Above: Our camp at Jabal Rum in the morning.
We had breakfast at our Jabal Rum camp around 0700. It was the usual Middle Eastern breakfast which I love, consisting of tomato, cucumber and cheeses. The hot pita bread was a bonus!
Our camp at Jabal Rum in the morning.
After breakfast, we made our way to Aqaba, adopting two hitchhikers, one after another. It was a short drive of over an hour; much less that what we had been doing in previous days!
At the Alcazar Hotel, it was too early to get into our rooms. We took a wander around town and asked around for tickets on the ferry to Nuweiba, Egypt. The answer was to just get it on board at the time of departure.
We had noticed a McDonald’s and a Quiznos in town. The former didn’t open till 1300 on Ramadhan hours, while the latter hadn’t started operations yet. We returned to the hotel for a good wash, a snack and a rest.
The hotel had a pool but it didn’t look overly inviting. It was highly speckled with dust and other bits and up to 4m in depth. There goes our second chance of having a swim; the pool hotel in Petra was too cold!
In the afternoon, Kim and I took the hotel transport to Murjan Beach Club, a sister property to our hotel. We had free entry and use of the pool and beach. Sadly, the pool was small and rather busy with kids. The beach was littered with bottle tops and cigarette butts, despite the water being very clear. It was very hot and humid in the shaded seating area and there were lot so flies around too. The outing seemed like a failure.
We gave up and left the club. We couldn’t find any transport and hitched a ride in an oil tanker (the lorry variety rather than the ocean-going type). The driver smoked onboard! Back in Aqaba, we thanked him and tried to pay him JOD1 but he refused to accept it. We continued back to the hotel by taxi.
After a rest we walked down to China Restaurant for dinner about 1800. We ordered kung pao chicken, mixed vegetables, sweet and sour pork (rather nice change in the Middle East) and later added Manchurian chicken (which was cooked with black beans and garlic). That feast was accompanied with plain and fried rice, beer and soft drinks.
We learnt that the owner was from Taiwan but the chef from Dalian in Manchurian China. I was surprised to see only one Chinese restaurant in the area but two “health” and massage outlets, complete with exercycles in the front windows. Who are they trying to kid? They were brothels.
Through the day, Fiona talked as if the trip is over, now that she had seen Petra. “We’ve had such a wonderful trip and we’ll remember it for years!” We still had the Sinai Peninsula to visit, resorts to enjoy and Cairo to experience!
After dinner Kim bought a book from a bookstore about the contradictions in the Bible. It was called “The Truth About Jesus Christ”. I went to the internet café but it was hot and stifling there, I stayed only to do a few essentials.