A trip to the doctor!

No doubt most of us are familiar with how the US healthcare system (or UK health system, for those of you there) works. You have your level of coverage by whichever insurance company, you call up to find a doctor, make an appointment and then go see them. It works pretty much the same here in Israel, which is great - if you speak Hebrew.

I've been sick for about three weeks now - just a lingering cough that I can't seem to shake. It's become annoying enough to go and do something about it, finally. Seeing as how we're covered here in Israel through Animation Lab, and since I don't know what would happen if I went to the doc's in the UK (payment-wise, you understand), I elected to pay a visit before we leave. Here is how my Sunday adventure went:

The phones here all have quick-dial methods (*xxxx will get you to xxxx's business phone) - the one for the insurance/doctor that we're covered by is *2700 (I discovered that *2900 is Club Med - just in case you were interested!). Now, this number isn't listed on the insurance card I was given (all in Hebrew), and we weren't given any informative pamphlets or anything like that. So, I'm going in blind on this journey. I reach a Hebrew message, and start randomly pressing numbers, correctly assuming that this was a "press x for nurse, press x for appointments" type menu. After two tries, I reach a person who doesn't speak English, and who helpfully transferred me to an English-speaking person after laughing at me for a minute or two. I explained my symptoms, and she said "yes, of course you can see a doctor." *pause*

me: you mean, right now, I can come down?
her: yes, come now, ok?
me: ok, your address is 126 ben yehuda?
her: yes it is in (something in Hebrew I didn't catch)
me: I'm sorry, it's where?
her: (laugh) yes, ben yehuda *click*

Ok. So, I'm on my way to see a random doctor. At some building. According to the website (I did get that from one of Lee's admins at work, and google translate is pretty handy, sometimes), the place is MAOZ 126 Ben Yehuda. I know where Ben Yehuda is, and I figure that I can find where 126 is, no problem. HAHAHAHAHAH - man I kill me sometimes!

I get to Ben Yehuda, and go to where google maps says this place is. Which it isn't. I asked three or four people where I could find this address, and got many shrugs and a couple brusque "no's" when I asked if they spoke English. Finally after going up and down several flights of stairs in the building I THOUGHT it was in, I found a helpful security guard who pointed out the real building to me across the street. The building itself is called "MAOZ" - the whole half-block long building is #126 Ben Yehuda. Great. Thanking him, I trundled down the escalator and made my way across the street to try to figure this out.

Now, Ben Yehuda is the pedestrian shopping street I wrote about way back in November - so the building I'm supposed to go to has a bunch of store fronts, and stalls and markets. I spy what looks like a pharmacy door, and on a hunch checked it out (the writing, again, all in Hebrew). There was a non-English speaking security guard posted inside the door, and when I asked about a clinic, he pointed me downstairs. Had I succeeded?? No, downstairs was a big pharmacy. (Side note: An elderly English woman was getting off the elevator as I came down the stairs, and asked me if that was the pharmacy, and I indicated that I didn't know, but would check. So I did, and told her that yes, it was indeed. And then she said "are you English?". I laughed and said "no, I am American, but my boyfriend is......" I didn't get to finish before she dismissed me rather rudely - s'up arrogant lady? And I reckon spending so much time here with Lee has probably impacted my enunciation somewhat. I'll have to switch that to valley girl when we get down to LA!) I headed back up for another encounter with the security guard.

me: No no, that is pharmacy, I need DOCTOR.
him: Oh, doctor? Up (pointing up the stairs)
me: ah. thanks.

So, I go UPstairs, and find what looks like it could be a doctor's office! I approach the front desk, where there are two people looking like nurses, helping a lady. I wait a few minutes while one finishes her phone conversation, and finishes helping the lady in front of me, and then the younger woman calls me over, and I discover that SHE doesn't speak English (Hey Esther - so much for your theory that they all speak it in Jerusalem!). So the older lady turns to help me, swipes my insurance card, and asks who my doctor is. Well, I don't have one, and she says:

You don't have doctor? We have no doctor here until 2! (it's 2:45) I mean, 3!
me: Uh, well, I can wait?
her: Go to room 112, and see nurse blahblahblah, she will help you.

I walk around the corner (and am directed by hand gestures by both the nurses and the woman who had been waiting in front of me), and stand outside a nurses office, while she speaks to some man inside. Once she is done with him, she waves me in, and in broken English, asks me what is wrong. I explain, and she tries to take my pulse. And my pO2 levels, whatever those are. The first machine she she tries to use (clipping the little finger thing on me) doesn't work. She reboots it. And then says, very loudly and very exasperatedly "OY VEY" then walks out of the room, leaving me finger-clipped into this broken machine. A few minutes later, she returns, wheeling an older model finger-clippy machine, and plugs me into that one. When she gets my readings (hr: 75bpm, pO2 97%) she says "good, that's very good."

The nurse prints out a piece of paper, tells me to take it to the front desk, and then to room 107 to see the doctor. I take it back to the nurses, they swipe my card again, and then tell me to go to room 108. Oooohkay. I walk down the OTHER hallway, and join two other women waiting for the doctor. After 40 minutes, I decide to try to door to 108, as there hadn't been any movement, and room 107 had a couple people come in and out. 108 is locked tight, and no response to knocking. One of my fellow waiting patients goes to the front desk, where the older nurse lady insists there is someone in 108. We wait a few minutes longer, then we both approach the front desk, and the woman angrily hangs up her phone, and charges down the hall with us. She swings open door 107, and gives us a smug look - we both look at her and say, in unison, "you told us 108." She shrugged, and walked back to her desk.

Progress! The other girl was ahead of me, so she went in first, and I settled back down to wait. Some more. About 5 minutes go by, and a crazy looking lady walks up and starts rattling off to me in Hebrew. After establishing that I only speak English, she asks me if I am waiting for 107, which I am. Then:

her: what time you have?
me: (looking at watch) it is...
her: no no, what time you get?
me: Oh, uh, I got here at 3 (it is now 3:50)
her: oh, you go first. I am 3 and ten minutes. (laughs to self)

I go back to reading, and another five minutes go by when ANOTHER lady walks up and starts in with the Hebrew. I have very nearly the same conversation - with her trying to determine which of us had been there longest, and therefore got to go into the office first. I still came out the winner, so we all settled down to wait some more.

At around 4:10, the girl who had been in front of me came out of the office, and I made my way in. Now, this was a tiny exam room, with a dirty patient table, and a packed office desk, and a tiny woman sitting behind it. She tries Hebrew, and then broken English. I explain again what is wrong with me (the same two questions asked 4 times: You have coughed for three weeks?? and You smoke?). She gets a stethoscope, and listens to me breathe for a few minutes, then looks down my throat. Then sits back behind her super filthy desk, and starts typing. Handing me 4 print-outs that she'd signed and stamped, she says:

her: You go get chest xray. And here are antibiotics and syrup. For coughing.
me: ok, where do I get the xray?
her: HebrewHebrewHebrew
me: uhm, can you tell me where that is? I don't know....
her: ask at desk. they tell you. goodbye.

