Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi has been great. Jenn and Spencer are fabulous hosts and have welcomed me into their home even while they are celebrating their first anniversary. They live in a very neat building complex, Etihad Towers which consists of five towers and a hotel. It is interesting to just people watch the valet parking outside the hotel as the sheiks pull up in their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porches, SUV’s you name it. Wealth is the word to describe Abu Dhabi. Jenn and Spencer’s apt has a great view looking out onto Emirates Palace, it is the hotel that was used in the Sex and the City Movie. They also look at the President’s new Palace that is currently under construction and they have a great view of the water. They are in the downtown core.  Their place has a pool so it has been nice to chill out and read a book by the pool.

I went on a Big Bus Tour the other day to see the sights. Man was it hot. The bus was a double decker open top and it was mid day so she was warm. It is over 40 degrees here day and night.

I saw the Grand Mosque which is magnificent.

Some facts on the Emirates Palace Hotel; it costs $17 000 a night for the suite and a cheap room is $1200. It cost 13 billion dollars to build and I tried to book a tour to see one of those $17 000 suite rooms but they were full so you couldn’t see one of the rooms. I asked how many there are and they said 16. I said well that is great that they are booked.

Everywhere has an abundance of staff. At the valet parking place or the place where if you’re like me you catch a cab they must have 15 people waiting to get you a cab or park your car. Everyone says good day mama constantly.

If you are an expat you tend to hang out at hotels as they are the only places besides your home where alcohol is served. Restaurants do not have liquor licenses. Even buying alcohol is an adventure. You are supposed to have a license to buy it. I went to find the store and buy Jenn and Spencer a couple of bottles of wine for their anniversary. The store was to be beside a grocery store. I couldn’t see it so while I was in the grocery store I went up to a Westerner and asked is there a place close by to buy alcohol. Oh, yes just go out these doors and to your right you will see an awning there is the store. So out I go around the corner and it is night time and dark out, let me paint the scene for you. I arrive at these big solid doors with blacked out windows and enter what one might think of the way strip clubs look back home, but enter the fully stocked liquor store. No problems and I was on my way.

We had a nice dinner party with Amanda and some of her friends the other night and then Amanda and Christina took me to the Crown Plaza the other night for drinks on the roof top patio. Amanda is another Ontario person who spent 8 years living in Peterborough. I also met up with Shawn and his son today. We did brunch together. Shawn is also from Peterborough and he and his wife just moved here to teach for the year.

The architecture is something around here. Architects must love designing buildings in Abu Dhabi where money is no object. Speaking of money, the government makes $ 250 million a day on crude oil. Emirates are looked after. They do not have to work and will receive $ 40 000 US a year from the government if they choose to just live off the system. When they marry the government gives them a house or a piece of land. Their education and health care are paid for. If you are a working emirate chances are you are very rich. Emirates own all of these hotels and buildings and don’t seem to care what the expense is on them. Last year if you were a government employee (which get paid very well) and because it was the cities 40 anniversary they gave them a year’s salary as a bonus and a 35% raise.

Construction is huge here and on a 7/24 rotation. You should see the shift change as busses pull away full of immigrant Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistani workers and take them back to the commune. These people in comparison work in this crazy heat, 12 hour shifts and make $2500 a year; yes I didn’t forget a zero, $2500.

I went on a desert safari and went dune bashing. It was thrilling to climb all over the sand dunes in a Toyota and slide sideways down the dunes and have the sand “splash” up over the vehicle like water at home when you go through a big puddle. Speaking of comparisons to home, do you know that the pools here have chillers to cool them off unlike us with our heaters they need to cool the water down?

Back to the desert safari, it was a 6 hour experience where we drove through the sand dunes, dune bashing. I then had a sunset camel ride, I went sand boarding down the dune. They had Burton “snow” boards that I hiked up the sand dune with and then boarded down the dune, which was pretty fun. I got a henna tattoo on my hand, had a great barbeque dinner, and watched some belly dancers. Which always floors me as the women are so covered here and yet they can belly dance? Then at this camp in the desert they turn off all the lights and you get to watch the stars. The moon was really bright and continued to light up the desert.     

