An Amazing Trip To The Middle East
"I can't believe it, Nissim is getting married" said my son Perry (on the right with his cousins Nicole on the right and Selena, 2004), after hanging up the phone. "And I am going. And Oh, did I mention that it will take place in Amman, Jordan". "If you go, I am going with you", I replied. And why someone with his right mind will go there, you would ask. Well, there were many reasons and to mention a few; first, I did not feel comfortable at all that Perry, {a 23 year old American, who was born in Israel} will travel alone in Jordan. Even as confident and outgoing as Perry is, I did not think you can get the "Middle East street smarts" in an American College. Second, I know Nissim well and I would love to take part in his wedding. Third, it was an opportunity to see my family and friends in Israel. Fourth, it was a rare opportunity to see Petra. And fifth and certainly not least, I wanted to scuba dive again in the Red Sea and introduced to Perry (who dove in Australia, and brag about it often), what scuba diving in the Red Sea is all about.
This is me experimenting with a camera and a mirror.
Perry was scheduled to be in Israel earlier with Taglit and this trip was due to end on July 19. I will fly to Israel, on July 24th. The wedding date was August 14. I immediately thought of a general plan; The most important objective of the trip is Nissim's wedding, and whatever else we do, is a bonus, and we cannot jeopardize this goal. There were several iterations and facts finding about what services are available, and where. For example, I found out that to cross the border from Israel to Jordan via Eilat (instead via Jericho for example), is not only possible, but is also free and usually not crowded.
Here is a rough plan, going backwards from the wedding date:
- August 15: Leaving Amman, Jordan, back to Israel, through a north crossing and meeting Yehi, (aka Koff (which means Monkey in Hebrew)) in Afula, Israel. Staying that night at Koff.
- August 14: Nissim's Wedding in Amman.
- August 13: Arriving at Amman, Jordan, a day before the wedding.
- August 11: Crossing the border From Israel to Jordan and arriving at Petra (70 miles South of Amman).
- August 10: Back to Eilat, Israel, from Sinai, Egypt.
- August 2nd: Transport to Eilat, Crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border South of Eilat, Israel, traveling South, on East Sinai peninsula (the Red Sea west coast), including: 3 days diving in Sharm-El-Sheik, any other possible locations such as Dahab and Nueiba, 3 days, Traveling, 2 days.
- July 24th until August 1st: Tel-Aviv, Israel, meeting family, friends, and take whatever opportunity to travel around. I.e; visiting Kibutz Gan Shmuel to visit members of the Rimon group members, such as Shlomit.
We still needed to explore and dig out some information, such as Scuba Diving clubs to use in Eilat and Sinai, how to move around (taxi, bus, car rental). We decided to find what ever additional information we need about Sinai and Jordan in the week we planned to spend in Tel-Aviv. As it was nearly impossible to find concrete facts on the Internet and/or over the phone.
It was May, 2004, Perry graduated from Williams College a year before, Dari, my daughter, was a Junior in the University of Miami, The U, and Ori my younger Son was a Senior in High School.
Lets take a
and take a look at other family members:
Over Time the deck shown above, gave up to nature, so it was replaced with this patio:
This is Dari in a rare moment of cleaning a dish or three. I promise to get a clearer, better picture of her. Dari is 14 months younger than her brother Perry.
The big dog in the middle is Ori (2004), the younger brother of Perry and Dari, preparing Kelly on the left and Riley for a Halloween trick or treat trip. 
Ori looks in these old pictures relatively small.
In College Division I Soccer school, they worked him out a bit so he looks like this these days:
Here are several other members of the family.
Kelly's Corner
Kelly is the most humble bitch on the planet. She is a mutt of a lab and who knows what, probably a German shepherd. She likes to be on guard, half way through the dog door as seen below, with her back body and legs inside and the head and front legs outside. Kelly is also a great athlete, and she is very intense while running to chase other dogs or humans from the property. 
That's why she hurt her left back leg and had (believe it or not) a knee reconstruction.
Kelly is best friend with King Riley. And they hang out relax and play often.
Here Kelly with her natural blanket, just feeling relaxed, chilling in the middle of a recent snow storm.
Riley's Corner
Riley is the King. He used to be very fast and powerful, but with age comes more wisdom, and he is now delegating more and more tasks to Kelly and Kaya. Although intimidated by the camera, in this picture, one can sense the wisdom in his eyes:
Kaya's Corner.
Kaya is the infante terrible of this group. She is a direct daughter of Gold, a champion German shepherd. She is very beautiful, exceptionally intelligent and...Well, crazy.
All she is interested in is playing and running, and I mean non-stop. Here she is in a typical picture which resemble her nature but not her beauty.
And all together now; 1, 2, 3.....
About Snow And Storms
Most normal people, do not like snow, let alone snow storms. This is pretty sad as we love to have snow and the dogs are just natural with it.
Here Riley enjoys the snow with Ori.
And how do you like seeing these views from your window?
With that said, and with global warming all over us, snow is becoming rarer, and does not occur more than once or twice a year. So the most common views from the kitchen windows are these:
OK, we got distracted heavily, so lets go
To The Middle East.
As planned, Perry left to the middle east first on his own amazing trip with Taglit, which is taking young Jewish people to tour Israel (http://www.birthrightisrael.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=HomePage).
On July 24, Dari drove me to JFK Airport in Queens. I could not find my cell phone when she dropped me and left without it. This had no impact during the trip. The weekend before, we made a party for Ori's and Perry's Graduation. Raffi, a friend from Israel, stopped by, and to our amazement we found out that we are going to Israel on the same flight.
Here is Raffi (1st on left) when we met later at at Yosi's (1st on right) who was kind to have a small gathering at his home for his guest, Raffi and me. We will get back to this sweet event pretty soon.
With age, I may tend to forget some things and other things are just stuck in my mind in a strange way. So as I deposit my luggage at JFK and proceed toward the gate, I grabbed a sandwitch as I did not have an opportunity to eat for sometime. And I am walking to the line to board the plane, and here he is, Raffi himself.