I take my papers (in Hebrew) and go back to the front desk. The woman there says the SAME thing to me about where I am to get my xray, and I ask her to write it down. She does. In Hebrew. I then ask for her to write it in English, so she does that (big huge sigh). I figure this is the name of a facility (that is 'not too far') away from the clinic, and I head on my way to fill my scrips. Back down two flights of stairs to the pharmacy, I wait my turn, and get called up to the counter. They take my prescriptions, and promptly fill them from drawers lining the wall. Wham, bam, I'm out of there with a whole boatload of pharmaceuticals, and the name of some place to go.

As it's late in the day, I decide to wait until the next day to find this xray place. Just as well I did!

The next morning I wake up feeling AWFUL. It's apparently a reaction to the types of meds I was given, so I struggle through and get up to go get this xray. I look on google maps, and find out that it's about 3 miles away, and I'd have to walk. So I get hoofing it. I walk through several neighborhoods, and come to a sign with the name of the 'facility' on it. It's not a building. It's an EFFING NEIGHBORHOOD. With no indication as to where I'm meant to go to get this xray done. As I'm feeling like death itself, I head home - another 3 miles in the sun. Once I get there, I email Lee's admin to find out about this place. Apparently there IS an address for it, and it's another mile beyond where I'd already walked that day. Uh, no thanks.

I took the rest of yesterday off, and when I was asked about the xray at work today, I said that "it took forever!" and received a round of sympathetic nods from the people I was speaking with. Apparently heathcare here runs exactly like everything else in Israel- it all depends what day you go, who you talk to, and whether or not that person is in a good mood.

(As far as my health is concerned, I'm feeling infinitely better today- and I wasn't coughing all night for the first time in a long time - it would seem that (bad reaction or no) the antibiotics and syrup I received (gratis!) are working their wonders!)

Eilat and Dolphin Reef

Back again after a short break!

In a few short weeks, Lee and I (with assorted parties) did the drive to and from Eilat (or Elat, depending on the sign*). As I mentioned before, Eilat is the city at the southern end of Israel; it is a border crossing town, as both Jordan and Egypt hit at this point. It also is a party town, where Israelis come for holidays to sun, swim, snorkel, scuba and generally raise hell. Needless to say, there is plenty to do here outside of crashing overnight before heading on to other destinations.

The evening we returned from Petra, Eyal suggested an amazing steakhouse - Eddie's Hide-A-Way. It was difficult to find (even for a regular like Eyal) and definitely tucked away! The steaks were amazing, and the dinner deal we wound up with was even better. Apparently, if you're a diver, for 100NIS you get: an appetizer for two, two steak dinners with all the trimmings and two beverages (sadly, sodas or juice only- the good stuff was extra). That's a smoking deal.

The following morning Geraldine, Dave and Lee had reservations to go snorkeling with the dolphins at Dolphin Reef. It's the only place in Israel where you can do this - and as Geraldine came all the way here, and it was one of the few things she had on her lifetime must-do list, we made it happen. The appointment was at 10am, so we had to be at the reef by 9:45 or so.....good ol' google maps said it was just 5 minutes away, so giving ourselves 20 minutes seemed reasonable. Until we discovered that google maps was so very very wrong, and we wound up in some alley behind a hotel, asking for directions from a fairly useless gift store clerk. Who was assisted by a very helpful co-worker who looked confused, then said:

"Why do you not give her the map?"

*blink*

There was a MAP and I'd just wasted 10 minutes trying to find out that A) I could take a bus that may or not be running, or B) could try to get back to some road that nobody knew the name of or C) ask someone else.

*sigh*

The FREE map of Eilat showed that we were a few kilometers away from Dolphin Reef, so we scrambled back into the car and raced down the coast to a fairly inconspicuous parking lot, and headed into awesome. Dolphin Reef beach is a secluded and well-kept oasis. It cost 60NIS to get in (only for me, as the cost for the rest of our group paid for the snorkeling). This entrance fee covered paying for an extremely clean beach, with an abundance of chairs, umbrellas, trees, beverage and food booths....and waiters. I set up camp with enough chairs and shade to sort us out for the day, and waited while everyone else did their snorkel. The beach was lovely, and it was a beautiful sunny day. I ordered a beer, cracked my book and put my feet up.


(A feeding platform)

About 30 minutes later, I watched three sets of snorkeling fins swim out into the outside barrier of the fenced in reef. The area was cordoned off into two sections, one (closer to the beach) was a half moon shape for beach-goers to swim in - complete with fish and small reef and a rope barrier that looked into the dolphin section. THAT section was comprised of a larger half moon wrapped around the inner circle where people could snorkel or dive with a pod of resident dolphins. Above this outer section coming off the beach were piers with platforms at intervals, where people could stand above the water and watch the dolphins swim around. Now, their 'enclosure' wasn't exactly that- according to Lee, the outer barrier wasn't quite a barrier - it was open in large places under the surface to allow the big guys to swim in and out. Apparently they keep coming back because they're fed at certain times, and it's just not a bad place to be. The managers of the reef keep the number of people in the outer barrier at a time to a minimum, and nobody is allowed to touch or harass the dolphins. So, people go in and swim back and forth in this roped off area and the dolphins come and go as they please - drive by's, hanging out, clicking and ticking and squeaking at one another. Apparently it was pretty cool - but you're not really allowed to take photos...Lee took a few sneaky ones anyhow.


(A sneaky snorkel photo; Lunchtime for Flipper!)

After about an hour, three soggy snorkelers made their way to our perch on the sand, and gave me the lowdown on how their adventure was. We spent the rest of the day drinking beers and relaxing on the sand - the service was amazing (friendly, expedient, inexpensive - all rare for Israel!), the food was yummy, and the beach was warm and delightful.


(mmmm, beach)

After a full day of chilling out, we stuffed ourselves back into the car and did the long long drive back up to Jerusalem.

The following week, Lee and I made the same trek to Eilat with my friend Meg and her brother in law, Drew. Drew unexpectedly crashed Meg's visit when the Iceland volcano messed up his return trip from Armenia. We're close enough to Armenia to make a stop while trans-Atlantic flights from London are delayed!

We stopped at a NEW beach on the Dead Sea - this one located at Ein Gedi and it was FREE. While the facilities weren't as nice, the water was clearer, and it was less crowded (for a while). You could take showers/get changed for 2NIS (coin op turnstile), but there were showers for hosing off the sea minerals for free too. The beach here wasn't much of a beach, really, but more of a dirt slope dropping off quickly into the water, which was full of large, wobbly stones. The water here was clearer, due to a distinct lack of mud - the only mud we found was a hefty swim/walk up the beach to one sad little wallow. We, of course, took advantage. Lee and I trekked over (well, swam, anyhow) and carted back a handful or two for Meg.


