Across the Red Sea

Today I journey from Wadi Rum down to Acaba. The taxi driver tries to rip us off by dropping us off at the outskirts of town, what a surprise. I think there is a special place in hell for taxi drivers.

After yelling back and forth for a good 30min and me whipping out the “What would Mohammad do” line, he drops us off at the port.

This will be the third Ferry I’ve taken on this trip; Once in Croatia, twice from Morocco to Gib and now from Acaba, Jordan to Nuweba, Egypt. I’ve already heard a handful of stories of how late the ferry was and how a simple 3hr journey turns into an entire day.

Getting out of Jordan via the ferry is quite a process. The ferry ticket office is on the ground floor, but first you have to go upstairs. There you will be given an exit stamp, it actually looks like a postage stamp with a picture of the Petra Treasury on it. After queuing for the stamp, you must leave your passport there and you are handed a sheet of paper which has the exit tax amount on it. Next you take that sheet of paper across the hall with in talking if not yelling distance of the first counter. There another guy will take the sheet of paper, as if he didn’t know what it could possibly me. There you can pay him, but you must pay in USD. So then you have to across the hallway yet again to an exchange stand where you exchange the Jordanian Dinar into US dollars. Then you backtrack to the last counter, pay in dollars. After paying he stamps that sheet of paper which I take back to the counter that has my passport. There he looks at the stamp and puts a proper exit stamp on my passport. Finally I am allowed to buy a ferry ticket.

I meet several other backpackers in the waiting area. Manuel and Eric, from my Wadi Rum tour, as well as Ron, an Arabic speaking Lebanese Australian join our group. The bottom of the ferry is for cars and all foreigner bags/luggage has a designated area. Only one small backpack is allowed for carry on. The cabin area smells of BO and dirty, must dirtier than the Tangier -> Gib ferry. The boat arrives in Nuweba 3 hours late as expected.

Ron negotiates with the taxi drivers to take everyone to Dahab. I decide to stay in Nuweba to check it out. I head over to soft beach with a couple of Chinese Canadians from Vancouver while everyone else piles in a minivan heading south to Dahab.