Destination known and looking for jobs!: Welcome to Jordan, where taxis are good and buses are bad

We said goodbye to Egypt as we pulled ourselves away from the beaches of Dahab to travel into Jordan. There are several ways to travel from Egypt to Jordan. One way is across land where you have to cross into Israel. The second is by ferry from Nuwebia Egypt into Aquaba Jordan. We decided to take the ferry and avoid getting Israeli stamps in our passports. Some Middle Eastern countries will not let you enter if you have Israeli stamp. Syria, which we hope to travel to someday, is one of those countries. We have heard that you can ask the Israeli border control to stamp an entry on a piece of paper, but we’d still have an exit visa from Egypt at the Israeli border. In the hopes of avoiding future headaches if we ever apply for Syrian visas we decided to take the ferry.

The ferry is scheduled to leave at 3pm and we had read that you need to be at the terminal two hours prior to departure. So we board a bus from Dahab to Nuwebia at 10 am and arrive around 11:30. We stand in the first of many lines to purchase our ferry tickets. While standing in line we meet two Australian sisters, Beck & Lena, two Canadians, Hugh & JP, two Americans who are studying in Ghana but are on break, Rick & Drew, and one Philipino-American, Jose. Little did we realize then as the nine of us stood chatting in that line that our lives would be entwined for a least the next 14 hours.

The purchasing of the tickets was pretty painless. Our Lonely Planet guide book had said ferry tickets could only be purchased with US dollars. Jeff and I came prepared after spending some time in Cairo looking for dollars, which turned out not to be needed; the ticket office look Egyptian pounds as well. We receive our tickets and walk over to the ferry departure terminal which turns out to be a big warehouse lined with wooden benches. The tourist police escort us to our shortest line of the day, the customs line, where we are stamped out of Egypt. So at one-thirty, we settle ourselves onto a wooden bench and wait for the ferry to depart. We spend the time chatting with and getting to know all the people we meet in the ticket line. Three o’clock comes and goes and the benches get more uncomfortable. The only food available in the warehouse is chips, cookies, and tea. We’ve already be stamped out of Egypt so no one can leave the terminal to get different food. Everyone starts joking that we’ll be stuck in the warehouse for days and days. Finally around four-thirty, we are loaded onto a bus and are driven across the port to the ferry. We get off the bus and stand in a long slow moving line as they check tickets and passports before we get on the ferry. We get on the ferry, drop our backpacks in the cargo area and stand in another long slow moving line that is also checking tickets and passports before we are allowed to go upstairs to sit down. We all make in on board and find another line. Not sure what the line is for, we jump in it. Turns out it was the Jordan customs line. We didn’t have to wait too long in it. A customs guy saw the of bunch us foreigners tells us to sit down. He collects everyone’s passports, gives us receipts for them and informs us they can be picked up at the arrival terminal in Jordan.

The seats on the ferry are much more comfortable then the wooden benches. The boat ride was a very pleasant hour and half. The ferry docks in Aquaba and we all have to stand in a very long slow moving line to get off the boat. We make it off the boat, stand in line for the bus to take us to the arrival terminal. Once inside the arrival terminal, we stand in line to get our passports back with our Jordan visas. While standing in this line, we meet two more Americans, who were from Haines, Alaska, once again proving it’s a small world! I have no idea how long we waited for visas, but it was a long time. In the meantime, our group of nine discussed that if we ever made into Jordan, we could all find a minibus to drive us the two hours to Petra. Everyone gets visas and clears customs.

Exiting the terminal, we are bombarded by taxi drivers. Our group stays strong and says that we don’t want three taxi cars, we want a minibus because the cab fare is too more. At one point, the group decides to walk away from the taxi cab drivers, thinking maybe we’ll get them to come down in their fares or come up with minibus. I found this very comical… Where the hell did we think we were going? We just arrived in a strange country and its dark, but our little plan worked. Someone ran up to us and said to follow him to his minibus and offered what everyone thought was a fair fare. Perfect! We start to follow him until we pass a tourist police stand. The tourist police come up to us and tell us that we can’t the minibus, we have to take taxis because the bus is not safe. Our group of nine is now haggling with the tourist police asking why the bus is unsafe, the taxi cab drivers are yelling out their fares and deals, and somewhere in the background, I swear circus music has qued up. After ten minutes of arguing with the tourist police, we are told we can go on the minibus. We follow the driver down a dark street where we all think the bus is parked. There is nothing down this street except for a lit street lamp. The guy turns to us, says ‘Just go towards the light and I’ll be right back.’ We all just look at each other, thinking maybe he went to go get the bus and he’ll be back to get us.

About ten minutes later, the tourist police Jeep comes speeding down the road with a fleet of taxi cars behind it. The Jeep pulls up and over a loud speaker its saying “No bus. Taxi only.” The circus music is blaring at this point and our group has no idea what is going on. The taxi cabs pull up and the drivers get out. After a few more minutes of haggling and sorting, our group is divided into three cars for the same fare we agreed to pay the minibus guy. So we’re off to Petra in our convoy of taxis. Our taxi driver is a young guy, with a disco light instead of a dome light in the car and is blaring Ludicrous, Shaggy, and Arabic rap. Every once in a while he’ll yell “Taxi good, driver good, bus bad!” Jeff and I are sitting in the back laughing, while Jose (the Philipino-American) is sitting in the front just repeating “Oh my god!” every once in a while. We stop a rest area for a meal of kebabs and roast chicken. We had a lot fun talking and laughing with our taxi driver and the rest of group. One of the other taxi drivers took out his resume and handed it to Jeff. We’re not really sure what job he was applying for, but Jeff didn’t hire him. We load back into the taxi convoy and make it into Petra.

We had asked to be dropped off at the Valentine Inn, but when we arrived into Petra the taxi convoy took us someplace else saying the Valentine Inn was closed. Its 1am at this point, and everyone was too tired to care where they slept. Jeff and I took a double room, Beck and Lena (the 2 Australians) take a twin room, and the rest sleep in the dorms.

But En’shallah we made it to Jordan!