Now Raffi as myself, grew up secular and few years back decided to return and be religious.
He looks at me with a patient look on his face, and ask rhetorical "Eating on the 9th of Av? (tisha be-Av; Av, a month in the Hebrew calendar, and Tisha Be'Av is a sad day to commemorate, among other bad events, the fall of the 1st and 2nd (around 135 AD) Temples, in Jerusalem). OK, just a small explanation, living in the U.S. without going on a regular basis to synagogue (schule) one has difficulties to come by the knowledge of when a major Holiday occurs, let alone the "9th of Av" which is certainly not a major Holiday. So I got that news from Raffi, totally by surprise. It did not diminish my pride, of the fact that just a few minutes before, I succumbed to a group of Hassidics who (believe it) convinced me to put tfilin and say a prayer. So, we patiently waited in the scrawling line and separated heading to different areas of the plane.
I am not in love with any plane rides. And 11 hour plane ride is a necessary evil. It lasts for ever, and to make matter worse, the carrier is showing you a map of the U.S. east coast, the Atlantic Ocean, Europe and the Middle East, and the plane location, thought the flight....It's like looking at the watch with hope that 11 hours will past fast.
At last, we are in Lod Airport - Israel.
I decided not to drag, Mati (as in Mathisis or Matit-ya-hu in Hebrew) from his store in Tel-Aviv, to Lod in mid-day, so I called Yair and Kopi. Both say they will come and did. I picked up my luggage and left the Airport with Yair. It was a typical July day. Hot and humid. As we get to my brother home. I quickly change my cloths to meet the Israeli climate challenge, and as I open "my" luggage I realized that this luggage looks EXACTLY like mine but it certainly not mine. Yair was an angel as usual (a retired war hero) and without any hesitation agree to take me back to the Airport. I may go back to describe the following hour in more details, as it certainly could be part of a good drama/comedy movie. But for now, the low down is that 3 hours after I left the Airport, I found MY luggage still running on the carousel.
Needless to say that after 11 hours of flight, and the chase above, I was exhausted, but at this point I knew that I am ready to start the Amazing Trip.
My brother store is in a major Tel-Aviv street. The business was established around 1930, when my parents came to Israel, then under Britain's rule. My father was a master of work with leather, and started this store, and my brother is a 2nd generation owner.
In this picture are Bilha, on the left, and my brother.
The lady on the right is Mrs. Habshus, the mother of my childhood friend, Moshe. This picture was actually taken on a previous trip, as I discovered that the only picture of the store I have is the one below, showing Perry, in a stoic moment, surrounded with the inventory.
Perry met me on that same day and we crashed ourselves in an extra room at my brother apartment, as seen below.
As mentioned in our trip blue print above, we had about a week time to have fun around Tel Aviv, and firm up some details about our trip. We contacted friends and set plans to meet with them.
We got our feet on the ground the next day, taking it easy, spending time around Mati's store, going to the beach which is just a block away, then went with Mati and Bilha to visit their daughter Tami's family, this visit will be covered in details later. Hod their other daughter was generous to offer to travel with us to;
And so, the next morning, Hod appears to pick us up with Tami's 6 year old son offir. It was a long ride that got longer due to some detour we had to take because of an unclear reason.
So we need to take some pit stop. Offir is a brilliant boy and was a pleasure to be with. He made this day even better with his intelligent questions and great behavior, way above his age.
As you will see this trip rival anything we would see later in our Amazing Trip. And with Perry love to direct pictures, here what we came up with on the way to the dead see;
Start with the desert surroundings of the Israeli south, going down to the lowest point on Mamma Earth:
Perry would not miss an opportunity to stage a scene, even if it means to stop the car and walk on treacherous terrain 200 yards (at least) off the road, and I shameless to say, dragging me with him:
Here are a couple of pictures showing the Dead Sea far below
As we arrived at the Dead Sea, we went into one of the private beaches, got into our bathing suits and hap into the warm water. If you did not here about the phenomena of this water, see details in:
Any way for us it was the ability to float on this water like you cannot experience anywhere else:
And then we discovered the mud, this is an experience, one MUST do:
Here is the whole team. Offir and Perry on the left, Hod and myself on the right.
Did I mention that the temperature is 100 F +? I think that what I'm thinking of in this picture is "Ugh how hot is this sidewalk?".
As we pleasantly discovered after our shower, is that the minerals in this mud, are a wonder to the human skin, and make one feels as if, you have a baby skin, smooth, endlessly pleasant and comfortable. But watch it, due to the salt content, any small cut (or even regular shave) in your body will burn with significant pain.
As the early afternoon hours passed, we were politely informed by the beach management that we will have to, well, leave, due to a visit of a group of Hassidic Jews, who have a private outing. This was not an issue as no matter what you do in 100 degree Fahrenheit you going to be tired. We also found out that all are using the way through Jerusalem which as mentioned is way shorter, and we did not want to drive on the west bank at night.
I remember driving to Jerusalem for the sole purpose of eating the reputable Jerusalem mixed grill in "The midnight Steakhouse" and for years I knew I will have to get back to it. So here we went directly from the Dead Sea, through the market of Camp Yehuda and into this restaurant. 
The who and who of Israel are shown on these walls, eating the delicious mix grill (including among others chicken liver and hearts).
Looks like the guy on the right is so tired, he cannot even smile to the camera.
It was an incredible day and we thank Hod and Offir for being so generous with us.
The next day we allocated to errands around town and fun.
We woke up in the morning whenever that event occurred, then we would have some light breakfast, going above "the canyon", a nick name to the Soccer stadium of a local team, then hop on a bus which would get us right by the store. We went to a scuba diving center to gather information, then to the Scuba Diving Association to get my Diving License. As luck has it, my records were so old that they were lost in a migration they did years. So here I am arriving at the well but cannot drink.
