Rishi Sankar: Ah Trini Travelogue » Israel 2007

Sunsets on the Boardwalk

Rishi — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:40:29 +0000

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

© Rishi for Rishi Sankar: Ah Trini Travelogue, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: tel aviv boardwalk, tel aviv evenings, what to do in tel aviv

Leaving Tel Aviv for London

Rishi — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:59:50 +0000

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.

Working at Ness in Tel Aviv – 18th June, 2007

Rishi — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:08:27 +0000

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.

Jerusalem Photo Log

Rishi — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:13:35 +0000

http://rishiray.smugmug.com/gallery/3011865_ioZPA#163516912_j8rCK

Masada and the Dead Sea……

Rishi — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:50:31 +0000

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.

Prague 2007: Last Day additional note – 9th June, 2007

Rishi — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:14:28 +0000

Well it has been a great time on this trip.. and i although i said would blog from the road.. it has been quite the busy time in the last couple countries. Im finally done here with this eurotrip and as usual it has been a blast. I have about 6 hours on the train from here to Frankfurt. Of course I missed the train to Frankfurt at 10,34am.. because the damn eurail book was wrong and told me to go from Hvalni instead of Holosovice. But thankfully, i can make it into Frankfurt at 7pm, so there is no real issue, rather than the fact that I could have stayed in the hotel a bit longer.

The final hotel in Prague was quite good, and I would definitely recommend it again and recommend staying verz close to Wencelas Square when in Prague. I will definitely come back here, the sights are amazing = so much history and culture, good bike riding = rented a bike for 300 krowns == so about 15 canadian for a couple hours. To rent the bike for the whole day was 20 canadian. There is good bike riding and a smaller castle in the south of Prague.

This has been one of the first trips where I didnt lose a camera or a card or something related to the pics. I guess eventually. one is bound not to lose something on the road. so all cameras are still around, adapters, PSP, laptop = which has been a godsend for doing my work on the road and all the knicknacks.

So today was pretty much just spent recovering from last nights drinking in a bar. I think it was called .. get this… alcohol bar!! Anyway, i got into a little altercation with dumbass czech bitch…. since ranj and I and beth we talking.. and of course, im there being colourful, in language and spirit. She proceeds to lecture me about my language, which would be fine, but after the way that we have been treated here, in terms of service and lack hospitality, the idea of a czech lecturing me about anything else, than telling me the ways that something is not possible, was on the verge of ridiculous. So of course, in true Trini styles, I proceeded to cuss her out and it escalated a bit from there…. but in the end, I wasnt having any of it. So we left and headed to a Casino.

Now the Casinos in Prague are a bit sketchy but they are better in terms of hospitality, and you get a better exchange rate in the casinos that on the street. In fact, even the Czechs get ripped off by their own, but only if your wife is American. I saw the funniest thing while getting some cash exchanged, where this Czech was going postal on this one guy, who ripped him off, but then the guy§s wife was american and that somehow made it understandable.
so after the casino, I went back looking for my brick in the pile of beneficial bricks, and can you believe it, my brick was gone. The fuckers or someone ripped off mz Trinidad block. But they will know a Trini was there. Then it was on to the hotel and crashing! Quick nice trip, and I do love Prague though, since this is really a golden city, I only wish the service was better in the restaurants and everyone didnt look at you like they had never seen a brown person in their lives.

But whatever.. time to catch the train to Frankfurt and the ISRAEL. I never did think I would make Israel in my lifetime though, since this is a country, I have no zeal to see, but I guess we will see……….

12.55pm
So my train gets in Late from Prague such that I miss the connection to Frankfurt from Dresden. The one thing I like about the German Rail system is how punctual they are, so when a train gets in late. It really throws schedules off, and this one definitely threw my schedule off, but since I originally took the earlier train…but then missed that connection since the Eurail book was wrong…I now missed another connection but I should be getting into Frankfurt with about 90 mins to spare. Now here is the thing that just came up that I might have not thought about. The luggage service that is storing my luggage opens till either 9pm or 10 pm. If they open till 9 pm, then I might be slightly fucked with no luggage in Israel. This could be a real problem over there in Israel since I only have the clothes I have been traveling with and I get into Tel Aviv at a very messed up time. I think it is time to call the luggage people and see and hope they close at 10pm.

3.55pm..
Im on the train to Frankfurt, I dropped in to a Tmobile store and bought 15 euros on the unlocked phone, of which it has become a very good thing to have. I think I am going to detail how I got the phone in the first place… but I think that is a side little story from the first day in Frankfurt. The luggage place is now open from 6am till about 10 pm. This is pretty good seeing that I will have to run from one end of the terminal and then try and grab this bag and then find the Lufthansa gate. It is going to be quite the interesting night ahead of me.
So in this train compartment, I am with this german guy.. he is an older businessman type. He had a reservation for this 4 seat compartment, but I was sitting here first and I refused to move… so he is sitting across the table from me. I wonder how he is going to reach when I start snoring down the place. That should be pretty funny. I must say though, I always love traveling the rail in first class. The shitty European service somehow becomes “not bad”, and actually pretty pleasant. Some days, I rag on Americans but honestly once you get used to actual customer service, the shit that passes for Customer Service over here is actually almost ridiculous. In Trinidad, our customer service is obviously some type of afterthought.

8.31pm
Well… a couple hours later… it is now 8.31pm… just close to Frankfurt airport, there will be quite the mad rush to get all this stuff done. Im kinda nervous about the connection and passing through German Customs, as well as the two pieces of luggage that I am taking with me. Well I can clear state that I have never gone through more stress and trouble than for this flight to Tel Aviv. I have never also one through 5 security checks on a flight. Obviously the Israelis have some enemies. The stress of getting this flight though, im sure aged me a couple years. In addition, I am thoroughly pissed that I had to fork out 220 euros since I was only allowed 20 kilos of baggage allowance and im going for three weeks on a trip. It is a good thing I did not fully pack for this trip else I would have to put out a lot more money, as if 220 euros wasn’t enough.

More Prague pics

View photos at SmugMug