Abracadabra Aqaba

 

 

With all the news reports about trouble in Egypt and Syria, in fact, most countries in this part of the world, there has been some trepidation and apprehension as we sailed closer to the Suez Canal - and of course – there has been lots of speculation and Chinese whispers on the ship about how the itinerary may be affected – as well as some hysteria when one couple decided that they felt unsafe and took steps to fly home from Malta. 

We were scheduled to pass through the Suez Canal on Friday the 13^th, however, our time was brought forward and our transit was mostly at night, with a strong military presence along the canal, and extra security on our ship. 

We are now safely through and have spent the day in Aqaba, Jordan. Our guide described Jordan as 'a peaceful country with noisy neighbours' – surrounded as they are by Israel, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Iraq - they now have over one million refugees from Syria.  

Aqaba is the starting point for visiting the ancient city of Petra, but since we have previously been to Petra, we opted for a tour of the city of Aqaba, with the same company we used last time - Via Jordan. 

Our first stop was at the Arab Revolt Plaza, on the waterfront where our guide, Ashraff, explained some of the historical influences on Jordanian culture. Closeby, we visited the local fishing village with its brightly coloured boats, Mamlok fortress, Shareif Hussein house, the Aqaba museum and an interesting Bedouin museum - showing the local dress and daily life of the nomadic tribes. 

Families have been allocated tiny handkerchief sized sections of farming land near the waterfront and use it to grow vegetables and herbs to sell at the daily food market - Ashraff knew one of the farmers who was headed to market, so we stopped to talk to him, and he gave us a bunch of fresh mint and told us about the local dishes which use mint as an ingredient. 

On this European adventure, we have been to many sites of ruins and excavations, so we are a bit over seeing piles of rocks, but we visited the sites of the first Christian church in the Middle East and the ancient Moslem city of Ayla. 

Finally, we left our vehicle to walk around downtown Aqaba and the local shopping district. Ashraff invited us to join him for a local sweet delight at the Hani Ali Sweet restaurant. It was a delicious warm slice with goats cheese on the base topped by a crispy mixture of honey and pistachios - yummy.

As we walked along, Ashraff explained the products in each shop, the best prices and we brought some delicious smoked almonds and cashews. We walked around the fresh food market tasting local flat bread ( so much nicer than any I have ever tasted) and a cooling juice drink made from red hibiscus flowers. 

 We sat down outside a coffee shop and Ashraff explained the water pipe smoking culture seen everywhere on the streets here. Men congregate at coffee shops and pay to hire a smoking pipe with a disposable mouth piece and flavored tobacco - hot coals from a burner are placed on top of the pipe and the tobacco is burnt as it is drawn up through the pipe and water chamber - in the middle of the day, most are unemployed and meet to smoke and play cards. 

One of the interesting street scenes which caught our attention was a camel sitting outside McDonalds - known locally as the American Embassy. We convinced Joanne that she should ride the camel to our lunch venue down the road (not Maccas!!)  

Lunch was another great adventure - starters of eggplant and hummus dip, salad, chilli tomato pickle and more of that delicious flat bread, the main course was local fish from the Red Sea - a delicate flavored white Gropper fish, with vegetables.  Morsels of a delicious sweet pastry similar to Baklava were served for dessert with strong Turkish cardamon coffee or green apple tea to complete the meal.  

After lunch, we drove south along the scenic coast - at one point, we could see areas of Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan across the gulf. South Beach,near the Saudi border is a very modern tourist area with five star hotels and great snorkeling and diving areas. There is a lot of new development projects  in Jordan with a lot of money being spent by wealthy Arabian sheikhs especially in tourist development.  

 We drove as far as the border with Saudi Arabia checkpoint, and then returned to the ship. 

Captain, throw off the ropes, let us head to Salalah……