Meet fish on your own terms at the aquarium in the Marine Research Center (tel. 31 51 45), just beyond the port. (Admission 300fils. Open Sat.-Wed. 7am-2:30pm, Thurs. and Fit 9am-2:30pm; daily 7:30am-3:30pm in the winter. Taxis to the aquarium cost JD3) A costly glass-bottom boat ride (about JD10), traveling up and down the coast, is worthwhile if you’ve never been to a tropical fish store.

)rt early mornings and late afternoons the winds are strong enough to make windsurfing possible; the Aquamarina Club charges JD3.600 per half-hour for a board. The Aquamarina also offers waterskiing and, for the less adventurous, paddle-boating- Windsurfers risk being blown across the border illegally into Eilat as they swerve between tankers—but a hell of a story to tell the grandkids.

The Aqaba Hotel will gouge you JD2.200 for the privilege of burning your plebeian feet on its patrician white sands—shade and lounge chairs are reserved for guests. Near the excavations of Aila (medieval Aqaba) in front of the Miramar Hotel is a free and relatively clean public beach. (In the 7th co 10th centuries, Aila—"god” in ancient Aramaic—was an early Islamic port trading as far away as China.) The majority of Aqaba’s most scenic, clean, and empty free beaches are quite a distance away.