Aqaba

Aqaba – 19^th February 2010

The trip down to Aqaba during last Friday-Saturday was amazing! We left early Friday morning, around 7:00 am, and arrived in Aqaba around 11:00 am. It was absolutely gorgeous. Aqaba, for those who don’t know, is Jordan’s sole port city, located on the southern tip of the country along the Red Sea. It gave me the sense that I was in California, with mountains in the background and beaches in the foreground. Needless to say, we spent a majority of our only full day there lying around on the beach or exploring the city. (Check out the photos I posted, it was interesting to see fully covered Muslim women swimming in the sea! It is definitely a different culture here!)

This trip was a great getaway from the hectic school schedule we have here! I was with a great group of friends, but I was the only guy in a 6 person group! When we began booking hotels, we came into a cultural “snag” when we tried to house both guy and girls in the same room. It is taboo for unmarried people to share rooms. So a friend of mine, without informing me right away, decided that I was going to be “engaged” to another friend of mine, just in case. However, the rules for foreigners are a lot more relaxed than Jordanians so there ended up being no issue about the rooms. (Good thing too, because I told my “fiancé” that I wasn’t ready to commit and that I was seeing someone behind her back…aka my actual girlfriend.)

The first day there was relatively relaxing, except two points: cab drivers and weird random men.

Because we spend most of our time in Amman, we know the system for cab drivers therefore if a cab driver tries to rip us off, we can call him on it. However, Aqaba was different so we were essentially shooting from the hip when it came to bartering with the cab drivers. We were off to a bad start when we got off our bus at the bus station and our cab driver said it would cost 2 Dinars to drive us to our hotel. (It costs me 2 Dinars to travel 7 miles.) Our hotel ended up being just around the corner, so close we could have walked! But we’re not completely stupid. The cab driver got less than a Dinar for his trip. However, this ended up being a reoccurring problem. The one thing I hate the most so far here is that some people see you as American/Foreign therefore you can rip us off all the time! i.e. some cabs were a**holes, I felt very disrespected at points, and I also felt disappointed because there were some genuinely nice cab drivers who didn’t get a fair deal from us because we assumed they were trying to rip us off too. I was mostly sad because all the stupid cab drivers who try to take advantage of you ruin it for all the genuinely nice ones who deserve to be treated well.

The next day, the ladies had to catch a bus back to Amman at 11:00 am whereas I purchased a ticket back to the big city for 4:00 pm. I had a mission. I spent the morning hanging out with some of the nicest girls I have ever met and after we went our separate ways, they made me promise to text them so they knew when I got home. When their bus left, I began my mission, the one true reason I came to Aqaba: scuba diving. Alas! Scuba diving was one of the primary sources of income from tourists in Aqaba! So important that the King ordered the intentional scuttling of an old tanker just off the cost to create a man-made reef and to attract tourists. There is also a sunken Soviet Tank! My first scuba experience was amazing! My instructor was Japanese, very helpful, and always smiling. She helped me suit up, gave me a quick briefing, and we were off to the water! I got to see coral, exotic fish, and jellyfish! It was so gorgeous! The weirdest part was my first breath underwater. With my head under the water, all my instincts were telling me not to breath in, but I took that first breath of air and all of the sudden my body was like…..”whoah.” The hardest part for me, because I am so skinny, was sinking. I was laughing to myself multiple time underwater when I saw my instructor taking weights off her weight belt and adding them to mine or trying to pull me back down underwater. (My weight was also a problem when I went skydiving 3 years ago.)

The overall experience was great, but my wet suit was a little loose for my body. I didn’t notice it underwater because I was working constantly, but two ladies I met who were from California and were scuba diving at the same time as me were laughing at me because after I got all of my kit off, I was literally shaking violently because I was so cold. (The Jordanian sun quickly helped me recuperate.) I also made a really nice friend from Damascus who was there at the same time as me.

During our trip to Aqaba, what I didn’t know, however, was that there was a relatively large oil spill just off the shore of Aqaba a day or two before our visit and that the authorities were hustling to get it cleaned up before it began to affect the coral around the bay. Some people saw snorkelers come out of the water at the same beach I was at, covered in oil. I, however, did not see anything like this where I was. According to the news, they got most, if not all, of the oil spill quarantined and cleaned up.

This concludes my trip to Aqaba….oh yeah, my friend Ash broke a shelf in our hotel room closet. (Your welcome! ;) )

INTERESTING STORIES:

Yesterday I noticed an unusual security presence on the University of Jordan campus. Mainly, it consisted of about 12 separate Mercedes/Crown Victoria’s and 17 stern-looking, visible personnel either uniformed or not. Found out the next day that the Jordanian Prime Minister was on campus.

During a break from class today, I was standing outside and noticed a large, well dressed crowd standing around outside. (I also noticed that a strong majority of the people were Asian. Important.) There was a large table with desert and tea on it as well as a photographer walking around. The multitude of people were standing around a black Mercedes with small Chinese flags stuck to the front. After important looking people piled into the car, it began pulling away and everyone was waving bye to the car, so I thought I would join in. I later found out that I was waving goodbye to the Chinese Ambassador to Jordan, who just presented a large donation to the university. Cool!

QUIZ QUESTION: Why, in Jordan, did I see a bus leading to Philadelphia University?

ANSWER! The ancient city of Philadelphia was renamed Amman during the Ghassanian era.