Little Town of Bethlehem

I told the border crossing guard that I had only planned to visit Jerusalem and maybe Tel Aviv. I also told her that I was not going to the West Bank or Palestine. I lied. Today after walking around the old town and running into some Polish travelers I decide that I am going to join them in their day trip to Palestine, specifically to visit the Little Town of Bethlehem.



Near Damascus Gate we find a minibus stand and there we take the local route to the border crossing into Palestine. The border crossing looks like a maximum security prison, not that I would know what a maximum security prison actually looks likes. But if I were to imagine a maximum security prison or from all the ones depicted on TV, this border crossing definitely fits that vision. There are high walls lined with barbed wire. There are several chain link fences around the outside that funnel into the main entrance of the structure.



Inside the border crossing we queue up behind two booths along with all the locals. When an Israeli guard sees us he waves us over and we by-pass the 20 or 30 people in front of us and walk directly through the gate. We didn’t even have to flash our passport and thus the fact that I didn’t even have an Israeli entry stamp didn’t come into play.



On the other side, a line of taxis wait to rip off tourists. After bargaining with 10x what the rates should be, we start walking on foot and finally a taxi driver chases after us with the standard rate. We are taken into the touristy heart of Bethlehem.



The Church of Nativity is where Jesus was born and it is the main attraction of Bethlehem. There is a long queue to see the star that marks the exact spot where Mary gave birth to Jesus. We visit several other churches that are historically/religiously important such as the Milk Grotta Church where Mary hid Jesus away from the massacre of males in Bethlehem.



I got a bunch of pictures of churches and significant sites, however my favorite was towards the end of the day. We are walking the narrow streets of Bethlehem when two cars crossed and neither would yield. They both inch forward until they both get stuck. They get stuck and it requires several people lift up one of the cars so that pedestrian can cross. It was quite a hysterical site. I guess the Little town of Bethlehem wasn’t really designed for cars.

Exploring Jerusalem

Jerusalem is another minibus ride away and we tell the driver to drop us off near Damascus Gate. This is where our hostel is located. We emerge from the minibus in the hustle and bustle of Friday afternoon Jerusalem. We find our hostel outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem and quickly drop off our bags to explore the inside of this relic.



Walking around the narrow streets filled with tourist shops, small markets, and more tourist shop it is difficult to believe that I am actually standing inside the walls of The Jerusalem. The streets wind in every direction and through a series of turns it’s easy to get lost. Next thing I know I am walking through an underground entrance to see the Wailing Wall. I queue through a metal detector and our bags are x-rayed before we are allowed to pass. Soldiers all armed with multiple firearms are standing around the entrance and along the walkway towards this sacred site.





The Wailing Wall is divided in halves, or more like 1/3 and 2/3. The smaller section is designated for women and the larger half is for men. Men must cover the top of their heads before going approaching the wall. A platform overlooks both areas where tourists line up to overlook the masses of praying people and to take pictures. There are prayers written on little pieces of paper that are stuffed into the cracks of the Wailing Wall. Walking up to the stones there are hundreds of these little pieces of paper stuffed there.

Can I See Your Passport?: Entry into Israel

In the morning I left the Amman hostel with two Japanese girls that I had met the previous day, Yoko and Yasuko. We meet up with another one of their friend’s Chi and take a taxi to the minibus stand. We are headed to Israel.

The King Hussein Bridge Crossing or the Allenby Bridge Crossing as it is called in Israel, is out in the middle of nowhere and is desert landscape all around. It is the few entry points where an Israeli stamp can be avoided. Our bus arrives at the border and everyone piles out. A Jordanian soldier checks all of our passports and before I hand over my passport I make sure he knows that I don’t want the Jordan exit stamp. He nods and just looks at the passport and we are all let back on the minibus.

The bus drives through the gate and down a dirt road towards another building. Here we take all our bags off the minibus and go into the building to get a Jordanian exit stamp. The officers here check my passport again before I am let into the building. Inside a queue forms behind a small pair of windows where two Jordanian soldiers are taking exit visa fees and stamping passports. I hand over my passport after explicitly telling him not to stamp it. He says okay and asks for 15JD which is the only border crossing that charges such a high fee. After paying the man, he places the Jordan exit stamp, which actually looks like a postage stamp of Petra, on a separate sheet of paper and then stamps it with a date. I take that page and then get back on another bus.

