Adventures of Brendon: Crossing Two Borders

Crusader Castle in Taba, Egypt

I haven't found the time to update lately, and now I'm writing from a French keyboard in Amman (if you've ever used a French keyboard, you know this will be difficult). I caught the bus from Dahab to the border town of Taba, along the way passing a crusader castle, and visible across the gulf in Aqaba the second tallest freestanding flag in the world (the Jordanians are fond of big flags; the tallest freestanding one is within sight of me in Amman [the tallest one is in North Korea, but they're cheaters and use cables to hold up the flagpole!]).

Aqaba Flagpole as Viewed from Egypt

The border between Egypt and Israel is lined with barbed wire, guard towers, and machine gun nests. It all looks very imposing until you see that the border guards (with guns) on both sides are completely bored!

Looking back to Egypt as I leave

I left Egypt without a problem and crossing the border was a study in contrasts: in Egypt, I left a roomy and open building filled with officious looking border guards, all men in black uniform with black moustaches, and entered the air-conditioned Israeli terminal (it was not a hot day) manned with 20 year old Jewish girls dressed in blue polos grilling me with questions! They apparently weren't happy that I was only staying in Israel just an hour...

Eilat, Israel, with Jordan visible in the background

I crossed over into Eilat, a complete beach/party town nestled comfortably between Egypt and Jordan, caught a taxi with a German girl I had met on the bus to the central bus station, said goodbye to her, used the ATM and toilet, and immediately caught another taxi to the Jordanian border.

Welcome to Jordan

From the border I crossed a no-man's land between the two countries (this did not exist with Egypt), as seen above. I was greeted by a Jordanian guard with "USA Obama!", waited for the border official to get back from prayer, got my visa and I was in! I took an overpriced taxi to Wadi Musa ("Valley of Moses") next to the Nabataen ruins of Petra. I was still sick, which made hiking around Petra and then the desert of Wadi Rum a complete slog. The place felt like a Star Wars set. I met a Canadian girl named Kari and stole some of her photos, which you can see below: