Reflections Upon Returning from Taba

***Interested in going? Promise it’s not just for ‘pool viewing’? (I’ll pray the South Africans are gone by then!) contact Orbit Travel in Al-Abdali 568-0001. PP/DL 159JD for 4nights, five days, including bus, ferry, and two buffet meals, 115 for kids 5-12, 55 for 5 & under. *

What a delight we as a family experienced in Taba, enjoying five days of sun, sand, snorkeling, sliding and swimming. We were joined by Miss B, a friend of the whole fam and blog reader, who brought her LSAT study book just to prove it wasn’t all pleasure – did you even open that thing?). We returned sunburned and exhausted, but VERY happy.

This was our first ‘destination resort’ family vacation. Several friends had gone, and the more we heard the more we liked the idea. We are generally not the spontaneous, “hey, let’s go next week” type of people (well, I still have vestiges within that parenting hasn’t killed off), but this was too good to pass up. My husband decided he could get just as much study done there as here, so we made reservations.

We left Amman at 3:30am, with a bus load of sleepy but very excited Ammanites to Aqaba. I have to tell you, everything was ON-TIME. Punctual, according to schedule. It was culture-shock, I am not used to this! To my surprise and delight, we boarded NOT a ferry as told, but a KETCH!! A two masted sailboat which set the stage for a dream vacation for this frustrated former sailor. I had always wanted to share sailing with my kids, and even though the sails were never raised, they were on a boat! Seeing dolphins swim by, and flying fish, made it even more special.

The first impression I had was of the absolute quiet. A heavy stillness, broken only by the sounds of wind and waves. All human generated sounds subdued by the sublime of God’s beautiful creation. Peace like a river, love like an ocean, God’s nature poured out on His creation, it was a time for worship. Snorkeling further punctuated this lesson in silence: apart from the sound of your own breathing and heartbeat, it was a visual and tactile world. Colorful schools of fish parted around you on their way, large parrot fish followed you like puppies.

Not one car horn, over-loud CD player, PS background music, computer hum, telephone or cell-phone ring. No construction cacophony! The only people- sounds were giggles and laughter coming from the children at the pool, and sometimes adults, too. Sweet sounds. I felt a guilty relief that we were not in Amman for wedding honking and fireworks, nor Tawjihi celebrations.

I had also forgotten the smells of the morning sea, of the evening desert wind. Not a whiff of car exhaust, diesel fumes from poorly maintained trucks, cheap perfume or even cigarettes. An aromatic adventure.

It turned out friends from Nazareth were there too, so we enjoyed laughter with them. It was a delight to see Spikekid hanging out with his Arab friends. We enjoyed surprising people that we could speak Arabic, the kids especially. Having Miss B was such a gift, she would take the kids snorkeling while I rested or was with the other kids. She would go with one of them back to the buffet counter to get more food so hubby and I could eat supper warm. PLUS, she has this really dry sense of humor, very fun to be around.

It was very strange to be the only Americans we were aware of. It was a VERY cross-cultural experience, and I enjoyed my fly-on-the-wall status with Gulf Arabs, Egyptians and Germans who did not know I could understand what they were saying about one another. I’ll be writing an article about it, fer-sure.

The most interesting cultural clash was how each group defined the term: “suitable swim wear attire required”. Saw LOTS of burkinis (hate to say it, they may cover the skin but when wet, it’s just a dark-colored wet burqa contest – all revealed) attempting modesty while having fun. On the other extreme, there were the South Africans, which the Kounouz immediately dubbed: “the naked mommies”.

I was still arranging towels and stuff when three of the four of them came running, and Little Kinz announced breathless: “MOMMMMEEEEEE! There are ladies over there who FORGOT their bathing suit tops!!! AAAND…there are big boys and girls kissing WHO DON’T HAVE WEDDING RINGS ON!”.

I hadn’t planned on giving them yet another talk on PDA, public nudity and why people do what they do. BUT, I did. Spikekid did a very good job steering clear of them, and keeping his eyes averted (yes, I watched to make sure). One afternoon Abu Kounouz brought a book to the pool to read at a lounge chair far away from the naked mommies, and who lays down right on the other side of me but a surgically enhanced Russian beauty. God bless my husband, he took his book back to the room with a sigh.

Even with the blip of extremes in bathing suit ideals, it was a lovely time. So relaxing, refreshing. I highly recommend it to the lady bloggers.