January 2024 in Review, Part II

Aqaba Beach: No complaints*

No one is going to confuse the public city beach in Aqaba with Mauritius or St Barts, but it's 26°C today with the water at a still swimmable 23.3°C (or 79°F and 74°F for those of you still living under the backwards tyranny of imperialism), so you won't hear any complaints* from us....

*Just to be clear, there will be complaints - likely many of them - but you won't hear them, because what's the point of having a travel blog if you can't present an wholly inaccurate, idealised version of the world to people?

Prepared with Love

Not sure of the veracity of the claim made on this wrapper (at best, the gentleman in the back alley hole-in-the-wall who prepared it was giving off a vibe of curious aloofness), but it definitely made the already delicious falafel contained within all the more enjoyable to eat. Well done curiously aloof back alley falafel maker, well done....

On This Day in 2020: Sufi Cemetery Rave

FYI, next time you're in Omdurman, Sudan on a Friday evening, attending the weekly Sufi cemetery rave is a must - especially if it's a full moon. Our phone camera and mic obviously couldn't handle the palpable ecstasy of the scene, but should at least give a small taste of the craziness.....

The Case Against Winter

Today, we present Exhibit #240119 in the case against ever suffering through the winter in the northern hemisphere if you can possibly help it, ie today's weather forecasts for Ljubljana, Slovenia (ie ‘home’¹) and Aqaba, Jordan (ie ‘home’²).

Hope everyone in Central Europe is enjoying all of that very pretty snow though!

¹ in the sense of where one pays taxes

² in the sense of where one is presently staying

Perfect Postcards Don't Exi…

Now these are our kind of postcards. Unfortunately, the shop they're situated outside of was closed yesterday....

Sunset Pigeon Fights

Tonight's brilliant sunset over the Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula was just as magical as you would imagine it to be, BUT... watching the pigeons fight for supremacy of the ledges on the neighbouring building was absolutely f*cking mesmerising. Seriously.

Who needs National Geographic and its fancy animals and professional cinematography and famous actors doing the narration, when you've got live action pigeon duels right in front of you on the rooftop of a dive hotel in Aqaba?

The only thing missing was a local bookie to take our dinars. One of these pigeons was like a young Mike Tyson - charging, pecking, flapping his wings and destroying all challengers within seconds. Which is kind of fitting, because the real Mike Tyson is a noted pigeon aficionado....

Biblical Mountains

The mountains that surround Aqaba are spectacular - one might even say ‘Biblical’, if they were inclined to use such clichés - even (or especially?) when viewed from empty streets and empty lots whilst out on a lazy Sunday walkabout.

A little day moon up in the sky never hurts either....

Empyrean Delights

A rooftop sunset shot was posted a couple of days ago, but since that was mainly just an excuse to talk about how mesmerising pigeon fights are, and tonight's empyrean display was significantly more impressive - not as impressive as top flight pigeon fights, obviously, but impressive in its own way - here's another one....

Forgotten Pleasures of the City

Forgotten pleasures of the city: Being able to purchase an excessive amount of fruit and veg at the local markets again.

Added bonus: Finding that persimmons are still in season (or at least they are somewhere in Turkey, which is where these were imported from).

On This Day in 2022 (in Riohacha, Colombia)

"So the main city beach really gets packed here on the weekends. Can't wait for Monday, when all the city folk head back to Bogotá, Medellín and Barranquilla and we've got the place to ourselves again....

But full disclosure for anyone contemplating visiting: It's totally empty 5 days a week, and still almost entirely empty at the weekends, the weather is a brutally perfect 33° with sun and scattered clouds every single day, and you're gonna have to pay a pretty penny to stay - super nice Airbnbs 100m from the beach will set you back €11 a night or €200 for a full month.

Also, hold onto your hat, because eating is gonna be a wallet busting €0.33 minimum for street food or €2 and up for meals in restaurants.

So unless you've got Elon Musk money or won some major dinero in the crypto Ponzi scheme, you should probably give this place wide berth, and maybe just stick with Cancún...."

Steamboat Willie is Trash

When a late night walk along the beach reminds you that a certain multinational corporate rodent technically* lost its copyright and finally joined the public domain a few weeks ago, after decades of legal shenanigans and statutory exceptions were made to extend it....

*‘Technically’, because apparently it only applies to the rat bastard's grandpa, Steamboat Willie (pictured here, legally!), and none of the later derivations. Kind of like how big pharma companies change one inconsequential molecule in order to get their patents extended and keep profiting from the insatiable demand that most of us plebs have for not dying.

Lord Outlet

There's both nothing and a lot going on here at the same time. It's almost like an art installation. Definitely raises more questions than it provides answers. Can't wait to see what (if anything) is going to open in this space....

NB: The building reflected in the window is ironically part of a mosque.

Untimely Breakdown

When you're in a huge hurry to go see Prince(ss) Charming and your golden carriage has an untimely breakdown. Could have happened in a worse place than a stone's throw from the Red Sea, but you are now slightly concerned about getting home before midnight....

Goat Party

When you're out for a late morning walkabout and happen across an urban goat gathering, which you know must be a special occasion, because even the locals are excited enough to take photos....

