Souvenirs and movie stars

Aqaba 27 November 2010

Riding camels into the sunrise is exotic and exciting however it leaves one totally fatigued – especially if you didn't manage to sleep the night before either. So following yesterday's catch up on some very much needed sleep today dawned sparkling across the Red Sea with our view into Israel.

Needing to collect laundry and in the elusive search for a decent cup of coffee we headed out reasonably early to also hunt down some souvenirs as we'd been advised that everything was cheaper in Aqaba because it's tax free. We'd missed the shopping venture the night before as I was just too tired to contemplate bargaining.

We'd barely got two hundred metres up the road when we came across Mr Rafek. He owns a small dusty souvenir shop and greeted us in happy English asking where we were from and telling us that he knew all about Tasmania – having missed the instructions about shopping last night we had no idea of what prices to expect but this all sank into the background. We entered the tiny shop and Mr Rafek showed us his stock and kept telling us he wouldn't pester us like the Egyptians! Good to his word he then decided we must have been friendly enough for he proudly showed us his photographs on the back wall – he had starred in Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago and had the old black and white photos with O'Toole and Omar Sharif to prove it. Then we were treated to the scrapbook of his visits to film festivals around the world and other production experiences. We finished buying some mirrors and bookmarks and being given bracelets and mint tea. Thus emboldened we each had our photos taken amidst instructions about not looking directly at the camera! What a priceless morning. A genu9inely delightful encounter with a real character – we've been so blessed by the people we've met here. They are genuinely hospitable and friendly – pleased to show off their country and their hospitality is second nature – we could learn a lot!

On a more prosaic note we also managed to retrieve our laundry prior to departure after Allison's excellent haggling over time