From there we went to Neve Avivim where Perry and Dari were born. We visited a dear friend Talma who has a gift store there:
From there we went to the Neighborhood Club where the kids spent a lot of time playing and swimming. Perry who broke his arm, and was with cast when he was 3 years old, had to spent time in the pool agonizing the fact that he could not join the other kids in the water.
Here he is re-living those moments:
This is the apartment building in which we had an apartment just like the one above and spent here about 3 lovely years.
The next day we spent doing some errands in Tel-Aviv, eating "fool" in the Carmel Market, and yea, the beach, this time by the Mediterranean sea.
If you want to feel good about yourself and life for once, just go to the Bugrachov Beach, take a dip in the water, take a chair and order a Water Mellon (well, it's not like those we eat in the States) accompanied with Bulgarian Cheese (much like Feta but smoother). Oh Mamma.
And just surrender yourself to the Sun (for a while). 
One pleasant surprise was to meet Dov and Elena. I met Dov forty (wow 40) years earlier in the Air Force. We met several times after the service, but then we disappeared from each other.
miraculously, we found each other again and had an opportunity to meet at my brother's home:
Mr brother's apartment is overlooking Tel-Aviv and we loved to take pictures which at that evening had mystic to them:
This picture is out of place, but has to be somewhere. It does not reflect the gyration one needs to do, to park a car at this place, which is a family joke.
In our frequent walks in Bugrachov street, we came across this antique and had a nice conversation with its owner:
One evening we met with Yosi and a retired Marines Colonel Kesta:
and we went to a small but very lively place, "Barbounia's", in north Tel-Aviv; just like the old days, with a lot of booze and good food.
One can tell that we had great time and fun.
Yosi met a friend and we had some more fun.
And the food was Ashkara (really good).
The next day we called Hod and agreed that we will go to visit kibutz Gan Shmuel.
I spent 4 years there as an outside student from age 10 to 13. Why so? Because my poor parents were informed by my teachers that "David is going to 4th grade but not in our school". Even though I'm outrageous about this (probably because of that beautiful girl Naomi that I had to leave behind), I cannot blame those ignorants that did not know much about education back in the 1950's.
We spent a lovely time with Shlomit (below) who hosted us (same team as in the Dead Sea trip) in a wonderful way. We could not meet with too many of the Rimon group and we will have to do it on another day.
We rushed back to Tel-Aviv, because Yosi, arranged a gathering of friends at his home, for Raffi and me at that evening.
Here is Yosi and his wife Daniel (in white), surrounded by guests.
Conversation is flowing with Jet explaining matters to his attended wife, Yosi and me.
Yosi's legendary bar is perfectly positioned with Jet is on the right. Koff, Kopi and me, who in 1969 shared another amazing student trip to Europe, are camera ready.
The guests and the host.
Another great look at this great bar. And that man on the moon back in 69 was not the biggest event for man kind or for these 3, that toured Europe for a fantastic month at that same year.
From far right, Doobi, me, dahlia, and Jet are in discussion.
Perry, who is actually among other traits, is a licensed Bar Tender, pouring a cocktail to Raffi.
Miki and I have been friends for as long as I can remember, at least from age of about 7 as we were playing in the streets of Tel Aviv.
Miki and his wife Henia were kind to invite a group of dear friends, from the "good old days" for a dinner.
I asked Miki to get me a glass of good Congnac. That's because he used to invite me on Saturdays to a lunch at his parents house. This lunch always started with a shot of good Cognac with Miki's Dad (may RIP) and after that, life seems to be very smooth...
In anyway, Perry promised me many times the pictures from this lovely dinner, and 3 years later, I am still waiting.
AMAZINGLY WE'VE BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH AND THE WILD PART DIDN'T EVEN START YET;
SO DON'T GO AWAY -
THE ACTION IS JUST BEGINNING...........
OK, the moment of truth arrived, it's up to;
So it's August 2nd, and we started with a taxi at about 5 am to Egged Central Station in south Tel-Aviv and took the 1st bus to Eilat, and arrived there at about 11 AM. This bus ride was an introduction to the oriental world we were to visit in the next 10 days.
We had 1 large luggage with the our suits to the wedding. I did not want to leave it in the Egged Station lockers, so we called Edna's friend who lives in Eilat, who was kind enough to take it with her. We agreed that we will contact her to collect it on August 10th.
After some debating of what the next move would be, we decided to start at an Israeli diving club - Aqua Sport. When we arrived there we realized the following facts. I will not be able to dive unless accompanied by an instructor, as I did not have my license with me. Perry will have to do a refresher dive, before he could go on a dive.
So we decided that Perry will take his refresher dive right there, and he'll be ready to dive in Egypt. I will take a refresher, just to dive, but it'll not be helping me in Egypt.
And so we did:
Here is a guy who saw Death in the deep (only 12 meters/36 feet) after 25 years of hiatus from scuba diving, and got out safely. Oh what a smile........life is good.
When we concluded our dives, and satisfied with the way things were developed, we went to have a lunch at Aqua Sport, where Perry found another opportunity to pose to the Camera:
, We found out that Aqua Sport, also runs a Diving Club of the Hilton Taba, on the Egyptian side. They provided us with a referral for a discount at the Hotel and also eliminated the Egyptian entry tax. We head toward the crossing to Egypt and the Hilton, and felt that we "earned" our stay there after such a long day.
"Why should I let a guy who is a head taller than me, into my country?"
Think about it, you go to a place over half the globe, and then you take a bad picture...What a bust.
OK, we arrived at this luxurious hotel, we had a great day behind us, this was time to enjoy what this place had to offer.
We took a good shower, put on fresh cloths and went to a sinful Dinner.
Basically the quantity exceeded the quality of the food, but the variety was so vast, that you could not, not to find more than enough good food.
And then it became to us very clear, this is a dessert and water are priceless.
Imagine, that at this extravagant Dinner, the guests got 1 large bottle of water Baraka for a table of four. Additional bottle would be $5.00.
