01 May 2015

Day Three - A new world and yet, not so much.

Day Three – Another world and yet not so much
















Yes that’s Arthur standing at the Arkia check in desk for our flight to Eilat. We had a quick breakfast at the Diaghilev (I ordered a “snack” of bruschetta covered with cream cheese, lox, and dill) that turned out to be the size of a large plate. My additional order of a croissant was too much. There was fresh orange juice, however, which is always good in Israel. Then a cab (the cabbie lived in Los Angeles, and his son still does – so he like talking about that) to the other Tel Aviv airport, Sde Dov. It’s mostly general aviation, although flights to southern Israel originate there. We thought it would be best to arrive early, concerned about security and such. In and out! So we had a great deal of time to spend – 2 hours. At first it was quiet as pictured above, but then as 12:30 approached, the lobby was wall-to-wall passengers. Little plastic chairs were brought out to handle the crowd.



The flight takes off to the south, parallel to the Mediterranean, and then banks to the north again, avoiding the approach to Ben Gurion airport. The sea is beautifully blue, and there are lots of pleasure craft out enjoying the water.  The flight takes us right over Jerusalem as we head south across the Negev. On the left side of the plane they could see the Dead Sea, while I, seated on the right was treated to some spectacular wadi. It’s a short trip – perhaps 40 minutes or so. Even in the midst of the desert there are communities, perhaps military. We fly over Eilat down the Red Sea a bit and return north to land at the airport. There are port facilities on the eastern shore, operated by Jordan and Egypt. The water is incredibly blue – a rich deep blue. Eilat is resort town filled with stuff that tourists like. We, however, don’t stay long. We are met by a young woman from the tour company who drives us to the border past row upon row of date palms planted in orderly rows as if by a German.



On the Israeli side we go to pass several police types before we get to passport control, and an exit is stamped in our documents. Then we walk through a duty free shop (seriously), and out to a gate where are documents are sized up again, and then down a lonely road in a veritable no-man’s land with the Jordanian gate hovering in the distance. It’s hot, and we’re wearing disgustingly dressy clothes. At the Jordanian side, a cigarette-smoking male shouts to someone in a building perhaps 300 meters away, and tells us to go there. We go there and no one is there but a scanning device for luggage. Finally another cigarette-smoking male arrives and asks us to put in our baggage. Once scanned (he didn’t even let out a peep about my C-Pap machine) we go to Window 10, where documents are hand entered into a computer and given one stamp. Then we go to Window 8(?) where the documents are examined again, and stamped several times (albeit unintelligibly). Finally we go to have a drink while we wait for our tour company agent. I order a coke and the attendant (who takes shekels!) asks me to take one out of the refrigerator – the coke is warm. The agent walks us to a car and driver who then takes us into Aqaba, which is really quite lovely. Lots of interesting new development, some by Israeli developers.



We register, settle in our room, and have a light lunch. We are in “downtown” Aqaba, and there is a great deal of street activity. It’s like anywhere, but with a lot of scarves.



Dinner is interesting. We go there at 8:00, and its dead. It’s a nice buffet, Italian, but with some Jordanian dishes as well. At 9:00 the place explodes with people. Ten women, all veiled and proper with one who is not sit on one side of us, while on the other it’s a tour group from Spain. Even at the swimming pool in the afternoon, some women were veiled and others were not. One wonders how the standard is set.




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Finally it is time for reading email, and getting ready for the adventure tomorrow.

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