Nov 27, 2010
Egypt – Jordan
I need to get from Dahab, Egypt to Aquaba, Jordan. There are a few options:
1. Ferry crossing from Nuweiba, Egypt to Aquaba (there is a fast ferry and a slow one).
2. Land crossing which involves going through Isreal with maybe the chance of the immigration officer stamping your passport despite request not to hence preventing you from further travel ahead into Muslim countries.
3. Pay for a tour to Petra, Jordan and go via private boat from Taba, Egypt.
The first option (fast ferry) sounds like the most sensible and the most economical. However, both LP and numerous web entries warn you of insufferable delay, filthy ferry, rough sea conditions and more. When inquiring at the hostel, they seem to indicate at least unpredictability and delay. Given we tend to retell horror travel stories more, information pool could easily be skewed.
I thought I pass along my ferry crossing from Nuweiba to Aquaba in spirit of good travel karma.
The day went like this:
9:15am : head to bus station at Dahab. 11 EGP for the bus which maybe at either 10am or 10:30am.
10:40am : Bus arrives and we head to Nuweiba.
12:45pm : In ticket office at ferry terminal. Even though everyone tells you that the tickets must be pay for in US dollars (70), we were able to pay in Egyptian pound (460).
1:45pm : Stamped out of Egypt and in proper no man’s land and we wait in the terminal. The terminal is nothing to write home about. It is a ferry terminal in Egypt, it is exactly what you think it be like. I’ve been told to avoid the bathrooms from other travelers. Apparently it is one of the worst.
We wait for quiet a while. At first the ferry was going to be here at 3:30pm but at 4pm I was still sitting on the wooden bench. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 2:30pm and apparently sometimes it actually does. There doesn’t appear to be 2 fast ferry service per day even though LP and posted notice states otherwise. Eventually the ferry arrives and everyone tries to shove their way out of the door onto the bus that takes you to the dock.
In front of the ferry, you que in lines twice to have your passport and ticket checked. Once you get inside the ferry (which is actually very nice) you que again to hand over your passport for a Jordanian visa. You get a little piece of paper as claim ticket.
I lost track of time about here. The ride across is only about 1.5 hrs but you wait awhile in the ferry for them to get the car on. Then once you dock, you wait another while longer for them to take the car off first.
Security and reclaiming your passport is pretty simple once you are on the Jordanian side. You just follow everyone else and before you know it, you are outside with passport in hand, in a new country and a ton of taxi drivers competing for your business.
We then hired a taxi to drive us to Wadi Musa (70JD) as we wanted to see Petra in first light.
It was a 13 hour traveling day from the wait at the bus terminal in Dahab to arrival in Wadi Musa. We were blessed with excellent travel karma as we befriended a Jordian, Khaled, who looked out for us and guided us through.
I hope this is of help to all my fellow travelers!
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