(Bobbing in the pretty water)

After our little foray into the water, we continued down to Eilat, and stayed in the same hotel we'd stayed in last time. Only, this time there was just one bedroom. Not the awesome two. And they were fully booked, as we were there over Israel's Independence Day. We wandered out for dinner that night and hit Paddy O'Briens - a pretty tidy Irish pub/restaurant in the 'happening' area of town. We had massive dinners, and waited several hours for festivities to begin. And waited. And waited. They had a bandstand set up, and occasionally someone who looked like a musician would come by and turn a knob, or blow into a mic, but the band hadn't started by the time we left- around 1am. That isn't saying much, however, as the bar only started to fill up around 11:30.


(Iced T appearing at Paddy O'Briens))

We'd arranged a tour for Meg and Drew to go up to Petra - freeing Lee and I to hang out on the beach for the day. Which we did. (Ok. That wasn't the plan. We were going to dive. But I forgot my PADI card. Again.) The beaches at Eilat are NASTY. Covered in dirt, people swimming in their dirty y-front underpants, glass bottles broken everywhere in the sand, and in the water as well. But PACKED - both with families and 20-somethings alike. All perfectly happy to risk severing an artery to get in the water. The beach was also lined with numerous open air cafes - each blaring their own flavor of tasteless beach music. Lee and I tried to get away from that as much as possible, and wound up on a lesser-used part of the beach. We discovered why it was lesser used when we went for a swim - the bottom was rocky and unstable. Coming back from a nice cooling-off session, Lee had a bad run-in with a sea urchin. 4 darts to the big toe and an agonizing afternoon ahead, we decided to move to the more crowded section and get in the water where there was a sandy (if covered in glass shards) bottom and no sea urchins.


(It LOOKS nice, doesn't it? FOOL!)

Meg and Drew were supposed to be back around 5, but we got a text saying that they wouldn't be back until "8pm, at the earliest". Which wound up not to be true (thankfully, as we had to drive back to Jerusalem that night). Apparently they had the good fortune to be stuck with four large, lazy, slow Argentinians - who held up their entire tour! Shopping, wandering aimlessly, not listening to the tour guide....their adventure to Petra had a very colorful story attached.

Next up: Uhm...I am not sure. Let's see what else we did with Meg....

*Both Hebrew and Arabic don't have equivalent Latin letters, so most words in English are spelled phonetically, which means many variations in spelling - especially as there doesn't seem to be a country-wide standard for things like this.

Indyyyyyyy! Or, no buildings and ruins were harmed during filming.

Petra! Called by the BBC one of the "40 places you must see before you die" (per Wikipedia, folks), Lee and I had been planning to go since we first arrived here in Israel. The catalyst for making the trip this time was Lee's mother coming to visit. She was very eager to get to Petra (and a whole bunch of other places!) in the week she would be here with us. We also hit Eilat and Dolphin Reef during this trip, but I'll get to those after PETRA!

Petra is the city carved out of the mountains. Estimates have it being built somewhere around 1550 BCE - it's mentioned in Egyptian texts, and the Romans laid claim to it in their heyday. It's been featured in numerous movies and books (most notably Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and is Jordan's most visited tourist attraction. (Duh on that...there isn't much else in Jordan.)

We started our trip on a Thursday evening. Lee left work a little early, and we piled ourselves into the not-large rental car for the long hot drive down south. Following the route our bus had taken us just 10 days earlier, we paralleled the Dead Sea, and shot out into the desert night for a 4 hour drive. We were meeting my friend Eyal down there, who had a girl in tow, in order to do Petra as a bigger group. As we'd never been to Eilat before, we had no idea where our hotel was (The directions were typical for Israel "go through two roundabouts, make a left onto xxxx street". Now do you go THROUGH two roundabouts, and at the THIRD one make a left? Oh, and the street naming has the same issue as in Jerusalem. They don't match up depending on your source.) but found it relatively easily, and were more than pleasantly surprised to discover a two-bedroom suite, complete with lounge and kitchenette. At a more than reasonable price, I might add. And our timing was perfect- they were just starting karaoke in the lobby!

As we had a very early start the next day, we were quickly to bed. Sadly, karaoke would have to wait for another time.

To get to Petra, you cross the Jordanian border on foot. We drove to the border, parked the car, and walked up. Much like crossing the Egyptian border, it's unmitigated chaos. First you line up in front of booths ("cashiers") to pay your Israel exit fee (98.5NIS..); We were surrounded by busloads of tourists all trying to do the same thing, and it took an extraordinary amount of time giving them our money, and making a quick purchase of Jordanian Dinar (about $1.50:1 Dinar). Then on to the entering Jordan part. You walk through the middle of an active mine field (I am not joking), then through a small doorway into a small room and have your items xray screened before being told to go to a window outside. This window is in a courtyard, one side is a building with windows and some instructions (NO PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS), the other side is a souvenir/refreshments shop. The space in between is crawling with large tour groups, sitting idly around while their guides collect all their passports together, and hand them in a huge stack through the aforementioned window. Being that we were a small group of six, and not on a tour, and had no idea what we were doing, this process also took an extraordinary amount time. We finally got the window man to take our passports - and they do TAKE them - you get them back at yet another window further down the line. Mine was handed back to a group in front of us, who kindly returned it to me when I asked.
(Ok, fine. I was totally freaking out, and panicking, and Lee was doing his best to keep me calm and collected while these disorganized people took my only existing form of ID and did god-knows-what with it in their dirty smoke-filled offices. ok? Happy now?)


(The minefield; Welcome to Jordan)

Weathering the crazed border crossing (2.5 hours after the border opened), we crossed into Jordan, surrounded by photographs (big ones!) of the current leaders in power (in different outfits- military, casual, black dress thingy..). In the parking lot on the other side, we were approached by taxi drivers, who gave us quotes that were WAY more expensive than we'd expected, and there was no bargaining to be had. Finding that we were at the mercy of the taxi driver mafia in Jordan, we split into two groups (no driver would take 6), and then were taken to a sketchy meeting point in Aqaba - some housing project - where our REAL taxi drivers picked us up. Taxi pimping, alive and well in Jordan.

We got on the road for the 2.5 hour drive to Petra. As the best (read: safest) place to cross into Jordan is in Eilat, you drive 4 hours south in order to drive 2.5 hours north to the site....There is a touistpiracy in Jordan. All the drivers stop at designated places along the road that conveniently are souvenir shops and cafes! As we were much later than we wanted to be, we weren't all that thrilled about the stop, but a potty break is a potty break. And this is where I saw my first burqha-wearing woman shepherding goats.


(Shepherding fashion)

The drive through Jordan is actually lovely - mountainous, clear air, good roads. Our driver was funny too; He played local music and spent some time dancing and singing in the car. At the very least it wasn't a boring drive! You climb up and over a mountain range to get to Petra, and back down into a valley. The surrounding town is well supported by the tourist economy, as this is really the only town of any merit we've seen since leaving Aqaba. Parking the taxis, we agree on a meeting time and place (yes, the drivers hang out and wait for several hours while you go and check out the goods), and we were informed that we should tell the ticket window that we were staying overnight in Jordan - it cuts the entry fee in HALF. 60.00JD for "tourists", 33.00JD for people staying at least one night in Jordan. They really want to keep that tourist money in the country.

We got our discounted rates, and headed into the canyon.

