Israel 2007
When travelling , one is often surprised at the disparity between what you see on the news and TV and what actually exists in reality. Growing up in Trinidad, when Israel was mentioned (typically on the TV or Newspapers, because Trinis don’t really think about the Middle East in the grand scheme of things, we have our own drama with Manning and Panday and Ramesh), the only thoughts that came to mind were those of war, terror, fighting and death. It’s all you saw on CNN. One becomes a little densensitized to the whole affair, to the death and pain. You hear the stories in the news, “ XXX die in city center bombing”, “Suicide bomber kills XXX number of people in the main market”, and other similar stories.
As much as traveling can help expand the horizons of your perception, it is always difficult to overcome childhood biases and stereotypes. Walking down the boardwalk in Tel Aviv was as much an exercise in breaking that terrible thought association as much as it was to enjoy the sights of beautiful sunset on a lovely warm evening, with the waves crashing on the shore, the smell of hummus, wine and sea salt wafting through the air and the sound of Arabic music all around.
As the evening wore on, the joggers and evening enthusiasts came out, for a swim, walk or just enjoying the company of a friend . You can also catch enjoy people playing matkot. Matkot, according to Wikipedia, “or beach paddleball, is a popular traditionally non-competitive game in Israel, sometimes called Israel’s unofficial national sport.” It is played with two players who attempt to hit the ball back and forth as many times as humanly possible, creating a high-risk environment where beachgoers can enjoy the possibility of being hit in the head by a ball flying at Mach-2. I’ve seen Israelis playing the game on Ipanema and Copacabana … they do seem to love the game.
Walking along the Boardwalk, you realize the small pleasure of enjoying that sunset on the coast of Tel Aviv. The history, the sand and just the vibrant energy of the people. I asked many people I met, about the threat of war and fighting to the North and the responses were consistent. People are accustomed the fighting and the war and all have their own politcal views, but they all agree that life has to go on and they can allow the events in the region to dictate how they live their lives. In Trinidad, we just have to worry about Manning and Panday, people in Tel Aviv have to worry about fighting, bombing, gas attacks, and this is after they spend their mandatory time in the army.
Everyone seems to just enjoy the heat and the restaurants along the Boardwalk.
But for now, it’s easier to forget all the world’s problems and just look at sunsets
Leaving Tel Aviv was something else on this trip. Since I thought that the majority of the security was actually when you were coming into Israel, I was typically relaxed on my journey back. From the hotel, I had to get a cab from The Dan Tel Aviv to the airport. So I got a cab in front the airport and typically when I asked the fare… his response was 150 shekhels. From the initial trip to the hotel from the airport, the flat rate that was charged was 130 shekhels, so naturally I was like “WTF?!?!”. So I countered with a 120 shekhels, he countered with 140, then I stuck firm to 120, he came down to 130, and I stayed firm again and then he came down to 120. Of course, he took his sweet old time in getting to the airport, but for once I planned lots of time ahead since Heather had told me about the difficulties she faced. Now of course leavinga great view like this
and a boardwalk like this
is kinda tough!!
Well when I finally got to the airport… check #1, a guy looks at me coming and ignores everyone else and pulls me out of the line to question my documentation, however I had Peter’s explanatory letter in hand and printed for such an occasion. The guard read the letter and sent me along my way. Before I got to main gate, I was stopped by another guard, another passport check and again went along. Finally I get to the security line up, and then the trouble started. I get this retarded girl who spoke poor English, and then proceeded to question me about everything under the sun, including my parents being from T&T. In fact, I was really getting annoyed by the irrelevant questioning. So I told her so, so she brings a supervisor, of course I realized that I’m going to get through the grill anyway and they were going to search everything in my luggage, so I just went ahead and did the whole piss poor tourist thing, including telling them that their questioning was stupid and irrelevant.