Click on this link for photos from Abu Dhabi

You may have to cut and paste this address as the link seems to be acting up

https://plus.google.com/photos/113397051291621287474/albums/5793151412022003169

There seems to be a bit of a glitch when looking at the photos in the slide show mode. I think for now if you click on the first photo and in the bottom right hand corner there is an side ways arrow, click on it, it should put it into full screen mode and the captions should appear if you drag your mouse over them and use the arrow on the side to advance to the next picture. I put the captions there, so it would be nice if you could see them and know what you are looking at.

Tel Aviv Israel

Tel Aviv is an interesting big city with a hip vibe. It is only 100 years old so it is not on the Jesus tour and therefore has different means of getting tourists to come to the area. They offer beaches, drumming parties on the beach behind bombed out nightclubs, Bauhaus architecture walking tours and Jaffa an ancient city just outside Tel Aviv.

Yes my description is correct. There was a nightclub on the beach that was bombed out and now on Friday nights at sunset, locals brings their drums and continuously drum as the sunsets over the water. It is a cool setting with graffiti in the background and the Mediterranean Sea in the foreground. There was a little red headed girl there who was engrossed in her book reading as the drummers drummed around her, she was cute.

Now like I said the Bauhaus or White City (as they were all white buildings) is another attraction. These housing apt blocks were built in the 20’s to be completely functional and not aesthetically pleasing. Their original purpose was to provide housing to middle class people and now only the rich can live in them as they are now multimillion dollar apts. This sparked the protest around the world last year with sit ins in major cities.

We were given some interesting pieces of information on the walk. I am not sure if it is a wives tail or not, but a cute story just the same. Shutters have very interesting details. There are these pins that keep them open on the building. They have people on them and when the man is up you are welcome to come and visit. If the pin is down a woman is shown and it means no visitors are welcome and that potentially the man is busy with a woman. This was pre telephones and you didn’t call before coming over and this was a way to indicate if it was ok to call. Now you can take it or leave it, but just the little details on houses like this are interesting to find once someone points them out to you.

These housing blocks are being redone and are looking good; however there are some in need of some TLC. There are rules on refurbishing. The owners are not allowed to continue to build up with the same façade. The additional stories put on the top must be smaller than the bottom stories and set back so they “do not change” the original look of the building. We saw one where two owners combined their buildings to get more apts and then built up, utilizing the space. There also must be a safe room in the new build. It must be a concrete room with an iron door in the event that a war breaks out people will have a “safe” place to go.

I hit a chocolate shop and had a to die for, ok not that extreme, but, an amazing milkshake.

Karen’s friend Ester arrived in Tel Aviv and so we had a day with her, she is great fun, she even finished off the evening by reading our cards, and it was very cool. We had a great day roaming the streets of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Jaffa a 4000 year old city is within walking distance of Tel Aviv and to think Tel Aviv is only 100 years old. We saw pictures and it was just a desert, now it is a thriving metropolis.

Jaffa was beautiful we could have spent days wondering there, but better for our pocket books that we didn’t. We each got a new dress, mine I say is the Jewish school girl look, it is cute and made in Tel Aviv. The experience in the shop with the clerk being our very own gay personal shopper was brilliant and a priceless experience. At one point I got stuck in a dress and he said don’t worry girl I will help you, I won’t look I am gay, gay, gay, and he had it off me in two seconds.  

We went to an Arabic restaurant for dinner which came with 18 little salads and a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade to share.

I crossed the border and I am back in Jordan without an Israeli stamp in the old passport. If you are doing further travel in the Middle East it is recommended to not get the stamp. I will fly to Abu Dhabi for my visit with Jenn and Spencer tomorrow.

Goodbye Karen, we split today she is off to Crete, Ireland and then moving back to Australia. Good luck it was great traveling with you, until our paths cross again…

It took 6 hours and 5 busses/taxis to go about 200km’s today. It sounds crazy but it was actually a very smooth trip and easy to make the transfers etc. I gave myself lots of time and it was no problem. In the end it cost about $20 compared to a private taxi that would have been $264. The boarder closes early tomorrow and then will be closed for two days do to Yom Kipper, so I am very happy to have made it through and easily.

