Hotel Abu Cazar

Layered dust broken by animal footprints and droppings dulls the sun’s relentless presence in the empty bar of the hotel Abu Cazar. The Chinese restaurant across the courtyard sits abandoned, chairs placed onto tables seen in the shadows through the filthy glass. Through the opposite window, a ladder stands amidst broken tiles at the bottom of an empty swimming pool. The thatched poolside umbrellas are broken and tattered. Amidst Aqaba’s main tourist strip, the glass elevator reached through Abu Cazar’s lobby transports entrants to a welcome oasis away from the repulsive seaside resort glitz of. Abdel Nasser is in the newspapers and Jerusalem yet to be lost. The dilapidated preservation of Arab nationalism, seen through the smoke stained ceilings in rooms where businessmen sat sweating under their collars in suits with whiskey and cigarette smoke offering relief to the stifling summer. The clear waters of the Red Sea stretch lazily into the haze. Cargo ships waiting off the coast while tourism boats ply their trade, the hills of the Sinai Peninsula across the bay forming dark shadows as the sun sets.

photography

nadsat orange

nigel o'connor