Crossing the border Egypt-Israel-Jordan

It sure was interesting to be in 3 countries within 2 hours.

After 10 days of Egypt, we were ready to get away from the constant bargaining and hassling. "5 Egyptian Pounds my friend, okok how about 3 Pounds..?" We were kinda templed-out as well, albeit the intriguing Hieroglyphic writings and mystical Egyptian myths. The last coupla days in Aswan were amazing, we stayed at a cheap hostel ( 6euros/person/night -double the price of our usual Egypt hostel lol )with a rooftop swimming pool overlooking the Nile River... Woah the Nile River has this amazing allure to it, especially in Aswan. Beautiful sandy desert landscape lining the river bank, with lil soothing Feluccas sailing across the Nile, and brightly lit hotel lights up the peaceful tranquility.

So to get to Jordan,we decided on the land route, crossing the border by foot from Taba, Egypt to Eilat, Israel and thereafter to Aqaba, Jordan. It was definitely an eye-opener - the 3 neighbouring countries all sharing the same sea - were so different to one another in terms of wealth, and culture. The minute we crossed the gate over to the Israel customs, it was like a whole new world. The toilets were sparkling clean, unlike the hole-in-the-ground toilets in Egypt and aircon was whoozing outta the customs hall, and Israelis sure look different. The customs officers were all beautiful 18 year old looking Israeli young ladies and smartly dressed Jewish guys. A short ride from one border to another gave us some insight to the modern beach city of Eilat - I thought I was in Miami! It was such a waste we didnt include Israel in our itinerary, we just didnt have the time and decided Jordan was our priority.

When we crossed over to Jordan's border, it was back to the Arabic world where things are just not the same as the rest of the world. Alluring and magical, but they definitely have their own way of living. Jordan seemed to have more developed and richer than Egypt. Like what Alberto said 'Egypt is like the poor cousin of his neighbours'. It is interesting cos Egypt probably receives many more tourists than his neighbours , and is also bigger than both of them, but evidently it's not as developed as Israel nor Jordan.

Now we'r in Jordan, and we visited Petra today.. the sights were incredibly amazing..never like anything I'd seen. We'd kinda expected similar landscapes to Egypt or monuments and streets.. but it's been very refreshing. Petra is huge, and filled with incredbily coloured rose-red rock formations and cliff-like structures. You feel like you'r entering a different galaxy and you'r a tad bit closer to pure nature. All the work of nature. Ancient Nabataen tribes had cut into the rocks to form huge and awestrucking tombs and temples and had made a whole city out of it. Many people have the wrong perception that Petra is just the famous gate that appeared in Indiana Jones (we were humming to that catchy tune all day!), but it's far bigger than any monumental sites we've been! It took us all day 12hours to see almost the whole site, but you definitely need more time than that.

We'r all dogged out, exhausted from all these travelling. Heading to the Wadi Rum desert tomorrow to spend a night camping under the stars again - I know it's gonna be fuckin good. I guess I'll write again when we reach Tanzania in 2 days' time!