Belly Dancing @ MindSay 
dancing
With only two days left in our Middle Eastern stay and with our classes having finished, my program spent today and yesterday in Aqaba, Jordan’s Red Sea resort city. Throughout the past month Amman has been quite cold with the average temperature hovering around the low 40’s; however, right on the Red Sea, Aqaba’s average temperatures are about 30 degrees higher than Amman’s. Luckily, the weather did not disappoint one bit.
I found myself comfortably wearing shorts during the afternoons of both days. Just like the weather, the water of the Red Sea was very warm and comfortable. The afternoon of our second day was amazing as we hung out on a boat all day and snorkeled. While the Middle East may not be the first thing that pops into one’s mind when thinking about destinations for snorkeling, it actually has amazing coral reefs and sea life. The views that I saw below the surface were simply breathtaking.
Another very cool part of the boat ride was the fact that from where the boat was anchored in the Red Sea you could see Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia all from the same spot. The Four Corners of America’s Southwest had nothing on this sight and experience.
After spending a full day in the sun and water, my group and I enjoyed the night life of Aqaba.
Aqaba’s nightlife certainly caters to foreign tourists and the more liberal minded members of Jordanian society. For example, there are many alcohol stores. In addition, night clubs dot every corner with some being a little shadier than others. Having not seen any belly dancers since we had been in the Middle East, my friends and I decided to go and try to find a club in Aqaba that had some; however, the place that we were told to go to was a little sketchy. The belly dancer, a Russian, was not that good. I wasn’t that surprised though as I was told the only good ones were in Damascus and Cairo. Either way though, the sketchiness of the club made the story a fun one. After this we went back to our rooms ready to return to Amman for our last day in Jordan.
We learned about backsheesh when we went to the pyramids yesterday. The pyramids were amazing but they are also a centuries old tourist trap--a fact which the numerous peddlers selling mini pyramids and post cards are eager to exploit. You just have to keep saying "la shokram, la shokram" (arabic for no thank you) over and over. The worst are the camel rides. According to the guide books camel rides at the pyramids are a huge racket, but there are tons of people riding about on camels asking if you want to ride or just take a photo. It's a lot harder to blow someone off when they are riding next to you on a dromidary.
Aside from the peddlers, though, the pyramids were beyond amazing. We left the hotel so early so that we could get there before the hordes (apparently most tourist buses get there at ten thirty, and since they only sell a limited number of pyramid entrances a day we desperately wanted to beat the crowds). When we got there it was about nine, and while we didn't exactly have the pyramids to ourselves, it was relatively easy to get tickets and get inside.
Going inside the pyramids was sooooooo cool. I fulfilled like twenty different fantasies that I had from lower school just by coming here, but stepping inside a pyramid beat them all. When we spoke to Cairo natives they all said that the pyramids were a huge let down, but I didn't find that at all. We had to go in in two groups because you are not allowed to bring your cameras inside, so half stayed out to watch the bags while the other half went in. I had heard that the passages were really small, and I had envisioned having to crawl into the pyramids, but the passages were tall enough that you could walk, even though you had to bend practically ninety degrees in order to fit. The slope into the pyramid is also really steep, so it feels dangerous and it probably is. One of our group had to turn back because she got so scared. Once you reach the end of the walkway you are in a dark, practically airless room. It was really hot inside, and really empty. There was a big square room with an (empty) sarcophagus at one end. We went into two pyramids, and for one of them (the great pyramid) we had the tomb area to ourselves. That was beyond amazing, and a little creepy.
The three great Pyramids are at Giza, along with the Sphinx and an ancient Egyptian boat belonging to Cheops. They were fun, but got really filled with tourists and peddlers really quickly. We also had kind of bad weather--it rained (in the desert!) for a bit of the day, and was cloudy and chilly for the rest. "This is just like London," my friend Caroline started to complain, but then caught herself and added, "you know, except for the sand and the pyramids." Oh, right.
After lunch, however, we drove down to Sakara which is another archeological sight. It wasn't as famous as Giza, but I liked it a lot better. There was practically nobody there--we saw maybe four other groups the entire time, and the site was amazing. There was a step pyramid, which we didn't go into but got to walk around, and there were ruins of temples in the area which we could walk in and around. Another site housed the temple of Titi, which contained amazing hyroglphics (the great pyramids were blank inside). It was fun to walk around and see everything, although we kept getting followed by this guy who claimed to be our tour guide, and eventually we had to give him a backsheesh so he'd leave us alone.
The other cool thing about Sakara was it was in the middle of the desert. I know that is taken for granted when dealing with pyramids and the like, but it was particularly vivid in Sakara, away from the hordes of people. You could actually see a line on the edge of the desert--on one side there was grass and palm trees and on the other just sand. There was no gradual change, it was reallly really vivid. Everyone said that they expected to smell the ocean, because when else are you surrounded by so much sand? But there was nothing but sand for miles and miles.
Tonight we are planning to go to a belly dancing show, which the guys are really excited about. I'm not looking forward to wearing a skirt because you attract more attention the nicer you are dressed (for girls) so getting there might be really uncomfortable, but the show should be fun. I'll let you know afterwards.
This one is probably my favorite song by her. (And I can do all of these things too!)
This one's just a good song. Oh yeah, it looks like she's covered in black blood. :P deffinately hot by my standards.
Have you ever being doing something, such as your job or some important work which you *should* be focused on and then something happens that takes your mind completely off your work, and almost literally mesmerises you? It happened to me tonight, and when I tell you, you shall not take it the wrong way, but holy shitt, at the function I was catering for tonight there was plenty of live entertainment. This entertainment came in forms of song and dance, the thing that got me captivated and gazing in amazement was a particualarly attractive belly dancer.
If anyone has ever seen a live belly dancer, one would know that they can be rather distracting to ones mind (particularly those of the male species) and very appealing. I, have never seen a live belly dancer until now, and all I can really say is wow, I have never seen so many older italian women look so embarrassed and so many guys staring into one spot, the entire bar staff stopped work and gathered in the bar to watch. Unfortunatly they weren't exactly discreet about it and might as well have been staring with their mouths open in disbelief.
Despite this cool and new attraction I chose to ignore it and put it out of my mind, I have a girlfriend (who I must say, I am far more attracted to) and I was there to work, not to enjoy the entertainment (too much). However the belly dancer got the best of my whilst I was carrying back far too many coffee cups and my eyes didth decieve me as she did some little cool trick with her belly, one of those hot little things that make you go, woah and think a naughty thought (mine inculded my girlfriend doing it... but anyways), but I kept gazing, it was like I was mesmerised... and then it hit me, two piled coffee cups had started to fall, everything went silent just as I realised what was happening. I managed and saved the cup under it. Unfortunatly for the cup on top, it feel and smashed on the tiled floor.
It was at this point where I was almost glad that the belly dancer was so mesmerising, and it wasn't in fact, silent. I had just paniced and blocked out all noise. Hardly anyone noticed, except of course my fellow collegues who at this point, were still gazing blankly at her dancing around the floor. That my friends was the most interesting part of my night and amazingly enough one of the few times I have been totally distracted by the opposite sex (that is, when I'm already doing something else, I'm often distracted otherwise :D, by one in particular)
-- Lory
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