This new bus waits for full capacity before leaving and then charges us a fee for transport from one building to the next. In between there is another checkpoint. This soldier just wants to make sure we have paid our exit fees. He collects all the loose leaf pages of exit stamps and waives our bus through the check point.

The bus drives though the Jordan/Israel border lined with machine gun posts, barbed wired fences and to an Israeli building. On the side is a huge entry way where luggage is building piled through an xray scanner. We leave our bags at the front without any bag claim whatsoever and the porters slowly move them through the building. At this point I just have my daypack and we line up to go through a metal detector and another smaller x-ray machine.

An Israeli girl holding a US issued M16, checks my passport again before allowing me to go through the metal detector. I’m not sure for what but she asks for it and glances at it for not more than two seconds before handing it back. After I go through, we fill out a form and queue up in line to get our Israeli visas.

I finally reach the end hand over the form and intentionally hang on to my passport. Another Israeli girl plays 21 questions with me. Why do you want to visit Israel? Where will you go? Do you know anyone in Israel? Who are they? Where are you staying? What is the address? How long will you stay? Where in Israel do you plan on visiting? What do you do? How much money do you have? Do you have credit cards? Can I see your credit cards? Etc. She didn’t really like my indecisive answers since I don’t know anyone in Israel, I have not booked any hotel, I have no idea where I am going to go, I have no idea how long I will stay, I have enough money, I have no Israeli shekels, and no you may not see my credit cards. These types of questions go on for another 15minutes and finally she asks for my passport.

Before I hand it over I tell her that I don’t want the stamp. So she asks why? I make up answer saying that I plan on visiting other Arab countries and she asks which one. I randomly remembered Syrian as a country that didn’t allow visitors to have Israeli stamps on their passports. So she asks to see my visa for Syria. I tell her I don’t have it yet. And then she says it’s not possible for her not to stamp my passport.

Bullshit, it’s not possible, I thought. She exits the booth and goes to talk to her supervisor in a corner office. Another 10minutes go by and I am asked to go to her office. Inside, I play another game of 21 questions with the supervisor who is sporting an Uzi slung over her shoulder. The Uzi had a double sided clip for faster reloads. Finally she says that it okay and stamps another sheet of paper.

On the other side of the booths there’s another Israeli soldier that checks my passport before I am allowed to queue up for yet another booth. This soldier is just checking my passport for the Israeli entry stamp which in my case is on a separate sheet of paper. He says that I can’t enter with a stamp on a sheet of paper without writing on it. Not sure what he met, so I end up going back to the office where the girl writes some chicken scratch and then a smiley face on my loose leaf paper with the Israeli entry stamp. I show my passport yet again before I can queue up and finally getting to the front the guy says it’s ok, takes that loose page and lets me through. Before I leave I ask him what the girl wrote. It reads “it’s okay” he told me.

At the other side there are no ATMs and only one money exchange place where the worker wanders off for 15mintues at a time. There is a big pile of luggage here and I dig through all the suitcases before finding my bag. The Japanese girls I was traveling with took a big longer because they had to fill out a separate form. I changed my money and waited for them on the other side. Finally another hour goes by and they make it through as well. Going through this ordeal took an entire morning and required at least a dozen passport checks and now I am in Israel with no proof of exiting Jordan and no proof of entering Israel on my passport hoping that this is how its suppose to work.

Amman Daytrip

I got a haircut today from a guy whose only English was “Obama Good (followed by thumbs up) and Bush Bad (followed by thumbs down)”. It only cost 2 JD and was probably the best haircut I’ve ever gotten. The only downside of it was when he put alcohol on my neck and it burned like hell.



The next day a couple of us from the hostel are taking a day trip to visit the many historic sites around the Amman area. We get up at 7am to catch a minibus that will take us to Madaba which is known as the mosaic city. There we visit a church that has some of the oldest mosaic artworks. After viewing several of these masterpieces I am bored and not all that impressed.



Our next stop is Mount Nebo where Moses died after seeing the Promised Land. Below is a picture of the valley that overlooks the Promised Land and I have to say that it not that impressive. On top of the viewpoint the Jordanians have erected a tourist attraction where there are many statues.



Bethany is the next stop. We all unload next to the River Jordan. Here is the supposed baptism site of Jesus. The funny thing is that there is a temple much like the one we are visiting on the Israeli side where there Israeli are claiming is the actual baptism site. Near the base of the River Jordan where thick mud like fluid moves steadily across the banks, a line of people wait to be baptized like Jesus at the same location.



