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Sitting on the fast boat from Aqaba to Nuweiba. In an hour we'll be in Egypt. From where Im sitting I can see Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Its mind blowing how many countries are packed into this tiny gulf. We had a little hiccup getting our papers sorted. A man called Ali met us at the port and was supposed to see us through immigration - we got our departure tax, passports stamped and got onto the boat, where Mustafa and Ali left us, only to find we needed to have our departure tax ticket stamped too. So back to immigration for the all important stamp to prove we paid for our departure tax?!?
Our Last day in Jordan morphed into our first day in Egypt. The Sawa beach camp at Nuweiba is great but I dont feel like Im in Egypt at all. Its hard to believe that earlier this afternoon we got off the boat only to have no idea where we needed to go or what to do.
We had our passports stamped and retained by the Egyptian immigration officer on the boat - not ideal to start with as I dont like surrendering my passport to anyone. We were told we could pick them up from immigration when we arrived in Egypt. Well we had no idea where immigration was when we got there and the other guys didnt have their visas yet so that had to be done too. We met an American girl on the boat who we passed on the tarmac at the port - she said we couldnt get our passports back until we bought our visas which we had to get from the bank, not immigration! Seeing as I already had my visa I couldnt understand why he didnt give mine back. Anyhoo I waited till the guys got theirs then we went to the passport office which the American girl showed us to as no Egyptian authorities or our tour guide were there to help us. My passport got handed back to me and the others were stamped so we went outside waiting for our guide who was nowhere to be seen. Clearly 5 wandering Aussies are clear to spot because some random guy came out and said our guide was coming. Some guy who didnt speak much English came over and apologised for being late and then walked off - we guessed he wanted us to follow him. We walked for a bit, all thoroughly pissed off by now, and then he tells us hes not our guide as we arrive at the gate. Then he doesnt have whatever papers he needed so he left us waiting at the gate with a soldier sporting an angry looking AK47 and some immigration officials who wanted to see our passports because we'd been left standing there too long!
Finally we are allowed to pass, met Mohamed, our guide, and made our way to our beach camp. More in that tomorrow. Welcome to Egypt! It seems so far from Jordan right now.
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Sally Not soooo much fun!