Israel

While traveling around Jodene decided that she wanted to continue her travels and extend her trip beyond Vietnam and Cambodia. Since she had already been to Thailand before, she wanted to go somewhere else. Of course, I volunteered to join her--I love new adventures. We originally decided to go to India because it was close by and neither of have ever been there before. But, after we checked with the Indian Embassy in Hanoi, they told us that it would take 5 working days to process our visas. Being Americans we were appalled. We usually get visas overnight. In addition, we did not want to wait in Hanoi while they had our passports, so we looked into other options. Plus, I was not too excited about the 120 degree heat that India was having. After much debate and research, we found an inexpensive flight to Israel through Turkey. While in Phnom Penh, the day before flying to Bangkok, we decided we would go to Israel. When we got to Bangkok at 9:00 at night we went to the Turkish Airways office and started to book our flight. We finally got everything finalized at 11:00 p.m. for a flight two hours later.

We did not blindly go to Israel without first checking the US Embassy website to check travel warnings. Although general warnings against travel were advised, we felt this was not adequate to avoid traveling there. We boarded the flight. Before we took off, this huge fight broke out between what we believed to be a Turkish man (with a Aussie accent when speaking english-and also speaking fluent Turkish) and an Australian woman about a seat. Although blows were not thrown, the tension rose to that level. The man actually said that he would "fucking rip off your head" to the woman's husband. Needless to say, if they would have been on an American flight, both would have been swiftly removed from the plane, here they just moved the guy to an open row in the back of the plane.

Jodene and I had the middle 4 seats for the 10 hour flight. She slept on the seats, I slept on the floor. Yes, the floor of the plane. When we arrived in Istanbul, the SARS brigade boarded the flight. When we boarded everyone was handed plastic gloves and a mask-we chose not to use them. I believe our temperature was taken 3 times before we boarded the flight and now the SARS brigade was there to do one more.


Sars brigade boarding the plane.

After they were assured that we were not carrying the SARS virus, they allowed us to debark the plane. We were then ushered into a line to go through interrogation about going to Israel. We were each asked about 25 questions which took about 5-10 minutes. Satisfied that we were not extremists, they allowed us to board the plane to Israel. When we arrived in Tel Aviv, we again were asked about 10-15 questions at immigration before offering to stamp a piece of paper (not our passport) in case we wanted to travel to Arab countries (if you have an Israel stamp you cannot enter). Not foreseeing visiting Iraq this year, I decided they could stamp my passport. At this point, both checkpoints informed us that "You know its dangerous here don't you." "Yes," we acknowledged.

After passing through immigration, we got the "real" interrogation. At this point, a woman took us aside and questioned us for 15 or 20 minutes. She could not understand why we booked our flight two hours before hand, only had $20 cash on us, did not have a hotel booked and did not have a guide book. I guess she realized we were not threatening, just stupid.

On our way to our hotel the taxi driver pointed out a cafe that I thought looked familiar. I was then informed that the familiarity stemmed from the news report 4 months earlier. The cafe was one of the site of the recent bombings. While the building was completely rebuilt, I found it eerie that I recognized it from watching the news while in Australia. I had a similar feeling when we were sitting at a cafe in Saigon that overlooked the area where the bombing happened and recreated in the film "The Quiet American." The horrifying scene made us feel a little more tense, but we proceeded none the less.

We finally got settled into our hotel in Tel Aviv and decided to walk around a bit to get a sense of the place. The city is very modern, but charming. People were going about there day as in any other city. On our agenda, we planned to find a dentist. Ever since I left Auckland, I was having a tooth ache. As we traveled through Vietnam, the tooth ache became increasingly painful and my gums were visibly infected. Jodene and Ken jokingly called in Trechmouth. Since I was not too keen on visiting a dentist in either Vietnam or Cambodia (the health standards were not quite the level of that which I was accustomed and I wanted to be able to communicate effectively), I decided once we got to Israel, I needed to visit a dentist.

The front desk at the hotel informed me that there were dentists in the mall on the third level about 10 blocks away. Once I arrived at the mall, I quickly found the dentists and was informed by the receptionist that I could see the dentist in about a half an hour. I was a bit nervous as she did not speak english well, but my mouth was in need of serious attention. When I met the dentist, my nerves were calmed a bit as he spoke good english. After poking around my mouth he asked, "Are you flossing?" I said, "Well I try to as much as I can, but lately it has been too painful." He, like my dentist at home (Kelly), scolded me for not flossing enough and administered a drug on the infected area and gave me a prescription for anti-biotics and a oral rinse. I went to the first level of the mall and received my prescriptions very satisfied. (Within 2 days my pain had subsided and all is well now!).

