After enjoying Petra we headed south to the Red Sea, we decided to stay in a place outside of Aqaba the major city as we have had our fill of big cities this trip. We stayed at the Red Sea Dive Centre a small place up the hill a short distance from the sea. On our arrival we decided to extend our stay there for an extra night and do two days of diving instead of one. Unfortunately we had to skip Wadi Rum to do so but the diving was so incredible it made up for it. We did two dives each day, the water clarity was amazing, the coral life was thriving and beautiful and the varieties of colourful fish were endless. The first day we did a dive around an old army tank they sunk which was pretty cool and the second day we did a dive around a 28 year old wreck they sunk on purpose for divers which was also incredible. We got some great pictures with the new camera so instead of rambling I will just share a few with you.
Aside from the diving and snorkelling there we met a lovely family from South Africa that we spent our evenings with by the pool having a couple beverages and one night went for dinner with them to a restaraunt, Platters which had the best calamari and paella I think I have ever had. We really enjoyed there company and hope they will come visit us in Canada one day and we also look forward to visiting them in South Africa.
Our only negative experience in Jordan happened after our arrival at the Red Sea. We discovered we had a flat tire, after speaking with Avis they told me they would not come I just had to put the spare on. It wasn't a big deal until I discovered the spare was also flat. I called them back several times and they kept telling me they would come and fix it. Two days later after calling the head office and complaining and probably 10 phone calls they showed up. The two guys, one which was the manager of the Aqaba office were less than friendly and incredibly unprofessional. They took the one tire off and the spare and left to get them fixed. Leaving the car jacked up in a sand parking lot without putting blocks behind the rear wheels. The car fell and when they returned they accused me of pushing over. At this point we had quite the argument and I told them I wanted a new vehicle in the morning, they said come by and if they had one they would switch it out. So the next morning we headed into to town before heading to the Dead Sea, we arrived and they had 2 cars both in worse shape than the one we were already in, after at least an hour of complaining and arguing we took our car and left. We decided to take it up with the office we rented from at the airport. Not really looking forward to that. Anyway, back to our travels.....
We arrived yesterday afternoon at the Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort. We decided to splurge a little for our last night in Jordan and it has been fabulous. We arrived at check in and were told they were over booked so we were getting a free upgrade to a suite. Well the suite was amazing, a bedroom, a living room, two bathrooms and two fridges with complimentary water, juice and pop. Not to mention a fantastic patio with a view of the Dead Sea. Once we checked out the room we quickly put our swimsuits on and headed down to the beach. The mud here is very good for your skin and you lather it all over your body let it dry on and then scrub it off in the sea. We quickly covered ourselves and went for a float. I say "float" because the water is so salty that when floating on your back it feels like you are on a raft and when floating vertically you can't even get your head under water with out a lot of effort. Very cool place!!!! It is also the lowest point on earth, around 400 meters below sea level. After we had up fill of mud and floating we returned to the room for a bottle of wine before heading out for a nice steak dinner. After dinner we spent the evening in some bean bag chairs with a drink and some lemon mint sheesha.
Today we were up early as we wanted to take advantage of the mud and the sea before leaving to India. Lindsey covered herself twice and filled a water bottle with mud to bring home. We have had a fantastic time in Jordan and will be hopping into our lovely piece of junk car and heading to the airport very soon for our overnight flight to India.
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