The Red Rose City

After a couple of extremely lazy days of basically just eating with family it was time for Cam and I to head south and begin our journey to see one of the wonders of the ancient world, the city of Petra. The journey to Petra however necessitated an overnight stay in Eilat. Now the travel brochures will have you believe that this city is a peaceful coral seaside paradise. I beg to differ: Eilat leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps it was the never-ending rows of beach-side restaurants clogging up the beach, or the hundreds of boats coming and going all day long that we didn’t shine to? Or possibly it was the thousands of Russian tourists with their obnoxious overweight kids running everywhere? Or maybe the incessant 38oC heat which has clearly made the locals a little prickly with the tourists? Or perhaps it was simply being constantly buzzed by 747 jets flying just a few hundred metres over head on route to the international airport in the middle of the city (!) that kind of ruined the tranquil resort feeling for us?

At any rate we didn’t have too much time to complain as the next morning it was off to cross the border into Jordan. After much time checking passports and paying the necessary fees we were met by Maud, the Jordanian driver we’d hired to take us to Petra. Maud a local lad in his mid-20’s studying mining engineering in Aqaba greeted us extremely politely and on behalf of King Hussein himself welcomed us to Jordan! He also proceeded to give us a VIP tour of his home town, where business is booming due to the King’s recent proclamation that Aqaba become a tax-free city. We then left the city and headed straight into the desert. A great big dry and dusty desert from which hundreds of rocky mountains rise into wrinkled rose-coloured peaks.

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