day 5 - red sea

Today was mostly a travel day to get to Eilat, where we can cross over
to Jordan and hitch a ride over to Petra. Eilat is a funny town,
serving as Israel's port on the Red Sea. Scattered around the same
gulf are Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The highlights here are the
Red Sea and the reef. The other highlight is that this seems to be the
spring break type destination for Israelis and features tons of
hotels, including what seems to be it's own version of the Las Vegas
Strip - complete with picture cards with pics of scantily clad women.

We arrived with no lodging set up, but we were able to find a room at
the hostel here without issue. The place seemed a bit dead with most
areas running at what seemed like 10% capacity.

Anyway, I'm gonna cut this update short. We're aiming to catch sunrise
over Jordan and the Red Sea tomorrow morning. (-;