It made my head spin....we were driving in the desert and then suddenly we're in a resort town hugging the bottom end inlet of the Red Sea. Buildings and hotels all over....and blue blue cool-looking water in front of you.
I would have bet it was a mirage.
We were staying at the Queen of Sheba...a nice hotel clumped with several others near the water. It had a huge pool and I was puzzled why there were so many people in it and so few in the sea. Figured out later it's because the small strip of beach in front of the hotels is public property...you can go into the water and sit on the sand...(which feels like 1000 degrees) but if you want a chair or lounge chair with an umbrella ....you must pay the city about 10.00 bucks per day per chair....which is why so many people preferred the pool.
I wasn't ready to go in the water....but hub and I wanted to walk around a little and we had spotted an Aroma Cafe near the hotel...and our minds were mentally chanting "Iced Coffee Get Iced Coffee."
We walked out the hotel lobby doors and I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around.....good lord had we stepped into a gigantic oven?
We hit such an intense hot wall of heat....I almost stepped back into the lobby. Dry heat or not....this was miserable.
Hub and I forged on....deciding to round the block before we treated ourselves to the Iced Coffee. We were making the circle when suddenly my hub tugged on my arm. "Ah...I don't feel good."
Holy Shit....I looked at him and all my nurse alarm bells started ringing. He looked pale...and woozy. Shit could he be dehydrated and sliding into heat stroke?
I grabbed him by the arm and looked around and there was a big hotel right next to us.
"In here," I said...tugging at him. He didn't look good...and then as we neared the front door the guard for the hotel (all the hotels have armed guards in front of their doors) said..."Is this your hotel?" Dumb me...I said "No."
"Well you can't come in here." I looked at him and said..."My hub is going to keel over so we have to get inside."
He stepped aside and we scrambled to a seat in the cool lobby. A minute later the guard came up to us and said very kindly...."there's a bar on the second floor for cold drinks."
I pulled on hub and stuffed him into the elevator. He didn't look good even after resting in the cool air. I literally ran up to the bar and ordered two cokes with ice....grabbed them and rushed back to the chair where I left him.
"Drink drink."
I was mentally thinking....okay this is Israel they have a good health system...I know there is a small hospital in this town....they probably have ambulances....and I can always take the ice out of the glass and directly apply it to his neck and chest while we wait for the paramedics.
Fortunately....he started to perk up....and my own heart rate started to go down too....I realized I was pretty damn hot too....but you forget yourself when your spouse turns pale.
After a bit more sitting and the second cola....he said he could walk and move....and I ushered him out of this hotel and into our hotel about 1/2 block down. I turned the AC up to max max when we hit our room....grabbed some money...and told him to rest while I went to the market to get another soda (for the sugar content ) and some bottled water since it was obvious we could not leave the hotel without a drink in hand.
I hit the exit doors.....and braced myself as a hot 114 degree wind pushed me. I mentally told myself I was hydrated....I would walk slowly and I would make it to the market two blocks down....but even with mental optimism...I was stunned how painful and intense the heat felt.
As I walked slowly to the market...I started worrying....how could we make it to Petra the next day? How were we going to walk a mile or two in the heat...to get to the site? Should we cancel? Should we just hunker down in our rooms or in the Sea?
I was feeling woozy with heat and worry.
