India Day 1 - 5

India

Day 1: Delhi

I have arrived and it is quite the tail to tell about getting from the airport to the hotel. First of all my flight came into Delhi at 3:30 am. I was not met at the airport by my prearranged hotel transfer. I did the walk of shame up and down the corridor looking for my name or the company name on the signs three times. Then I went outside to check out there, nothing. Then I wasn’t allowed back into the airport by security, once you’re out, you’re out. Finally after having to show my passport and visa to another security guard it was ok for me to go in and use a pay phone. Luckily there was a dude there collecting the money and making the calls. I called the hotel twice as they hung up on me the first time and then the third time they didn’t answer. Lovely. Here is where PATIENCE needs to come into my world and where I realize these people do not know how to say the word no and choose to say yes to everything, even when it should be no. So I asked the hotel guy are you coming to get me? Yes in taxi you go to hotel. Yes the taxi ride I have already paid for or a taxi that I get at the airport? Yes. Yes to which question? Yes. Click. Second call; is there someone coming to get me? Yes you take taxi get to hotel. Right. Then I call G adventures as there are two numbers to call if there is trouble with your hotel transfer. No answer at either number.

I head out of the airport again, this time on my way to the taxi stand. When I am approached by people, you need taxi? You need taxi? No thank you I will get it. You are to make sure you go to the Delhi police taxi stand to book your taxi. So I go there pay my 400 rupees ($8) and get a receipt that says go to the parking spot numbered 41. As I am walking to number 41 a guy grabs my ticket and says come with me, I am #41. No you are not. I can see the cab in the 41 spot. Yes, yes, fine come with me. So I get into the cab with a guy who is sitting in the front in what in North America would be the driver’s seat but I haven’t registered they drive on the other side of the road here, so he is another passenger. Turns out he has to be dropped off at the domestic terminal. Yes, yes, ma’am, no problem, on the way. So after we drop him off he asks again where I am going and checks my information out using his cell phone as a light. He says the receipt says a different address so you must pay 200 more rupees. I say fine. In my paperwork it says if you are coming from the airport and not using the hotel transfer you should pay 700 – 800 rupees. So another 200 was fine with me and because I didn’t argue and said fine right away he told me good girl.

Then we pull into a gas station and I have to pay for the gas, 100 rupees. I say fine but that comes out of the 200 I am giving you. Yes ma’am. So we head out on the road and he says you pay now, I say not now I only have a 500 and I know you have no change (this conversation and fiasco already took place with domestic terminal drop off). So he turns around and goes back to the gas station takes the 500 and changes it there. He comes back to the car and counts off the hundred rupee bills 1, 2, 3 and stops. I say and 4? I already paid the 100 for the gas, so I need four back. Yes, ma’am right. Yes math teacher is what I am thinking.

So now the rest of the drive, it is pitch black out and we head down this road that looks deserted. It looks forested with all of the trees and at the roads edge on both sides is an 8 foot high concrete fence for kilometers. I cannot see anything else. No buildings no houses, no people sleeping on the side of the road and I wonder where are we and where are we going? So I figure chat the guy up then he maybe won’t do anything to me in the middle of the night. We discuss families, ages etc, he thought I looked 21, no body, I am old. He is in night college, drives the night, it is less busy on the roads easier traffic etc. Just trying to pass the time. I figure at least there are other cars on the road, if I need to get out of this vehicle it won’t just be me and him on a deserted road.(Later I found out behind that concrete fence was jungle and the concrete fence is up to keep the animals off the road). Finally we get into a populated area then he asks for my hotel information again. This time he calls the hotel and gets the specifics for how to get there as the streets turn into chaos. It was a dodgy ride in the middle of nowhere but I made it to the hotel and he only kissed my hand when I got out. Have I told you I hate arriving anywhere in the night because trust becomes a huge issue? He was telling me as a woman I should not be out after 11pm, you cannot trust the men. I am thinking, right and it is what 5am now and I am out with you and having this dodgy ride? Finally at 6am I made it to the hotel. You fine he says? I am fine. Thank you, good luck at school.

I have met my group. There are 15 of us and it is quite the group. A wide range of ages my roommate Emma is from the UK and in her early 20’s. She thinks there might be a 50 year age span. Should be interesting. 10 people are doing the full 28 days and 5 others just do 14.