The highlight of the trip was the last stop which is the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has some of the highest salt concentrations found on earth. Because of this fact it is effortless to float in this body of water. Swimming in the Dead Sea is said to cure almost any kind of skin aliment. As I get to about knee deep in this salty water I start to the feel the buoyancy force pushing me up. When I get to about waist deep I can effortlessly float and it is one of the strangest feelings in the world. Below is a sign describing how to swim here. I actually got some salt water in my eye and it immediately shut and started to burn. Luckily I was able to rush out to the freshwater showers.

Jordan

So today I took a cab from Dubai Marina to Sharjah international airport for 120dirhams or 24USD to board a flight from Sharjah, UAE to Amman, Jordan for 40dirhams or 8USD. AirArabia is a budget airline that flies out of Sharjah and they’ve just hit their 4year anniversary, big woop? Well the cool thing is that all flights are free today and all I had to pay was taxes.

I landed in Jordan at 2am, got in some dude’s illegal taxi, made it to my hotel around 4am. I slept until 9am got up got the free breakfast, which was consisted of toast, jam, cucumber, instant coffee and a hardboiled egg. Huge difference to what I had become accustomed to in Dubai. The following day it rained so my only activity was confined to finding a backpacker’s hostel and get out of the shithole I had been staying at.

The following day I did a daytrip to Madaba which is known as the city of mosaic. Then we went to Mount Nebo. This is where Moses died after seeing the Promised Land. After checking out the view from the hilltops we travelled along the Jordan River to the Bethany. This is where Jesus was baptized. On the other side of the Jordan River there is also an Israeli tourist site where they claim is the actual site of where Jesus was baptized. Finally the trip ended on a highlight of swimming in the Dead Sea.

I had always read about and seen pictures of how easy floating in the Dead Sea. I even understand the concept and after taking a scuba diving course I’ve experienced how much more buoyant I was in the ocean versus Tablerock Lake where I got certified. None of this prepared me for the feeling of effortlessly floating in the Dead Sea. As soon as I got to about knee deep I could feel the upward force from the water. By the time you walk to about waist deep, you naturally start to float on your back. You are literally on top of the water.

The entire place has sign warning swimmers about floating on their backs, not on their stomach, and the importance of protecting your mouth and eyes from the super high concentration of salt water. Well, I got to experience firsthand the power of the dead sea as some kids swimming next to me splashed some water in my eye. My eye immediately closed shut and started to burn. I was tearing up as I quickly ran towards the freshwater showers. Luckily a quick freshwater rinse was all I needed.

Skiing in a Desert

Today, the Nancys, Gerald, and I went to Ski Dubai. Ski Dubai is a green run at best and says they have five runs, but I only count two. The amazing thing about it is that it is attached to the end of a mall. Emirates Mall is about a 5min drive from Dubai Marina so it’s fairly close and I drive by it all the time either picking up Nancy from the Trade Center or going to explore the rest of Dubai. It is a fairly ugly structure from the outside but the fact that there is a skiing in a desert is pretty impressive.







Later inside the mall I find an electronics store called Kansas Digital to replace my broken Tamron lens. I ended up buying a Sigma 17-70 here. Gerald tried to get me a Filipino discount and I tried to get a Kansas discount, but they wouldn’t budge. It was still cheaper than the states and I am really glad that I now have a working standard zoom lens.

Dragon Boating

Its 5am on a Monday. I’m rowed over facing the couch and suddenly I hear a voice, when I turn over I see a fuzzy figure standing over me. Initially my reaction was to drop kick that scary looking figure and take defensive actions. However, as my vision adjusted I realized that it was Nancy. “Weiiiiii, do you want to go to dragon boatinggggg?”



Nancy belongs to a Dragon Boat team, kind of like crew, but it’s different. I say different for a lack of a better word to describe the awkward style of rowing. The boat seats about 20 some people in rows of two, so you are only rowing on one side of the boat. There is a person at the back working, what I would consider the rudder. However since it doesn’t look like your traditional rudder and more like a long paddle, I’m sure it’s probably called something else. The rowing style consists of making an A shape with your arms. Much of the power comes from your back and shoulders. The form was really difficult to get use to.



My first day at dragon boating was really intense. To be honest I was kind of tired just from the warm up. Furthermore it was really confusing too. Because our coach’s name is Wai, pronounced why. But for someone reason some people would call her “Way”. I’ve only ever met one other Wei in my life and she went by her American name of Maria so this was really strange for me. Now I know how all the Johns and Jennifers feel.



