The hotel was very nice, with a pool area and tons of places to sit and relax. The staff was friendly, as were the three cats that lived on the grounds, which would meow and purr until you pet them. As a rule, I don't like cats- they're dicks- but a few good apples are slowly changing my opinion.
My room was posh, with AC and hot water shower. It also had satellite television, but I never switched it on. I rented flippers and a snorkel for five dinar, about $7. This seems a little steep, but I used them a lot over the next couple of days and I feel I definitely got my money's worth.
It was 11 am at that point, but I was bushed from getting up early and from the car ride down so I decided to snooze. After some lunch, I went for my first swim in the Red Sea. The beach was sparsely populated by tourists and Jordanian beach bums. I wrapped my sandals up in my towel and went for a dip. The water was a wonderful temperature, not as pee-warm as I thought it would be baking in the desert sun all morning.
I have snorkeled before in Thailand, but it was just after the tsunami so the coral was in rough shape and I didn't see so many fish. That said, I loved it and I enjoyed every second I spent under water. I spent a week on that island (Koh Lanta) and it was so late in the tourist season at that point that I hardly spoke to another individual the entire time. I ran every day up and down the beach, read, caught rays, meditated, swam and napped. By the end of the week I was ready to go, but I felt better than I ever had with a clarity of mind I had rarely enjoyed. So I have fond memories of snorkeling on an empty beach and really looked forward to it.
On my way down to the beach I saw a new hotel being built in front of mine. It was nearing completion and they had already installed a fish tank in the lobby which I could see contained one lone fish. To me, this was a malicious and cruel joke to be pulled on the poor fish. Sure, he doesn't know any better and probably has no clue that he is looking at Fish Eden right in front of him. But it isn't right. To me, this is like giving a mentally challenged person the wrong change at the ice cream stand. Sure, he doesn't know the difference, but that's not the point. You do. I thought about some elaborate aquatic prison break, but lucky for the hotel I have too much respect for the law.
I jumped in the water and after about 20 yards I could start to sea coral and fish. Immediately it blew away that beach in Thailand. There were so many hot and bright colors it was like swimming around in a pool of early 90s t-shirts. Countless florescent pinks, greens, purples, oranges, blues and yellows. I swam out further and further and the reef suddenly dropped off about 20 feet revealing an entire wall of coral and fish that put butterflies in my stomach. It was the combination of the coral and fish, along with the suddenly very deep water that could house any number of beasts and serpents. Luckily, I saw no such thing and my safety was never in jeopardy that I knew of.
It takes a little bit to get acclimated to the snorkel, as breathing out of a tube is not natural. The key is to take frequent breaks while swimming so you don't get short of breath and require too much air. The other trick is learning how to clear your snorkel of water without lifting your head from the water. This part is a little tricky since you must remain calm enough to breath in a little bit of water when a wave crests over the top of your snorkel. Its doesn't happen when the sea is calm, unless you go too deep. But being comfortable with this prevents the interruption of having to surface. Once you can do these two things, its highly enjoyable.
Swimming around for 40 minutes in the cool water is tiring. When your core temperature starts to dip and you get weak and a little dizzy, its the safe time to get out. So I came out and went back to the hotel to eat and take a nap. I brought my laptop and tried to catch up on my correspondence as best I could. I don't need many luxuries in life, but wireless internet is one of them. I write a lot for this website and another more professional one, so its essential for me to have access. And obviously it helps me keep in touch with my people, wherever they may be.
Back at the hotel, I noticed the two dozens or so retirees that were there when I checked in were unfortunately still there, and they had invaded the pool space. I don't have a problem with the elderly per se, and actually I am one of the few people that are genuinely interested in hearing them talk about what it was like “in their day”. Retirees can be as fun as anybody and often have some interesting stories to tell.
That said, it was unpleasant. With all of them sitting around the pool in their bathing suits, it felt like some sort of convalescence community and I had visions of my future trapped in a retirement village (nursing home) with a bunch of old bags and men whose testicles ulow and swing like the pendulum inside a grandfather clock. Someday, those will be my balls, but right now I am young and vital. I still have a lot of life to live and I didn't need the AARP-set cramping my style. Because no one likes being reminded of one's own mortality while on holiday.
The night was uneventful. I had some hummus and a fruit smoothie for dinner, killed the book I was reading by the pool (luckily, it was past 7:30, so the retirees were already fast asleep) and went to bed around midnight. The next day I went snorkeling at 11:30, 3:oo, and one last time at 5:30. I was enjoying myself immensely and wanted to get the most out of my time there, which I feel like I did. When I came back to the hotel after my first dip that morning and I was having lunch, I saw the elderlies departing all together and a slow trickle of backpackers was arriving. The atmosphere of the hotel was changing, and that night the place had a totally different vibe to it.
At dinner, I spoke to an older English couple who had recently finished working and decided to sell their house, buy a Land Rover, and drive it from England to South Africa (see, I told you old people had cool stories). Take a look at a map, its far. They didn't know how long it would take or what they would do once they got there, because they were all about the journey. They said they would either turn back to England, go on to Australia, or just live in South Africa. What a great adventure, I thought... and to be able to share it with your wife. I wish the same for myself.
In the book I had just finished (The Man Who was Thursday: a Nightmare, GK Chesterton, Penguin, 1908) the author wrote that "four is twice two, but two is not twice one...it is a thousand times one". I liked that.
So I really enjoyed my couple of nights in Aqaba. One thing I forgot to mention about the hotel was that you could see Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia all from the beach. I don't often think of those countries as being neighbors, but there they are.
Right now, I am on a two-story bus (with a stewardess!) cruising back up to Jordan to meet a colleague that lives in Palestine. Unless something writable happens, this will be my last post about Jordan. As I wrote to a friend, Jordan doesn't have a large number of attractions, but what it does have is absolutely amazing, and I am so happy to have spent a week here.
*I didn't take this photo because my camera isn't water proof. I got it from Flickr.
No comments:
Post a Comment