Trip to Israel and West Bank

Around 1 a.m. we picked up our lunch bag from the Hotel reception and we boarded the bus. To our surprise we found the bus to be almost full as a big part of the tour has came from Sharm Al Sheik located about 4 h drive south from Taba. After securing our spots in the bus that was full of Poles we started our trip to Israeli border. We were informed that we will most likely spend there few hours as it is not the easiest access point to Israel, I guess the memory of 6 days war have stayed deep in their hearts. The local custom/security team composed mostly by cute looking local girls has been very thorough in their duties. The girls got particularly interested why two people with Canadian passports are traveling among polish tour, and instantaneously my passport was taken away and I had to go through a truly ridiculous question system. We even touched subjects like where did I study, bad idea with someone who had been in three High schools not even mention Universities I had a pleasure to attend in my life. At the end, to the growing confusion of my investigator I started to joke with my answers as I was really too sleepy to take those chicks seriously what granted me green light, Claudine got into troubles later on as she described me as her partner rather than a boyfriend. And since that word was not known to the lady officer I had to arrive and get her out of troubles proving that I do exist. Overall, the impression we had was more like the whole process was to humiliate us rather than do a good security check, as overall the system had plenty of security flaws. Yap, that what happens when you spend too much time on the border crossing, you truly became security expert.

Richer by the border crossing experience we fell asleep in our bus to be waken up few hours later by our tour guide announcing arrival at the Dead Sea. Initial plan was to jump to to the salty sea but since it was relatively early, apparently 40 people crossing the border in 2h was some kind of local speeding record, the guide decided to continue our trip to Jerusalem. We arrived at the olive mountain, the place of the first Jesus teaching upon his return to Holy Land. The place shows a beautiful panorama of Jerusalem: Dome of the Rock, Old Walls, Golgotha, Olive garden that we saw just after, and Old Jewish cemetery that lies just beneath on the side of the Olive Mountain.

After visiting olive garden we entered the old Jerusalem and started our walk towards famous "West Wall". Having the perspective of completing the trip I should mention that it was the most touching experience and the place is truly significant. The wall is divided into the part for women and men, the former have also access to the inside part of the wall where is a small library with collections of Tora. When I got there I was approached by the Rabi who after praying a bit asked me if I wanted to donate something for a synagogue. I still wonder if the place I have visited was one, or he referred to something else. Nevertheless it was very strong and somehow emotional experience and its intensity outshined other places we visited later. Unfortunately we did not have a chance to see a Dome of the Rock.

All of the places that commemorate the life, teaching, and suffering of Jesus Christ have been transformed into the Churches. To see the tomb of Jesus, the Rock he lied on praying to the Lord and asking for mercy before being arrested by Romans in Olive Garden, you need to go inside a church that was built on that spot. We found it to somehow take the experience away, as not being able to really see how it must have looked 20 centuries ago. Overall all Golgotha is covered by buildings, but there is something special about the city, the energy, the majestic aura that covers the whole town regardless where you are and what are your religious believes.

Following visiting few other churches and the chamber of the last supper we started out trip to Bethlehem, that currently lies in West Bank. I have to admit that crossing the Ariel Wall, named after former Prime Minister Ariel Szaron was somehow sad, we were also informed that taking the pictures of it could result in confiscation of our cameras. Yeap, say something like that to the bus full of Poles and what you will see next is 42 cameras carefully trying to grasp a bit of it on the picture. The Palestine side of the wall however is much more interesting with beautiful graffiti, the one that impressed us the most was titled "To exist is to resist".

After having a local lunch in the restaurant just across the church of Nativity in Bethlehem we had a chance to go and see the place where Jesus was born. Once again the whole place is hidden under the Orthodox church that is built on top of it. Once you enter the church you go to the catacombs to see the place of birth, there is also a symbol of a Bethlehem star made out of gold, but if it has anything other than symbolic value we did not learn. Just next to orthodox church there is a catholic one, representing a long fight between those two organizations as to who has a primary right to Bethlehem.

