I arrived in the city of Madaba early in the morning. Madaba is famous for it's many mosaic floors. For the rest there is not so much to see, so next day I left. On the way I was harassed by some stone throwing kids. Well yeah, I thought: it's the middle east, it's all part of the experience. My next destination was mount Nebo. For those of you who are not aware with the bible: this is the point from where Moses, after miraculously getting lost for 40 years, finally saw the promised land. Unfortunately he himself was not allowed to enter, he had some little quarrel with god about how to get water from a rock, and died on the mountain, but he was already 120 years old which is quite amazing if not unbelievable.
From mount Nebo to the Dead sea is a nice route, since mount Nebo is a mountain (although not that high) and the Dead sea the lowest point on earth (400 mtr. below sea level). It was here that I broke my speed record: 67 km per hour which is quite fast with a fully packed bike. I was lucky the road was in good condition. As you all might know the Dead Sea is very salty. Normal seawater has around 3 to 4% salt, Dead Sea water contains over 30% salt. The Dead sea is supplied with water mainly by the River Jordan, this water is locked into the geological shape of the landscape and evaporates off the surface at the rate of millions a litre a day. This leaves a haze over it which filters out harm full UVB sun rays, so while at the Dead Sea you can tan, but you can't burn. The Dead Sea shore is populated by a few fancy 4 and 5 star hotels which use up big quantities of fresh water from a nearby nature reserve to water their lawns, flowers and trees (which would normally not be there) and to fill up the bathtubs of their guests. A bit dubious if you ask me. I camped at the less fancy Amman beach where they still charged me enough for putting up my tent. Jordan is not as cheap as I imagined/hoped for.
After having floated a few times in the Dead Sea water I went to Israel. Being already involuntarily baptized I skipped the baptism site where Jesus was probably baptized by John the Baptist. After a few hours cycling I got at the border. Ah that goes fast I thought: I will be in Jerusalem in no time. Well think again. Israeli border crossings are not the most fast ones in the world. Off course you and your luggage are being scanned. Then you have to step in some machine and something is being sprayed on you (I still don't know what that was, the people there couldn't or didn't want to say what it was) and then you get to immigration. There are some soldiers (all young girls, I have to say that Israel has the most charming army in the world) who ask you some questions. And there it went wrong: I guess I gave the wrong answers. First of all they asked me what I wanted to do in Israel and where I was staying. I said I would stay with friends (Oren which I know from travelling in China and the rest people from hospitality club), so they ask me names, I gave Orens name. And who is this other person then? You said you stayed with friends? I explain the concept of hospitality club (it's a website where you can find accommodation with members of this site in almost every country) but they didn't understand or didn't want to understand. Then there was also a misunderstanding about how long I wanted to stay. They said they would do a security check on me. They asked me in which country I have been before. I didn't want to keep anything behind so I mentioned all the countries I've been, some of which do not have a very good relation with Israel (like Iran, Pakistan, Yemen and Sudan). So they do another security check on me. Every time they come to me I think they want to let me through but they come to ask another question, sometimes the same question (they pretended to forgot the answer to check if I would say the same again), it's very frustrating, in the end I have to wait 4 hours before I can go. Well yeah, I think: it's the middle east, it's all part of the experience. At least now I can understand a bit the frustration the Palestinians have at the checkpoints. The difference is that the army people treated me in a gentle way, this is not what always happens to the Palestinians as I understand.
Because of terrorist attacks there are a lot of guards for shops and public buildings.
It was too late to cycle to Jerusalem so I decided to split a cab with some other tourist who got held up at the border. Good that I did because it was mostly uphill. Having done the bicycle taxi job in Amsterdam I thought I would be fit enough for cycling on bike. I found out that on same level roads and downhill it's not a problem. The problem starts when the roads go uphill. Although Israel and Jordan don't have high mountains, they have roads which are very steep. Until now it has been mostly downhill, but I will go to the Golan height (it's called height so I guess it will be uphill) and back to Jordan so I expect some pretty rough times for my legs.
Talking to g*d
Tefillin - Just do it! In Jerusalem there are many orthodox jewsthat try to convince non practicing jews (like the pot head in this picture)
to "light up their Jewish spark" by doing tefillin (praying)
After all this spirituality it was time to look for a more down to earth place. Tel Aviv is such a place. It's beautiful in it's own way with a lot of Bauhaus buildings which badly need renovation. Actually it's the only city in the world with so many bauhaus buildings. There is good night life, interesting neighbourhoods (especially around the old bus station which looks like a scene from a Charles Bukowski book) and pleasant beaches. After Tel Aviv I went to Haifa. Not much to see here except the Bahai gardens (another religious group who have a very known temple in Delhi in the shape of a lotus) and some Druze villages. (yet another religious group which is said to begun as a offshoot of the ismaili sect of islam).
Street scene in Tel Aviv
Charles Bukowski would have loved it:the area around the old busstation in Tel Aviv
Since I also want to bike through the West bank I ask around if it's safe there. One person told me it's okay, I asked him about the changes on being kidnapped. His answer was not so reassuring: He told me I have a bigger change to get hit by a car then getting kidnapped. Until now I haven't seen so much crazy driving but everybody tells me people drive like crazy here and there are a lot of accidents. Well I've already done the most busy roads so I guess it will be okay. Driving around here makes me appreciate Holland more concerning bicycling: it's bike heaven: different roads for bikes, car drivers who are used to you and stop for you, it all seems so normal but when you get out of Holland it's exotic. Here you have to go over main roads and highways because there is no other option with cars driving past you with high speed, very annoying.
