A not so glamorous couple of days
We arrived in Aqaba and were super excited for some rest and relaxation! Aqaba is a beach town on the Red Sea and Jordan has been working to build up it's tourism. People typically come for scuba diving and snorkeling. We weren't sure if we would pay extra to snorkel but figured it would be nice to hang out on the beach for a few days.
Our hotel was just a 10 minute drive south of the city, across from a public beach. What we didn't know, was that most people come here and stay in the fancy resorts and hotels. The public beaches aren't well taken care of at all. I feel bad calling them out like this, but there was trash everywhere and bones from people grilling on the beach. It's probably one of the worst beaches I've ever been to. The weather would have been perfect if the wind wasn't so strong. It was pretty hard to enjoy with it constantly blowing all day long. I also felt uncomfortable in a bathing suit when all of the locals were fully clothed. Even the women have special swimwear that covers their entire body and head. We found a more vacant part of the beach to hang out on so it was less awkward and we got some use out of our hammock.
Our hotel was okay... It was pretty weathered compared to the pictures advertised online, but had a nice outdoor area where we could use the wifi and hang out. I even made friends with one of the local cats. :) Our breakfast was included every morning and there was a pool if we wanted to swim (but it was freezing). Our room was a good size and had a tv. The problems came with the bathroom. Remember our post on the poo room? That was this place. The toilet and sink constantly leaked. The shower had the worst water pressure I've ever experienced and we had to get creative with how we showered every day. I'll spare you the details. Probably the most annoying thing, was the wind. Because we were perched up on a hill, the wind was constantly blowing and causing our door to rattle and bang. We used our bungee cord to keep the door from rattling.
We got a lot done these few days and mostly worked on the blog and our future travel plans. Our hotel's wifi was pretty slow, so we ventured out to try and find other places with wifi. This proved to be harder than we thought it would be. The town is mostly locals and the tourists just stay at their hotels. We found a strip of cafe's on the water but none of them had wifi. We ventured to a mall on the outskirts of town that bragged about a great cafe with a view of the city. When we arrived at the mall, it was completely dead and the cafe was nowhere to be found. We hit a new low and had to go to an American Restaurant (Wings and Rings) and a McDonald's for wifi! We felt a little guilty but at least we made friends with our server, Ahmad, at the American restaurant and he taught us some things about Jordan and the Muslim culture. He even helped us with our Arabic.
After dinner we would walk around town. We visited the same coffee stand and ice cream shop two nights in a row. They always gave us free water and sweets and liked hearing about our travels throughout Jordan.