You can take a 'free' horseback ride the first 750 meters (downhill), but we elected to walk it. Past all the men on horseback calling out "horse ride? horse RIDE?", kicking up dust as they trotted back and forth. The interesting bits of Petra are along a long winding canyon floor - they had put in place water damming, routing and storing measures, to capture flash floods and use the water for sustaining life in the desert. The first sites are tombs, very basic, eroded structures lining the canyon. Then nothing but water channels carved into the rock for a kilometer through a winding slot canyon. But at the end of the kilometer? The narrow walls open up in to a sunny giant proper canyon, and at the end you're faced with the enormous and impressive Treasury building. This is THE iconic image everyone has of Petra. And it's amazing. The city stretches for miles beyond this initial breathtaking site, and while it's all impressive and beautiful, nothing compared to this initial carving. We stood around, and wandered, and took tons of photographs before carrying on down the canyon. We started coming on more clustered 'buildings' which may have been homes or businesses, and then a large amphitheater, and even more structures winding up the canyon walls. (Lee commented that the builders were under a lot of pressure- if you mess up a structure you're putting together, you can tear it down and start over.....if you mess up a structure you're carving out of a mountainside...well, you only get one shot!)
There were 'ladders' carved into the rock next to the taller buildings- obviously the architects needed access to the higher reaches, but these things were sketchy looking, I would have been terrified ascending them.


(The Treasury)

Continuing on through the canyon, we passed numerous bedouin booths set up with jewelry and trinkets and small souvenirs, where women were working! Very strange based on our experience in Egypt, but there you go. The setups were colorful and well arrayed, and no-pressure selling from the owners. Bracelets, necklaces, ROCKS, postcards (also sold by children mixed in with the tour groups), sodas, lamps, lanterns, tea pots....you name it, they had it.



(More of the city; A crazy little scene at a Bedouin shop)

Towards the end of the main sites, past an active archeological dig at a Roman temple, there are two restaurants and restrooms. Thank goodness. We threw some food into us (Arabian food buffet- very very good- particularly the oranges, which we took by the armful), and started the long climb back up to the entrance. Geraldine (Lee's mum) and I had been gagging to ride camels all day- they have several herds of them just for that purpose in the canyon. So, we bargained for a ride (on Zuzu and Coco), and left the men on foot while we sauntered in luxury (or held on for dear life) back up the road. The man who was leading the camel train stopped and grabbed a cola from one of the stalls - not for himself though. For Zuzu, my camel. Apparently she was a big soda junkie, and was motivated by him crinkling the can at her. Once we reached the Treasury again, he gave Zuzu the can, and it promptly disappeared into her huge mouth, and was 'chewed' for a while. She did spit it out when she got up to leave. Woo hoo, camels! My stay in the middle east is now officially complete. The last box was ticked. Everything else is just gravy.


(Geraldine's slick ride)

Leaving the site, we met back up with our taxi drivers, and headed on the long ride back to the border. With a few stops for good photos, we made good time (all of us napped at one time or another), and crossed back into Israel with no problems. Where Eyal took us to Eddie's Hide-a-way steakhouse for one of the best steak meals I've ever had. And if you tell them you're a diver, you get a stellar deal - an appetizer for two, two meals and two drinks for 100NIS. $30!

Tomorrow: Eilat itself, and Dolphin Reef!



(All of us - including driver! at the end of the day)

Eeeeeeeeegipt!

*By request- I should have noted in my last post that I worked (very hard) for a year on a MMO called Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. It was pretty amazing to visit the places and see the things we'd built into the game!*





We returned home from the month away just before Passover started here in Israel. The company Lee works for is privately owned, and shuts down for the whole week- a bit of a luxury here, apparently. Again, as we had all this time, and we're not Jewish (and therefore, don't have to observe) and every grocery store had completely removed bread from their shelves for the week, we decided to get away. And what better place than Egypt? It's just next door, is pretty cheap, and has some amazing features!

Looking at flights/buses/hotels/internal transport, we decided to skip the pyramids (.....I think I heard your shock, yes we decided to SKIP THE PYRAMIDS) and go to Sharm el Sheikh, on the Red Sea, for some of the finest scuba diving on earth. No matter that I wasn't PADI certified and am horribly terrified of fish, and Lee wanted to learn to kite surf instead....we decided on Sharm. As we had only three days back in Israel before Passover started, we rushed to get things booked- and if I thought that stuff was handled oddly and somewhat haphazardly here........it's ten times worse in Egypt. Phones ring into eternity, e-mails go unanswered, everything can be bargained for or bartered, yet somehow everything works out a-ok. We booked a week in an all-inclusive resort, with a private beach, along the strip of fancy seaside hotels in Sharm. Three Corners Palmyra. Swank swank! I then booked myself a PADI certification course, and got Lee set up with a few days of kite surfing lessons.

Deciding that flying was too expensive (you have to route through Jordan - apparently Israel isn't allowed to fly into Egypt), we booked a bus from Jerusalem to Eilat (the border town between Israel, Egypt and Jordan- we see a lot of Eilat over the next several weeks!), crossed the Taba border on foot, then hired a car to drive us the 2.5 hours to Sharm (as it's known by the locals). Hiring the car was interesting- the company wanted WAY too much money to drive us, and I ended up bartering down to less than half of the original price- and learned at our resort that I STILL overpaid by about 40%! More about the car hire later.....it was our worst experience in Egypt.

The bus ride was uneventful - save the hangovers and me leaving my wallet on it! We started at 7am from Jerusalem, and got to the border around 11:30am. It's due south from Jerusalem, along the Dead Sea and a straight shot through the desert. The bus was full of young Israelis going to spend the long weekend in Eilat - it's pretty much a party town. The two young men in front of us were loud and smelled awful. In their Gucci sunglasses. I would have called them 'frat boys' had we been in the US.


(Egypt! This way!)

Crossing the border was.....interesting. You have to pay a fee to leave Israel. 98.5NIS - which is around $30. You don't pay anything to come in, but you pay to leave. They give you this little receipt at one booth, you walk to another booth, and they tear the little receipt in half, then you go to another checkpoint, and they make sure the little receipt is stamped and torn, then you walk across the border into no-mans-land. Then you go past a duty-free shop, and into a little building that looks exactly like you think a border checkpoint should look like. Tinted windows, brick facade, lots of people milling about inside around odd office furniture, then two little booths at the back - the only thing standing between you and Egypt - a whole other continent away! We were stopped by a man who - I swear - had toothpicks for teeth. And those were black. He gave us a pink entry card to fill out before getting to the booth, so we dutifully inked in our names and passport numbers, and headed to the booths. At the booth, a surly Arab looked at our passports, asked where we were going, absently stamped our entry stamp, and reached for the next person in line.