Click on this link for Tel Aviv photos

Photo viewing problem fix

Hi there
There seems to be a bit of a glitch when looking at the photos in the slide show mode. I think for now if you click on the first photo and in the bottom right hand corner there is an side ways arrow, click on it, it should put it into full screen mode and the captions should appear if you drag your mouse over them and use the arrow on the side to advance to the next picture. I put the captions there, so it would be nice if you could see them and know what you are looking at. Hope Picasa fixes this problem soon. It seems they updated the version but that it has some problems

Happy Birthday to me in Nazareth and Haifa

I was informed earlier this year that 33 is known as your Jesus year. You are to live life to the fullest and do the things you want to do making this year special, because Jesus died when he was 33 so you are to live it up. So isn’t it appropriate that I would spend the transition day from 33 to 34 in Nazareth where Jesus grew up. I just think that that is a little funny. Happy Birthday to me!

My birthday morning consisted of a great workout of 700+ steps down through the beautiful  Baha’i Gardens after I had taken what they call the subway, but what is really a funicular ride up to the top. The Baha’i religion of course as this seems to be the Jesus tour is a religion that welcomes everyone and this garden is one of their Holy Places, with their spiritual leader’s remains buried in the golden dome.  The gardens are cared for by over a hundred gardeners. It also offers a beautiful view of Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea. PS it is also free to enter and take the 1 hour “tour” workout. It is only offered once a day.

So being the end of my Jesus year now that I am 34, I ended the Jesus year in Nazareth. It was neat to see again the religious sites we so often hear about. The Basilica of Annunciation​on is built on the former location of Mary’s house. All religions but the Greeks believe the angel Gabriel came to Mary at home, they believe the angel came while she was collecting water, so there are two sites to see.

Karen and I are just back from a great dinner out for my birthday in the German Colony of Haifa. It is beautifully lit up with spectacular lights in the Baha’i Garden and “fariey lights” as Karen calls white Christmas lights on the patio of the restaurant we ate at. At the restaurant over the loud speaker they played a cheesy electronic version of Happy Birthday and gave me a combination of a sparker and firecracker to hold while they played the Happy Birthday song and gave me a lovely dessert.

Click on this link for Haifa and Nazareth Photos

Akko Israel

These boys and their guns were just chilling at the Akko train station.

Today we headed out by train to Akko Israel. It is an ancient port city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. There are parts of it that date back 4000 years. The old city is just being discovered as it was covered in dirt and new settlements were built on top of it. They say that someone ordered the great halls to be filled in with 8ft of dirt. We saw parts today that were full of dirt but you could see the arches of the roof lines. They said it was still to be discovered. The architecture was great, I love the parabolic curved ceilings and wonder each time I see them how they are constructed.

I got some great shots of soldiers today. It was excellent people watching on the train, it was full of soldiers and their machine guns. I am not sure if they went home to see their families for the holidays and were now returning or what, but there were a lot of them in transit today.  By the way Happy Jewish New Year. Everything has been closed for the last few days as they have been celebrating.

We keep moving from Sea to Sea, we are now in Haifa which is on the Mediterranean Sea.

Click on this link for Akko Israel pictures and Soldier photos

Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, Israel

A salt scrub anyone? Dead Sea Salt.

We took a couple of days off from Religious site seeing and hit the Dead Sea this time on the Israeli side for a little R and R. We spent a couple of nights at a fancy hotel using the amenities of numerous pools, both fresh water and Dead Sea Water. The hotel had an accessible beach with nice lounge chairs.The whole place was accessible. I couldn't help but think of the people with their walkers and wheelchairs that they were here in the hopes that the healing properties of the Dead Sea would give them some relief. It was great to float in. In the deep water I was able to stand up as if I was on a platform and have my upper body remain out of the water because it is so dense with salt. There was no way to sink, it wouldn't let you. If you had any cuts or skin irritations look out you sure new it as soon at that part of your flesh hit the water.

After our visit to the Dead Sea we headed to the Sea of Galilee where we have been eating St Peter's fish ever since. Today was a Jesus tour day for me. I hit all the major sites in 40 degree weather, she is warm over here and pants were a requirement today, cannot show any knees at those churches.

