Aqaba

Aqaba is a port city, bordering Israel and Egypt. We got a slow start there with the hotel, but finished at the top of the list. We decided to go with an off hotel called the Tulip Hotel, which was supposed to be near the beach (and I'm sure it was depending on your definition of "near") however we both decided that we have no hot water and cockroaches in Iraq, so we decided to pick another hotel that night. We had to argue with the people to let us leave though because they tried to charge us $50 for taking a cold shower, but their credit card machine wouldn't work and we refused to go to the ATM. We won in the end because they got too frustrated. We moved to the Movenpick that night - which was awesome and the next day made our way down to the beach. We found a guy with a boat and he took us out to the "Japanese Gardens" dive area at South Beach where we met his "cousin" who had a big dive boat. Kallee had finished her dive certification in the pool in Spokane, but had never been on an official dive and she did great. She managed to take some awesome pictures in the mean time. We finished our day off by hanging out in the pub watching the Spain vs Germany football match. It was great fun!

The Dead Sea Highway to Aqaba

We left Jeresh and headed down the Dead Sea Highway to Aqaba. I lost track of the time, but we didn't get there until around 8pm. The Dead Sea was amazing to look at, but after that it was worse than the road between North Platte, Nebr and Denver, Co. Except it was orange desert and camels instead of brown brush and cows. The funniest sign I've ever seen in my life was posted near the Dead Sea - "Warning, Extremely Salty Water"!! We passed the Dead Sea at this point so that we could make it our last stop on the trip.

Jeresh, Jordan

From Dubai on to Amman, Jordan where we picked up a car and drove straight north about 1-1 1/2 hours to Jeresh. It is home of the one of the best examples in the Middle East of a Roman provincial city, and is remarkably well preserved. It dates from the time of Alexander the Great (333 BC).

Dubai,UAE

R&R

I know I have been horrible at keeping up the blog. I have been so swamped at work and then I got some r&r and have been digging out since I got back a little over a week ago. We had a change in leadership here in June - the guy I was working for as left and a new person has come in and I have been swamped. I did manage to get away from the 28th of June through 6 July. I went with my friend Kallee from here to Dubai, UAE for 3 days and then on to Jordan for a week and a day trip to Israel. It was an amazing vacation. I will post some pictures over the next few days. Here is our first stop Dubai. I think it is the most under construction city in the world. There are cranes everywhere and unfinished buildings all over the place. They are building the tallest building in the world and it is also the place where they have the indoor ski slope at a mall. Dubai is a Muslim country, that has become very westernized. They have alot of British and having lived in London for so long, it was nice to see some of my favorite stores like Marks and Spencers and Monsoon. I did some shopping there and we went on a hop on hop off bus. I also got my hair cut, so there is a picture of the stylist. It was only like $40 and I thought he did an ok job. There is still a bit of the old city that remains with the gold and spice souks and the boats that carry the exports to other countries thought the Gulf of Arabia.