We walked out the doors nearly two hours early for our pre-arranged ride. Looking around, there are TWO resorts just at the border- a Hilton, and a place simply called "Casino". You are allowed to be within 1km of the border crossings in Egypt without paying your entrance fee (30 Egyptian Pounds - around $6), and that's because they get a boatload of revenue from the casinos peppered just at the border. Electing to go with the familiar, the Hilton won out. We walked up a little hill, through four security checkpoints (had our bags searched thoroughly getting up to the Hilton), and had a refreshing beverage overlooking the Red Sea and the amazing pool while we wasted the time before our long drive. Now, Egypt is a muslim country, which means they don't drink. So they don't know how to make a cocktail. My 'pina colada' was served in layers, no ice, not blended, and tasted nothing like a pina colada. I'm not saying it wasn't yummy, it just wasn't a pina colada. Lee had a banana liqueur and rum thing - super yummy.

Having wasted enough time, we headed back down the hill, stood around with the dress-wearing Arab taxi drivers trying to get our business, and looked for our driver. It was hot. Africa hot, which makes sense, as we were on the African continent. I saw a man standing on the meridian with a sign "Mr. Renee Ward". Hooray! We waved, and grabbed our bags and met our driver....Tito. Who immediately complained that he'd been there for 30 minutes already (which would have made him 45 minutes early to get us, as we were still 15 minutes early from the pickup time.). He takes us to his car, tells us to wait a minute, and proceeds to have an extended conversation with some guys standing around, smokes a couple of cigarettes, and finally gets into the car to head south. During this time, we're sitting in the car, roasting. Two little hot potatoes baking in the sun. Finally getting on the way, we use nature's air conditioning (the windows), and make it exactly 1km before being stopped and charged for our entrance. Tito kindly took our USD and ran around to two shops directly across the street from one another, and returned (finally) with blue slips of paper that were our receipts.

THEN we got on the road. Tito chain smoking the whole way. Every person in Egypt smokes. A lot.

The drive takes you down the coast of the Red Sea, past absolutely stunning coastline, and the bluest water I've ever seen. And every inch of the coast is owned by someone - there are miles of tiny shacks set up on the beaches, with dirt paths dug out off the high way pointing to "Diana Resort" or "Coral Beach" or "Dolphin Waves" or some other fun name. Apparently these places are dirt cheap, and you stay in these huts on the beach - get up in the morning, walk into the water for your dive, take a nap, dive again, eat something, dive again, then crawl into your mosquito netting for the night. According to my friend Eyal, if you stay at one of these places, they're most accommodating - ask for waters in the morning, they're set up by lunch. Food? No problem. Only, its no frills. No bathrooms in the huts, no amenities - just you, your hut, the sea, and your little Arab host.

Sadly, we didn't stay at one of these places. I'd like to try one sometime, as it looked like a truly get-away-from-it-all holiday.


(One of the fancier 'resorts' on the way to Sharm)

The rest of the drive was boring and warm. We arrived in Sharm around 5pm, and pulled off the barren desert into a lush oasis. Our hotel was all-inclusive (except drinks at the beach, and specialty alcohols, and internet...), so we got these pink bracelets (particularly lovely on Lee), and were shown to our room. We were walked through the resort, which had 6 pools, three bars, four restaurants (in addition to the two buffet dining halls) a nightclub and anything you could possibly want. Sadly, their private beach was off-site, and you had to take a free shuttle to get to and from, but that was ok, we had all sorts of plans coming up anyhow! Early to bed, as Lee had to be up at 7 (!) for his kitesurfing lesson, and I was being picked up at 9:30 for diving.


(One of the many pools at Palmyra)

The next three days were pretty much the same. Get up too early, eat breakfast together, Lee goes kitesurfing, I go back to the room for a little while, then head to my diving lessons. Arrive back sometime in the afternoon, lay by the pool drinking the free beer and soaking up the rays before getting cleaned up for the buffet dinner. Then early to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat.


(The diving area at Shark's Bay)

Once I was certified (four dives in the absolutely effing gorgeous red sea, and a few tiny panic fish moments later), and Lee had gone pro with the kite thing, we had 3 free days. We decided to schedule a dive for Sunday, which left Friday and Saturday free. As the wind wasn't good on Friday morning, we checked out the Palmyra beach. With umbrellas and beach chairs, and a little bar, it was pleasant enough. Swimming wasn't much of an option, as the 'beach' was a nearly solid block of rock jutting out 100 meters into the sea before a severe dropoff. It made for fantastic tidepooling, but there wasn't much swimming to be had. There were two jettys, one on either side of our beach, but both belonged to other resorts, and we weren't allowed on them. Which was lame.


(Palmyra Beach)

Back at the hotel they were showing a Manchester United match in the "Oriental Bar", which was a bedouin tent set up inside the resort, with pillows and low tables, and hookahs. We sat and watched the match with the 10 other Brits in the resort, drinking beers and being absolutely eaten alive by mosquitoes. Note to self - wear sleeves and pants. We ended up doing this a couple of nights actually, it was really nice to lounge around!

The next day we decided to try to get Lee out with a kite again, but once again the winds weren't playing nice, so we sat on the beach at another resort (where the kite surfing shop was) for a couple of hours, did a little snorkeling, and decided to do some real snorkeling at Shark's Bay - where I did my shore dives for my certification. We took the free shuttle to the bay, found ourselves two loungers in the shade, and were promptly told that we had to be at the "Palmyra section". Apparently all the resorts own certain parts of the beaches. Anyhow. After relocating, we paid 20 Egyptian Pounds to rent snorkel gear, and waddled into the water. Gorgeous! It was amazing! We took some stellar photos, and spent most of the afternoon floating on the sea with our flippers and masks and all the pretty pretty fish. All of the dive schools in Sharm use this same beach for their certification and training dives- it's protected and calm, with a good beach to walk in, and loads of coral formations, so plenty of things to look at.


(Snorkel!)

Sunday was DIVE DAY! The school I used to get my certification set up day dives off boats in the sea, so we signed up and they picked us up at 10am. We got to the docks and got on a boat with 30 Russians. (All the tourists there were Russian. All the hotel guests, aside from us and the 10 Brits, were Russian. The Russians simply love Egypt.) After a 30 minute jaunt out to sea, we geared up and did our first open water dive off the boat with our guide Ibrahim. Who also owned the school and the boat. Again, simply gorgeous. The water was warm and clear, the fish were showing off, and it was an incredible dive. Back to the boat for another motor to another site, and once again, gear up and dive. Lee and I were the only divers on the boat- the Russians were all snorkelers, so we got to spend a great deal of time down. Awesome.


(Diving; Descending)

Time for lunch! They made a large buffet of traditional Egyptian foods- kafta, kebab, several kinds of salad, and for the kids- beans and chips. We motored to a third site while we were eating, and then a quick swim/snorkel. The last two sites were much more crowded than the first site, and when we went to fill in our dive books, Lee inquired as to the names of the dive sites. Imagine his surprise when he was told "shhh, we weren't supposed to dive in that first spot!" Apparently we got a little bit of a special treat and were taken to a remote and off-limits spot for our first dive! That explains why it was so pristine and beautiful.

Back to the resort, tired and waterlogged. Sleeeeeeep.

