight bit disappointed as our bedouin tents, as they were built on concrete foundations and with metal supports driven into the concrete, so they weren't exactly nomadic. But I should have guessed our desert camping trip wouldn't be very isolated when we could hear the train going past. Still they had to be the nicest outside toilets I've ever seen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuweiba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqaba,_Jordan
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