That night we got some food and hung out at the hotel. The next day, we went to check our e-mail and Jodene received a message that the US Embassy was warning US citizens to leave Israel because they had credible information that US citizens would be kidnapped. This freaked us out, but we decided to stay another day with heightened awareness and headed to the beach.

At the beach, I found some guys playing really good volleyball. After a while, I was able to join in and play and had a great time. Later, we met some more people from Israel and they informed us that the US government issues such warnings all the time and not to worry. We decided to go the gym and stay another day. Tel Aviv seemed safe and we loved the beach.


Me at the beach in Tel Aviv.

That night, I was feeling restless and decided to go out. Jodene opted to stay in as she did not feel comfortable going to a club. I met some very nice people and had a great time.

For the next couple days we enjoyed the beach, shopped and explored the city. We really wanted to go to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, but we were trying to decide if we felt safe because these areas were surrounded by the West Bank, the place where most of the fighting is going on outside of Gaza Strip.


This is a photo taken along the beach of a family practicing strict religious rules. I thought it was very interesting how the women would still wear all the clothes and head covers at the beach. It was an interesting contrast to the others in bikinis.

The older area in Tel Aviv is called Jaffa. It is an old port town with very beautiful old stone buildings build on a cliff behind a large wall. Below are some pictures of the area.




City view from the beach heading to Jaffa

While exploring the city, we also went to this famous Palestinian bakery, known for its sweets. When we ordered the food, the guy who spoke little to no english was the rudest person I have met on the trip. He threw the doughnut and change at us while saying something we could not understand, except that he did not like us. While we thought it amusing, the rudeness was quickly forgiven as the treats were very tasty.


Jodene with a doughnut the size of her head that we purchased from the very angry Palestinian bakery.

Finally, after 4 days of checking emails and the US website and talking with many people we had met in Tel Aviv, we decided that we felt safe enough to go to Jerusalem. The people in Tel Aviv were very nice. I met many wonderful people.

We booked a room at the YMCA in Jerusalem, which was a nice room with reasonable prices, free use of the gym and wonderful staff. The YMCA was run mostly by Palestinians. This is of note because, everything we did in Jerusalem and its surrounds depended largely on the company we kept (many places were off limits to Jews and Palestinians alike.

On our first evening in Jerusalem, Jodene talked me into going to this "Time Elevator" ride, largely because it was one of the only touristic things that we could do that late in the afternoon. "The Time Elevator" was ridiculous. It was one of those "virtual rides" that quickly described the history of the area while taking us on an Indiana Jones type ride. Water drops actually fell from the ceiling when we "virtually" passed under a waterfall--it was ridiculous, but kind of fun.

The next day, we organized a tour of Jerusalem with an Israeli company. Our Jewish guide took us to the major attractions in the city. Jerusalem is truly amazing especially when you consider it is the holiest place for the Jewish and Christian religions and the third holiest for Muslims, behind Mecca and Medina. (Its a very holy place!).


This is a view from one of the universities overlooking the valley where the city lies the old city would lie just to my left in the picture.

In the valley on the "Palestinian side" where we could not go because we had a Jewish guide, was the gold onions (a mosque) and the twelve nations church (a christian church supported by 12 of the western "christian" nations like the US, Great Britain and Germany).



Also on the other side of the valley was King David's initial burial place which was recently excavated. Above and to the right of it sits a very large and important Jewish cemetery. Jews believe that when the Messiah comes, he (not she as Jodene noted) will walk into the valley via this path and all the dead will be resurrected (or something like this--the guide was not very clear--please correct me if you have better information).



When we arrived in the old city, we could see evidence of the more recent fighting on one of the gates where many bullet holes scar the stone.



While in the old city, we saw many amazing things, including the "wailing wall" where Jews go to pray and make their wishes to God. I learned that such place is called the "wailing wall" because the Jews are not able to go to the actual holy place because it sits inside the huge gold dome mosque (that we were not able to go into because we had a Jewish guide, we later found out that if we had a Palestinian guide we would have been able to enter). Jodene went down to the wall, I decided not to. Many people were at the wall praying, most of them were Orthodox Jews in traditional clothing. Of course, Jodene and I could not go to the same section of the wall because men and woman are not allowed to pray in the same area. I do not have a picture of the wall, many of the sites in this religious city are not to be photographed.

