Aqaba- the red sea.

To get from Petra to Aqaba is only about an hour and half trip so it's really easy. Standing on the beach of Aqaba you can see Israel to your right, Egypt straight ahead and somewhere sorta close by is Saudi Arabia. It's insane. Since it's a beach city I thought that it would be more relaxed with what people wore and a little more westernized or something but I was totally wrong. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a scarf, and a loose skirt that came to right above my knees... bad idea. I was walking along the public beach, with a guy but still got so much attention. I was shocked that my knees could bring that much excitment. I had no idea it was that wrong or such a bad idea to be a little casual. No one said anything to me that was inappropriate, it was just the constant looks from all the men.
That being said the public beach isn't someplace that I could swim. The only people I saw swimming were the men and children. Not even the women were swimming like in Tel Aviv. To swim in the red sea I had to pay to go to a private beach about 20mins away by the Jordan Navel base... it was a little crazy. Regardless I was able to swim and snorkle with the fish and coral of the red sea, which was incredible. It was really windy when I went to it was hard to snorkle and I ended up laying in the sun most of the time. I for sure want to come back to the red sea at some point, just not the Jordan section of it. Going to the beach I want to feel comfortable and enjoy being half naked in a bikini. I know I'm in a different culture and I'm trying my best to respect it, it's just starting to get hard having to watch everything that I'm doing.