Check out day had arrived. We'd pre-paid and pre-arranged for Tito to pick us up at 10am. He didn't show up, so we ended up calling him on the mobile number he'd given us. He had no recollection of needing to get us at all! Arriving 45 minutes later, with a man he introduced as his brother, we got headed back on the long drive to Taba. Here's where things sucked.

We arrive in Taba, where Lee and I get out of the car. And say "bye bye" to Tito and his bro. Tito looks surprised and asks us for payment. I'd paid Tito in full the previous week, when he dropped us off, and had a contract with the car hire service stating as much. He continued to refute this, and said he wasn't affiliated with that service (!!), and was demanding payment. We could see the line to cross the border was insanely long, so we kept walking towards it, with Tito and his brother following along arguing that we owed them money. Finally he calls the company owner, who asks us why we aren't paying - and when I explained that we'd paid last week, it seemed that was that. (After we got home, I got an email from this guy - Waleed - asking what happened, and why I broke our contract - I explained that I'd paid up front, as we'd agreed, and his driver was trying to steal from us, after forgetting our arranged pick up. I got an instant apology, and assurance that he 'fired those idiots'!)

The border crossing back into Israel took 2.5 hours. TWO AND A HALF HOURS TO WALK 100 FEET. Which meant we missed our bus back to Jerusalem. By 30 minutes. Had thieving Tito been on time, we would have made our bus. The next two buses to Jerusalem were sold out, the border delay caused everyone to miss the 4:30 bus; we ended up taking a bus to Tel Aviv, and a very expensive taxi back to Jerusalem from there. We were supposed to get in at 8:30pm, and arrived at 1:30am instead. C'est la vie- the rest of the trip had been so wonderful, that something was bound to go wrong somewhere. It was me traveling, after all!

So, that was Egypt. It was beautiful and amazing, and the people were so incredibly friendly. We learned that all the workers are men- and most of them bedouin, as bedouin women don't work. At all. We ate some great (and some awful) food, and both learned a new skill. On a scale of 1 to awesome, it was closer to awesome.

Next post: Eilat (again) and Petra!

**To see the rest of our photos from Egypt, go here**

Return from a long hiatus, or The world in a nutshell

We like pubs in Bath!

Hi from the blogosphere!

What has happened...let's see. In February, Lee had to leave the country for a month to have his visa processed (it doesn't take a month, but much like everything Israeli, they had no "real" estimate for how long the visa process would actually take; we had to have Lee near the Israeli consulate in London for an extended period of time), so we took advantage of that time. From February 15 through March 15, we did a significant amount of travel. From Israel, to California, to England (London, Bristol, Bath, London), then a week in Rome (and Ostia Antica and Florence), then a few more days in England, and I scuttered back to the US to spend a few days with my family before returning to Israel.

As the interesting bits of THOSE trips were Bath and Rome, I'll throw that stuff in here now - then the next post will get to Eilat, Egypt, Eilat, Petra, Dolphin Reef, and one more trip down to Eilat when my friend Meg was here.

In the interest of not overwhelming anyone with too much _stuff_, I'm going to do the Cliffs Notes version of the first part of this update.

To Bath!

Bath is a little kickass city (I had originally said 'town' and was tut-tutted by Lee, who informed me that the 'town' has a cathedral, which makes it a 'city') in England, where Jane Austen lived for a period of time, where Brits can come from all over the country to soak in Roman baths, and engage in holiday making shopping along the (very posh and upscale) high street - AND where I had my first West Cornwall Pastie. Mmmm pastie.

We looked at the Abbey (gorgeous) did the Austen Center tour (a bit disappointing for 7 pounds!), and checked out the sights before heading back to Bristol for the duration of our stay in England.

(Abbey in Bath; Relics in the Jane Austen Center)

To Rome!

As we did have a month away, we spent some time debating taking a real vacation together - skiing in France/Belgium/Switzerland/Italy was too expensive, so we decided to go budget and spend a week in Rome instead. I'd never been, and neither had Lee, so it was an opportune time to get some culture (and not enough rest). We'd spent a bit of time pre-booking tours (ruins, Vatican, Borgese museum)so our week was jam-packed and well planned. Here come the cliffs notes:

(Overall Notes: The fountains of Rome are sweeeeeet! Free-flowing, clean, crisp, delicious water. We carried one water bottle the whole trip and just refilled at one of the hundreds of taps coming out of the ground!
We had a favorite restaurant near our hotel- the man who worked there - I dubbed him Roberto Tito - saw us on the street daily, and we were warmly welcomed and lavished with treats every time we ate there!)

Day One: TRAVEL. Car to Reading, canceled and rescheduled train to London, flight to Rome, train to city center, metro to bus stop, bus to hotel. All in all, 13 hours door to door (then another door, as we switched rooms in order to have a bathtub!). Collapse.

Day two: We'd booked a group tour of all the old ruins (forum, colosseum, tivoli fountain, pantheon.....), which ended up being just the two of us with our amazing tour guide Elisabetta. She was super knowledgeable, and we got to see so much of the city in a short three hours. Starting at the Colosseum (not actually called the Colosseum back in the day, but the Flavian amphitheater - big flashy name. Colosseum came from the colossus statue of Nero that was stationed outside- the nickname stuck!), we worked our way through the Forum (saw Julius Caesar's tomb!!), then on to Tivoli fountain (depending on how many coins you throw in over your left shoulder, you will (1) return to Rome, (2) fall in love in Rome or (3) fall in love with a Roman and get married in Rome.). From there we hit the Pantheon - as it became a church very early on, it's amazing well preserved, and still the largest free-standing, unsupported dome in the world. It has a hole in the ceiling, when it rains, it rains inside on parishioners. Something about the Roman ruins- anything that was taken over by the church was taken very good care of, the rest was allowed to fall into disrepair. Or pillaged for building supplies. We ended our tour in Piazza Navarro, where we spent the remainder of gloomy afternoon drinking lovely wine and watching passersby.

(Men dressed as centurions at Colosseum; Tivoli Fountain at night)

Day three: Mostly free day! We wandered around the city, checked out the Metro, danced around the Piazza del Popolo, went to the Museo Borghese (the largest private collection of Italian art...and they are eager to remind you of that frequently during the audio tour). It was a gorgeous day, and we toddled around Rome, eating gelato, and drinking coffee and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We wound up that night going back to Tivoli fountain, then heading across the river to the 'place to be' for evening entertainment and dining. We had a bottle of wine at dinner THEN went to a brewery we found. Delicious beers. All 5 of them. Then we found ourselves LOST IN ROME!! Egads! We were not located near a metro line, nor convenient to any taxi stands....hours later we made it back to our hotel, giggling and still very drunk.

Day four: A free day! Following Elisabetta's advice, we took the train down to Ostia Antica. And BOY are we glad we did! Ostia Antica was Rome's port town- all goods coming from the sea came through this place. The Ostia Antica road was a major thoroughfare from the ocean directly to Rome. It's well forgotten about, so the ruins are as well preserved as Pompeii, minus the volcano bit, and we spent the whole day wandering around a mostly intact Roman city! It was very easy to imagine people wandering around doing their daily business on the roads and in the buildings - incredible! Even more incredible was that compared to the bustle and tourist crazy sites in Rome, this place was _empty_. Lee and I saw maybe 20 other people the entire day. Luxury to be able to walk around at our leisure...if you get to Italy, go here. So very very worth it.


