about the border crossing from Aqaba, Jordan to Nuweiba, Egypt…

trip: Wadi Rum to Nuweiba, Egypt
how: Bus and Ferry
miles total:  5566
days: 1

Arriving in Aqaba, we went straight to the ferry where we had to follow numerous steps including exit fees, stamps, and visa regulations. Whew. One counter for this, then one man for this, then the other counter for this… it went on and on. After paying all necessary fees including our 70.00 dollar (!!) ferry ticket we waited for our ferry to depart. As we all lined up to get on the ferry we were called up by the police to board the ferry early. I suppose it is something they do for tourists, because there were about 7 tourists in line and we all got called to go on the ferry early. The ‘fast’ ferry to Nuweiba should be one hour, but after all the research we did on this ferry we didn’t find one person that said it took an hour. So, we were not disappointed when we boarded the ferry at 12pm, departed at 15:30 and arrived in Aqaba at 17:00. Oh Egypt… I already love you.

The Egyptian border madness is like nothing I have ever seen before. You can tell a lot about a country depending on the border control, or in Egypt’s case, the lack thereof. When we got off the boat we were told to go through a building and on the other side our luggage would be there. We went… picked up our luggage and then boarded a bus that would take us to immigration control where we could also buy our visas. We got off the bus and entered pure madness! Massive amounts of people trying to get all their belongings (which included big crates and boxes of who knows what!). We were told to go to a small room where we could get our visa. We got it without problem then needed to proceed through the ‘bag check’ control. Hah! What chaos again! As a tourist they don’t really care what you bring in and out of the country so we just sailed through without even a glimpse from the officials. We then met up with the other tourist and a couple Saudis who bartered with the taxi driver and got a decent price to head to Dahab! Finally… some relaxing beach time!!

This post may just seem like one confused person going through immigration and not actually knowing what’s going on. Well, my friends, this was I. When you go to Egypt, you too, will understand.

Cleopatra comin’at ya!

L

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