Aqaba or Aqua bar, the choice is yours…

We woke early to find the Coral Princess already halfway up the Aqaba Gulf.  Under the cover of darkness, we glided along. The moon was still high enough to create a golden trail toward the ship.  Up ahead were the twinkling lights of the three countries that bordered the end of the gulf. Egypt, Israel, and Jordan

Egypt, Israel and Jordan in the distance

Slowly the sun poked its head over the mountain that towers over Aqaba. Surrounded by rocky mountains, Aqaba seems so dry and arid, and yet there are man made pockets of greenery giving an oasis feel of luxury.

You couldn’t help but giggle at the constant announcements of arriving in the “Aqua” bar….  which is correctly pronounced “aka bar”

Since covid, Aqaba now has a cruise terminal…. Goodness me,  give them a terminal and now they want to do face-to-face immigration…. Its only purpose (well to us ) is to slow things down.  Benefits…. All scanning is done in the cool of the terminal.

We are now well practice in collecting tickets to be able to walk off the ship.  Just like tendering grab a ticket and wait to be called, minus any Elite priority.

This morning was simple, our tour started later than many others, which meant that by the time we were ready to disembark the wait was not long.  What also helped was that the majority of guests were on princess tours

Our tour was to spend the day at the Berenice Beach resort with a glass bottom boat trip, lunch, and use of the resort facilities for the day.

As per my previous post, we had to move as a group of 25, head into Aqaba to meet Eman and the shuttles to get us to the resort. Being a working port, it was our only option left.

Waiting for our ride where the shuttle drops you off from the ship.

Taxi drivers rushing the bus to tout for business

Berenice Resort is about 15 min along the highway back toward Saudi Arabia.  A little run down but it served our purpose well. On arrival, we paid our admission fee of 33JOD pp, which included our glass bottom boat ride, lunch, and use of the Resort up until 9 pm that night.

We were ushered straight down to the beach where our boat was waiting for us at the end of the pier.  The water looked inviting and the reef was not that far from the beach if you wanted to snorkel from the shore.

The boat was just big enough for all 25 of us.  For the first hour, the Captain maneuvered the boat over the Coral reef. 

The Jordanians being enterprising souls have sunk a yacht, plane, and army tank onto the sea bed to create an environment for the coral to grow….  Hard to capture in a moving boat, but still pretty amazing to see.

Submerged Tank

Then it was time to snorkel…. The waters looked choppy and the current seemed to swing our anchored boat around everywhere.  Not the strongest of swimmers I was really worried about being blown out to sea, never to be seen again….  I bit the bullet and decided to jump in, but never letting go of the tethered rope or Life-saving ring.   I still got to see a few fish… I was happy….  After a short time, I was back safely on the boat…..  

Garry making his signature entry into the water

As smooth as the water looks, the current was strong

When the captain returned after taking one of the other ladies for a tour of the reef…. He motioned that it was now my turn…. Apprehensive, I said no…. then oh “Just do it” … on with the flippers and back into the water…  For the next half hour, hanging onto the ring for dear life, our captain dragged me over the most amazing reefs, not great colour, but the formations were amazing and the little and big fish were just gorgeous.  He dragged me into every little nook and cranny along the reef….  I  tired but loved every minute of it… by the end, it was with welcome relief, that when I popped my head out of the water I could see our small boat just ahead…

A very happy but tired Jo being towed back to the ship.....

Arriving back at the wharf we walked back up to the resort for a delicious middle eastern lunch, of salads, dips and char-grilled meat. 

Stairs to Lunch

Lunch

 Topping it off was an amazing Jordanian version of bread and butter pudding, laced with cinnamon, sultanas, walnuts, and other culinary delights.

We spend the rest of the afternoon in and out of the pool.  Apart from all the angst, it was a very enjoyable relaxing day.

On our return to Aqaba town, we made a beeline for our favorite Kanefah store.  Two dinars or was it dollars? Can’t remember, but it got us a delicious slice of Kanefah.  Melted cheese base topped with a crumb, sprinkled with nuts, and doust with honey syrup….  Just yum..

