Aqaba

So the hotel i stayed in was supposed to be the cheap, hold your breath and sleep there for 5 hours kind of place, except that it wasnt. it was surprisingly nice. i would have paid much less if i had someone to share the room with, but it happens. someone told me breakfast was at 7am, so i woke up then after falling asleep at 3 and having gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before. then i was the only one at breakfast, so i heard 9am from someone and i tried to sleep before i went to take a glass bottom boat ride on the red sea. there are so many sea urchins here its crazy, and tons of green brain coral. the coral here is right next to the beach, and surprisingly it is relatively intact. a lot of the coral in mexico is bleached from all the sunscreen, pollution, and touching of it. the coral was right at the public beach and it was ok. i was surprised. so we went shopping for like 1 hour and there wasnt a lot to see that i could afford. then we went to the beach and i swam in my shorts, and i really dont recommend using the public bathrooms. i thought the ones in la public beach were bad.

however, the corals and the beach were spectacular. my only regret is that i did not have a snorkel or scuba to see more. what i saw with my naked eye was pretty cool though. i accidentally stepped on a flounder twice, and was tickled when it tried to swim out from under my foot, it was ok in case someone is passing this stuff onto peta. i also had some tropical fish swimming under my feet. after seeing this, we went to a china town, for more shopping of course, and i had something that i think he said was red snapper, but who knows what it really was.i know it was fish that had a very powerful looking jaw. afterwards, we got on the bus and headed back to amman, the capital. i met a lot of cool people and will try and stay in touch with them.

one more thing, i just got ripped off by a taxi driver. the meter said 1.5 dinars (2 dollars) and we got there and he said it was 10 dinars. i wanted to refuse, but he said that the taxis do not drive on meter at night and he zeroed it before we arrived. i really wanted to say no way am i paying that, but hecould have easily zoomed a distance away from my destination and maybe try to drive away with something in the car, so i paid him. it really does stink that the people who get rewarded monetarily are the dishonest ones while the people that are truthful and dont take advantage do not get materially rewarded for their good behavior, at least in the tourist industry here. also, never ever go anywhere in a foreign country without someone who speaks the native language with you at all times, because on the virtue of your americanism and high per capita gdp, you will be charged at least 4 times the normal price. for example the taxi ride if i had spoken arabic would be no more than 2 dinars. thanks for letting me vent. oh well, it would have been that much or more in new york, so whatever.

even so, today i swam in the red sea, where moses was thousands of years ago. i was also very near the place where jesus was baptized. it really is surreal being in a land where so much happened. it is interesting that one small patch of land is the religious center for 3 billion or more people worldwide.