I recently traveled by myself (did you get that from the title?) to Israel and Egypt. It was a brilliant opportunity that was set upon a golden platter, much like the deliverance of John the Baptist's head to Herod Antipas, by the slave driver of the day (see Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.).
Actually, I am being facetious. My work kindly gave me a roundtrip ticket to Tel Aviv and back from Cairo. The ticket was meant for new hire orientation in Tel Aviv, but I was able to extend the ticket by a week and a half to include personal travels in Israel and Egypt.As such, I am enclosing photography of this experience with appropriate commentary juxtaposed together with love. As this journal may carry on in length, it is only advised for people that have time to dedicate to a full appreciation of this post.
For those of you brave enough to continue, I have 3 questions you must answer before you are allowed to pass.
1) What... is your name?
2) What... is your quest?
3) What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
What say you?
Anyways ... here goes ...The total trip encompassed Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, Masada, Jerusalem, Cairo, Saqqara, and Luxor.
IsraelIsrael is a land of beauty filled with a tragic history. Even today there are many competing factions that vie to be heard amongst the swell of voices, each carrying their own ideology on their backs with blinders on their eyes. This is not to say that all Israelis have this same demeanor, but there is definitely a stubborness that I saw and even talked about at my work through cultural sensitivity training.
There are many groups that build out society in Israel ...
Israeli, Palestinian, Israeli Jew, Israeli Arab, Bedouins, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Sunni Muslims, Shi'a Muslims, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Religious Jews, Secular Jews, Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews, Reform Jews, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Syriac Orthodox.
Well you get my point. The country and more specifically Jerusalem have so many competing factions, that politics wreak of it. Not to say that most other countries don't have feuds or competing groups. Every country has that. However, it seemed more tangible to me while I was there. Of course all this is merely my opinion and keep in mind that this does not mean that everyone is feuding in Israel, it just is meant to say that the competition between groups is extremely palpable.
This is the view of the beach in Tel Aviv from my hotel balcony. The beach there was marvelous and I can only imagine how it would've been during summer. I stayed in Tel Aviv for about a week for my work's new hire orientation (the original purpose of my visit).
We arrived on Friday evening or Shabbat. Because many Orthodox Jews do not operate electronics on the Sabbath, they had this button in my hotel room to turn off electronic devices during the Sabbath. Another interesting thing I saw was a sign upon entering through a metal detector going to the Western Wall (Judaism's most religious site). It basically read that it was agreed that going through the metal detector on Shabbat did not violate any rules against using electronics on that day.
On this day I took a tour to Masada and to the Dead Sea. While it was relatively cheap, it made me never want to take another organized tour again in my life. We spent about 30 minutes at the top (missing Herod's Palace and the ramp the Roman's built to overthrow this fortress on a hill) only to come down to spend another 30 minutes at the souvenir shop where we were force-fed Dead Sea products and cheeky Israeli memorabilia. Yippee.
Fresh oranges and orange juice are a staple in Israel. We had a fresh juice squeezer in my hotel, at my work, and juice stands were all over the country. This photo was taken right below Masada, a castle built by King Herod. At the top of his hill around 70 CE, 900 Jews killed themselves rather then be forced into servitude for the Roman Empire.
Floating by the Dead Sea was by far one of the coolest things I was able to do while in Israel. The interesting thing about walking into the sea is that the ground is crystallized (it really hurt to walk on it) from the high mineral content of the water. There were wooden posts sticking out of the water that looked like those crystallized sugar sticks you get at a candy store. If you think normal salt water tastes bad, boy howdy are you in for a treat. I can top that though. If you get this water in your eye, it burns as if you had jalapeno juice squirted into an open wound. Now that's one hot tamale!
However, you shouldn't get turned off by the previous description. Once you set sail things change. You are your own boat. You are the captain and the crew. You start floating like a man-schooner with the warm sun tantalizing your deck and a cool breeze blowing across your bow. The sea is a bright tropical blue, with the backdrop on land reminding you of the Grand Canyon. The huge plateaued cliffs adding the perfect backdrop to this voyage you charted. You realize that you could do this all day. If only floating in here for 10 minutes didn't raise your blood pressure by a large percentage that is.