I went to the Mount of the Beatitudes, it is a beautiful place with a lovely view over the Sea of Galilee. I visited the Church of the Multiplication of the fishes and loaves, learned about Judgement day through a mural, went to Capharnaum the town of Jesus and saw the Baptismal site at the River Jordan. There were a lot of cat fish in that water and a lot of Russians and Eastern Europeans baptizing themselves in there. We finished the day off with a visit to a kibbutz a community of people living together. This one had a dairy farm and the cows were being kept cool by misting fans and hoses continually spraying water on them.

Click on this link for pictures from the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea

Bethlehem, Palestine

The star marks the spot of Jesus' birth.

We took a local bus into Palestine to visit Bethlehem. I learned a little about the region and have a good photo of a map depicting Jewish land (Israeli land) versus Palestinian land since 1946. It helps show the struggles for land over here. The Palestinians are held in by a huge concrete fence. We had to go through a checkpoint but did not experience any trouble.

Machine guns slung over young people’s shoulders have become second nature. It is mandatory to join the Army in Israel and there are many soldiers around. There are so many checkpoints, guards and security people around and no beggars anywhere, that everyone in this country must be employed. The other day I must have seen a hundred police officers protecting the President. There was a long line of police vehicles and a couple of police limos in the mix along with full size vans full of police. A lot of security. I didn’t want to hang around because I didn’t know what was going on and with all of that ammunition around it is better to get out of the area. Well they came down the road I was walking down with their brigade. But all was fine. 

Today we were at a bus station and there was a guy dressed in civilian clothes with a backpackers pack on with a machine gun slung over his shoulder, I said to Karen look, there is an Israeli backpacker. Didn’t chance the photo, valued my life more than the shot.

This all sounds a little scary probably, but really it is fine here, they just have lots of young people so therefore a large army and I am in a tourist area so lots of security. Like I said it becomes second nature.

Bethlehem was great. We went to Jesus’ supposed birth place and placed a hand on the star that marks the spot of his birth in the Manger. I pictured a manger, but no it is a Grotto in the basement of a church with lots of hanging candle lanterns. No donkeys or straw. We saw St Catherine Church where midnight mass on Christmas Eve is broadcast from. We hung out in Manger Square people watching and eating falafel. We played around at an Olive Wood, woodshop. They had a big nativity set so we pretended we were angels and praying at the site. At this woodshop the guy was really nice and showed us how they make all the souvenirs gave us some free ones and sent us to the roof for a great view of Bethlehem. He told us because we were by ourselves and not with a tour group we could buy anything if we wanted with a 40% discount, but that there was no pressure. So a couple of Olive Wood rosary’s for mom and dad and we were on our way after he gave us a ton of information about the area. He was a genuine person.

We pass spots marked as Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem regularly but we decided to walk the route in order and follow the way of the cross. I took pictures of each Station so I can do a modern day Stations of the Cross presentation during Lent with my classes. The locations were not too spread out and are down and around the alley ways and in and out of a school, churches, shops and the regular hustle and bustle of the Old City and souks. 

In Bethlehem we had a great time walking through the souks (markets) as we were the only tourists as most get bussed in in a tour group and bussed right back out again. It is a predominantly Muslim area so we were glad to have our knees and shoulders covered, but did all right without our hair covered. It was cool to just be part of the regular daily hustle and bustle of the city of Bethlehem.

Click on this link for photos from Bethlehem and Jerusalem Stations of the Cross

Jerusalem Israel

Wow is Jerusalem ever not what I expected. There are tons of pilgrims and tourists here. There is fresh squeezed juice on every corner to match every denominations churches, mosques, and synagogues. There are religious buildings everywhere and they are all connected by narrow covered cave like passage ways lined with shops and restaurants between numerous, upon numerous holy sites. There are spots where Jesus, fell, died, where his mother was born, Mohammad ascended, etc.

The Old City is divided up into quarters, the Jewish, Christian, Armenian and Muslim quarters. So within each area are different denominations from that faith. Knees must be covered in holy places so you will see a scarf tied around my legs as a skirt to be a bit longer than the one I was wearing. The funny thing is men cannot wear shots so they have sarongs etc tired around them, and some don’t make it all the way around some of them.

There is a syndrome in Jerusalem that the doctors call Jerusalem Syndrome, it affects 200 Jerusalem visitors a year. It makes them think they are the second coming of Christ or a dead prophet from the past etc. They say these people have had no previous psychiatric problems and are inflicted usually for a week or so and afterwards are embarrassed that that happened to them, an interesting tidbit of information.