At about 3 pm we started our way back, with a stop at the Dead Sea around 6 pm. After a good discussion between me and Clo if we should or not go to the water as it was seriously after sunset and the water temperature was more refreshing than welcoming. We decided to proudly represent the country of great North and we entered the Dead Sea. The experience of floating in the water that because of its high salt saturations almost kicks you out of it is truly amazing, yes it is totally possible to read a paper with arms above your head being nicely carried on the surface. Swimming on the stomach is somehow a challenge as your legs are outside of water so the only way to move is on your back.

At around 11 p.m. we arrived at the border where we spend a bit of time as apparently there were no custom officers, well at least for us since the local groups had zero problems crossing it. To add to this slightly strange situation we even had a chick guard that walked among us flashing a flashlight in our eyes, something what I could call totally unnecessary as we were standing under bright light of lamps installed above our heads. Few hours later we made it to our hotel, and crashed totally after full 24 h trip.

One thing is certain, despite unpleasant border crossing experience Israel is an amazing place. A place where we would definitely come back, but this time we would do it alone at our own speed and we would definitely spend there more than just a day. The same advice we would give to anyone planning to visit this amazing land, take your time and absorb what this truly incredible place has to offer.

Istanbul story...

When we set foot outside the airport, we were very happy to be wearing winter coats as we were greeted by a chilly Istanbul winter night – about 10 degrees. We had an hotel pick up waiting for us at the exit so we did not even have to figure anything out to get to our hotel.

After slaloming through Old Istanbul, we arrived to our inn, a charming 16 room hotel facing the Asian continent on one side and offering a splendid view of Blue Mosque from its rooftop terrace. How nice it was to take our morning coffee with such a nice view.

As mentioned earlier, we spent our first day looking around the city in search of a bank that did not charge unbelievably high fees for exchanging travelers cheques ($17 per cheque??! Are you kidding me??), ate our first doner kebab from a street stall and had our first Turkish tea and shisha under the Galata bridge.

The next day, we set out to visit the Blue Mosque, very impressive architecture and very engaging experience, an activity which Tom repeated almost each day. After our 4th day there, we realized that the park we were walking through each time we left the hotel was in fact the old hippodrome, which was once the center of Istanbul, during the Byzantin and Ottoman empires, with its two obelisk towers.

Much more impressive to me than the hippodrome was Ayah Sofia, the mosque turned church turned mosque turned museum that sits on a hill across from Blue Mosque. I also enjoyed very much the Islamic Art History Museum that showed the different artistic periods and influence of Islamic art; the ceramics, woods, stone, carpets, leathers, etc. Well worth the detour.

After fighting the flu for a couple days, during which Tom became an expert backgammon player, shamelessly beating his teacher at the game (!), we went out looking for Adam Mickiewicz's house, a Polish writer who lived in Istanbul in the 19th century. We unfortunately did not find it but we did find the Istanbul University and the Russian quarter (not officially known as such but the faces and fashion did not lie!). We also checked out the Galata tower which looks nice, old and genuine from the outside but has been extensively renovated inside and turned into a conference hall or something of the sort, taking away any desire to visit further than the lobby.

Of course, we had to go through the Grand Bazaar but weren't overly excited by the experience as we found the vendors to be aggressive, their prices ridiculously high and their products far too "made in china" & mass produced looking for us to get a real interest in shopping and entering the game of bargaining. Much more pleasant was the Spice bazaar, or old Egyptian bazaar, smaller, friendlier, colourful, where we ended up making a couple of purchases such as warm socks and gloves.

Continuing our tradition which we started in Hanoi, we adopted a restaurant. Our Istanbul favourite is called Doy-Doy, about 3 minutes walking distance from our hotel. We just loved their lentil soup and their pita soufflé bread that just tasted like no other. Hmmm... While I'm into food, I also have to mention the best thing ever: a glass of freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juice. Soooo good; in fact, so good that we are definitely buying one of those heavy duty manual juice makers when we get back – we would have bought it there but it weighs a ton.