I'm sure that if you've heard about the Dead Sea, you've heard about those crazy mud baths. Well I always thought this occurred in some fancy-shmancy 5-star hotel. Well here at Ein Gedi, you have a wooden crate full of thick chocolate-pudding-esque cream that you rub on your buddy. As I always dreamed of having perfect soft skin (har har), I really did a number on myself. I do have a couple of uncovered spots. Namely under my shorts and a dab here or there otherwise. But covering that surface area could've taken days or weeks. So this is a picture of me settling. Is this a good look or what?
This is a view of the Old City and the Dome of the Rock from the Mount of Olives. No, there aren't any olives there anymore! Yes, it still is a mount. Towards the bottom of the picture is the oldest Jewish cemetary in the world (if not the galaxy!). Do you like my hair do? It was windy that day, shut up!
Luckily it was cold as balls this day. For clarification, it was cold as balls of ice cream. There was no one out there and I was able to score this bad-ass picture of me at the Western (Wailing) Wall. It is considered the most religious Jewish site due to its proximity to the Jewish temples that at one time existed there as well as the place in which the Holy of Holies was placed.
There is a male and female side for the Wailing Wall. On the male side you will see Abe Lincoln-looking dudes rockin' out. Well kinda. While I would generally rock out by banging my head, these guys will rock out by praying with their heads and their bodies. Imagine their upper torso like a flipper in pinball and imagine that they are singing from the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) in Hebrew. It's a completely natural way to express your fervor in prayer. It was really interesting to watch and in fact I took a nap when I came back to Jerusalem another day. It was strangely therapeutic.
On my last night in Tel Aviv, I ended up going out with some of the Israeli counterparts I had met that work at CheckPoint. Two of the girls took me out for THE BEST falafel I've ever had in my life. The place was called Hakosem, but you'll need someone to direct you towards it because the sign is in Hebrew. It was crazy delicious. The next time I visit Israel this will be a daily staple. *drools*
Also on my last night in Tel Aviv, I went out for drinks with more coworkers (most of them are from Tel Aviv). I got into a great conversation with one of the girls about politics in Israel (which I was dying to talk to someone about). In order to get to this bar you had to follow a maze with just about every preposition you can think of included in the directions. It was right above a gas station and right below an overpass. Luck for me they had good drinks and good times were had.
These are two great hosts that I stayed with in Jerusalem. Yuval and Maor were both very hospitable to me. I ended up going to a market on Friday (right before everything closes in Jerusalem for Shabbat). It was crazy hectic there. For Shabbat, they even have a siren that goes off in the city to let everyone know it is Shabbat.
Yuval ended up taking me to eat with some of his family who were Ultra-Orthodox. The father was a Rabbi and the family had 10 kids. It was a truly interesting experience to have Shabbat dinner with their family, even if my yarmulke kept on falling off. Maor ended up taking me to a Jerusalem indie dance party, which funnily enough was just like an indie dance party in the states.
This show was at a kibbutz near Jerusalem. If you don't know what a kibbutz is, it is a self-sustaining collective community. The Hebrew band was very good. I did recognize one song they played and it was in English. They played Van Morrison's Moondance.
I thought this picture was interesting and in a way was a microcosm of the sites I saw in Jerusalem. It was a combination of the modern and the historical with the religious and the playful. Or in other words, the playground and the Islamic minaret.
This sign was interesting for me. In talking to multiple people in Israel, they all wanted to give Palestine their own autonomous state. And it seemed like all the young people thought that the way Palestinians are treated in Israeli society is despicable. However, from what I read in popular media, the country of Israel seems to be opposed to giving Palestine a completely autonomous state. I think the issue of allowing Palestinians to move back into Israel was a little bit more of an issue however.
This is a group of posters, usually called pashkevilim in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood called Mea Shearim. They cover the whole neighborhood. I found this quote that pretty much sums it up.
