As we left the desert today, Nadal was telling us that the Bedouin people in that region have a special ID that allows them to flow freely between parts of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. He said the government had provided funding to create housing for some of these people, but if the funding is accepted the families must send their children to school or the father will be imprisoned.
He gave us slightly more information about the refugees in Jordan too. Apparently the border between here and Syria opened up again a few weeks back, and thus far only 54,000 of the 2.3 million that came here have gone back. He said winter and the fact that many of them don’t have anything left in Syria now are part of the reason.
Then we arrived in Aqaba. Aqaba is Jordan’s only sea port, and is home to 85 000 people. Our new guide, Nadal, told us that in the spring and summer this number can swell to over 120 000, because many Jordanians make their way down here as a weekend getaway. Aqaba lies along the coast of the Red Sea and Jordan does not have much of the Coast, so everyone comes here. They used to have even less Coast though, because in 1965 the king traded 6000 square kilometres of Jordanian desert for 12km of Coast with Saudi Arabia.
The name Aqaba means ‘obstacle’, because the mountains and the sea surround the town.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Aqaba, our snorkelling trip was cancelled due to strong winds. Most of the group opted for Nadal to take them on a quick tour around the city, but Nikki, Jason and I wanted to swim in the Red Sea despite the snorkelling cancellation.
Our hotel organised for the Berenice Beach Club to pick us up with their shuttle. Us and about 15 other people were driven south, and we ended up being only 8km from the border of Saudi Arabia.
It was windy, but we had a good time. The water’s colour was beautiful, but the ‘sand’ was all small rocks. The only sand on the beach was some that had obviously been brought in, perhaps from Wadi Rum! But it did have a lot of beautiful sea glass throughout it.
The three of us and one other man at the resort went swimming, everyone else looked at us like we were insane haha. It was pretty cool though, because to our left was Saudi Arabia, straight ahead was Egypt, slightly to our right we could see Israel, and we were in Jordan. Haven’t had that experience before!! The four photos of my finger pointing are me pointing to the four countries.
An interesting contrast was the fact that Saudi Arabia was so close to our left, and to our right was a fence for the perimeter of the resort. Outside of this fence their were women in headscarves and burqas at the beach. And there was me smack in the middle in my bikini! I was allowed to wear it though because we were at a resort.
After our swim, I lay on the beach for a bit but the wind got worse and worse. We all had a giggle at a girl who was clearly an Instagram model taking really over the top stupid photos for a long period of time. The three of us agreed that we are very glad our lives aren’t fake like that!!
Once we got back I just rested in the hotel. Those that went on the tour earlier said there wasn’t much to see here, and the wind picked up so much that it whistled fiercely outside. I have been wind burnt a few times already on this trip (today included) so I didn’t want to head out and make it worse given I had been told there was nothing much to see.
Once I sat down in the room I actually started to feel pretty exhausted. All those early mornings and all the wind burn caught up with me! So I lay down for a while and rested. At least it hit me on a day when we didn’t have too much going on.
Tonight Nadal is taking us to the market and then out for a seafood dinner. Tomorrow we head back to Amman for the final day of our tour.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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