Eventually I got to like Dragon Boating and made some friends there too. We got to a point where we were doing a meet to show off the sport at Dubai Festival City. Oh yeah all the different areas of Dubai are called cities, ei Internet City, Media City, International City, etc. It was hot and during the middle of the day. I think I was dehydrated from the night before too and also running around at 3am trying to find breakfast items with Ben, but that’s an entirely other story.



It was a really short race but the sun just made us all really tired. Afterwards, Nancy#1, Nancy#2, Ben and I headed to Barracudas for a liquor run. Barracudas is a liquor store out in the middle of nowhere and when I say nowhere I mean we drove by a giant sand dune to get to it. This store has alcohol from all over the world to suit the needs of all the expats. In Dubai you must have a liquor card to buy alcohol in bulk and also there is a heavy tax. However, here in BFE the prices are good. To really bring out the point of BFE, here are some pictures of us playing on a sand dune on the way to middle of nowhere liquor store.

We Be Grubbin'

Ever since Nancy #2 has arrived in Dubai Nancy #1 has been doing a lot of dinner parties. And since my mom is always concerned that I somehow forget to eat meals unless she cooks it, here are some pictures of the awesome meals that I have been enjoying. It was nice to have a home cooked meal after traveling for so long and cooking itself was much more enjoyable after not having a kitchen for so long.





Me and Ben are laughing in this picture because we didn’t do any work.

A Dub

There are two Nancy’s in the Cerner Middle East offices now. To avoid confusion we have adopted Nancy 1.0 and Nancy 2.0, who is only here temporarily from the states. 1.0 and 2.0 are both working in A-Dub aka Abu Dhabi this week and it turns out that the there is a Abu Dhabi Film Festival is also this week.

In the morning we all end jump into 1.0’s car and head towards A-Dub. I was driving and it takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get there from Dubai Marina. I have to say it feels good to drive again. That is one thing I have been missing about the states. Although the car was a 1.8L Civic Automatic, the feeling of being on the road again was quite good.





The commuters can be split up into two categories. The first group consists of normal people driving around the speed limit. The second group is the crazy-ass Emiratis that are speeding on the left lane tailgating, flashing their high beam, impatiently swerving back and forth. These guys are really annoying. I wanted to do some cultural exchange and introduce them to the bird. I didn’t know that at the time, but apparently giving people the bird in Dubai is illegal.



A-Dub is a more family oriented city. There is less glitz and glamour but roughly the same atmosphere. I visited the gold mosque which was impressive and it was free to check out. People were still installing parts of the carpet when I was visited. The outside was still being landscaped.



The rest of A-Dub wasn’t really all that impressing. I went with a friend to check out the UAE culture center. Needless to say there wasn’t much there and felt really fake.




That night 2.0 got us tickets to see a movie at the film festival. It was to take place at the main mall at A-Dub. The only other film festival I had experienced was the Cannes Film Festival in Nice. The A-Dub film festival was much less important. It didn’t feel like an actual film festival. We all got tickets to see Vicky some Barcelona. Each scene of the movie reminded me of the time I spent in Barcelona and reminded me how unique the Gaudi architecture is as I was instantly able to recognize each location. The movie was pretty good too. Scarlet and Penelope Cruz had several pashing sessions, that’s how Aussies say ‘making out’.

Holy Whale Shark Batman!

Nancy and I went to Atlantis today. I had seen a discovery channel episode, oh how I miss the discovery channel, about the Atlantis water resort in the Bahamas. They just opened this clone resort here in the Middle East. It is located near the base of one of the Palm Jumeirah off shore islands. The main attraction of this resort is a giant salt water aquarium. They have two whale sharks in this tank. It was impressive and sad at the same time. These two whale sharks are both babies too.

Dubai Marina

This morning I took public bus ride from Al Quais to Dubai marina. It took almost 4hrs. By car this journey is no more than 45min to an hour. The bus stops are supposedly air-conditioned but the one I am waiting at is not. The clientele of the buses are purely Indians and Filipinos. By the time we arrive at Diera, most of the Indians get off. By the time we get past Bur Dubai, most of Filipinos are gone. By the time the bus gets to Dubai Marina area the bus is almost empty.



