Day 85. Tuesday October 26th. Egypt/Israel/Jordan and Bureaucracy.

It takes us three hours to leave Egypt, enter and then leave Israel, and then enter Jordan. And it costs us. Don’t know the total (there are also taxis across the no-man lands) but the departure tax out of Israel (we were there less than one hour) is about US$30 each. It’s also a quick summary of each country’s ability to process people through the tedium of all of this. Just before we walk through the large Egyptian plate glass exit door it falls off its hinges and crashes to the floor and breaks into thousands of pieces of glass. Entering Israel is a slow shuffle past lots of serious people with guns but lots of efficiency. Then a quick taxi ride across no-mans’ land to the Israeli exit and into Jordan. We ask the Israelis to stamp an entry slip rather than our US passports since and Israeli stamp in our passports will mean that we will probably be refused entry into many Arab countries, such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran-all of which we hope to visit soon but on another trip. Entry into Jordan is tedious and we look like we are doing a Monty Python leg slapping dance since we have about 50 flies bothering each of us as we wait in the sun. The Aqaba Movenpick Hotel is 5-star and welcome to us and so we unwind using the hotel’s beach and facilities.