(Crazy faces at Ostia Antica)

Day five: Sadly, we had a very early morning. Our tour of the Vatican was set for 9:30, and we arrived in time to discover that I'm an idiot and booked the wrong tour. We also discovered that things are not always set in stone in Italy. When attempting to switch our booking from the Garden tour to the Museum tour, the first man we spoke with told us absolutely NOT, unpossible! Grumbling away, we returned shortly to speak to another employee who gladly switched our tour to the 10am museum tour. It's all about who you ask! The museum tour was feh. All the popes tried to out-do one another in the opulence of their quarters, so they pilfered more art, and commissioned more fancy artists...it was all guilded and glitz and enormous. You are forced to walk through in a certain order, which finishes with the Sistine Chapel. The disappointing bit about that is that you see a shitload of amazing Raphael paintings before getting to the chapel- so while Michelangelo was incredible, it's on the heels of two hours of incredible, so I think it loses some of its OOMPH. But, dude. That's where they elect popes!
We moved on from there to St. Peter's Basilica. There aren't words. Its...uh...it is...big. Too big. Too much marble and gold and shiny shiny shiny...scary big and shiny imposing crazy church. We had a free tour of the Basilica by some pre-priests (young priests-to-be in seminary, doing their time at the Vatican). It was great, until the preachy bit near the end. The price you pay for a free very knowledgeable tour!


(Hall of Maps- Vatican Museum; St. Peter's Basilica)

Day six: Florence. Ah, yes. It was cold, and we messed up our trains. But we saw the statue of David (it's really big, and in a crappy tiny museum!), and climbed up into the tops of very tall buildings. I was most impressed with the frescoes on the ceilings of the churches showing hellfire and damnation. Those Italians were GRAPHIC with their depictions of what being a bad person brings you in the afterlife. It took us LOTS of hours to get home after we messed up our train - we were kicked off one train and forced on to another, and it just took forever. We did, however, get our own cabin with fold out sleeper seats, so all was not lost.

(Fresco on the ceiling at a big church in Florence)

Day seven: Our flights to London were pretty late in the day, so we spent this last day touring the remaining sites - like the Castle de San Angelo. The massive fortress built by a Roman emperor as his tomb, and re-imagined into a nearly impenetrable fortress which housed the popes when it wasn't safe in the Vatican. We then headed back to our Piazza Navaro for a farewell to Rome drink (and not very good bruschetta...which had been amazing everywhere else) before heading to the airport.

(Castel del San Angelo)

Tired, beat up, road weary, cranky, sleepy. Back to London.

Next up....uh...some other story from a bit more recently. Like maybe Egypt?

City of David - seriously, where it all started

(Without a car in Israel, or: I love Hebrew translation)

Hitting a weekend without a car, we did a close-your-eyes-and-poke-a-site in the guidebook, and Lee hit upon City of David. Nestled on the east side of the Old City, in the shadow if the Jewish Quarter, lies the original Jerusalem.

Most people don't know that the current walls of the Old City were built by the Ottomans somewhere around 600 years ago, long after the destruction of both the first and second temples. Something else people don't really know, the original walled-in city is the modern day location of the City of David. Built by Cannonites something like 3000 years ago, it was captured by King David...and, you know, established. The historical site is (yet another) active archeology site, and according to our tour guide, new things are discovered every couple of years, forcing him to change his tour schpiel every so often.

Walking through the dirty part of town (loads of graffiti, broken down cars on the sides of the road...general disarray), you come to the gates of the tourist site. Which is _nice_. Very clean, very well laid out, very modern and spacious. The tours aren't cheap - 60NIS for a three hour trip, plus 4NIS for a tiny LED flashlight (more about that later!) - which probably explains the super fancy digs. We met our tour group, and walked down a fruit-tree lined path to a small auditorium, where we were given 3D glasses. The first part of the tour consisted of a 15-minute 3D adventure through the history of City of David. All things considered (and with our very judgmental eyes), the movie was pretty good quality!


(Gorgeous City of David gates)

You start the tour in the Royal Quarter (very inventively named 'Area G'), where King David and his crew chilled. Surrounded by his aristocrats, he was situated at the top of the hill. The archeological dig discovered 51 seals, which led them to believe one of the excavated rooms was a library or office of sorts. One of the seals was that of the scribe of Jeremiah. Of the book of Jeremiah. During this part of the tour, we learned that when the city walls were built, they had to consider the tricky issue of water. As the city is on a small hill, there weren't any naturally occurring pools in it, so they built the walls just a little short of a spring (Gihon spring), and were very inventive in how they accessed water in times of siege.


(Views of the Old City; Some aristocratic bedroom)

Continuing down the hill and into the dig site, we learned about Warren's Shaft (and yes, the teenager in me made many jokes about this), which is named after some British guy who 'rediscovered' it in 1867. The shaft is a tunnel carved out of the mountain leading to the Gihon spring, that allowed residents to access water during when the city was under attack. There is a theory that David used this tunnel to enter and take the city when he came in and conquered the Cannonites. Anyhow, from Warren's Shaft, you head down into the mountain to Hezekiah's Tunnel. Which is pretty frigging cool.


(Huh huh, Warren's Shaft, huh huh)

The tunnel is a 500 meter man-made tunnel carved out of the mountain to channel water from the Gihon spring to the Pool of Siloam (written in the bible that a blind man was healed when Jesus told him to wash in this pool) - the spring runs for about 30 minutes a day, filling the pool, before drying up again. This was done some 2700 years ago - two separate digging teams, starting at either end of the eventual tunnel, meeting in the middle. There was no modern surveying equipment, no machines to make this task easier - this was men with iron tools (or perhaps bronze) slowly digging WAY underground to create a tunnel to capture a temperamental stream to keep a city hydrated. The two teams were only a few inches off from a perfect lineup- and required a tiny adjustment to complete the tunnel and have the two teams meet.

Part of the tour CAN take you through this tunnel, in knee-high (or slightly deeper) water, or you can circumvent that, and walk a dry tunnel to a meeting point near some massive bathing pool used for some celebrations (taking water to the temple in glass dishes.....more on that in a while). Most of the tour (oh, egads- a bunch of Americans. New Yorkers. Rudest people ever, no joke.) elected to go around the water, and Lee and I, being us, took the water route. Armed with our tiny 4NIS LED flashlights, we rolled up our pants legs and headed off down into a tiny dark water-filled tunnel. It was a little scary, and very cool. You could see the tool marks in the stone, and tiny stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Most of the tunnel was only slightly wider than Lee's shoulders, and under 2 meters high- occasionally MUCH shorter than that, and in one section MUCH taller - maybe 10 meters - and the water went to just under my knees, except at the very beginning, when it was crotch height. My jeans got a good soaking. As did my shoes. And 500 meters down a dark, damp, echoing tunnel is far. A lot farther than you'd think.


