ayahaga

I took the ferry 13th of Feb 2015 and it was the worst travel experience in 20 years of my travel. There is only one ferry per day. It's suppose to leave aqaba at midnight. I was stupid enough to belive lady in travel office on the corniche that there is another ferry at 2 PM and went with my backpack to the port only to find out that there is no ferry during the day and you can not buy ticket at the aqaba port. So i went back to town and bought a ticket for the night ferry in maritime travel next to jett bus stop. They speak English and they call the ferry to make sure the ferry will leave. It's important as the ferry do not operate during bad weather. I had to wait one day because of sand storm. They tell you to be 3 hours before departure that is 9 pm. Ticket is 70$ or 50jd. At the port go thru lorry gate showing you passport and ticket. Then you have to go to the building on the left pay exit tax 10jd and go upstairs to immigration. Have your pass and exit tax stamped. Then you can go downstairs and wait. There is a booth with big INFORMATION sign. They said boarding will stat at midnight. At midnight they said 2 am. At 2 am - 3 am etc. Unless you speak some arabic you will not find anything as nobody speaks english there. They were nice enough to let me stay inside the booth. Local people had to stay outside with temperature around 10 degree. All the snack stalls are closed so better bring your sandwiches and hot tea or coffee with you as you cant buy anything there. Finally the ferry arrived from Nuweiby after 3 am but we had to wait until 9 am for boarding. I speak some arabic but still was not able to determine what was the problem and why we are delayed. Then i had to wait in line to get boarded show again your pass ticket and exit tax stamp. On board they take your ticket and you can find a seat. The aircondition is on despite the cold weather. Finally at 11 am the engine starts. 11 hours after departure time. Travel time is a little over 2 hours so more then 1 hour everybody said. Upon arrival we had to wait another hour before we could disembark. Finaly i could skip long line of local people being searched by police and go and search for my passport who was taken by officer on board. Again they dont tell you anything. Just take your pass and tell you to get it in nuweiba. The terminal there is quite big but as i was only European i found officer in... Bank and retrieve my passport. So at 2 pm - after 17 hours after i came to aqaba port i was finally in Egypt. The worst though is missinformation you get (every hour they said it will leave after an hour) and the testament the local people get from police, immigration and staff. I lived in Egypt for 3 years but i really felt this we are all criminals in prison. There are no tourists on this ship so if you want to see how Arabs are treated by their gouvernmenta and what means customer service here - do so. Otherwise just go via Eliat. After all 3 hours of intrrrogation on Israeli border you are facing sounds like fun comparing to the ferry experience. Or fly to Egypt for double price of the ferry. This will be wisely spend money...