Day 6 – WED - 19/9/12 – Jerusalem, Israel to Wadi Musa, Jordan.
After 2 hours hard going the driver Stopped, Revived, Survived and the hyper family of 8 that were seated near us started up for round 2 – “where's his shoes, oh no where did I put my drink? Come on wake up and go to the toilet, …. do you want to go to the toilet?!?!?!”. I could tell without opening my eyes 'he' was the only boy of the family and obviously a 'keep trying til you have a boy' one at that. Kearnsy and I were trying to stay asleep, to no avail.
Everyone piled back on the bus and within 2 hours we stop again... we stir... look at each other and realise everyone is getting off the bus! Oh, we're in Eilat at 4am and have arrived at the bus station to change and get a bus to the border.
The border gates don't open to pedestrians until 6:30am and at 8:30am for cars. We attempted to confirm the best way to get to the border and found there was no bus and that we would have to get a taxi. Napping was the solution to pass the t, then taxi it was for the 5km trip at 6:50am and we left Israel at 7:10am.
The border was easy enough but spookily quiet – it was like a ghost town. Just Kearnsy and I wandering through from Israel to Jordan visa no man's land for the few hundred meters in between. This was one of our first indications of how few tourists there are in the Middle East at the moment and how wrong it seemed to us as it was quite safe.
Paying the exit fee from Israel, I got my passport (paper) stamped, walked through to no man's land. Once at the Jordan border we got checked out at the customs window and filled in an application, mentioning we had booked a tour in the desert and that we 'd be there for 3 days so the visa was free – winning!! Stamped in and off to contend with another round of taxi negotiations for the 5km run to Aqaba. Know your price and stick by it!
We learnt our next lesson in Aqaba...
Always cross the road, investigate and remember to ask at least 3 Arab's.
It's so tricky because you don't know if someone is trying to help you, or trying to get your business... you just have to take the chance or risk sometimes...
So we waited on a shared mini bus for 1 hour before we left Aqaba. We arrived at Wadi Musa at 11am, after dropping all the locals off at their houses on the way. After arriving at the bus station we walked around for 45 minutes in the baking midday 37 degree heat trying to find the hostel in a small place as there was no street names. Eventually after talking to a few locals we were defeated and took a taxi, again negotiating but this time down to 1JD = £1 but it turned out it was right behind the bus station where we had started! That was definitely a point for the wheelie bag.
We slept the afternoon away as we were knocked about from the heat and wandering around Wadi Musa and the overnight bus trip. After this lengthy nap and waking to the the call to prayer for sunset, we explored close by from our hostel in the recommended direction and went to a delicious BBQ restaurant and dined on chicken and lamb shish which had an amazing blend of spices, pizza, type bread, pita, salad, grape juice and lemon and mint juice – absolutely gorged ourselves; delicious and fresh!!
Happy Birthday Mum!! Sorry for no wifi :(
Early night with the Red Rose City of Petra to discover the next day!