I went to Jesus’ tomb, Mary’s tomb the Prophets tomb, where Jesus died, the Stations of the Cross, the Mount of Olives and where he ascended, the Wailing or Western Wall and saw numerous Bar Mitzvahs  and 13 year old boys reading from the Torah for the first time.

There was a cool place where Jesus prayed the Our Father with the Disciples before he died at the Mount of Olives and around the property is the Our Father on tiles in every language. Groups come into a cave like structure and sing or chant the Our Father.

We visited the Israel Museum. It was a large modern building and had great exhibits. There are tons of famous pieces of art work there and many pictures and information on Jewish life and lots of archeological artifacts.

Click on this link for pictures from Jerusalem Israel

Wadi Rum Desert Camping in Jordan

Karen and I spent a couple of days in the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan. We drove through the desert in the back of a pickup truck with benches along the side and a covered roof. There are a range of vehicles, uncovered, burn you to a crisp vehicles to air conditioned Land Rovers. We spent the night in the desert at a camp. We called it the Holiday Inn as the Tents were green and white, Holiday Inn’s colours. There were four of us in the back of the pick up to see the sites of the desert and to picnic in cannon and 11 of us to sleep at the “Holiday Inn.”

There was a Bedouin man there to cook our dinner and keep an eye on us. Our dinner was amazing. The chicken was cooked in a steel drum that was buried in the ground. It was the best meal yet. At night we went and watched the sunset and ran into the four Irish boys we keep seeing everywhere. Funny how some people’s paths just keep crossing. We speak to them every time at length, but actually don’t know their names, so we did a formal introduction at the sunset viewing spot. Turns out they were at a camp just down the desert.

The stars that night were amazing. What an experience. It was nice to relax and have absolutely nothing else to do but take in our surroundings and the stars as we didn’t have electricity or wifi to entertain us.

In the afternoon we went to a rock formation in the desert that is called the bridge. I scaled the rocks to get to the top of it and get a picture of me soaring at the top. It was a feat to get to the top, a real workout and my thighs were shaking on the edge, a combination of the effort and height probably.

We have done the border crossing and were not met by the most pleasant of border guards or immigration people. But after a wait, a ton of questions and a bunch of paper work they finally let me in. Karen just got the questions and was good to go, I was sent to sit down, fill out a form and wait until the man came to get the form, then wait. But all and all we are here and now in the Holy Land in Jerusalem in Israel.

 On our way out of the desert we took the Desert Highway and saw Black Market gas for sale along the road. There were pickup trucks along the road with barrels and 20L jugs of gas for sale alongside tomatoes also for sale. The pipeline runs through Jordan from Saudi Arabia so it is siphoned off and sold on the Black Market, the young boy puts a hose in the 20L jug and siphons it out with his mouth and your gas tank is being filled.

We also had the there is no room at the Inn experience in Jerusalem. We took a bus from the boarder to town, and then a taxi to a hostel with 77 rooms to find out they were full. We had not pre booked anything as everywhere in Jordan was empty, but not in Israel. A couple of phone calls later by the hostel and we walked across town with our packs and stuff and are staying in a room that looks like it is part of a cave.

Click on this link for photos from Wadi Rum Jordan

Petra Jordan

Last night we had an epic experience. We went to Petra by night. Petra is in the South of Jordan and consists of incredible scenery and ruins from 3^rd century BC. There are spectacular sites in amongst mountains of barren rock. These spectacular sites are actually all tombs and it is hard to believe that they made such masterpieces for their dead and how did they create them? I am very curious about the tools they used, but have not been able to find anything out about this in any museums or literature. I guess it will be a future Google search, but not now, time is too precious.

The epic Petra by night … it was amazing. We walked into the site (Petra is 387 square kilometers) down a siq (a narrow passage) with rock formations all the way down that are 100m’s high.  The path was lit by candle light, it was spectacular. It was about a 2 km walk down this narrow candle lit passage under a star lit night. The stars were incredible and then we made it to the Treasury, one of the main sites of Petra. In front of it there were 1000’s of candles in paper bags set up and a couple of Arabic musicians playing instruments. We sat down and laid out looking at the façade and the sky. It is one of the best things I have ever seen.