We did not know that at first (yea, right) and took additional bottle from a table that nobody was sitting by, only to be in a midst of an extensive investigation and suspicious looks from the waiters. The cooks above had nothing to do with it.
The next morning, outside the Hotel restaurant.
We went to meet with the Aqua Sport boat on which Perry went on a diving day.
We thought that before we go to the unknown south of Sinai, he might as well have a few dives under his belt.
I went back to the Hotel for a late cup of Coffee and met this nice Israeli couple. He impressed me with his entrepreneurship in the Travel business and in Sinai (in which he was the distributor for the Israeli News Paper, Yediot Ahronot.
In the mean time, I started to collect information on how to go South and when. I went through many alternatives; A bus, A taxi, A private taxi, a rented car. This type of information, I tried to get before hand without success. The bus is the most cost effective alternative, but you need to plan a head on it, or be lucky.
The bus was not available for this evening. An exciting alternative was to have a private taxi. This would cost $200-300 for several days on a trip South, and maybe worth it. Problem is that when you have a diving day, the taxi just sits there.
The only viable way then, was a taxi. Now, there is nothing in common between a known taxi to the taxis in Sinai. A taxi here, would be a 15-20 year old Fiat, or Mercedes bents, bare as they come, forget about air-conditioning (in 100+ F, AAHHHH).
I was spending a great time among the Hotel pool, The Beach, the car rental place, and the taxi hub. When Perry's boat came back, we were ready to make the move and went to the taxi hub.
And who would fill a cab in this dessert? Israelis. It was not news to me that throughout the whole 100 mile of Red Sea beach, there were dozens of small, modest hotels which rented very inexpensively huts. Many Israelis, mostly young (20 something) would populate them to find Nirvana.
Here are several models:
When we came to the point near the border where taxi's and people wait for each other, this van was our only choice, and we also needed to wait sometime, until it filled up.
And I decided to make sure that our luggage were 100% secured, because I knew we will be half driving and half flying.
As anticipated, it was a crazy ride. I was seating in the front between the lady you see on the left and the Beduine driver. In another words, I had to see death several times from the best seat in the house....
This woman came up with a great trip idea which due to time constraint we could not take. Apprently her daughter, who was on this Van as well, and herself would go to this place, Wasit, which was just 5 miles north of Nueiba, and take an hour drive on a Jeep to some desserted beach between Nueiba and Dhahab, and just surrender to Nirvana for several days.
It was very unfortunately as I'm sure it could have been awsome place to be.
But we had to conquer first the major targets of Dahab and Sharm Al-Sheikh.
Except the driving method, the way from Taba south is amazing. Just to look at the dessert at twilight time is magic. Add to this the famous Fjord and this small island on which Alexander the Great built this formidable castle.
This was our driver, take his driver license away, and you find a fine guy.
We briefly stopped at this forsaken place and we had to imortelized that word Baraka.
Wasit was a special place. It's main purpose is to serve travelers with food, lodging and transportation. This place and others like it are on the water and at night with great fresh food we felt that the trip is proceeeding in a promissing direction. We rented a room for a reasonable price there, and we had air condition too.
In Wasit they have a row of Coffee houses/restaurants on the water. As rain is nothing to be bother with, you just lay down on confortable sofa on the floor and drink your tea or coffee.
Some are simply sleep there for the night.
Classic middle eastern meal.
The next morning we started the day at 6 AM. The plan was that this guy will take us to Nuwayba and from there, we'll take a bus to Dhahab, but we missed the bus (maybe on purpose...) so we just negotiated with this driver to take us to Dhahab.
The idea was to get to Dhahab early enough to get a diving trip with a local club.
This is a typical "gut" of a local taxi. That is to say it is gutted out of anything it ever had and don't mention AC.
We arrived at Dahab too early, which was better than too late. We started at one diving club but at the end they cancelled the trip. So we got to another club in which Perry was the only client. And we went to the worldly famous diving spot called "the blue Canion" or the "Blue Hole". I was happy that Perry is diving with the insructor (as the law demands) because in my time, people just dove at will and several did not make it in this place, as you can easily go down to 65 meters (~ 200 feet) and need to plan your dive very carefully.
Before the dive there was time for a picture with John the diving instructor from England.
After the dive, the happy divers were posed for a picture:
and we had a nice late lunch at this comfortable place right by the diving site.
On the way back to the club, the driver Mahmoud introduced us to several friends. We discovered that we absolutely admire the Camels.
We sang, Halleluiah together.
We rode on them a bit, and as you can see from the process documented below, going up and down off a camel back must be managed to perfection.
Perry here is trying to get closer to this reluctant Camel.
At the end of the day, we had an hour to kill, until our bus ride down to Sharem. A frozen fruit drink was in order in the dessert heat.
This is another driver from the club who got us to the bus.
And aboard the bus, we said good bye to Dhahab, that as its name (Gold) was very good to us.
This is the entrance to Dhahab and the only picture I have from the bus.
SHAREM EL-SHEIK
It could have been an uneventful bus ride from Dhahab to Sharem, and I realized that this is the most cost effective way to travel in Sinai. It's pretty cheap, very infrequent, so you need to plan your trip ahead of time and know where is the bus station (not an easy task). The bus itself can be comfortable and new, or old and bad, one needs to have some good luck here. On the bus, as many as 2 inspectors will check that your ticket is Kosher.
As we were driving closer to Sharem, out of nowhere there was a group about 100 bikers. For a reason I do not know, they were blocking the road, signaling to the bus driver to stop. The driver that up to this moment did not show any signs that he is an escapee of a moratorium, to my amazement and horror, proceed in full speed toward them, and forever I will be wondering how we did not ran over/kill a few, but miracally we went through them, with bikers escaping the big speeding monster in the last split second. I kissed the ground in gratitude when we got to the bus station in Sharem.
