Israel, Egypt and Jordan

ISRAEL

After leaving the Kibbutz, Dina and I made it, eventually, down to Eilat. We met up with Christine from the Kibbutz there and she showed us round the place.
We had been told that we could get work on the Marina, working on one of the boats. On our first day in Eilat after we had recovered from the journey, we went down to the marina and had no luck. After around a week of looking for work, I landed a job in one of the pubs in the centre of town. My first night was terrible, and I quit. That same evening, in the pub, I met a South African guy, who offered me a job on the boat that he worked on. The next morning at 8.00 I was on the marina and talking to the skipper and by 9.00 we were sailing!.
The boat was called the Zorba, and was probably the oldest (therefore run down) boat on the marina. There were bed bugs on the bed mattresses, and cockroaches everywhere. The skipper Heim,was a pain in the bum, you could tell what kind of mood he was in every morning when you could hear his footsteps coming down the boat.
But I loved it.
My job was easy, I was in charge of the bar, and handing out snorkel's. The cruise boat was a trip leaving Eilat, and traveling towards Jordan and then turning to head towards Egypt. The boat would stop at a island called Coral Island over the Egyptian boarder, where we would provide snorkel's and flippers to those who wanted to check out the underwater life. We also had a diving instructor on the boat to give people a chance to dive down.
Some wonderful characters worked on the boat with me. Especially wonderful Arlette, who was a great shoulder to cry on, ear to chew and a great laugh.
The social life on the marina is unbeatable. All boats finished at roughly the same time each day, and as soon as were were off the boats, its onto the boardwalk to catch up with friends from the other boats. Sometimes it would be into town to one of the bars, other times it would be off to Hemingway, the nightclub, or most of the time we would enjoy each others company so much and just stay on the marina and have our own private parties.

After a while, working on the boat, I needed to earn more money, so I started working in the evenings in Hemingway. I started out by just handing out fliers, then they asked me to work for them inside. I loved it. I was a drinks waitress there and made good tips on some nights, plus pay. As it was a club that lots of the Marina crew went to, the owners were happy with me, because most nights that I was working in the club, a load of my friends would come down to see me and end up staying all night. Good for business, good for me!. The guys that I worked for were wonderful to me, we could talk about anything, and I always had a good night when I worked there. They helped me out when I got sick and took me to the hospital, and I felt like I could really trust them.
But I was tired. Working from morning to afternoon on the boat and then afternoon to early morning in the club got to me. I quit the boat and moved back into the Red Sea Hostel with Dina, and just worked nights in Hemingway.



EGYPT

Mandy and I met up in Tel Aviv and stayed in a hostel there for one night. After the climate of Eilat, I was really shocked about how cold it was.

FROM MY DIARY:

06/01/00

We woke this morning and left the hostel. Paid for our bus tickets and met some other tourists, an English guy and two Americans. The bus journey was long and boring but it felt quite exciting as we were going over the sinai peninsular, over the Suez canal and over to Cairo. Entered Cairo and only then did it hit us both that we did not know were we were going to stay that night, or actually, anything about Egypt!. The bus stopped in the middle of Cairo, almost on an intersection and it was time to go and face Cairo at midnight!. We joined up with the other tourists that were on the bus, and luckily, one of them knew a hotel to stay in so we all followed him to this side street and up into an ok looking hotel. The guys went out for a drink, but Mandy and I stayed in the hotel to rest..plus we're not too sure about how women treated when their drinking, so we decided not to try out!. The next morning, we all ate breakfast and then we all went to the pyramids.
wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow wow. They were absolutely amazing. I was still getting over the shock of being in another country, that being Egypt of all places and to see the pyramids...Fantastic. Mandy and I went to see the sphinx, while the guys went to look at the boat museum. We sat for ages, totally spellbound and hardly saying anything to each other and just looked and relaxed. We met up with the guys and went up a pyramid!!!!!!!!!!. oh my god!.
It was pitch black and we had to climb up an almost vertical shaft the whole way up. As we got nearer and nearer to the top, the ceiling got lower and lower. Then it got really hot. Eventually, when we reached the top, we came to a very hot stuffy room. Empty. Huum not to sure what that's all about!.