After the visiting the wailing wall and observing the mosque from afar, we moved on to several christian churches. Among these were churches erected on sites where the last supper was eaten, and where Jesus was crucified, robed and buried (determined by Constanine's mother on her pilgrimage).


This is the spot where the cave was where Jesus was buried. When we went inside, I had some very strange feelings. Whenever we visited very holy places throughout our time in Jerusalem, I felt strange--although I find it difficult to describe the feeling. I have some more pictures, but like I said, for the most part we were not allowed to photograph many things.

We also, went through the four quarters of the ancient city which included the arab market section, the Jewish section, the christian section, and (I can't remember the fourth's name). Within the city, excavations reveal various stages in the cities construction going back to when King David's son first built the city and through the Roman occupation.

That night, I met an Argentinan Jewish guy who moved to Israel. We had a great conversation about life and Argentina and living in Jerusalem.

The next day Jodene and I hired a driver to take us to the Dead Sea. We knew it was not the safest thing to do, but both of us wanted to go--besides we were taking any buses, so we were safe right! Since it was a Jewish holiday and we arranged the tour through the YMCA, we had a Palestinian driver. We loved the guy. He was very smart and very nice. He first stopped at sea level, which is in the middle of the desert.



Then, we wanted to go to a place where we could swim in the dead sea. We arrived at Ein Gedi (the lowest place on the earth not covered by water). Ein Gedi is basically a spa in the desert along the dead sea, which we spent the afternoon enjoying.



Jodene after our mud bath.

Me taking a second mud bath down at the sea. For each mud bath, we were to cover ourselves in mud and then sit in the very hot sun and wait for it to dry before rinsing it off. The mud sucked the moisture out of my skin, but it felt very cleansing.


Jodene floating in the dead sea. Because the salt concentration is so high here, people float almost above the water. It was an incredible sensation.


Jodene at the spa pool.

After we left the spa, the guide asked us if we wanted to go to Jericho, which is in the West Bank. (yes, the place we were not supposed to go). So, of course, we said "ya, sure. Let's go." Since the driver was Palestinian, he explained, he could go into the West Bank, despite having Israeli license plates. Despite what both Jodene and I first thought, the West Bank is not a contiguous piece of land, but several areas surrounding Jerusalem. When we entered Jericho, we had to go through a check point that was guarded by Israeli militia with large guns. The guards asked for our passports, but we did not have them with us. Guessing we were dumb Americans again, he let us through.

Jericho was empty. Very few people wandered the streets, stores were closed, and very few cars drove around. The site was depressing. After driving around the town a bit, we drove up to this monastery that was built into a cliff. It was beautiful.


Me and our guide in Jericho.

On our way back to Jerusalem, we stopped to take a picture of a band of bedouins. Bedouins are a group of people who travel around with their sheep not having a permanent place to live. The government owns most the desert land on which they roam and they are allowed to live there for free. Apparently, they are very well off, but just prefer to wander. While in Jerusalem, one of the local people called me a bedouin. (I thought it was appropriate--just wandering around without a permanent home).


Bedouins

That night, I joined an american guy I met out for a drink and afterward dancing. He was working an aide group living in the West Bank. We had a great conversation about his experience. Before coming to Jerusalem, he worked in Egypt.

The next morning we decided we wanted to see this Jewish Holocaust Museum. But, since it was Saturday, it was not open. Our driver, since it was Saturday, was Palestinian. (Saturday is Jewish day of rest). He asked us once we discovered the museum was closed (of course he told us this after we were there and paid $40 already), that he would take us to Bethlehem if we wanted. We knew this was in the West Bank, so we asked "Is it safe." He said, "Yes, if you go with me." So off we went to Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, we went to the Church marking the birthplace of Jesus and the manger where he was born. Both of these places were in the basement of the church which is divided between the Greek Orthodox and the Catholics. Since we had first stopped at a gift shop to pick up our guide in Bethlehem (standard practice on almost every tour in the world), both Jodene and I bought some souvenirs and had them blessed at the church on Jesus's birth place and manger. Although, I would not call my self a devout Christian by any means (if even a christian), seeing these places was a very moving experience.

After having witnessed some demonstrations and feeling tensions rise after our own Georgie Bush came to try to make peace in Israel, we decided we better end our stay and head to Turkey.

Israel was one of the most fascinating places I have been to (if not the most fascinating). If you ever get the chance to go--you should, its great. home