When we arrived at Sharem El-Sheik I was in a state of a shock. I was in Sharem the last time in 1980. Israel who occupied this area did not invest in any infrastructure and the place had one medium sized hotel and a hostel. Two Scuba Diving Clubs were in operation. I always used Howard's, the club I got my license in. The place was pretty much desserted.
When we arrived at the Bus Station, it was located in some obscure neibourhood, and we needed to take a taxi from there to downtown Sharem. But nevertheless we were in the middle of a large city.
Perry is checking the local tourist attraction.
I do not have a picture of the Hotel we stayed in. We had room and breakfast. If this is what the Egyptians eat then my sympathy to them. After 2 days on this food we were craving for something familiar and we found it in a good beef hamburger in Hard Rock Cafe. mmmhhh, it was deletious.
Driving around in Sharem is no laughing matter. There were buses, taxis and a strange vans, in which you hap-in and pay something, we never knew how much to pay, and we survive to tell about it.
Whoever designed the roads should be retired immediately. It seems that many raods ending up in a T intersection. So if one need to turn left, too bad, you need to torn right and then take your life and other drivers at risk, and make a U turn in the next intersection. Good luck.
Here we are inside the Hard Rock Cafe, enjoying every bit of out hamburgers.
The Art Of A Salesman.
On the next day we arrived, we took a taxi to downtown Sharem, and this gentleman, greeted us in the street, outside of his oils store. He invited us in, to drink coffee and cake. As we did not have phone connection to the world already 4 days, when Perry mentioned it, this gent none chalant, handed him a cell phone and said "make your call". To such hospitallity we had to buy some oil and a glass bottle to spread the smell around.
One evening we took a bus to another part of the city that was recommended to us. This place had a market that it seems in action 24X7.
Here are checkens for sale.
Why Sharem was a disappointment?
We already found in Tel Aviv that we "missed the train" in regard to Ras Muhammed (Muhammed's Head) which is known to be one of the most beautiful sites for Scuba Diving. I had there at least 10 dives and I can fill several pages about the fantastic things I saw there. Apprently, the Egyptian authorities, to limit the access to many, require tourist of a specific visa to the sight, and you guessed it, it takes about a month to get it. We had several offers to get there without it, but we decided that the possibility of a stay in an Egyptian jail for any duration of time will not be something we want any part of.
That is one reason. The second reason is the fact that all of Sharem is a big resort made to service tourists who are coming by the thousands from Europe on charters and we had nothing to do with that crowd. The third are the local merchants, taxi drivers and downright baggers who do not leave you alone with constant requests to attend their shops or whatever.
We decided that next time, we will come upon a diving boat which will eliminate the annoiance of the local crowd.
Our time to leave Sinai came. We aboard a bus back to Taba.
Went inside the Hotel to refresh ourselves and took another picture.
This hotel was bombed out about a year later, but they about to open a new one:
With hopes for a better world, as the Egyptian and Israeli flags were standing side by side, we left Egypt through the Taba Border.
We arrived at Eilat a bit late. Around 8 PM. After talking to several people we realized that getting a reasonable priced hotel or hostel may be not possible.
We called our friend and ask her to bring our luggage with our suits for the wedding. When she saw the place we booked, she immediately demanded that we will stay in her appartment, even though it would be crowded. With admiration for her generosity, we accepted her offer with gratitude.
The next morning, we woke up early and took a cab to the Jordan Border. Another U.S. Army man and both of us, were the only "clients".
So we are crossing the border, exchanging some money to local Dinnars and negociating with a lone taxi, how should we proceed. The taxi driver with help of a Border Soldier are telling us that there are no buses from Akaba to Petra and we should pay the Taxi driver the 40 Dinnars ($80) to take us to Petra. That sounds pretty lame to us, and we told him to take us to Akaba Bus Station.
Without any shame he dropped us in a different place in which were other taxi drivers with other "bargains" to petra. Finally we asked a person in the street, only to find the Bus Station 2 blocks away. Taxi drivers are the same if you are in Manhatan, Tel-Aviv or Akaba...always trying to make an extra buck.
In the "Central Bus Station" (which was actually a hub full of Vans) we analized the possibilities very quickly to find out that for 6 Dinnars both of us will get to Petra on this van:
It was only 10-11 AM and the extreme heat left me exauhsted and dihydrated as clearly shown in this picture. We waited a bit until the van filled with enough people to make the trip worth while for the driver and we started the 2 hour trip.
We got to Petra the town at about 3 hour ride from Akaba. Once we left the highway, we spent a good 45 minutes driving in moutaineous road with many typical Arab villages. Petra is a bit bigger than the other towns as it serves many tourists.
I forget how we found the Peace Way Hotel, but it's very likely that the Van driver refer us. In this picture is the Hotel owner/manager. They tend to have a network of family members in which anything that you need is a phone call away.
So when we shared with him our plan to see Petra asking what whould be the best way to tour it, he immediately called 'his uncle' who took us to a place called little Petra (it was already 3 PM, and too late for Petra).
Akaba and Amman are connected bye an impressive Western like highway. So the trip was straight forward. The terrain around was a dessert, with rough red mountains in the background.
The place was so beautiful, and the weather was so confortable that I could easily stay there for the night. And this is not a original idea as we found a (strange...) localite who intended to do just that, so we thought.
The twilight time was incredibly beautiful near those rock palaces.
Little Petra was a good short trip, and an introduction to the real thing.
Happy with our progress and with anticipation for Petra the next day, we unleashed our hunger to the skillful cooking of this man:
After a delecious meal that cost about 5-6 Dinnars for both of us, when we told the Chef that we would like some desserts, no problem, he walked us a few stores down hill to... you've guessed it... his uncle who had a bakery there.
His baking was so unusual and delecious, that if I could, I would bring him to NYC, and open a bakery there, which I am sure would have been very successful.
