World Cruise - Day 100 - Apr 21 - Aqaba, Jordan

Aqaba is the lone seaport for Jordan, on its sliver of land that touches the Red Sea.  Jordan has just over six million people and Aqaba has just over 100,000 people.  You may remember Aqaba from the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when the hundreds of Arabian riders came out of the desert to capture Aqaba in the Battle of Aqaba.  The Turks had all of their gun placements turned toward the sea, never expecting an attack from the desert.  Eilat-Israel is literally in view from Aqaba, showing how close it is to the Israel border.

Most of the people on the ship are using this port as the jumping off point for Petra.  We have been to Petra before (Krissie has been there twice), so we are not going.  When we were in Petra in 2006 with our kids, our kids and the kids of our friends did a camel race through the back part of Petra.  And Jacqueline got to race a Bedouin on an Arabian (and then he invited her and her family to join him and his family at their Bedouin tent in the hills that evening, we politely declined).  So we have very fond memories of Petra.

As we arrived in the port, not much in the way of a sunrise.  Here was one of the tugs that accompanied us into the port area:

As we arrived in the port, there were a large number of tour buses lined up to take passengers to Petra and Wadi Rum.  I think there were about 14 buses out there waiting for us (just not us specifically).

I caught these guys hugging.  I think the guy on the right didn’t want to be hugged?

You could see the hills of Jordan just behind the port.  I got this pic of quite a few birds flying in front of the mountain view:

At breakfast, a bird flew into one of the glass walls off the back deck.  It was pretty stunned, but seemed to be OK.  One of the assistant waiters moved him to an area where he could recover and wouldn’t get stepped on:

We did a Bible study and video sermon in the morning, then spent the rest of the day in Aqaba.  We took the shuttle bus to the Movenpick Hotel, then began walking south toward City Beach.  Here is a mosque (I think this may be “the white mosque”?) on the way:

This is city beach.  Look closely at the photo and you’ll see a guy walking a camel on the beach:

Better closeup of the guy walking the camel.  That is Eqypt on the left and Israel on the right in the background of this photo across the Red Sea:

This guy was selling some type of tea to people on the beach.  Note also the glass bottomed boats anchored in the harbor:

Most of the women went to the beach fully clothed.  I didn’t see any of them wearing swimsuits of any kind, even though Jordan is not as strict as some of the other Muslim countries we have visited:

There was a very cool building about a half block from the beach, not sure what it is/was:

We then went further south to South Beach, which is a nicer and cleaner beach area:

We spent the day at Bedouin Moon Hotel.  They had a nice pool and area behind under a Bedouin tent for relaxing and where we had lunch:

The hotel had a mother camel and baby camel out in back of the hotel.  I got this pic of the baby having a drink of mother’s milk:

The baby camel noticed me coming up.  The mother made a growling/grumbling noise, but she let the baby approach me:

The baby was quite cute:

The baby liked having its ears and neck rubbed.  I got a video of it that I will post once I get home:

The mother looked justifiably proud of her baby:

I love this sign.  It is at the hotel where we spent the day.  Read it through and see if you can figure out what they really intended to say.  I’m pretty sure they used a word-for-word translation dictionary.  For example, I think that “Help Pond” is probably “Pool Rules” or something to that effect.  See if you can figure out the rest.

I walked over to South Beach.  More women in burkas, although they usually were not full burkas and some were wearing colors.

This view north shows Egypt on the far left, Israel in the center and Jordan on the right.

Saudi Arabia is located just beyond this warship.  So four countries visible from this beach.

This is a closer up view of an enclave on the shore in Egypt.

There were quite a few locals playing at the beach:

I got several pics of these boys.  The two on the left just found something slimy that they are going to take to show the girls in their party.

I like this series of photos, since it shows boys playing with the warship in the background:

“I’m king of the hill!”

We used to call this a suicide dive, since you go in head first, hands at your side:

I went out on the pier and took a few more pics:

You can see the coral reefs just a few feet out from the pier:

The boys were showing off for me diving into the water, then asking to see their photos:

I like this sideways dive, note also the girls on the left, fully dressed head to foot:

Some older boys came out while I was on the pier and one of them even gave me the “fake bump” like he was going to bump me off the pier into the water.  Figured it was probably a good time to go:

This guy was selling blow up floating ducks, the boys on the right just saw them and took off running toward the vendor, note also the burkas further down the beach:

Kids playing on the beach:

They saw I was taking pics and smiled at the camera, then came to look at their pic:

Beach burkas:

See if you can figure out these symbols, on a wall of a building at the marine park:

A camel was resting nearby:

A few minutes later he was joined by another camel that has just finished giving a ride:

This is a view of Bedouin Moon Hotel, where we spent the afternoon, Krissie is in the left of the photo painting:

You can see what she’s painting, but this is very early, she added a lot more detail as the day went on:

This turtle is one of two resident turtles at the resort, he came to pay Krissie a visit:

I’m not sure why a turtle is a “he” but it just seems to fit:

Krissie went with me back up to visit the camels, baby was nursing again:

Krissie went to get a closer look:

Then baby came to see Krissie:

Here is a view of the hotel where we were staying for the day and some of the surrounding properties:

This is a view of Eliat, Egypt across the Red Sea on our drive back into Aqaba:

Krissie looks a little bit out of place as we walk through the markets without her head covered:

Note the guy in front of her to her left checking her out:

There are actually two other women in this photo without headscarves, so Krissie was not alone:

There were several of these buses parked near the market areas.  I think that maybe people came in to shop for the day from neighboring towns?

We found it interesting to see all of the brightly colored clothes for sale, while all you saw being worn was typically black:

Right next door are four women in black and shades of gray (one woman wearing pants and no head scarf, but it’s because she’s younger, typically it is only the married women that wear the burkas), check out what they are looking at.  Who wears that stuff?

We walked back to Movenpick Hotel and took the shuttle back to the hotel.

The entertainment tonight was Count Dimas, whom we saw a few nights ago, so we skipped out (unusual for us).

Tonight we turn back the clocks one last time, so we will be on Continental Europe time from this point forward.  Six hours ahead of the east coast and nine hours ahead of the west coast.  It will stay that way until Venice.

Tomorrow is Safaga, Egypt, which is our connection point to Luxor, Karnak and Valley of the Kings.  We start at 7:15a and do not expect to be back until about 10p or so (the ship leaves at midnight).  I will be bringing my laptop with me, since it is a 3h drive from Luxor back to the port.  I hope to get my pics sorts and blog update at least started by the time we get back to the ship tomorrow night.  But very possible (perhaps likely) that tomorrow’s blog entry may be spread over a couple of days of pics.