(Lee in the stream; No, seriously, I'm cool with dark tunnels in knee-deep water I can't see the bottom of, really.)



(Some more of the tunnel; Siloam's Pool)

We eventually hit daylight again at the Pool of Siloam, where we did our best at drying off before returning to meet the rest of the group. They were standing in front of a mural, covering an active dig site, showing a bunch of citizens around a very large pool, surrounded by columns and white stone steps. We learned that this was a community pool, used by everyone, and for celebrations. I can't recall the name of the 7-day ceremony, but citizens would take small gold plates, and fill them with water from the pool, walk up the numerous stone steps of the town marketplace to the temple, and throw the water on the sacrificial altar. Every day for seven days. Standing underground, on the unearthed steps, our guide led us to the end of the dig, saying:

"We were digging here, and hit a Byzantine church, so we had to stop there. We can't dig through other ruins."

And:

"On this side (the northern side) of the excavation is a mosque, we can't dig through a mosque."

This caused some titters through the crowd - like I said before, you can't throw a rock in this town without hitting some sort of historically important something or other.

This week was uneventful otherwise- we decided we're staying on for another 6 months, Lee is headed back to the UK tomorrow for his family, and we're getting ready to ship out for a month away. Pretty much status quo for the dynamic duo!

A busy weekend! Saturday 1/23: Masada

After an early night on Friday, Lee and I got up early on Saturday morning to drive down to Masada - the palace in the sky. Masada was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2001, which means it's cool. Super cool, in fact. (Sidenote: On the way down, we're cruising through the desert, when suddenly the car in front of us slams on their brakes, and we follow suit. Bounding across the road in front of us is a herd of Ibex! They just cruised on by and jumped up the hillside....Ibex! Wow!)


(sproing...sproing...sproing..)

Anyhow....

Sometime between 37BCE and 4BCE*, King Herod built a massive magnificent winter palace - which he never used - and this natural plateau/fortress was the last bastion of Jewish freedom fighters against the Romans (during the Second Temple). The assault ramp, camps, and assorted ruins are the most complete surviving Roman siege system in the world. I told you it was cool.

*BCE = BC, CE = AD.


(There were metal 'maps' in all the different areas on Masada. This is the northern palace)

So, I want to give you back story on this one, as it was so interesting. Herod built this huge palace with enormous cisterns scattered all over the grounds in order to keep water available - not only for drinking, but for ritual bathing, community swimming pools, and fountains. The cisterns were filled by a crazy intricate system of trenches built into the mountain, so pack animals that carried the water to fill them didn't have to go all the way to the top, necessarily. Ornately decorated, there were two palaces, a few bathhouses, enormous storerooms, dovecots, fields planted with crops of every type....it really was a self-sufficient city or township. The plateau was situated on two major trade routes, so it was perfectly located. And with obvious natural defenses, it was a prime location to hole up during a war.


(Inside the southern cistern; Water trench; Ruins of storehouses)

So, on to why it's super famous here. During the Great Revolt (Jews against Romans) in 66CE, there was a faction of zealots (called the Sicarii) who used this fortress to hide out from the dominating Roman forces. Not a lot of zealots, mind you- we're talking like under 1000 people (including women and children) who tucked themselves up and away on top of the plateau. The varied groups of settlers/rebels created a life on Masada for themselves- building ritual bathing houses, synagogues, and living in the casements and palaces conveniently built by Herod.

After the Romans conquered the rest of Judea, Masada was the last remaining Jewish stronghold. In 73 or 74 CE, the Roman Tenth Legion Fretensis (whatever that is) attacked Masada. With 8,000 troops, they built a siege wall, camps and an enormous ramp from the floor of the desert to the height of the plateau. (That is somewhere along the lines of 450 meters, folks, it was an incredible feat of determination to have made this thing.) After the siege had been going on for several months, they Romans brought a siege tower and battering ram up the ramp (!!!!). Finding the ram was ineffective against the reinforcing wood and earth walls the rebels had built, the Romans lit fire to the supports instead. With the favor of the wind, this tactic was going to work.


(The still-standing ramp)

Knowing that the Roman army would breach the fortress walls by dawn, 10 community leaders, rather than have their wives, children and neighbors raped/enslaved by the Romans, murdered the population of the stronghold. These 10 men then drew lots for who would kill the other nine and then commit suicide - suicide, of course, being a cardinal sin, and the loser would not be granted entrance to the hereafter. The very surprised Romans entered the city to find all but 7 inhabitants dead - the survivors were two women and five children who had hidden in cisterns to avoid death.

This was the last Judean holdout - the Romans then held all the land, and kept guards at Masada into the 2nd century.

So, wow, right? Crazy zealots.

Now the site is an active archeological site, which you can wander around in all day. To access the plateau, you can either walk up (eastern or western sides) or take a cable car. The walk on the eastern side is called the Snake path, and probably would take a good hour or two to ascend- it's steep and winding. The western side goes up along the siege ramp the Romans built oh-so-long ago, but to get to it, you have to drive from a town way in the middle of Israel. As we wanted as much time as possible on the site itself, Lee and I took the cable car up - and holy cow. The views are unbeatable. In fact the views from the entire site are unbeatable - you get a panoramic view of the entire area, and across the Dead Sea into Jordan.


(The Snake path, with our cable car shadow)

We wandered through the ruins, and noticed something interesting - they're rebuilding them. That's right- they're rebuilding an ancient world heritage site. And to show the difference between the 'new' walls and the old walls, they've painted this hideous black line all over the place! It's on nearly every wall at the northern palace, and at various other places around the ruins. It was distasteful and tacky - and unbelievable. Because they were doing this, it made it hard to discern what was actually built by Herod, what was modified by the rebels, and what was further modified by the Byzantine monks who took up residence after the Romans left. So, eyeballing everything with a cynic's eye, we spent nearly four hours wandering around on the plateau. There were some astounding things- the water cisterns were feats of genius, and the mosaics in the palaces were gorgeous - intricate, with many patterns and colors. And seeing the gigantic siege ramp - built of wood and earth - to the height it was built....incredible. The things that we believed to be remnants from the historic times were well worth seeing. And there aren't any warnings to stay back from the edges, or any high fences to keep you from falling off, or any real "don't walk here" zones- pretty much people are able to climb all over everything. I kinda liked that part, although it undoubtedly damages what's left of the actual ruins.



(Wow pretty...what is that ugly black line doing everywhere?? Lovely mosaic flooring)

....oh yeah, and during the summer, they do a sound and light show projected on the western wall of the plateau. The equipment litters the site at various spots. Talk about eyesore!

We headed back down the mountain in the cable car, and took off to see what else we could see. Unfortunately, Quamran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were found) closes at 5pm, and it takes 90 minutes to get up to the caves and back. As it was already past 4, we headed back to Jerusalem, driving past the beach where I had my float in the water, and past all the camels on the roadside, and into the hills. We had Petra scheduled for this coming weekend, but due to unforeseeable events, we'll probably postpone that for a while. As Lee's contract is being extended, we're not forced to cram everything that's left into the remaining three weeks, so there is time still to do it all.