We are in Sinai, Taba

After 4h flight we landed in Taba, Egypt. The plane touched the ground in the middle of the desert, in the total darkness on the runway hidden in the middle of Sinai mountains.

Once we put our feet outside of the plane in front of us appeared the view of incredibly tiny airport that looked more like a Dorval train station than International hub. Firstly, slightly worried about where did we landed we started typical airport visa procedure. At the end of which we were reassured once we saw our bus that took us to the resort. The ride itself was really something, a small road in the canyons that bearly fitted our bus and accompanying us, a security jeep becoming, making the whole experience a great transition into the new continent and its culture.

Once we made it to the resort it was 4 am local time but now we are after the full day of checking the place out. It is a typical resort with pools, bars, restaurants, gyms and spas. Mom who joined us on this trip seems to be having a blast so far, enjoying discovering what we became true experts - doing nothing. What is great about Taba is its location, on the border of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. We hope to take advantage of it soon and check out few trips that are offered here.

Poland's intermission: Taba, Egypt

Ahhhhhh (sigh of relief), we will feel the warmth of the sun on our skin again soon, as we have just booked our resort holiday to Taba, in Egypt. Taba is a beautiful sea side location in the delta of the Red Sea, where Egypt meets Jordan and Israel. We are going there with Teresa, Tom’s mom, and she is just as excited as we are, for she will have a chance to enjoy a relaxing week by the sea. Place we booked looks great - http://www.radissonblu.com/resort-taba - it’s an all inclusive, totally hassle free.

Tom showed me around Lodz today a bit. It’s a typical European city with a mix of old and modern constructions. I particularly enjoyed walking the wide avenues surrounded by beautiful 19^th century palaces and adjacent factories turned into restaurants, shops and banks. It's funny for me to be in a city where, this time, I am the only one who faces language barrier. Tom and Teresa are excellent hosts, always keeping me up to date with the program!

Our stay so far here in Poland has been about transitioning from living entirely outside to house living and home cooking. It’s a welcome change and balances out the shock of cold weather. I think by the end of this leg of the trip, we’ll be ready to get back to Montreal.

Snow in Warsaw...

We are now in Poland; yesterday we made it to the Polish capital from where we took a bus to my hometown Lodz. At the airport we were welcome by a few centimeters of snow, a view that shocked us and served a bit like a cold reality shower. It is closer than we think, our final return to Canada and life there.


We loved Istanbul though we got sick there; so all the stories are delayed and the blog is to be continued. We have not yet set up a final closing day for our blog but it is approaching.

Smoking Shisha in Istanbul...

We made it to Istanbul, Turkey last night. We stay in the beautiful homy hotel where we are waken up by athan call for a pray, and we have a gorgeous view at the blue mosque.

Istanbul has changed since 2006 when I visted it last time, it became more pricy more westener but it has not at all lose its majestic character.

It is a great transition from Asia where we spent last 4 months and preparation for our return to life in Canada.

We are smoking shisha under the Galata bridge looking at the Asian part of Istanbul and bosphorus bridge. On the other note we are so taken out by the image that neither Clo nor me have a clue what happen to our cay (Turkish tea) that was here a second ago.

Next stop Istanbul, Turkey

Uhhaaaa we just have crossed the border and we are waiting for our flight to Istanbul. We are ariving there today at 9 pm and this time we should find a driver waiting for us. Yeap I was always jelous for all those people who can see their name tags once they arrive at the airport, not any more.

Other than that we sent this morning another 10kg package with our clothes back home and we still manged to check in 50kg plus 16kg in our cabin luggage. Considering it is our third package of that size sent home, I guess it is safe to say we do not travel light.

At this moment we are enjoying our starbucks coffee and think we should have seriously considered the company to co-sponsor our trip.

Nevertheless, it is our last official blog entry from South East Asia as we move back to Europe and therefore I guess we will have to change the Asian adventures title to Clo & Tom's world tour ;-)