One Last Hurrah... For Now

The ninth month of the Islamic calendar brings with it the holy month of Ramadan.  It starts with the first sighting of the New Moon and lasts for a lunar month.  During this month of abstinence from earthly pleasures, Muslims all over the world (re)devote themselves to Allah by fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam.  It is also a month of charity and generosity.  I am hoping that the spirit of Ramadan will bring a bit of peace in the broken countries that surround Jordan. 

 

On a lighter note...

 

Our favourite look-out point and picnic spot, some 80 kilometres from Aqaba

Went to Aqaba for the weekend and had ourselves a fine time.  Kind of a last hurrah, if you will, before Ramadan starts.  Booked into the Hilton, a so-called five star hotel but received one star treatment.  I don't think this establishment will see us again. 

 

The hotel was booked to capacity, staff were apathetic, rude and unhelpful and the sea view room that we booked and paid for was not available.  Having said that, the room we eventually ended up in was comfortable, clean, the Crabtree & Evelyn bath and body products were delicious and the cheese burgers we ordered from room service was yummy.  Ok, the burgers took an hour to arrive and we had to get someone in to re-programme the television, as no English channels were available to us. Other than that...

 

Saturday morning's breakfast was an abomination.  As mentioned before, the hotel was booked to capacity and the kitchen/restaurant staff seemed unable to cope with the demand.  I also think having lots of little undisciplined kiddies running around in the restaurant, handling the food as you can imagine little wild ones would, made things even more difficult for staff and more unpleasant for patrons. 

 

André eventually managed to get a plain omelette and I had a slice of watermelon, exactly three dates and a boiled egg.  (I had a croissant on my plate but when I went to get butter and honey to go with it, a little boy stood next to me at the honey-and-jams(preserves) section, put his hands on the marmalade container and sneezed like he meant it, right over the jar! So that was the end of my quest to get honey, or anything else to eat, thank you very much!)

 

Having said that, the weather was wonderful, the temperature gauge reading 38˚C at 11am and we headed off to the beach for some Red Sea swimming.  The water was initially surprisingly cold but I was determined to swim in this lovely clear water so in I went.  And out very fast!  The beach is not the kind of beach we are used to in South Africa, with fine white sand, but rather rocky and therefore quite difficult to get into the water.  Next time I am bringing my reef shoes! 

 

  

One of my favourite things to do is to swim in the ocean, so the rocky start did not deter me at all.  A quick march down the jetty and into the water I went.  I haven't swum in the Red Sea since November 2005 (when the water was freezing, it being winter at the time) and even though I did not have a long swim this time, it was much more enjoyable than back then. 

 

 

That blue, blue water

Wish I was on that jetty now...

 

After my solo swim (The Voice of Reason reckoned the water was way too cold. I think he just did not feel like swimming) we pointed the car North, back to Amman and the realities of a long month ahead of us. Ramadan Kareem*, indeed.

 

North!

I love these mountains outside of Aqaba.
Pretty sure we exceeded the indicated 60km/h

   

 

* Congratulations, it's Ramadan.