sun-starved skin

This is a different sort of holiday for us. This year, we have been in the habit of going to a place and trying to squeeze as much as is humanly possible into every day, sight-seeing and touring like crazy people. Jordan isn't supposed to be that sort of a trip - this is supposed to be a week on a beach, very low key, very slow, very little planning required. Let me tell you - relaxing is harder than it's supposed to be! I challenged myself to sit for 4 hours this afternoon. The first 4 minutes were easy. After that, notsomuch.To the book club - sorry about the book I picked - I don't know why it won a Nobel prize - that would be an interesting discussion point - let's hope it gets better! (The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk)

We slept in. Headed off to the hotel buffet breakfast about 9:30. Beef bacon. In this culture, beef over pork makes sense, but Peter said it was like fried cold cuts, so i think I'll live without 'bacon' this week. Ate outside in the sun. Lovely. Made arrangements with the excursions director. Went for a big walk to explore. Our resort is "connected" to a couple of others on this stretch of the Red Sea. On either side is no man's land. Honestly - it's empty space. There's a wall on the beach at the end of our resort. If you go around it, there is empty space, and on the far side of the empty space is a barbed wire fence. If you go the other way, you will find 2 other resorts in various states of construction. All the design is a little bit Disney - it really looks like Aladdin and Jasmine could come around the corner at any moment. Is this because this is typical architechture and I'm just not used to it, or is it really a caricature for the tourists? It's pretty either way.

Andrew spent his afternoon in the pool. Only one of them is heated. The jacuzzi has cold water too. We figure that if the temperature hits 35C in the high season, most people would want a cold jacuzzi so it probably isn't wired for heat. Our air temp today was about 23 with a good breeze. Great for catching some rays with our sun-starved bodies. Elizabeth actually sat in the shade for a hour doing homework on her laptop (less glare in the shade).

It doesn't feel like just another resort in the Caribbean. Elizabeth thinks that's because it isn't green and lush. We have palm trees, but they were imported. The hills across the water (though whether that's Israel or Egypt we haven't figured out) as well as the hills that surround us, are red and sandstoney-looking. I also think it's because we're aware we're in the Middle East. True, this part of Jordan is very westerinized (this from the excursions director) but... My own personal SITCII / Samantha-Carrie-Miranda-Charlotee-in- Abu-Dhabi moment happened when I walked past a women on my way to the beach. She was watching her young children play in the pool and she was wearing a burka. Another woman in the pool was covered head to toe in a full body wetsuit. The rest of us weren't - just regular bathing suit stuff, though everyone covered up if they were walking around. The resort is far from full and it's very quiet compared to what I've experienced in the Caribbean. Maybe there's no buzz because there aren't that many people?

So tomorrow we head to the desert. Move over Indiana Jones - we're off to Petra!