Walking the streets just proved too hot and after a rather large juice, we ventured back to find the bottle shop. 

Shop no 1…. Big mistake by them,  would not take US$$ nor foreign credit cards, so we turned on our heel and walked straight back out, income lost....  Finding a more obliging bottollo, we manage to procure some prosecco and beer…. Along with everyone else in there from the ship….. 

Another great day!

The Saga on Aqaba Eve…..

I had arranged for a group of 25 to go to a resort in Aqaba, for something so simple, the logistics were a nightmare.  It all had to do with being able to get a shuttle on the pier as a private transfer to and from the ship… 

It all started when they wanted me to pay the 250JOD ($540) upfront for the shuttle.  This had to do with obtaining a permit to enter the secure port area.  Happy to pay, “just let me give you the credit card details”….. nup, sorry have to do a bank transfer…. Hmm, didn’t want to do that, and no matter how much I tried they would not comply… Not wanting to let everyone down, I decided to comply…..  Working out I could do it through St George online, the next hiccup was, no Jordanian Dinars in the drop-down currency box…..  I was ready to pull the pin on the whole trip by now….. ok you can pay in US currency, back to St George I go.  All went through without a hitch at my end, so now it was a matter of time to receive confirmation that they received the payment.

Two weeks had passed without a word, so I decided to chase it up.  According to the finance department, they had not received anything…. Bugger…. I kept telling them “Check with your bank” They kept telling me “check with your bank”…. Hey, I had a receipt saying it was done…  guaranteeing to Sinbad ( the company), that I would cancel before paying them another $, the saga went on.

After much too-ing and fro-ing, I decided to go back to St George which was now going to cost me $25 to follow up…… let's face it, I am down over $500

Well just like the immaculate conception, the money suddenly appeared in their account and dated 2 days after I sent it.  They made some noise about it appearing in AUD, but…. My paperwork definitely said USD

So now out of pocket $25 but I knew the money was there….

Finally thinking all the ducks were in a row, I relaxed and started to look forward to our adventure…. Or so I thought….

Less than 24 hours before arriving in Aqaba, I get a text (thank god for Whats app and Medallion net)… “They need a manifest”, ok not sure of the request….I sent them a list of participants….

Them: ” No we need a manifest with a travel agent stamp”

Me: “What I don’t have one, we are just a group of friends traveling together”

To cut a long story short, basically, they needed to prove to the port authority that we were all on the ship to enable them entry into the secure port area”

Several hours were spent running and down from the ship's printer, to guest services and the cabin to try and produce a document that would be accepted. As every updated document was rejected my patience was running thin.  This should have been addressed months ago… not now.

In the back of my mind, I knew that the only good outcome would be if we provided passport information.  So when the message came through “What would really help is to have a copy of everyone's passport”, I just rolled my eyes

No, not going to happen, it is now 5pm, everyone is scattered around the ship and nobody is going to give me such sensitive information to email to a random company, that has obviously never dealt with ships before…

The final outcome was they would pick us up from the shuttle stop in Aqaba town….

So what about the money I paid them to come on to the port…. Well, that also took a bit of debating and I finally got them to agree to a refund…  Transfer is a free service that they offer guests in and out of town…. Except…. They will pick us up at 9am and the first shuttle back at 6pm….  I knew that was not going to run with some of my guests, so I ensured I got my refund in cash so I was able to distribute this amongst everyone to give them taxi fare home….

Look it was a great day, and would do it again in a heartbeat, knowing what I know now, I would organize it a lot differently.

 

Day 2 Al Ain – Garden City of the UAE

Having been to Dubai several times we were on the lookout for a different sort of tour.  Research had uncovered a day trip to Al Ain where we could visit the Zoo and see the white lion, drive to the peak of Jebel Hafeet Mountain, hot water springs, Al Ain fort, and the Archaeological park just to name a few.

We started off every excited about our day!