And as we have it, here is another uncle of the Hotel manager:
The hotel was on a main street, and the room was on its third floor. It had what I require of an hotel. A decent bed and a shower. But what came at ~ 4 AM was a total surprise. I finally fell asleep as there was constant blimps of noise from the street, when Ali Babba and the 40 rubbers seems to rush violently into our room from everywhere, windows, the door....It took me a very long moment (no wonder, I was dead tired and did not know where I was or what hit me) to understand that the attack is really only the Muazeen shouting via screatching and very loud speakers..."Allllah hu Akbaaar" and following with a very long prayer.
The next morning, after a modest breakfast at the Hotel, one of the uncles dropped us by the entrance to Petra.
The laws in Jordan, so we heard from our Hotel Manager, are striktly enforced, and thus the crime rate is very low. That's why Perry is so surprised in the picture above, because as you can see, parking violation, perhaps, is not considered a crime.
Few words about visiting Petra, don't be like me, do the following:
1. Try to be prepared, read about Petra. No need to see Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom, which was partialy shot in Petra, as it is beeing
showed in every hotel in the area every night.
2. Alternatively to #1, join a guided tour or get a guid.
3. Walk 3-5 miles daily, or better, about a month or two before your visit.
4. Alternatively to #2 above, learn to ride a Camel, and or a Donkey.
5. Dress light, with sneakers (sandals will kill your feet).
6. Bring with you a Gallon (4 litters) of chilled water.
7. Try to spread your visit upon two full days.
8. Bring a valid Student ID if you have one.
So, you finally get into the site through the gated entrance, and you are in Petra.
You follow people who are walking in an open space for about 400 yards, and then you enter a Canyon called The Siq, and walk for another mile.
The Siq itself is a beauty with a lot of clues to the culture and the infrastructure (i.e. water way) of the Nabataeans, nomads tribe whose origins is still unclear, and who prospered in the area, about 350 BC, made Petra their home and built it in the rose-red rocks.
We walked through the Siq. The 300 feet tall rock walls, with narrow passage of only several feet, made Petra a natural fortress. You can see to Perry's right side, at waist high, a water way carved in the rock to haul water to its people.
Below is the most famous monument, El Khazneh (if not for itself, then it got a lot of publicity in the first Indiana Jones which some scenes were shot right here).
One cannot have enough of that Rose-Red Rock.
We did not have a plan before reaching Petra. And things did not get clear enough even with some maps and a book we purchased there.
So, we followed a guided tour, which took aim at this mountain, climing the first challenge. The weather was perfect, but on the hot side.
We split sending Perry with his camera to the top of a stiff hill, and I (rested) at the bottom.
What do you do, if you are on a top of a mountain, with nobody else around, and you want to take a picture. You use the auto shot taker in your camera. You are placing the camera best you can on a rock, set it up and non-chalant take position.
And then your youthful son wants to take a picture from a cliff down. This time we had the two dentists to take the shot, but still, the fear of falling...ouch.
No end to the beauty.
This charming Beduine woman, tried successfully to sell us some souvenirs.
We took a break in this Amphitheatre, and pay out kudos after the show.
Using the time effectively, even a break was used to pose for a picture.
I don't remember what this lone column did there in the middle of no-where, but what I do remember is that it is from the Pharo of Egypt.
Perry here desrves the confidence he projects from the top of a mountain we climebed.
This is one of the better picture to get that red rose tone.
And this is a close up of the picture shown above.
We ran into 2 Jordanian brothers. Both interesting enough were dentists.
We spent several hours walking with them around the monuments, having enjoyable discussions and taking pictures.
Here is Perry with one of them.
The way among the many sites seems to be endless, but little that we know, the biggest challenges of all was a head of us.
Here another one, the Garden Tomb.
The Amphithetre, with enthusiastic audience.
Here is myself taking a rest near some emo...just to be safe.
And here is a Nebataean defending Petra against the Romans.
We accomplished a lot in about 5 hours of none stop walking and climing. So back to the center of Petra, we decided that we need a good lunch. So we joined a large group, that were served by a crew of a near by hotel. This meal was exceptional almost as Petra. After the great lunch, we paid a short visit to the Petra museum, and then took refuge with some old friends.
We walked around the center visiting this spactacular site.
It feels like we had a great day and it's just about time to return to the hotel.
And from there we proceeded east toward this amazing Urn Tomb, a burial site for the Royalty.
This picture was taken by Mahmoud the dentist.
Beauty without limits.
At this point, I was pretty tired, mentally ready to conclude a nice trip, when Perry came with a shoking revelation; "Dad, we missed the best monument of Petra, the Monestery. We have to go there.". To add insult to injury, I decided that I will find a direct way to it, as this site was at the opposit side of Petra. After a good hour of walking in rough terrain, I had to concede a defeat in finding a direct route, and we had to jump through hoops just to get back to the center. From there we started to walk toward the Monastery.
I think if I would have been exposed to freezing winters and red hot summers, I may have looked like this rock too.
The Monastery.
I cannot desribe how long, even though amazing was the climb to the Monastery. It had 999 stairs, and endless distance, I do not know how I did it.
Are we happy? Isn't it obviouse. Who wouldn't be happy after climing 1000-1 steps to get to argubly the most precious monument of them all - The Monestary.
I was so tired (but proud, seriously) that this Ass almost bit me. He literally attacked me, and I gingerly got away from him.
I know you think this is the same picture, but it is not. What are the differences?
On the tallest hill of them all, at the end of a great day.
And a shot at the Monastery from that hill.
We started the way down late, when we got back to the siq it was dark.
This was a great challenge and a great accomplishment.
We celebrated at Cleopatra, the restaurant with a superb dinner.
After a well deserved sleep, we said goodbye to our wonderful hosts in Peace Way Hotel and went with his uncle's Taxi/Van toward Amman.
We arrived in Amman around 11 AM. We were dropped in a Central Bus Station, and basically we did not know where we are. We convinced a Taxi driver to help us help him. He would make a call to Nissim, and this will draw a trip with us. And so, we arrived at an Arab run Hotel in central Amman, which we learn during the Taxi trip is a very busy city.
