Jordan Day 5: Returning to the "Adoptive Motherland"

Petra to Aqaba:
I woke up early again and got on a bus headed to Aqaba. The bus driver wasn't the nicest guy, to put it nicely. He told me there weren't any seats left- even though there were six of them- and that I needed to take a taxi. I told him that it was REALLY important for me to get on the bus because I'd miss my ferry if I didn't. After about two minutes of me practically pleading, he said, "fine, but you have to pay an extra JD." I laughed inside because the whole time he just wanted more money, but I couldn't do anything because I was a captive to his game.

The ride was embarrassing, to put it lightly, because my feet stunk REALLY bad. I hadn't taken a shower the night before and made the bad choice of wearing flip flops. Let's just say that I had a refresher in "Hygiene 101". I laugh now, but the smell was so bad that the guy next to me was covering his nose with his jacket!!

When I got back to Aqaba I jumped off of the bus in quite the hurry because I was embarrassed about my feet. I got in a taxi and headed for the port to Nuweiba. When I got to the port I went to a bathroom and washed my feet off! After that I got my ticket taken care of, with a few hang ups. Evidently my $50 wasn't good anymore because it was the old one and so I had some challenges there, but it all got taken care of. When I was on my way out of the office, I stepped on a kitten sitting by the door. I will admit that I jumped and the ticket agent joined the throng of one of many Jordanians that laughed at me. I said goodbye and walked out of the place.

I asked around for where I should be going and they pointed me towards the bus depot down below. While I was on my way down there I ran into the guy that was my traveling buddy at the beginning, Andrew. It was good to see him because he was a familiar face and we sat down to talk about our adventures of the trip.

Time passed by and soon we loaded up on the ferry to Nuweiba. Once again, it left two hours late, but it was all good because I wasn't in a hurry. If I couldn't catch a night bus to Cairo, then I knew I would have to stay in Dahab for a night and do some free diving the next day while I waited for the bus out- bummer! The ferry ride was good. Andrew and I talked about life, traveling, he gave me advice on careers, recommendations on places to see in countries, the character of God, how things change in life, swimming, and smoking. It was a good conversation!

When we got to Nuweiba, somehow we ran into a German guy, Matthew, and he decided to stick with us since we knew the place. We went to get our re-admittance visa and the guy canceled my 12-month visa since I left the country. I'm still not sure if he was just trying to scam me for $15 or not, but I'm leaving in 6 weeks so I'm not too worried about having a Travelers Visa. We walked through security without any problems, even though the "metal detector" went off. I love the security checks in Egypt! I always get a laugh every time.

After the security check we jumped on a mini bus to Dahab with two other Australians and three people from New Zealand. For the life of me, I can't remember their names and it's killing me! The bus ride was quite the party since all of us had a lot of stories to tell from our trips. The two Australians, a couple, had been traveling for five months and had six more to go before their world tour was over, or until they ran out of cash. The three New Zealander's, a guy and two girls, were on a three month travel through the Middle East and Egypt was their last stop.

When we got to Dahab we all decided we'd go out to eat together after they'd gotten their rooms. I went for an hour and a half swim that was truly amazing! I felt like I was thrashing about for the first half of the swim, but as time went on "the feel" came back and I just cruised. That's one thing I've missed a lot here, swimming!

After my swim we went to dinner and relaxed together. I gave them "the lowdown" on Egypt and they told me about India because I have an immense amount of interest to travel there. We finished up with our dinner, said our goodbyes, exchanged our emails, and Matthew and I headed off to the bus station. The bus ride to Cairo went by fast since I slept the whole way. It ended up that Matthew came and stayed with me at the school for a few nights, as he explored Cairo. Then he went to Luxor and came back for two more nights to stay before he headed back to Jordan. He was another really good guy I met on my travels.

In conclusion of my travels to Jordan I will say that I really did have the time of my life. I don't think I enjoy traveling alone very much, even though I met a lot of people, but it's just nice to have a friend along. Jordan will forever stand out as my first time really going out on my own, though, and what a good first experience!