“One of Mea Shearim’s prominent features are the posters affixed to walls, fences and doors. Posters are the neighborhood’s common form of social communication. And some say the quarter’s decrepit walls would have collapsed long ago were it not for the posters holding them together. The posters convey a variety of messages. Some warn of proper dress for women: ‘Jewish daughters, the holy Torah obligates you to dress modestly at all times, with long sleeves and closed necklines.’ Others decry watching television or a Jerusalem pool that allows mixed-sex swimming. Still others denounce another ultra-Orthodox sect for its treason, wickedness or godlessness.”
I liked the look of this street in the Old City of Jerusalem and I was about to take a picture, when this young man turned the corner. Well he saw me taking a picture so he started to almost run to get out of the picture. Many Orthodox Jews hate getting their picture taken. Anyways, I thought the picture turned out well. The Old City has streets like this twisting all throughout the Old City.
This was taken on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The door was left open to this room and I hurriedly snapped a picture while someone stirred in the next room. I thought the color contrast and the set up of the room made for an interesting shot.
This door led out to the Old City from the Temple Mount. This a Muslim entrance to the mosques on the Temple Mount. There is only one non-Muslim entrance to this area, unfortunately.
This is the debate that everyone with a camera makes. When you see something that would utterly capture emotion in passing, what are you to do? Do you treat everyone as a person with feelings, or do you try and capture something arresting or beautiful for the sake of beauty. The close-up of this man is what I wanted so badly. His eyes were shut in this look that expressed the depths of sadness and experience. I found my self thinking, if only I could see what this man has seen in his long life.
I thought this was another interesting shot I had taken in the back alley shops of the Old City. There is an old lady on the ground selling all sorts of vegetables while onlookers pass-by.
One of my goals in traveling was to sit down with a bunch of old men and smoke sheesha. At the point in time that I came to this shop in Jerusalem, there were only a handful of men in the establishment. I drank mint tea and smoked sheesha (unflavored) which I was not too partial to.
EgyptEgypt was a dichotomy of enjoyment for me. I think the best way to describe this country is the feeling that I got on the top of Al Azher park (the only park in Cairo). There I was sitting on the grass, traffic of Al Azher Street to my right and the expanse of haze, minarets, and distant Nile greeted me on the left. I was waiting for something. I was waiting for the time when the constant honking of traffic on my right collided with the prayers bouncing off of every minaret in the whole city on my left. This sound blended together to create a vision of cacophony and tradition. Where you are yelled at and kicked off a train because you were unknowingly sitting in a women only car. Where you are constantly approached and harassed because of the color of your skin. Where a taxi cab ride could be the last thing you experience before you die. Where there is a cliché that holds true for the most part regarding “Egypt time” (everyone being late). And finally where one of the greatest civilizations that ever existed planted its seeds and grew along the Nile.
I can still hear it now. *In Egyptian accent* Hey! Welcome. Where you from? (As I continue walking trying to ignore) Welcome. Where you from? America? Good Place. You want felucca? You want galesh (horse-drawn carriage)? Come come. All I need is one second. I have a business card for you in my shop. See this? This is a picture of my father with *fill in the blank historical figure*. This shop has been in my family for 10 generations. Nice perfumes. You have girlfriend? No? You have mother? No? You have sister? No? Sit down. Have some tea. *Yells at some unseen person for tea* Sign my guestbook. I have people from all over the world coming here. That bottle is 200 Egyptian Pounds (40 dollars). I tell him I'll give him 50 Egyptian Pounds. He says, my friend I have a family to feed. I can't sell it to you for that amount. Back and forth. I threaten to leave. Sold for 70 Egyptian Pounds. You don't know how often these situations occurred. It was taxing on me and probably my least favorite thing about Egypt.
But you realize that it makes sense. In this country income is derived off of tourism. Out of the 80 million people living here, around 43.9% make less than $2 a day. I ask myself if I wouldn't do whatever I could to make a good living for myself. Your thoughts of anyone in the west are that they are far better off than you. What does it hurt to charge them extra or to try and be aggressive in sales? It feeds your family and it helps you to provide for your life. Things are cheaper in Egypt anyways. So a bargain to you is a bargain to them right?