We were hungry. We asked the Hotel doorman were can we find an authentic Jordanian food. And he told us to walk several blocks toward South and so we did.
We obviously were looking like starngers/tourists and everyone was looking at us. Even though Amman is a modern city, and looks in order, we did not feel comfortable.
We proceeded our walk which took longer than we anticipated, until we found a very busy and rather large restaurant. We decided that so many people cannot be wrong and sat down.
It was not easy to place an order as no one was speaking english (in a country that part of the British Empire just 60 years ago, that was surprising), but foods and delicious ones arrived very quickly at our table. We had a fantastic full 2 lunches and I remember that I couldn't beieved the low price which was about $5. total.
We went back to the Hotel, feeling the same quiet tension we had on the way to this place, with people looking at us.
I was tired, and cold in the Hotel AC, and perry went to look for Nissim's "gang", who stayed in a near by Hotel.
JORDAN - AMMAN
THE NIGHT BEFORE
THE WEDDING
Perry got together with Nissim and his friends and they had a Bachelor good bye party.
Here is Nissim's Sister-in-law with 2 of Nissim's friends from the U.S.
As you can see, they had a great time.
ON THE WAY TO THE WEDDING
The next day, the wedding day, we were advised to change Hotel, to be closer to the wedding place, and so we checked in to a brand new Holiday Inn.
The day went with an uneventful anticipation for the big event, and that was an issue as we somehow did not eat anything since breakfast.
We got a call to be ready and wait outside the Hotel at about 4 PM.
We were not ready for what was coming, a slick Mercedes Benz convertible, which as it was unfolded later, was the car of the Bride and Groom; shown below with Nissim family (as I did not take its picture at the Hotel).
We labored hard to get to this moment, throughout much of the Middle East...and now it was the moment we were waiting for, a time to enjoy.
We sat in the back seat and the driver with help of another man, navigated through the busy Amman's streets, until we got to a three story stone building, which was the Groom family home in Amman.
We were lead to the third floor, where we met with the "Groom side", family and friends.
As we realized, we were taking part in a Traditional Muslim wedding, with the following procedure:
The Groom, meet with his family at their home.
He leaves his family home (with music and songs) toward the Bride's family home.
Same process happens at the Bride's home, then the Groom gets in and walk with the Bride's father and the Bride to the car and to the wedding, also with music and singing.
So, as we go down the steps and out to the street, at Nissim's home, all are singing and clapping hands to the sound of a band shown later below.
Then we followed the Groom car, seen below with Nissim and his parents in the back seat, in a caravan of cars, through very busy rush hour trafic.
At the Bride home, they simply blocked the sreet to trafic and we all clapped, sang, danced and even shoot BB guns, in the street with the help of this dedicated band. Needless to say, the whole neiborhood, were looking from every way possible, right around us, from windows, verandas and roof tops.
Then the Groom went inside the Bride's home and she followed him, walking between him and her father, and then the father stayed behind relinquishing the bride to her future husband, who walked to the car.
The joy of the sorrounding crowed reached its pick, and all were clapping and singing with more excitement.
The Bride was exceptionaly beautiful as Nissim well deserves.
We followed the Bride and the Groom's car in then a larger and much noisier caravan of cars until we arrived at the spectacular Le Royal Hotel (below), which rests assure on the Amman Hill top, one of seven hills that comprises the city of Amman.
Le Royal Hotel Amman
Zahran Street 3rd Circle, Jabal Amman, Amman 11118, Jordan
We arrived at this impressive hotel, which looks like a fortress, with unusual, full circle shape. I was told that some of the Iraqi elite reside in this hotel until things will quiet down in their country.
The transition from the traditional generation as seen below with these relatives...
...to the modern younger generation who hanged out at the Hotel Bar to celebrate, while waiting for the wedding proceeding to start.
After a short while, the couple arrived going out of the elevator, to the sound of the same band, that reminded me the mariachi bands in Mexico.
The Bride and the Groom looked like Royalty.
After a long walk, the couple sat down
to the marvel of the guests. And it did not take long for them to hit the dancing floor, signaling to the guests to join them.
And the crowd loved it and not before long, all were dancing and the party were going wild. 
What I did really appreciate was the fact that the entire music was Arabic, without a single Western song (as I expected). This took at least an hour.
And then I was reminded how hungry I was as I did not eat all day, and started to contemplating a feast. At that point arrived fast and fury.
There was like a 100 yard buffet with amazing dishes upon dishes with no end.
But I was certainly was not ready to what was coming.
I took my time, sampling from whatever caught my eye, with little food at a time.
When I got back for a 2nd or 3rd filling (I swear I planned to go 10 times at least) to my astonishment, the servers were starting to fold back the food away. I never had the opportunity to clarify that part of the evening. To my best guess, the food was out for 20 minutes, or pushing it to 30 minutes. In my best guestimate, they did not want to halt the great spirit on the dancing floor for too long. And they were very right as the party went on and on with everybody getting wild, dancing.
PICTURE TAKING AT THE WEDDING
IF U THINK THAT THE AMAZING TRIP STOPS BEING AMAZING YOU DID NOT MEET MY FRIENDS KOFF, YAIR AND SOME GUYS FROM THE CRAZY 60'S JUST YET
SO DON'T GO AWAY -
MORE ACTION IS COMMING...........
BACK TO ISRAEL
Before leaving Israel, I made an arrangement with my friend Yehi, aka Koff, who lives North in Israel, to secure 2 seats on a bus that goes daily from Amman, to the Afula, Israel area. These travel arrangements are very informal, in the sense that you do not go to a Central Bus Station and aboard the bus.
You take a taxi to a small hotel, and hope it is the correct place and time.
And so we did. It looks less than promising, and we had many doubts, but at the end, the bus driver assured us that he is Koff's contact, and not only that, but when I asked how much is the (cosiderable; about 50 miles) ride, he said he already made the necessary arrangements with Koff.