Dubai marina is a posh part of town. Everything is new and expensive. The marina is full of expensive yachts and is surrounded by tall skyscraper apartments. I get off at a stop that is close to the giant GH building that Nancy told me to look for and trek across a construction site. All the roads in the area are lined with orange construction barricades and I have jump over several blockades to get to the entrance of the Iris Blue building. I bet a backpacker walking around in the Dubai Marina area is almost as awkward of a scene as it can get.



I am greeted at the font by a Filipino security that makes me sign in. I take the lift up to the 15th floor to Nancy’s 1bdrm apt. Nancy happens to have another friend staying over. Ashleigh is doing a modeling gig over in Abu Dhabi, another Emirate. We ended up checking out the Buddha bar that is directly across from her building. The drinks run around 50 UAE dirhams each which is about 14 USD.

Intro into Expat culture

The next day we all get up around 11 to catch a brunch. Brunch in Dubai does not have the typical meaning that any regular person uses the word; Meaning that brunch is not just any ole meal combining breakfast and lunch as the word typically describes. Brunch is Dubai is an event, usually put on by a hotel. Basically the entire expat subculture of drinking and lavish spending is combined into a buffet style food and drinkfest. Apparently “drinkfest” is not a word according Microsoft Word, but I cannot think of any other word to describe it.

I met Nafeesa, one of Pud’s friend’s friends at the brunch. She has been working in Dubai for a while and said that she could show me around and maybe help me find a job. She made a really good pitch on the Dubai lifestyle and the fast moving pace of the work environment. The next day she showed me around Dubai. One of the tourist spots is the abra ride across Dubai Creek. Abras are these old-school boats that ferry between the two sides of the creek. It costs 1 dirham to ride across. Here is a picture of Nafeesa and I on the abra ride. Check out the Indian dude mean mugging us.

Dubizzle fo Shizzle

I landed in Dubai, well specifically Sharjah which is another Emirate, around dawn during the end of Ramadan. Thus, the traffic was much better and I was able to catch a shared private driver with another local expat. I had contacted Pud on couchsurfering while I was still in Turkey and he had agreed to let me stay there initially since all my friends were on vacation for Eid. Pud is an Aussie living in Dubai working as a teacher.

I arrived in Al Quais which is located in Dubai bordering Sharjah, the emirate that I flew into. Things are really quiet and there is hardly anyone out. His apt is provided as part of his compensation, which I’ve read to be the norm here in Dubai.

The first night Pud and I ended up going to one of his friend’s birthdays at an Irish Karaoke bar. This bar like most drinking establishments is in a hotel. It was really entertaining. I remember sitting there at one point drinking a Stella, listening to ridiculously hilarious rendition of “Back to Good” by Take That, surrounded by pissed (aka wasted) brits, and thinking “wow, this feels like London” Yet in the back of my mind I know I am in the middle east.

Pud’s friends are all teachers at an American school at Al Quais. One of them happens to know the girl that is playing host for Karaoke night. Basically her job is to sing a song between the customer’s songs to keep the party going. We ended up at an after-party at her place. The apt was pretty nice, the view wasn’t the greatest but there was plenty of room and everything like Dubai is new. At the party I discovered that most of the people that have jobs out here in Dubai also have accommodations provided. I also met a lesbian girl living in Dubai and she explains to me how she lives in fear as same sex marriages are strictly forbidden. Well why do you live in Dubai instead of Canada? I asked her. “Oh the money here is good, there’s no taxes” she replied. Weird, but interesting conversation none the less.

Goodbye Istanbul!

Today is my last night in Turkey and we are just chilling in Istanbul. Casey and Jess are again staying at the Antique hostel so I had a place to stash my bag and take a shower. The last thing on my agenda is to hang out with Casey and Jess, and we decide to hit up some coffee shops. After dinner we go to one that next to our hostel where they have a live band, Turkish live band which consists of hand drums, two other instruments I had never seen before, and a guy yelling in Turkish. The funniest thing of that night is a fat guy dancing to the music. I made a video of it on my canon point and shoot and now every time I’m having a bad day I watch it and it makes me instantly feel better. Maybe I’ll stick it up on youtube one of these days.



At the hostel we met a bunch of Danish girls that were living in Anatalya to study Turkish. We ended up drinking and chatting with them at the Hostel balcony restaurant. It was really interesting listening to their stories and views of Turkey. It really sucks when you meet cool people and immediately have to leave, but my flight to Dubai was schedule that evening so I had to leave after a few drinks.