Despite my annoyances with the heckling and sales pitches and the constant trials to rip you off, I really enjoyed Egypt. I would compare the country to a brand new pair of hiking boots. The hike is much better when you know those boots; when you have worn them in and you are comfortable with the travels you have in them. But if you don't wear them in, you can end up blistering your foot and you can end up never walking in them in the first place. You would never be able to see all of the history and culture that lies beneath the hustle and bustle of modern Egypt. The pyramids, the tombs, the temples, the Nile, and yes eventually even the people of Egypt start to become that much more appealing.
What is this picture about? Oh yeah! The pyramids of Giza!!!!! This is Chephren, the most beautiful pyramid in my opinion, but it is only the 2nd largest at Giza. The man who took my photo was a security guard. Because of the small amount of money these guards make, he asked for baksheesh (tips). An old man began to yell at me that I shouldn't give him any money. They then proceeded to stare at each other with hatred while I hastily left the area.
Trash everywhere! This is from the taxi down to Saqqara. It was utterly sad to see the state of this canal. Trash and human waste were everywhere. To make matters worse, this is the drinking water for the people that live in the area. There were pumps lined up all along this waterway where the locals would stock up on water.
This man is another adherent of baksheesh. He tried so desperately to point out some of the oldest graffiti known to man (behind the glass casing in the picture). When I set up my camera to take a picture he was already in the photo so I rested my hand on his shoulder to bring him into the camera. When the photo was about to take he kissed me on my cheek. Keep in mind that there is a 10 second timer so he kissed me twice more to make the photo. I definitely wasn’t expecting that at all and to add to the situation the photo came out beautifully.
I want a count of the amount of girls that see this photo and don't say "how cute" or some derivation thereof. This is the step pyramid in Saqqara. It is the oldest known pyramid in Egypt. After taking this photo I'm sure that a deluge of tourists followed my lead.
As you can see in the photo, there is an Islamic minaret in the background. There are megaphones at the top that broadcast the call of prayer 5 times throughout the day. At that point all Muslims are supposed to stop what they are doing and pray to Mecca. Even in a religion as devout as Islam, you would find that the majority of Muslims did not in fact bow for prayer (from what I saw).
Shot of a poor neighborhood in Cairo near the Khan-al-Khalili bazaar.
Aish (bread) is a staple in Egyptian society. Its translation in Arabic means life. This type of bread goes back to the ancient Egyptians. Currently there have been many issues with this bread because it was at some point subsidized by the Egyptian government, but costs have been rising for bread and violence in bread queues has increased because of it. If you saw a crowd tightly packed together in front of a building, it was usually a crowd that was trying to get bread.
At one of these crowds, I went up to the front because I wanted some fresh bread (not knowing about the violence that can occur in these lines at this point in time). Some young kids (11 or 12 year olds) came out with a huge tray of this bread and it was piping hot. I asked if I could purchase a piece of it and the kid holding the tray just gave it to me. That was I believe one of the only times that an Egyptian ever gave me something without expecting compensation. I was really happy about that and I thanked the kid profusely for it (Shukran Gazeelan - pronounced SHOO KRAN GAH ZEE LAN - means thank you very much)
This was taken on a side street in Cairo. This man is making souvenirs. I got up enough courage to ask him if I could take this photograph. I wish I would've got up enough courage to ask other
people the same.
The bazaar of Khan-al-Khalili was humongous. There were touristy areas and there were non-touristy areas. You could get just about anything you were looking for in this expansive market. This picture was of the spice market area. It smelled so damn lovely there; I couldn't get over it. I would float through as if my nose were a puppeteer intent on painting the ground with my footsteps.
The Egyptians had a tradition of building houses next to their dead so that their families could sleep next to them and remember them throughout time. The poor of Cairo that were pushed out of housing due to cost, ended up moving into these vast graveyards and taking up residence in these houses that were built for the dead. Currently, this City of the Dead (otherwise known as the Northern Cemetery) has a post office and other such services provided to it by the Egyptian government.
It was a completely moving experience to see these cities in person. I was told that bringing the children in these cities pens would bring a smile to their faces and so I bought about 15 pens to bring to the children. Within about 10 seconds of entering this necropolis, I had curious children coming out to look at me. I had put the majority of the pens in my back pocket before entering. So I started to hand them out to the children. Pretty soon 2 or 3 children jumped to 5 or 6 children all requesting pens for their little brother and the older brother and their little sister and their older sister. I ran out of the pens in my pocket within another 10 seconds and they were still asking. So I opened up my backpack and was taking out the pen box from it and as soon as I had lifted the pen box out they ripped it from my hands and started to fight for who got the last pen.
