Tel Aviv

We LOVE Tel Aviv. Maybe our opinions are skewed because it's the first time in a month that we have been in a developed country but what a great city. Clean, green, stretches of beautiful powder white sand beaches and the warm turquoise Mediterranean Sea. It's a city of walkers and bicyclists and beach bums! Our hotel is one block from the beach so we will be joining them!

 The interrogation we had to go through to A) get across the border and B) get onto a flight at the Eliat airport was insane. In a 2 hour period my entire luggage was searched no less than 3 times and I had to go through a 20 minute interrogation at the airport...that security guard was hard core, I was ready to start confessing to stuff. At least we were secure that there was no chance of anyone getting  bomb onto that plane. It was all worth it once we set foot in Tel Aviv though...we found a laundromat and did mush needed washing of everything in our luggage and then spent yesterday sunning ourselves at the beautiful beach.

This guy was balancing rocks into towers like I've never seen before, it was amazing how he got some of them to balance

 

We are currently drinking really good coffee (finally) and will head to the bus station to make our way to Jerusalem at around 10am.



 

Tel Aviv has some cool grafitti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aqaba

Aqaba is Jordan's only port city, located on the Gulf of Aqaba in the extreme south of the country and it Jordan's only window to the Red Sea. The Red Sea is known for it's fantastic diving and snorkeling.
We stayed here for 3 days to take a break from our busy sightseeing schedule, recharge and sit by the pool to read and soak up some sun.

 

 

Jordan has been a surprisingly enjoyable country to travel in! It's very clean and easy to get around. All of the people we have met from day one have been extremely friendly and hospitable and I've lost count of how many people have said to us "welcome to Jordan!". They have some incredible scenery here and a beautiful country full of fascinating things to see and experience.

 

 

Today we cross the overland border into Israel (it's about 10 minute drive from Aqaba into Israel's Red Sea city, Eliat). We fly to Tel Aviv at 14:30 and will be spending tomorrow in Tel Aviv before heading down to Jerusalem.

Wadi Rum Desert

The Wadi Rum Desert is a protected area covering 720 square Km in the south of Jordan.

There you'll find huge sheer sided pink sandstone and granite mountains reaching heights of up to 1700 meters separated by wide sandy valleys.
There are many canyons and fissures cut deep into the mountains that you can hike through and see 4000 year old nabetean drawings etched into the rock.

 

Also known as ‘The Valley of the Moon’, this is the place where Prince Faisal Bin Hussein and T.E. Lawrence based their headquarters during the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in World War I.

Many Bedouin tribes still call the Wadi rum Desert their home and a lot of them today make their living through tourism. We spent 2 days and 2 nights in the desert at the camp of a Bedouin family that runs Wadi Rum tours.

2400 year old etchings

The first day was spent exploring the desert by camel, the second day by jeep. At night we would sit by the fire, drink Bedouin tea (black tea with lots of sugar and fresh thyme leaves: very addicting!) and they would cook us a spectacular feast.
The specialty is zarb: they dig a hole in the sand and fit in a metal circular drum, a 3 tiers metal rack in inserted with hot coals on the bottom and the meat/veggies on the upper racks...then it is buried and left for several hours to cook...the food was really great!

 

We had a great time but were glad to get to Aqaba yesterday to have a much needed shower! One more day here in Aqaba to sun ourselves and snorkel in the Red Sea before we cross the border into Israel and fly to Tel Aviv.

Hiking through a canyon.

Our guide Mohammed.

Posing on a rock bridge