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photo page 43 |
You don't have to drive long to make the most beautiful jeep trips: these are the Eilat mountains, across the road. Just 100 meters
up the hill, and the view over the Red Sea is magnificent.
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Sunset in November, near the apartment building.
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The king of Jordan is celebrating his birthday, big time. A stunt team of the RAF appears to give a spectacular show with nine jets and
lots of colored smoke. There is no wind this day, and the smoke stays over Aqaba for hours.
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The planes skim over the king's palace, and also a few times over Eilat. This upsets Sonja more than a little, but afterwards we heard that
this happens yearly in friendly cooperation between Jordan and Israel. All the better, otherwise the blokes from the anti-aircraft defence
would have had a busy afternoon. After the show two F-15's of the IAF thunder low over the city, afterburners ablaze.
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We know we will not be in Israel in January, and so we will miss the next edition of the belly dance festival at the Dead Sea.
Fortunately, the happening has been fixed at an earlier time, and so we travel once more to the sea of salt. Miri Allon starts the
first lessons.
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Hadas, Sonja's teacher, mesmerizes the audience with a sensational show.
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This time the festival is in another hotel, the 5-star all-inclusive Grand Nirvana of the Fattal chain (Fatal? What's in a name??).
The hotel looks quite idyllic, but what a disappointment: dirty rooms, rust-eaten door posts, broken toilet seat and towel hangers,
broken bedside cabinets, sliding doors that do no slide. All food and drinks are inclusive. That is probably why the bar only serves cheap
brands of rum, vodka and wine, and nothing else. A decent whiskey was not available, we heard from the totally disinterested bartender.
In fact, no other spirits were available at all!
The professional espresso machine was used only to froth milk. The coffee came from a small machine with a Douwe Egberts label,
but that is certainly the only connection with DE, as the rubbish was hardly drinkable.
Wine came from the tap with the famous Barkan label, but the container underneath said something else, and we noticed guests throwing ice
cubes into their white wine to get the temperature somewhat acceptable.
Better play it safe: take a fruit juice. No luck: watered down. Fruit mix? Yuck, unripe!
Not the type of hotel we enjoy, with all those falling stars.
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What a pity, as it is perfectly situated directly on the beach and the water of the Dead Sea. The long dams of the evaporation system
allow for a wonderful walk into the sea. The white salt is glittering all along the embankment.
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Saturday morning 10 o'clock, and Natali teaches outside on the beach. Salty sea winds, hair waving, warm sun: now that's dancing!
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After half an hour on the beach, the whole group moves into the water. Sonja tries to keep her pants high and dry, but to no avail. After
drying up, the trouser-legs were stiff and slightly transparent from the salt!
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The whole group of women is swinging to the beat of the drummer, who had serious problems waking up after the party last night. And he still
partly in coma, but plays the tarbuka perfectly.
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Hadas is having a ball.
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What a unique place to dance!
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When the lesson is finished there is plenty of time for private dancing and stretching....
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....and than to the shower to rinse off the sulfuric stinking water.
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