Aqaba

Jordan's duty-free Red Sea resort

Saturday 8 December: Aqaba's a short bus ride from Wadi Musa and it's a surprisingly enjoyable place to relax for a few days. It's a duty-free zone with a laid-back secular atmosphere, bars, a castle, peddle boats, glass-bottomed boats, cheap liquor stores and a friendly hassle-free, almost cosmopolitan atmosphere. I like it. It's good base to visit Wadi Rum while waiting for a visa from the Egyptian consulate, north of town.
Tuesday 11: I've been staying in Moon Beach Hotel next to the promenade and castle, which is fine, but today I'm moving to Darna Village, a low-key resort along the Gulf of Aqaba coast towards the Saudi border. It has a pool and the beach, away from town, is better. I am tempted but it's a little cold for a swim.
Thursday 13: Back at the Moon Beach I now have a six-month multi-entry Egyptian visa (only 15JD) which was turned around in a day by the friendly consular staff but it took me a day to find their new small backstreet office. I also have a ticket (47JD) for the slow overnight ferry to the Sinai port of Neweiba across the Gulf of Aqaba, in Egypt. This also took me a whole day to organise: the Aqaba to Taba ferry is return only and the fast daytime ferry to Neweiba no longer runs.
Sunday 16: Changing my array of Jordanian dinars to Egyptian pounds I wait for an age for the midnight ferry to depart. More comfortable than I expected we eventually leave at 2:00am.
Slideshow of Aqaba.