Today we spent travelling.  For the most part and it proved to be a long day even though we spent a good deal of it sitting down.

It wouldn’t have been so bad really or so it seemed on paper.  1 - 2 hours on the fast ferry from Nuweiba to Aqaba followed by about a 2 hour drive to Wadi Musa.  Easy right?

Getting the tickets for the fast ferry proved easy and we were at the Nuweiba Port the suggested 2 hours prior to departure.  Now the Port is a shambles.  You walk in the front with rudimentary security screening seemingly found all over Egypt.  Then, unless you’ve been here before and no the drill one wanders around the Port trying to work out where to go next.  We got three sets of directions and after wandering around and sticking our heads in various buildings we finally found where we were supposed to be.

Of course we’d wandered in on the wrong side since we came into the waiting area that you’re meant to sit in after you’ve been through immigration.  No one seemed to mind though.  We then passed through to the other side past the booths that at this stage were still not manned to fill out our immigration cards and get that all important stamp in ones passport.

After a bit of a wait and thumb twiddling a couple of guys showed up and we got said little stamp, no fan fair needed, before going back to the side of the shed we’d originally walked into.

Then the waiting began.  The time for the departure of our ‘Fast Ferry’ came and went.  A couple of cool drinks and a packet of chips latter and we were still there.  Next was the coffee.  That went too with no end of the waiting in sight.

Finally about 5:00 pm, we’d been in town since mid-day and at the Port since 1 pm since it was meant to leave at 3 pm, we were rounded up put on busses and taken to the ferry.

There we all lined up and they proceeded to check our passports before letting us on board the boat.  Now that did not take as long as I had thought it would to start with despite the load of people getting on. One guy in the mess at the Port had obviously done what we had at the immigration hall except he didn’t have a stamp in his passport.  That caused a bit of a fuss and he trudged away with one of the guards. Once on we dumped our bags in a pile with the others then lined up once more.  This time they checked the tickets.  Personally I thought they could have checked those at the same time that they checked our passports.

All up we were on our way Aqaba bound by about 5:30 pm.  Now once the ferry got going that part at least went to schedule, except of course the actual time that we finally hit Aqaba which was about 7 pm.

Now on the Ferry they had collected our passports and told us that they would be stamped and waiting for us at immigration in the Port of Aqaba.  How handy.  How hard could finding the immigration office be?  It would be the first thing we saw, wouldn’t it?

One wouldn’t think that you could even get close to gaining entry to a foreign country and wandering out onto the streets without a passport in hand.  Except that was what we nearly did.  The guards seemed in such a hurry to rush us all out of the building, presumably so they could pack up and go home for the night that it was only me balking at the final baggage security screening seeing the taxi touts on the other side. 

Finally one of the guards understood that most of us did not have a passport so waved us all back the other way.  It was kind of funny all of us wandering around trying to find the immigration office.  Finally an American couple found it down a small, dimly lit corridor with no signs.  It was just one open office door.  Finally we got our passports with the promised little stamp.

Some of us grouped together since we were all trying to get to Aqaba.  Figuring we could negotiate for a cab and compare prices.  We finally got one and by 7:30 pm we were on our way to Wadi Musa.

We finally walked into our hotel about 9:30 pm.  At least we got here even though it is a little later than we’d all thought.