So yes means no. I checked into the hotel at 6am. I had booked a room for the night before the tour started. So I literally paid for 6 hours as check out was at noon. I asked at 6am do I have to change rooms at 12pm? Yes. So at noon I repack and put on my backpack, carry my other bag and head down the three flights of stairs to check out and head to my new room. You stay in room ma’am, other girl come join you. Nice, you could have said that at 6 and I could still be sleeping is what I am thinking.

The group met at 5:30pm and did our paperwork and then headed out for an amazing meal. It was awesome. Aloo something? It was stuffed potatoes with cottage cheese and other things, it was so flavorful and of course butter naan.

The rest of the day went well, it is patience and yes means no, my new mantra. In the afternoon I did computer work and booked the next leg of the journey as I know this month will be really busy. After this? The Maldives. I am so lucky. What a cool place to look forward to.

 Day 3: On a air conditioned bus to Jaipur

I never imagined that I would be able to type this portion while riding a bus. There are 15 people in my group and we have a large air conditioned coach bus to ourselves to take us the six hour trip to Jaipur. While I sit at the front looking out the large window watching the traffic and listening to the continuous honking I type this.

Our guide said when you travel in this country you need three goods. Good brake, good horn and good luck. The traffic is insane and I couldn’t believe we were taking this huge bus through the city. On the highway there is less traffic than I thought and the ride is quite pleasant. We saw hundreds of cows crossing the highway and coming in herds for kilometers down the side of the highway.

Horns, horns, horns. Oh my. It something to get use to.

We just passed another “local” bus that was jammed packed and had about 50 people sitting on the roof.

Yesterday we battled the traffic in rickshaws, bicycle taxis. We took eight of them and only one popped a chain and had to change rickshaws. We took these to the metro station where we then took the metro. Shocking the metro was clean, clean, clean. The front car is the women’s car. The women were separated from the men, less feeling up that way. At one point the security guard was jamming the men’s car door shut as they were packed in like sardines. We were just tight but not as tight as sardines.

Coming out of the metro we saw this huge pile of garbage and people having to pick through it for scarps, nasty.

We went to the Jama Mosque. Again women needed to be covered and were supplied with this time, bright and colourful abahas. Unlike the Arab countries where they are black. I climbed the minaret there for a great view of Delhi and the Red Fort.

We went to a Sikh Temple, Sisganj Gurudwara. That was a new experience for me. As part of their religion they do not cut any of their body hair and consequently have it wrapped up in turbans. They believe in paying kind acts forward so there is a soup kitchen attached to the temple and they feed people three meals a day. We were able to help make naan and roti (breads). The roti is not like Caribbean Roti it is like naan, but is made with whole wheat flour.

We had free time and four of us crammed into a tuk, tuk and went around the city to the India Gate and the Presidents House and Parliament. In this part of town we saw nice cars and we had a competition to see if we could find a car with no scratches. They drive so close together that they are bound to have dents and scratches. We did find one; it must have just been driven off the lot.

Our second tuk tuk driver was hilarious. He was smiling, clapping and jumping all around as we drove through town. You are only allowed to have three people in a tuk tuk so he was happy to be breaking the law. We caught in out front of the presidential palace so there were lots of police around. He drives up to the police and excitedly yells at the cop and is jumping up and down pointing as us crammed into the back, four people. Ha ha and puts his finger up to his mouth indicating shh, keep it quiet. Clapping, jumping up and down, saying ha ha four people. Cost up  a $1 each for the ride.   

We have been having Indian showers. It consists of taking a bucket of water and dousing yourself in water with a medium size plastic measuring cup. It does the trick.

Delhi has a population of 17 million people and at any one time 8 million people are on the road. India’s population is 1.2 billion for comparison there are 7 billion people in the world.

Our group has quite the age range as I mentioned. It is actually closer to a sixty year gap in ages as Doug is 81 years old. Good on him. Man India is a hard place to tackle and for him to be an American (not many travel) and 81, impressive. He is a little hard of hearing but he is making out just fine. He is only with the group for two weeks. The group is Canadians, Americans an Italian/Canadian and two people from Belgium.    

Day 4: Jaipur

Jaipur is known as the pink city. All of the buildings facades must be pink. Now a days it is a terra cotta colour mixed with dust and dirt. The city of 3 million people has wide streets and large markets.

We went to the Wind Palace which is a building with many windows looking out onto the street for the harem to watch the goings on of the people on the street. The multitude of windows were put in so the people on the street wouldn’t know which windows the women were at and that they were being watched.