Saif our driver/ guide admitted to us that this was his first time taking a tour to Al Ain…  Little did we know that he was thrown into the deep end and really didn’t have a clue. 

It was quite a long drive out to Al Ain as it is situated near the Omani border and it is actually in the Emirate of Abu Dabi.  It is such a contrast and the first thing you notice is how green it is compared to Dubai, no wonder it is called the Garden City.  The weather was starting to warm up for a day that promised to be up in the high 40s.

Our first stop was the Al Ain Zoo.  Seems like everyone else knew what we didn’t …. Don’t visit a zoo in the heat of the day…..  just like the pub with no beer, we visited the Zoo with no animals…  well that is what it felt like…

It was pretty hot outside, and unlike us, the animals decided that they were staying indoors, so it was like scoring a bingo every time we managed to spot an animal that was not hiding from the scorching sun.  The zoo is set up much like Dubbo Zoo but on a smaller scale.  This meant we paid extra for an oversize golf cart to take us to each zone.

this young fellow was so still, I wondered if he was real

This one wasn't going to turn around for us

Oh so cute

With the lack  of real animals we had to settle for this type

Hyenas came out to say hi.....

Well they are life form of some sort

This fellow was sound asleep, but he must of smelt us, so he popped his head up

No apes in this enclosure so Pete made up for it.....

When this fellow spotted us at the glass window he came out to say hi

He must have been after some company and he troddled over and sat by the glass.

The highlight of our visit was the bird sanctuary, the birds were nice, but it was the air-conditioning that impressed us most.   

Though after being to Antarctica earlier this and seeing so many beautiful penguins in the wild, it broke my heart to see these penguins behind glass and not a speck of snow be found anywhere…  They certainly didn’t look in the best of condition.  Little did we know that this would be the highlight of our whole visit.

This little fellow broke my heart as he stood by the glass

No snow anywhere to be seen

this little fellow frolicked in the water to grab our attention

Once we left the zoo we headed to the top of Jebel Hafeet Mountain. Having to make an unexpected stop halfway up to allow the cars engine to cool down, as our driver was a little concerned about the warning signs flashing on the dashboard. The views from the pit stop and the top of the mountain were hazy across the arid landscape.

This is where our trip started to go a little awry, Saif asked where we would like to go next.  Knowing we couldn’t go to the Museum (closed), we perused the list, assuming that we would visit everything, we suggest the Ain National Heritage, which we assumed was a cultural display.  Saif looked at us strangely, we pointed to the list, and his look became even stranger…. So we googled trying to find where it was, (hang on who is the guide here?).  Saif continued to tell us that this was his first tour here, we suggest he ring his boss and find exactly what our program should be, you could see the look on his face “Nup, not going to do that”. Continuing to humor us we drove to where we thought the Heritage Centre may be… ended up at a race track… hmm… now it is also getting later and we still had a 2hour drive back to the ship.

Thinking we needed something for lunch, Saif’s first suggestion was a service station, nup that one was closed, kept asking us for suggestions and our only reply could be…. “but we don’t live here, you should know, ring your boss”  In a tiny back lane we stopped at Al Ains equivalent to Burger King …. Only big enough to accommodate the table of 8 that we sat at.  A long wait but it was tasty and the fresh juices were excellent.  You really know you are off the beaten track when lunch costs you only $13.

After more debate on where to go next, we gave up and decided, let's go to the fort before heading back.  Knowing that he had probably done his dash with any form of tip, we approached the fort and passed it just as fast.  In unison, there was this collective “hey”…….  We wanted to at least stop for a photo….  His customer service skills were waning and he pulled over and suggest we walk back instead of him chucking a U-turn…. Really! In 49 deg heat….

Finally, we were back on the freeway heading back to our home away from home…

One little tidbit….. speeds on the motorways are 120 km but they can travel up to 140km….. 141 and you get fined….. 

UPDATE:  Sharon managed to secure a 50% refund for our day! (One of the benefits of booking through Viator)