So what does Israeli people talk about in general? Well I didn't hear many conversations about world domination yet, but I heard quite some conversations about humus. So I guess that's what people talk about here, like we in Holland always talk about the weather, they talk about the humus. Talk about the humus, the food is great here: humus, tahina, fallafel, shakshuka: all very nice and cheap. Although I'm considered to be a humus blasphemist because I also like the supermarket humus. As you can see I already took over some local customs.
Well, that's it for now, I will leave tomorrow for Nazareth (where the world's most famous carpenter lived), then on to lake Kinneret or as it's also known the sea of Galilee (where he presumably walked over the water), after that the Golan Height.
Kurt
last time I wrote I was in Haifa. After Haifa I went to Nazareth, famous for his divine carpenter. On the outskirts of Nazareth I was taking some pictures of a garage there, the light was very beautiful, when some men approached me and asked me why I was taking pictures of the garage. I tried to explain but they didn't understand why somebody in Jehovah's name was taking pictures of a garage. They wanted to see the pictures I took and asked me if I saw a truck. I said no and started to realize that their business was, although they being Jewish, not completely "kosher".
The next day I left for Kinneret lake also known as the sea of Galilee where J.C. apparently walked over the water and did some miracle with one fish and one bread. On my way to my host (I'm a member of hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.org and warmshowers.org ) a bat flew against my helmet (which I normally never use) but for the rest nothing dramatically happened. By the way: these websites I mentioned are a excellent way of saving money (you stay for free at peoples homes) and to meet friendly, hospitable local people and to get to know the local culture. I can recommend it. I left some stuff at my host and went north to go to the Golan height. At the end of the first day I just got to the beginning of the height. It was getting late and I was looking for a place to pitch my tent. Well, there was enough empty space, the only problem was that all these empty spaces where fenced off and had signs saying "minefield" (from the 1967 war) Finally I found a space just before it got dark and decided to go to bed early (bedtime for me is quite often at around 7). After a while I was woken up by some noise next to my tent. Some animal was making some loud breathing noises. I realised it must have been a boar or wild pig. It didn't sound to friendly, a little bit annoyed even and my fear won over my curiosity so I didn't have a peak out of the tent. Next day I saw a dead one next to the road (I'm by now used to see all kinds of road kills, the smell is harder to get used to though) and I was glad I didn't open my tent, these animals are huge! I first thought it was a cow. The climb up the Golan Height wasn't as hard as I expected (or am I just turning into some kind of bike machine?) and unfortunately the views wee not so spectacular as I hoped for, so I only stayed one day. Scenery wise Israel is not so great, but who knows, I go to the Negev dessert later, maybe that will be better.
date Jan 19, 2008 8:30 AM
subject From the land of Moab to the land of the smile
Hello, I moved from the dry and arid lands of Moab and Israel to the lush and green land of the smile, Thailand. To be honest not so much has happened but I will try to put something in a story anyway, maybe make up something.
Dog 2 D
In Sinai I cycled to St. Catherina, the village from where you can hike up to Mount Moses. Having done that before and remembering all the christian pilgrims (there where a lot of them) bursting into psalms at the crack of dawn, I passed. I just wanted to ride the route which I remember was very nice. On the way I got filled till my nostrils with tea almost every time I bumped into a Bedouin (if you can live on tea alone you can travel for free in this part of the world). After that I went back to Israel. Of course I was hold up at the border again by some annoying border guards. I guess it's the bearded picture in my passport that makes them suspicious. From the border I cycled through the Negev desert which at some points was very beautiful. On the second or thirth day there where some fighter planes flying over very low and in the not so far distance I could hear the rattling of machine guns. What's this I thought? Israel got itself involved in another war? No, it's just that the Negev is one big playground for the Israeli army where the boys and girls can play with their deadly toys which include clusterbombs. Any "civilised" country doesn't use this kind of bombs, except Israel. However there is one country I know where the money you save for your pension plan is used to buy shares in clusterbomb manufacturers as a newspaper reported half a year ago. It's Holland. Am I glad I don't save any money for my pension. Of course I knew that they where just practising, I just wanted to spice things up a bit.
Cliffs in the Negev desert
Set Boker in the morning, being in a Ansel Adams mood againAfter 5 or 6 days I finally reached civilisation again, I could notice it by the plastic garbage lining the road. I visited a friend I met in Nepal who lives on a kibbutz. For those who don't know what a kibbutz is: it's a community of people who work (mostly in agriculture) and live together started up in the beginning of the last century by immigrants from Russia. It used to be so that everybody earned the same amount of money (so somebody working in the canteen would earn as much as for instance a doctor) and that many things where free and communal. (food, creche). Nowadays most kibbutzes changed and you have to pay for the food and housing and their is a difference in wages, although not so big as in the "normal society". I visited another kibbutz near Gaza which lies in the range of the qassam rockets (the rockets fired from Gaza which miraculously miss their targets mostly). Here they still had the free food canteen. I would sign up for something like this: free food everyday and you can take as many plates as you want: paradise. Of course I only saw the benefits of the kibbutz: I never did any labour.
Heaving had some experience cycling on the highway in Israel before (not recommendable) I decided to take the bus to Tel Aviv. So I almost did a full loop (+/- 2500 km) of Israel, Jordan and Sinai except for the last 100 km.
Although Israel is not in my top 10 of favorite countries it's still a nice destination, especially if you are interested in archeology, want to have fierce discussions about politics or if you are a Jesus freak. Sometimes some over religious tourists go bananas when they come to Jerusalem (Jerusalem syndrome), overwhelmed by emotions they start to think they are the messiah himself and start to act funny, sometimes this ends in tragedy. Concerning the Israeli people I can say I was welcomed with great hospitality and warmth (also in Jordan and Sinai). Everybody who has experience with Israeli travellers just out of the army will be pleasantly surprised. Of course you meet sometimes rude and a bit to direct people, but at least they are themselves.
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