约旦 以色列 5 - 瓦迪拉姆沙漠四驱游 阿喀巴 过境以色列

阿克巴 红海

以色列 90号高速 死海

05/04/15 wadi rum - aqaba - eilat - masada

due to the sand storm yesterday afternoon we were unable to get the 4x4 picuup tour done. so we rushed out early in the morning around 7am. the idea is to get the tour done about 10am, have a driver take us to aqaba, cross the border to eilat, and pick up the rental car for the drive to masada.

the 4x4 tour turned out to be absulotely wonderful. i wasn't assigning high marks on it to begin with because i was like we've been to other deserts before. as it turned out the landscape mixed with desert and rocky hills, the different shades of red on the sand under the rising sun and the differently shaped trees and shubs made this three hour drive very unique and enjoyable.

back to the camp our driver was already waiting for us. since we packed up everything before we left we just loaded ourselves in the car and off we went. i think it was just under an hour for us to arrive at the crossing point.

the crossing protocal was laid out clearly and easy to follow: 1. pay up the exit fee of 10jd pp and get a paper slip, 2. passport checked by jordian border contral, 3. walk towards eilat direction with the last check by jordian soilder, 4. walk about 150 meters to the israeli side, 5. intial check of passport by israeli border guards (in plain clothes with guns), 6. walk over to the room for luggage check, 7. out of the luggage check with a yellow slip, 8. visa window, 9. you are in israel!

everybody here seems to agree that aqaba eilat border crossing was an easy one. but, for us it was very slow because we were stuck behind a czeck tour group of about 30 people. and the x-ray machine seemed to be acting up as well. i guess that a couple with a kid just didn't look very suspicious, we were pretty much waved by all the way. after the official business, we needed to get some sheckles for our taxi ride to the city center. no atm machine around this place we were told. there is a money exchange window that gave us 353nis for our 100usd bill. not a good rate but we needed the money right there. they also would take credit for withdraw.

by the time we arrived at elan office we were more than two hours late. the paper work was handled efficiently. the person at the counter spoke good english. we did an upgrade from our orginal compact car to a four door impreza with gps for 20 bucks more with a total of 120usd (somehow the final charge came through at 142usd). that was a good deal because if we went with the originally booked compact it would've been 98usd plus an ipad for 20 bucks a day!

the car gps was run on a micro sd card. the first car didn't want to recoginze the sd card. the 2nd car did work with the sd card. but there was some set up problem that i couldn't figure out - the gps just refused to plan any routes on highway 90. next problem was that the gps didn't take masada as a destination. but it did take massada. if i followed the gps it would be a disaster! for massada as the gps knew it was the one near the sea of galilee!

it was smart on my part to get myself oriented with the routes we wanted to follow that i quickly realized the gps was full of nonsense. i just used it as a live map for the rest of the trip pretty much.

it was an easy drive to masada from eilat. just follow highway 90! by the time we reached the gate at masada national park it was 4:40pm. we were told the park was closed. our hotel was just right next door, hi-massada hostel. after playing with the little one at the pool we had dinner at the caferteria for 15usd pp. not fancy, but plenty to eat. after jordan i was trying hard to get some booze to chill my nerves, but this hostel wasn't offering any. there were a lot of youths there, seemed there was some kind of camp in pregress.

not bad for the first day in israel! we went to sleep early to prepare for out early morning hike to masada. the sun was to rise at 5:50am, that means we needed to get going at 4:50 the latest!