We went to the Amber Fort/Palace. It has a 27 km wall around it that reminded me of the Great Wall in China. It was a beautiful area with hills, water and neat architecture. The palace was a mixture of Muslim and Hindi architecture. The King had 12 wives and 256 concubines living in this palace. 268 women to please, he must have been a busy man.

There was also another neat palace in the middle of a manmade lake, the Water Palace that was neat to look at.

I hit the market later for an exhausting look around. The haggling wore me out. But I managed to buy a few Indian tunic type tops, but I had to work for them. You are to bargain around 80% off of what they ask and it was an effort where I was.

The group headed out to a Bollywood movie in the evening. It was a not to be missed experience. It is not like going to the movies at home. It was in a large auditorium/theater with neat architecture that would remind you of the 60’s. The people clap, yell and hoot and holler when their favorite actors/actresses appear in the movie or there is an action scene or a good speech etc it is hilarious to be a part of. It was called English Vinglish and was about this mother going to the States and learning English. So even thought it was in Hindi we were able to follow it easily and parts of it were in English.

The movie was ~ $2 and about another $2 for popcorn and a drink. The drink I had to buy separately from the popcorn. The drink was 35 rupees and the guy didn’t have 5 rupees change so he gave me 5, 1 rupee or penny candies to make the difference. I was not interested in eating them and thought that was pretty funny that they wouldn’t have change and they were giving everyone these candies to make up the difference. So when I went to pay for my popcorn which was another 35 rupees I gave that guy the 5 candies as part of the pay as again I didn’t have another 5 rupees and he took it. So I paid with candy today. 

Popcorn for sale on the street, not how we got it in the theater.

When we arrived to our hotel in Jaipur we were greeted with a marigold lay, a cold towel to freshen up and a glass of Pepsi. We also saw snake charmers at the sites today.

Day 5: Bhadarej (A rural Rajasthan village)

We have arrived to a quiet rural village and are staying in a palace. It is from the 18^th century. It has lovely open, green courtyards in the center and rooms around the outside. This area of India is not the typical tourist destination. My ears are getting a little bit of a reprieve from the continuous noise of honking horns. It took them awhile to adjust.

Wow we are just back from camel and cart rides through the village to an untouchable community. Wow. For the first part I felt as if we were in a parade. Well we kind of were. They paraded us through the village on three carts being pulled by camels. All of the children came out of their houses to wave and say hello. It is a poor community and one of those times where you count your blessings.

We arrived and were thoroughly welcomed by tons of children yelling hello and following our carts to the untouchable’s community. Doug the 81 year old guy said; “well they could sure use some birth control over here.”

India has a cast system and the untouchables are the lowest in the system. Never did I think we would see their homes and visit an untouchable community. The children and adults all wanted their picture taken and then wanted to look at them. It was a lovely experience.

There was a loom there and a woman was weaving a rug while we were visiting. She gets 10 rupees per row we were told, so about 25 cents. The math didn’t add up so not quite sure, but she is getting some money for her family which is great. She has been taught a specific pattern and will always make the same pattern for the rug company she works for.

At seven and eight years of age children in this community get married. Now the girl still lives with her family until she hits puberty, but seven or eight and married, I cannot imagine.

Click on this link for tons of photos from India's first few days

India

Here is what is to come for the next month of my travels.

PS I forgot to tell you that the price of gas in Qatar is 20 cents a litre.

Doha Qatar

Look Canadian Thanksgiving in Qatar. The gravy was even done in a pan the same as mothers. It was such a good meal. Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I never would have thought that I would be wearing my long johns in 45 degrees Celsius weather but they did double duty and served as a pair of tights. I am in Doha Qatar and it is very conservative. Shorts and short skirts are a no, no in public. So when I visited Haley’s school I was wearing a dress but my legs needed to be covered, hence the long johns and I pushed the limits because my forearms were exposed as my sleeves only came to my elbows.

Haley is at a Qatari school, Qatar Academy. It is on a campus that houses a primary and secondary school as well as a recreation center and university. The school is very well off and has great facilities with each student receiving a Mac book with their tuition. I sat in on an English class, a higher level IB math class, read to a grade four class and helped a primary class make wordels for a math lesson they did. The IB 11 math was interesting, it was high level for sure, and it made me think.  They were doing topics we would not cover as in depth in our high school curriculum. It was neat to sit in on.