We were relieved. We accomplished the center objective of the trip. But we also were looking forward to meet with Koff and Yair. The plan was to stay 24 hours at Koff's and then to meet with Yair, who will come from Tel Aviv, to the Israeli North, to places yet to be determined.
If you recall, when we entered Jordan from Eilat/Akaba, Perry and I were the only people coming into Jordan. Not only that this was a busier border crossing, it was horendesly chaotic, with typical Middle East lines at the passport check out booth. I did not think I will see my passport back, as it was taken in a bondle of 10-15 other people, but I am alive to tell about it.
We met Koff, allah, James Bond style. We were dropped at some intersection which I was not sure at all is the correct one, but Koff was there putting an end to all doubts.
We proceeded to his home near Moutain Tavor. Unfortunately I do not have a single picture to show his home, but Koff, mostly with his hands and help from local contractors, built this entire house.
Here is the man and his house:
What I like about this house is the way, Koff was able to blend it with nature.
Here is a look from veranda to an outside patio and fruit garden.
And this is the entrance through a shaded patio.
We spent a nice evening with Koff and his family and the next day we went up to Mount Tavor. This montain is mentioned in the Old Testament as it was a witness to a miracluous victory of the Israelites on their enemies
and the transfiguration of Jesus:
Its striking beauty is due to it's being a lone hill (only 560 meters) sorrounded by lower grounds. Here its view from Koff's home.
The half point mark was a perfect place to take pictures.
And this a look from inside this SANCTUARY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION at the pick.
Later Yair came from Tel Aviv, and befor leaving Koff's home we all took a picture:
YAIR - The Amazing
Yair and I met in Abu Rodays in late 1968 or early 1969. We were both Security Marshals in this Pruduction Oil field operated by Israel on what was Egypt teritory before the 1967; 6 days war. Yair's life could have been the subject for several books. His Father came from Yemmen to Israel in the 1930's and was a business man who among other things purchased several orange orchards. As common in Families from Yemmen, Yair had 8 sibilings, mainly sisters. I never met his brothers, but I did meet several of his fiery sisters. One in Boston and the rest in Tel Aviv.
One of the most kept secrets of Israel is its beautiful women, here are 2 Yemenite youth from the reputable Yemenite restaurant Ha-Bait (The House) in Tel Aviv:
We met with Yair severel times while in Tel Aviv. Here are Yair and his wife when we met for breakfast in Kerem HaTemanim to eat ethnic food:
So, with Yair we started to travel from Koff's home to Rosh Pina.
It was getting late and we were not excited about the motels we found, so we went to Yair friends and one of them offered us to stay over night at his place.
In the meantime we were in his store, that looked like this historical Rosh Pina's house:
Another, friend and his girl friend joined us and together we put some dinner for all. It was a typical weather perfect August night, and several beers and Arac smoothed things around. And during the lenghthy conversations it became clear that Yair friends never left the 1960's, and had no intentions of doing so any time soon.
I'm not into criticizing people, not any more, but the store keeper, Avi, was an exception. A hysteric, neurotic, unconfident, unpleasant small and mostly bitter (did I miss anything?) man. If this was not enough, he was selling leather works. Talking on contradiction in terms. The only people who would buy from him would be masochists, who withstood his yelling not to touch the merchandise, or when he is not minding the store.
So here we are, seating by the enterance to the store and having a good time, drinking, and talking, when some poor souls found their way into the store.
Avi would jump to his feet, and tell them in a threatning voice "do not touch".
During the evening and night, we made plans with the other guy, Yoram, to go and visit another friend in the area the next day. There were several "explosions" between Avi and other people, but there was Yair, who managed to calm, mainly Avi down.
We went to Avi's home as planned and the neurotic atmosphere followed. We had to hold our breaths, and the night passed with light sleep, but neverthless we thank him as he was deserved for hosting us.
We spent the morning seating by Avi's store having Turkish coffee and breakfast and then we thank again Avi and depart from Rosh Pina.
We went to the near by Tzfat:
that had its annual Klezmer Festival
.
They expected heavy trafic jams later, so we decided to avoid it at night time, as we needed to go back to Tel Aviv that night. In Tzfat we visited a friend of Yair in this restaurant:
"Etz Hachayim" Restaurant
An extremely good vegetarian restaurant which was established just a few years ago by an immigrant from Los Angeles. The restaurant serves simple vegetarian food with a basic menu, and specializes in natural and organic food.
Address: Hameginim Square, Tel: 056-839110, Opening hours: Sun-Thu 8:30 AM - 5 PM, Fri 8 AM - 3 PM, Price: Low (under 50 NIS per person), Glatt Kosher
We ate a light lunch, and walked around the center of Tzfat.
At about 4 PM we went to visit Shlomo. We went down from Tzfat (which is sitting on a mountain top) and went off the road through some seriously bolder infested dirt road, and after quite a long ride in a forest, we finally arrived at some oasis.
Shlomo had there simple installation for water running, and he and his woman were living there.
Again we were in the happy 60's with flower people. And this was an unusual experience. It looks as 40 years did not make any change in the mind set (maybe for a good reason). In anyway, we brought some food we bought earlier in Tzfat and we were able to put together a discent meal for everybody.
Here is Shlomo, with Yair:
BACK TO - TEL AVIV
There were many good days in my life, thank God. And two of the most memorable were; when Perry told me that he no longer want to play Baseball, and the second was when Dari announce one day at the age of 8, representing Perry and herself: "we do not like Macdonald any more!".
But when I saw a Macdonald in the Holy Land, on the way to Tel Aviv, I had to stop to see it. I guess, one cannot stop "progress".
Here is Yair with Mr. Mac again.
CHEZ TAMI and YOSI
The next day we paid a visit together with the whole family to Tami and Yosi. Tami is my brother's daughter. She has 2 lovely sons. You already met with Nir on during the trip to the Dead Sea. And Ofir Nir little brother, who would star in the section below, is one of those kids that you want to eat...
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