Archive for Middle East

Aqaba & Petra

Photo: Aqaba & Petra

// October 30th, 1996 // Comments Off // Jordan, Passage To Africa

The Gulf of Aqaba leading up to Jordan’s only port, is a fairly narrow waterway with desert cliffs on both sides. At one point in the Gulf you can see four countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The town of Aqaba appears to be a modern, prosperous sleepy place sharing the end of the Gulf of Aqaba with the glitzy, party haven of Elait, Israel. Leaving Aqaba behind on our way to Petra it doesn’t take long to get to the middle of nowhere. Vast expanses of desert with mountains and not much else. Occasional small dwellings and little to no vegitation. A place only for the hardy. (more…)

Israel

Photo: Israel

// October 26th, 1996 // Comments Off // Israel, Passage To Africa

After a wonderful day and 2 nights sailing on the Marco Polo, and falling completely in love with the ship and the people who run her, we reach Ashdod, Israel. A fairly non-descript container port for the most part. I did find it fairly interesting thought that Israeli Security checked everyone and their passport personally and instead of stamping our passport, stamped a piece of paper we had to keep with our passport until they took it back from us at the end of the day. The reason: if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport there’s a whole list of countries you can’t enter – including Egypt and Jordan. I was wondering how they were going to get around that! (more…)