I started to notice that all of the children had large sores around their mouths and had this fierce disposition that can only come from a life of lacking. It was then that the mother (I supposed) of these children came out and signed to me that she wanted to food. I had happened to purchase a large bag of Egyptian bread (Aish) and gave it to the mother. After which the children continued to follow me and ask for everything that was visible. They asked for my watch, my beanie, my wallet, baksheesh, baksheesh, and more baksheesh.
To see the differences between socio-economic factions within this small community in Cairo was utterly depressing. I assume most humans that are well off, understand that the world has problems and I assume that they have empathy for those are less fortunate. But I think that experiencing what it is to be around these unfortunate children, even for a couple minutes helps to transfer something more tangible into your being.
This is of a couple that had invited me over for grub and conversation at the top of the only park in Cairo. The wife's eyes were a deep sea blue, which makes me think that she was wearing contacts. To move from the dissonance of the city to the quiet of the park was a welcome transition. As my mental camera snapped photographs of the landscape through which I passed, it became altogether clear that this was the place to go if you were courting a lady. There were couples everywhere! I think I only saw one or two groups that were not comprised of a suave looking young male and a hair-covered young girl.
This is Dave, the guy that I couchsurfed with in Cairo. He is from San Diego going to the American University of Cairo. He was a very hospitable guy that had an awesome shitty apartment in downtown Cairo. We had a couple of long conversations (where I think my lack of company while traveling might have caused me to talk a bit much) and he took me to a Sudanese refugee English learning center.
I was recommended this place by someone I met on my travels and I am not too sure why they had a business card for the place and most of all why they would try to get someone to stay there. I had sent emails to a few places in Luxor trying to secure a spot to stay and none of them got back to me. So when the guy that owned the place told me that he would pick me up from the airport free of charge, I was totally bought into it. Well in my need to find a place and my assumption that whoever gave me this card would not be promoting a place that would try and rip me off, I went along with this whole charade.
When I got out of the Luxor airport, sure enough there he was waiting for me. I had arrived very late in the night and that was another reason for my acceptance of the offer. I got into the car and was very grateful to both him and the driver. When we arrived I then asked what the room rate would be, his first response was 85 Egyptian Pounds. I gave him a look of incredulity. He then said something about a special discount of 70 Egyptian Pounds, which he then explained included breakfast (2 really small breadsticks). The look of incredulity continued. I hadn't looked in my guidebook, where the price was at 20 Egyptian Pounds ($4).
The room had no hot water. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a century. All throughout the night some place was playing loud Arabic music. For the first time in my travels, I had to sleep with ear plugs in. To top it off, in the morning he mentioned that the cab from the airport cost 50 Egyptian Pounds (remember earlier he had told me it would be free). So I argued with him, told him that I'd write to all the guidebooks about this charade, threw 100 Egyptian Pounds at him and left.
Look closely.
There were some amazing tombs fit within this valley. When you spent just a short amount of time in these chambers, it made you realize just how large the task was. Not to mention that the temperature can be treacherous during the summer.
Bad ass inscriptions. Check out the detail of this “Nubian’s” hair.
Some of the detail that went into these paintings was eye-dropping. Not to mention that these paintings were and are some of the oldest paintings that exist to this day.
This last picture sums up the way I felt about my travels. I felt satisfied. I felt accomplished. I felt like I learned a lot. I still have a ton of things that I want to see and do in Israel and Egypt, but I certainly accomplished all of my goals for the trip.
I feel that everything I see while traveling helps to build out the person I want to be. The person that is able to appreciate the simple things in life. I’m not trying to over-use clichés, but I do really feel bettered by the whole experience.
I also discovered a fond appreciation of couchsurfing. It was the exchange of culture and the ability to discover a city from the local’s perspective that drew me so much to this pursuit. I now am revved to try and return this magnanimous experience to other travelers.
Next stop India.