On This Day Last Year (in Majhikuna, Nepal)

“If you've never tried panipuri, you're really missing out. They're hard to describe, so we're just gonna be lazy and plagiarise Wikipedia:

"Panipuri consists of a round hollow puri (a deep-fried crisp flatbread), filled with a mixture of flavoured water (known as imli pani), tamarind chutney, chilli powder, chaat masala, potato mash, onion, or chickpeas."

Literally Awesome Clouds

The clouds today were awesome - in the literal sense of the word, ie eliciting a feeling of awe. No further commentary needed....

A Tale of Two Sidewalks

A Tale of Two Sidewalks: It was the best of mobility, it was the worst of mobility, it was the age of wise urban planning, it was the age of foolish urban planning....

And since this page is a huge fan of run on sentences, here's the full opening line of that Dickens classic:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

NB: Photos taken yesterday evening, approximately 50 metres apart

The Photogenicity of Nuts

When it comes to the photogenicity of roasted nut shop façades in Aqaba - and there are no shortage of roasted nut shops here - this one surely must rank in the top few percentile. Although yesterday's twilight storm clouds obviously didn't hurt the overall aesthetics.

What's more, when it comes to the use of the word ‘photogenicity’ in posts on this page, this one already ranks in the 100th percentile. So excellence all around it seems....

Why isn't the Red Sea red?

How did the Red Sea get its name?

tl;dr It's a mystery. Lots of theories, no conclusive answers. But it sure is pretty!

More details and some of those theories, courtesy of the Smithsonian:

"The first people known to explore the Red Sea were the Ancient Egyptians, who explored the area c. 2500 BC while looking for commercial routes southward. So how did the Red Sea get its name? Theories abound, but no one knows for sure.

It could be from the red-hued "sea sawdust," a type of bacteria that grows near the water's surface. Some historians believe the Red Sea is named for the Himyarites, a group who once lived along it's shores. Others believe that the "red" in Red Sea is actually a designator of the Sea's location relative to the ancient Mediterranean world - to the South. In ancient languages, the colors black, red, green, and white referred to North, South, East, and West, respectively.

Wherever the name comes from, visitors to the Red Sea today can take advantage of fantastic snorkeling - more than 1200 species of fish have been found in the coral reef ecosystem of the Red Sea; more than 100 of these have not been located in any other body of water."

Bavaria Flavoured Malt Drink

When you haven't drunk alcohol in almost 3 months, but are planning to stay up all night to watch American football [or, more accurately, Yankee handegg, but that's another post], so think about getting some non-alcoholic malt beverages for the occasion, only to find that they cost almost $5 a can, which is bizarrely* even more expensive than real beer in the liquor stores that are all over the city....

NB: Aqaba is a duty free zone, so alcohol is not only much cheaper here than anywhere else in the country, it's also much more prevalent, with alcohol shops literally lining some of the streets in the tourist areas of the city centre.

*Turns out it was too bizarre to be true, as a last-minute Google translator fact check revealed that the price seen in the photo here was actually for a pack of that famous Happy Cow cheese, but this post was already sketched out prior to that, and it'd be a shame to let such an informative, layered and culturally-rich 111 words go to waste just because the underlying premise is entirely false, right?

On This Day Last Year (in Rupakot, Nepal)

"You might recognise this view from a few weeks back. It took longer than intended to make a return visit up to this absolute gem of a restaurant, so we had to make the most of it, and kept ordering dishes (and glasses of raksi) for the better part of three hours.

An excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and well worth the two-hour hike to get there. Still coming soon: video from the world's greatest toilet...."

NB: Unbeknownst at the time, this would become an almost weekly trip over the following couple of months, and the hike time would eventually get reduced to just over one hour.

Aqaba by Night v Aqaba by Day

Having more questions than answers is one of those little things that helps keep life interesting and enjoyable....

Neapolitan Ice Cream

When you're craving Neapolitan ice cream, but need to order the paint for a construction site barrier before you can go to the kitchen and scoop yourself up a bowl of the tasty treat....

Some fun facts from our friends at Wikipedia:

Neapolitan ice cream was the first type of ice cream to combine three flavours.
The first recorded recipe was created by head chef of the royal Prussian household Louis Ferdinand Jungius in 1839, who dedicated the recipe to Fürst Pückler.
To this day, the German name for Neapolitan ice cream is Fürst-Pückler-Eis.
Its English-language name arose in the late 19th century due to confusion about its origin or because its colours were thought to represent the Italian flag.
Early recipes featured a variety of flavours, but the combination of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry became the standard, likely because these were the most popular flavours in the US at the time.

On This Day in 2021 (in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

"We're probably suffering from recency bias, but EM Forster's short story 'The Machine Stops' from 1909 is not only some of the most prescient sci-fi ever written, but also the most applicable to our new pandemic times.

It's in the public domain, so you can easily find the full text online in your preferred format (or check the comments for a link).....

NB: Meanwhile that image of the retro hipster astronaut is from an exhibition that took its name and theme from the story, yet very strangely doesn't reference it at all in this article.”

Right Places, Right Times

FYI, if you spend a goodly portion of your day randomly wandering around, not only will you make your Fit app proud with all those steps, but you'll greatly improve your chances of ending up in the right places at the right times when it comes to things like light and clouds and people and palms silhouetted against majestic Red Sea sunsets. Case in point: this scene from a couple of evenings ago....