Now today was also great. It wasn’t as hot and I expected it to be. I thought it would be a scorcher in the sun, but it was only 36 degrees (it was 42, the other day) and there were shaded parts do to such high rocks. So our probably 20 km hike through the rock formations and up the mountains was a great workout, we hiked up, down, around and over mountain passes for 10 hours. The views were amazing. There are hundreds of tombs and I now understand how people can hide out in caves or tombs over here. It is so dry, not a spec of grass or water and there are people, donkeys, horses, goats and sheep to feed in these mountains. 

I had no idea what to expect when going to Petra, but wow is it ever huge and are there ever a lot of tombs chiseled out of the rock and the colours. The rocks are multiple colours and have many layers of colouring.

Yesterday we had a driver, as you do here, you get a driver and car to take you places as busses are few and far between. The driver thing is set up really nicely by the hotels and they are efficient and on time. So we had a driver yesterday take us down the King’s Highway which was also great and followed the Dead Sea. Keating’s it reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in Australia. We stopped at Castles along the way. Our one toothed driver was a very knowledgeable man and gave us tons of history and info about the culture. I got some great people shots too. I also saw a dessert scorpion, but someone had put it in a plastic bottle so no need for concern. 

Over the last two days we have seen many weddings parade through the vast lands for the Bedouin (the people who live out in the hills, a very hard life) and town’s people. They parade around with tons of people hanging out of vehicles honking their horns, but unlike home there is a truck in the line up with the dowry, cows, goats, camels, etc. I don’t know how the bride knows who she is marrying as she is sometimes covered with a solid white veil (no eye holes) that she has no hope of seeing out of. During their wedding celebrations the women are together at one location and the men at another. They do not mix.   

Again there are many pictures for you to check out. Click on the following link for pictures from Petra and the King’s Highway trip. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/106638915910407545091/PetraAndKingSHighwayTrip

Jordan Post

Floating on the Dead Sea

The adventure begins again. I have met my friend Karen in Jordan and we will be spending the next three weeks together travelling around Jordan and Israel.

Well we have had an action packed four days so far. We flew into Amman and based ourselves there for a few days.

We got a driver with three other people at our hotel/hostel and headed out to the North. We went to Umm Qais, I am excited I have learned a new word for scrabble with Qais, you can use places now right? It is at the tip of the country and boarders Syria, Israel and Palestine, while looking at the Sea of Galilee we were able to note all of these places. Don’t worry we did not see any bloodshed.

We went to Jerash, wow it is the biggest Roman Ruin site I have seen. Massive and in amazing shape. We walked around Amman for a day or took a cab when it got too hot, only a dollar a trip. The meter starts at 25 cents, not like Peterborough where it starts at $4. The people are extremely friendly. They have been taught the word welcome and everyone says it to us. “Welcome, welcome, welcome to Jordan.” It is lovely. They could have learned worse like the one guy on the street who said “give me sex” as we walked by. This preconceived notion about Westerns.

Today we are at the Dead Sea. We splurged and are at The Marriott, yep four days in and we are out of backpacker mode and in Posh Ville. There are only high end options if you want to stay at the Dead Sea so we went for it. $165 for the room, our last place was about $30 a night. So I type this in a nice white bath robe with my Marriott slippers on, looking at the white duvets. Back to reality tomorrow night…

The Dead Sea was so cool, not cool temperature wise it was 42 degrees today and the water was hot, hot, hot. We did the touristy thing to do while here we read a book while floating in the Dead Sea, covered ourselves in mud for the spa experience and chilled out in an infinity pool looking over the sea. It is a real mix of people here, very wealthy, us backpackers, are very few. But the Muslim women, poor women, it was 42 degrees and they are in their “swim suits” of black track suits with hoods or blue spandex suits with hoods that make them look like Smurfs, I am sorry that is rude, but it gives you the visual and the heat, my god.

There are a ton of photos, check them out using the slide show feature and we can see where they are and the comments, sorry there are tons, but we have done so much in such a little time.

Click on the following link for photos from Umm Quai, Jerash, Amman and the Dead Sea in Jordan.

Click on this link for photos from the Jordan, there are tons, have a look