Haley lives in the part of town they call Education City because it is close to this Academy which is the sheikas (the sheiks wife’s) special project. Haley is in a housing complex that has very spacious apts and a club house with a great pool area and a gym. I have been taking advantage of the nice pool area. But remember that I mentioned the country is conservative? At the pool area I have gotten in trouble from the lifeguard for wearing a two piece bathing suit, not allowed. I have been told I must cover my stomach. So that nice scarf/sarong/blanket/skirt/… became a tummy cover. I just wrapped it around my midsection and swam like that.

The souk is great in Doha and Chloe and Laura you will be happy to know I have gotten my big flower for my hair and I am set to be Effie from the Hunger Games for Halloween, compliments of the souk (market) here. It is huge and should do just nicely. The souk had incredible people watching, many sheiks and men in full garb. Oh yes there was a falcon souk. It is an area devoted to multiple shops where you can purchase a falcon. I guess it is a big thing here if you are male to go falcon hunting in the desert. So I saw lots of men and boys parading their falcons around. At first I didn’t know what the he** was going on. It was night time when I went there and like I said cool people watching but not great lighting for more photos. I went in the evening as it is outdoors and the heat was more manageable in the evening. I said yes it is noticeably “cooler” and guess what the temperature was? 39 degrees and I could feel the difference.  

Haley and I went to an open mic night. It was great, lots of expats singing and playing. It was very entertaining. There were a few bands there and lots of individual singers. It was great live entertainment.

Another thing to do in Doha is walk along the Corniche. It is the waterfront area and I walked 6km’s of it when it was 45 degrees Celsius out. Needless to say I was a little sticky when I made it to the Museum of Islamic Art for a little reprieve. They had the A/C pumping in there and I was then freezing. Doesn’t help that I was good and sweaty entering. There was neat architecture along the walk, the Sheraton hotel is a Doha icon with its pyramid like shape and the museum itself was pretty good.

Arabs love Baskin and Robbins which can be found everywhere, so I have been treating myself to my all time favorite, chocolate peanut butter. It always reminds me of home to see a Baskin and Robbins with its only plant in the world being in Peterborough, until now, since they have pulled out of the Patch this fall.

 I am not sure if you are aware or not but the weekend is different in the Middle East. It falls on Friday / Saturday. Friday most things are closed or for part of the day at least as Friday is their Holy Day and their “Sunday”.

Wayne and Meg a lovely couple from Australia took me and their son Ethan (who just moved here) on their patented driving tour of Doha. Whenever there are visitors they kindly take them around to see the sites.  Wayne and Meg have lived here for 3 or 4 years and Ethan is in grade 4 and had lived with his mom in Sydney.

One of the pictures turned out to be really fussy as the air was full of sand particles. They are so fine you don’t see or feel them, but they came up in the picture and you cannot see too far in the horizon because of it. Just thought you might be interested in that piece of information.

We saw the camel race track today. You will have to tell dad the track is 6km’s long and they had two of them side by side with paved driving lanes around them so you can drive in your car and follow the camels. I tried to get to a race but the season has not started yet, also there is no betting on the camels allowed.

Camels use to be driven by children but they have outlawed that now and they are driven by robotic jockeys, which we happen to see. So that driving lane around the track is not just full of cars watching the camels but people remote controlling their robot jockeys, telling the jockey to hit the camel to go faster etc. The roads are chaotic here so I can only imagine seeing that take place.

Driving is crazy here and parking lots just as bad. The locals choose not to get out of their cars to order food or ice cream, whatever. They just keep honking the horn and someone comes out to their car and takes their order. Someone said no wonder they are overweight.

Some stats for you. There are 300 000 Qataris and 2 million people living here. There are tons of nannies, laborers, servers, clerks etc, they are the workforce.

We went to the Pearl Qatar which is a ritzy island area in Doha shaped like a pearl and shell. Beautiful homes and apt buildings, mega cash there. The Maserati, Rolls Royce and Ferrari shops are all there, was thinking of having one sent home? Not.

We saw some cool war art that was made out of Arabic tea and coffee utensils. We also went to a red velvet cupcake shop, girls you would have loved the cupcake shaped table and chairs. The visit came in handy as Canadian Thanksgiving dinner was later that day and as the day was going we were not going to have time to make that pumpkin pie as previously planned, so cupcakes will have to suffice.

Click on this link for pictures from Doha Qatar

Happy Thanksgiving. Ten Canadians got together for Thanksgiving. It turned out there was even pumpkin pie, whip cream, cranberries and amazing juicy turkey. It was a fabulous meal.

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