Later on that day, we got into a taxi after booking Mandys bus ticket back to Tel Aviv as we got really lost. We asked the taxi driver to take us to our hotel, but he didn't seem to know where it was so he drove us down one street and gave up. He told us to find it ourselves and tried to charge us a ridiculous price.
Just as we started to get angry with him, a guy appeared out on nowhere and showed us where it was, and sorted out with the driver that we didn't have to pay anything. He introduced himself a a professor from the Egyptian museum, and told us that if we wanted to go there, he would show us around.
For some reason, it felt fine to trust this guy. It is stupid to go off with people, but some reason we felt we could trust him. He took us to a wonderful restaurant, where he introduced us to our first proper Egyptian meal. Koshary, a noodle, rice dish with different types of beans. Yum. As it was Ramadam, he was not able to eat and said that it was his pleasure to show us Egyptian food even though he couldn't eat with us. We were then taken.....As always happens.... To a Papyrus shop. Yep you guessed it. So, Mandy bought a wonderful painting and even though they tried and tried to sell me one, I hardly had enough money for myself never mind about souvenirs, so they gave me one for free!.

A few years later in Cappadocia, Turkey, myself and an Australian(?) guy were comparing Cairo notes with each other. He had been helped out of a sticky situation, taken for a meal, shown a better hotel than the one he was staying in and invited to the museum, by a guy who he described as the same guy that we met. Neither of us could remember his name, and he disappeared as fast as he arrived for both of us.

After Mandy left to go back to Cairo, I took a bus to Dahab, in Siani.

From my diary:

11/01/00

Been sitting at the bus station for ages waiting for the bus, and finally on it now. Only 3 other tourists on the bus and they are all pally and close, have spoken to them, but they are all friends from school who have arranged to have this trip. Together. i get the feeling that I'm not welcome, and cant really be bothered anyway.
There is just nothing here... in the desert I mean. nothing but sand for miles and miles and mile, and the road we are on. It's so weird.
Just been woken up and very ANGRY. the guy in front of me has tipped his chair right back and so now I have no leg room and his head is almost in my lap. WONDERFUL.
Mad journey. Have moved seats twice so far. Last place was with to guys leaning over me talking to each other. argh.
Journeys taking longer than I thought. It's nearly 10 and I though we would be there by 8.

12/01/00

Got into Dahab last night and walked down the main street. It's not how i expected it to be at all. There are pubs, bars cafes restaurants blah blah blah.
I was worried on the bus last night that it would be hard to find somewhere to stay at that time of night as I had heard that it was a quiet chilled out place. Obviously not.
Feel uncomfortable, as this was not what I was expecting at all.

In Dahab, away from the tourist side, I walked up Mount Sinai, from St. Catherines monastery. It was absolutely wonderful. It was damn cold but so, so worthwhile. I managed to reach the top before sunset and spent a few hours reading and looking at the amazing views up there. The sun started setting, but then I realised that to get back down I would need a torch! There were other people around, but I didn't want to have to walk at somebody else's speed, so just set off on my own. Luckily, by the time the sun had absolutely gone, I was closer to the monastery and then had the light of the moon to guide me the rest of the way.
I left Dahab the next day and took a bus up to Taba and then over the border into wonderful Eilat, back to the Marina and back to my wonderful family of friends.

JORDAN

Later on in the year, my parents came out to see me in Eilat. We took a day trip to Jordan - Petra from Eilat.
We traveled by bus, and after crossing the borders, the landscape changed and we were driving through desert. When we arrived in Petra, we were guided through the Wadi and arrived at the highlight of the trip the................ . It was stunning.