On to Aqaba!

So because yesterday I didn't get any hot water (and Sue did) because she had a shower second. So today I had my shower second. It turns out I don't have good shower karma... As I showered the pressure got lower and lower until it slowed to a point that it couldn't maintain a shower. Luckily I was able to hold up the shower tab to rinse my hair. Still covered in soap, Sue brought me some bottle water. I managed to get a few cups out of the tap to rinse and then that was it! Not a drop of tap water left!

We then headed down to the lobby to meet the rest of the tour group. There are 13 people (2 men and 11 women) on our tour and we are all from Commonwealth countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and England. The group seems really great. There is one complainer but I believe there is one in every group!

We then all loaded into a mini bus and headed for Aqaba, it's about a 4 hour ride with a 30-40 minute stop about half way for lunch and snacks. I had a very fab lamb kabob sandwich.

Our tour guide is really nice. We sat very close to the front of the van (because I didn't want to get sick) so we were able to ask a lot of questions on the drive. Interesting facts include that Jordan is one of the poorest counties in the world for water and that the government / King have decided to turn off the water three days a week. This explains why they have water tanks on the roofs and why we had no water this morning!

When we arrived in Aqaba we were greatly relieved to find this hotel to be AWESOME! First off it appears that there is lots of water! It's super clean, the TV works, and there is a safe. My back is very thankful as I was carrying around all my valuables around which was getting very heavy.

We decided to set off and see a bit of the city of Aqaba. I don't know if it's because it's rip roaring hot (32 degrees!) but there were not a lot of people in the main area with the shops. We walked around and window shopped. I bought a few postcards and gasped at the cost to mail them (I didn't buy the stamps... I plan to check with the guide tomorrow about the crazy price... like $3 CDN to mail ONE postcard!) We also headed down to see the public beach on the Red Sea. Not to actually go in as the guide warned us that we would be stared at if we decided to go swimming. It was interesting to see all the families and women swimming. Some women were swimming fully clothed in their traditional dress!

I went for a swim on the roof top pool and then we headed our for dinner at the seafood restaurant right next to our hotel. We met up with many of the others on the tour as we got a special rate if we were more than 5 people. I had the whole fish and Sue had the calamari. My fish was really good!

We all then went to the local cafe and had some drinks. I tried this wicked awesome creation of lemonade and blended mint. It's my new drink and I'm all over trying it wherever I am! We also tried sheesha! It's those rather tall water bubble smoke pipe things that have flavoured tabacco. I picked cherry mint. It was quite a bit milder than I expected and it was very nice. I have to admit though after a couple of puffs I was good.

 

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