Of course, I am taken out of the line and of course duly searched and my luggage is taken apart and searched as though I were Osama himself. The good thing though is that they check you in and everything, when they decide to screw you, and of course send someone to cuddle with you like the real thing, when it is over. By that time though, I had decided I had enough of Israel and was time to leave. The duty free section in Tel Aviv was like a shopping mall though and I found two bottles of 30 yr old Rum but I was so pissed about the whole searching experience, that I decided that I didn’t want to buy anything from the country. So of course I got on my flight and headed to Vienna and then London.
Final work day with Hagit at Given Imaging, got most of the SAP data issues under control, got the position to position issues completed via custom RFC. Long day as usual. Once the day was done at 6pm or so, Itai and I headed off to the hotel, but I expressed my insane craving for a bacon burger, since being in Israel, there was a precious lack of good beef or anything resembling bacon. As much as I liked the breakfasts at the hotel, I was pretty sick of the same breakfast in the morning of Coffee, Fresh Juice, Tabouleh, Pine nut cabbage salad, hummus and some tuna salad. This sounds great if you have to have it for 2 days, but when you have some variation of it for the past 8 days or so, you’re pretty sick of it after a while.
So we went to a place called the Burger Bar… and it is exactly as it sounds, a bar that sells decent burgers. I got the biggest patty, which was about a 1 1/2lb of beef, some guacamole, stewed onions and 4 slices of bacon. Break out some shoestring fries and a Strawberry daiquiri.. and you have a champion meal. So some good conversation and what not, then back to the hotel to get ready for the trip to London in the morning.
So leaving from the Dan Tel Aviv was a chore in itself this morning, since I had to rise quite early as Masada was a good two hours away from Tel Aviv. So on the way was pretty uneventful except for the young soldiers you pass on the road with those huge machine guns. Once you get to Masada there are two ways to get up the mountain. Now a bit about Masada :
Surrounded on all sides by deep ravines, overlooking the Dead Sea and cut off from civilization by the Judean desert, the fortress of Masada was built for the personal needs the Jews or the Romans would try to overthrow him, so he built for himself this private, luxurious fortress-palace.
Herod diverted the floods of the Judean desert into cisterns carved into the plateau of Masada, and stored there huge quantities of foods, and weapons – all for his personal use. Remains of Herod’s luxurious palace-fortress have been uncovered on Masada; so have the Roman bathhouse, storerooms and northern palace.
About 70 years after Herod’s death, Jewish Zealots turned Masada into their final bastion. The Romans, in their desire to lower Jewish morale, sent several legions to Masada. Their aim: to destroy the 960 men, women children who had fled Jerusalem after the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Unable to live their lives in the tradition of their forefathers, the defenders of Masada chose to die at their own hand rather than fall into the hands of the Romans and fall into slavery.
- Snake path up the mountain in the 43 degree desert heat with no water or break in between with a steep climb. This is the route of the old times and it takes about 2-3 hours to climb. This route is circuitous and long.. and of course we all know I am not about those things at all!
- The second way is the way I took, which was with the cablecar. Transportation up the mountain is basically a ski lift… the lift is fairly new and it is huge and can fit a lot of people inside. If you’re someone who is afraid of heights - it is actually ok in here because it is so large and it has seats. The views going up the cablecar is spectacular. The cablecar is pretty much the same style I saw in Zermatt going up the Matterhorn.
Looking to see how far we travelled up! Definitely not for someone who is afraid of heights at all.
As you dock into the Fortress, this is the view coming up!
So once you get to the top of the Cable Car run, then you are greeted with this amazing panorama and it is possible to see the Dead Sea in the distance. The machinery itself doesn’t look stable in some ways but it is maintained very frequently; well so I was told by the guides up there.
masada top
Once you are at the top, there are large sections cordoned off by walls and each section is well labelled and tells you the history of Masada, who occupied the rooms and what happened to the people in them.
So once we were done exploring Masada and getting the story, then it was off to the Dead Sea.
