Report from Nuweiba, Egypt and Aqaba, Jordan.
Paul O'Hanlon | 06.04.2005 10:46 | Analysis | Education | Migration | London | World
Nuweiba, Egypt.
Fast boat from Nuweiba to Aqaba, Jordan.
Welcome to Jordan!
Aqaba, Jordan.
View of Aqaba from my hotel window.
I left Taba on the Egyptian/Israeli border on Tuesday 5th April and headed to Nuweiba some 70 kilometres south for the crossing to Aqaba in Jordan. The car journey took about 1 hour, going past dozens of hotels in what is a tourist playground for well off Israelis. There were two Al Qaeda attacks here in October 2004. 26 people were killed in an attack on the Taba Hilton and 2 people were killed in an attack on Nuweiba.
With this sobering thought in mind I made my way to the ferry port of Nuweiba where I bought my ticket for the `fast boat` which reaches Aqaba in Jordan on the other side of the gulf of Aqaba in about one hour.
My arrival in Aqaba was fairly easy as the immigration police on both sides seemed fairly relaxed toward Westerners. They asked local people more questions though. Nuweiba contains a lot of poverty alongside the glitzy hotels and at the Ferry Terminal there are dozens of young Egyptian men all too ready to help you with your bags. One, Abdul, helped me to find the ticket office and helped me as close to the boat as the Egyptian police would let him. I tipped him 50 Egyptian Pounds which is around 4 pounds fifty and his face beamed as if he had just won the lottery.
The trip across the gulf of Aqaba was fairly smooth under a bright spring sun. At Aqaba the expected queue of taxi drivers offered to take me to Amman for around $60.00, I declined as I felt too tired to travel anywhere. I stayed the night in Aqaba and will go to Amman today. The distance is 380 kilometres yet the bus fare is an amazing $6 - less than 4 British pounds - that's for a distance of about 240 miles - like London to Darlington or London to Exeter or Edinburgh to past Inverness.
Nothing political to report but there are photos of the late King Hussein and his son King Abdullah everywhere.
Five photos are attached.
Next stop Amman
Will keep you posted - Paul.
Paul O'Hanlon
e-mail:
o_hanlon@hotmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
so what
06.04.2005 16:07
kacho
The real situation
14.06.2005 11:16
The picture of Nuweiba is hardly representative of Nuweiba, nor is the brief description of Nuweiba. Nuweiba is a large flood plain covering almost ten square miles and incorporating Nuweiba Town ( Medina ), Nuweiba Port ( Mina ), and the two bedouin settlements of Tarabeen to the north and Maizena to the south.
The picture of the "fast ferry" is not actually of the fast ferry but of one of the larger, slower ferries.
And to give a tip of LE 50, when LE 5 would have been generous, to a young lad for carrying a bag is ludicrous - such acts only play havoc with the developing economies of third world countries.
The rent on an apartment in the poor areas of Nuweiba as depicted would be LE 150 per month, electricty and water for that apartment less than LE 50, schooling for two kids less than LE 50 per month, clothing, food and drinking water for a family of four anywhere between LE 300 - LE 1000 per month - depending on the salary of the father of the family who could be earning as little as LE 500 per month upto LE 1500 to be classified as a normal working class man.
alvin