No mans land - border crossing and budgets

The trip across the border to Jordan was surprisingly easy. They wouldn't let us take photos however, so we settled for pictures under the 'Welcome to Israel' sign (see right).

I was horrified when Mel suggested we make a run for it (to avoid border stamps)... so horrified in fact, that I (and the wind) threw most of our Jordanian money away and she spent the next 5 minutes running through the compound chasing after it. She attracted so much attention that the guards came over and ask what we were doing - we had been told to go straight from one counter to the next.

The Israelis, with huge guns casually slung over their shoulders, checked out passports several times, then there was a little walk through no mans' land. Straight, dusty and lined with tall barbed wire fences, the road seemed to stretch out to the Jordanian mountains. Once we were there, they checked out bags (and asked me what my soap was), before whisking our passports away. And that was when we got the dreaded border stamp. Oh well. At least the Israelis can go crazy stamping our passports now. We got into a white taxi and had to change into a yellow taxi (strange) and got dropped off at our hotel in Aqaba.

Mel had a little scare with the ATMs - they told us the transaction was successful, but didn't always spit out money, so of course we tried again... and again... the random amounts sometimes worked, but sometimes didn't. Then finally, we decided we should cut our losses.

We splurged on a hammam (Turkish bath where you are washed with special dark soap for ages, sit in a sauna, then get scrubbed like crazy so your skin falls off). It's actually a lot more fun and relaxing than it sounds and for the first time since arriving, I felt SO clean!

We only had 8JD left on us (16AUD), so we were on a mission for a cheap dinner. Which was actually quite easy. For 7JD we had a huge plate of mixed grill, cheese pastries, meatballs (kobe) and lots of advice on travelling to Petra. We went all out and left a 1JD tip.

Don't think Mel is going to trust my assessment of food again though... I told her that the roasted green thing was a capsicum (it tastes like one when you don't have a mouthful of seeds) and she burnt her mouth off and spat our her food like a heathen. I, on the other hand, thought the meat was really spicy... (well, with chilli it is!)