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Name: loco
Interests: "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be."
Expertise: Employing bee sting to deplete.
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10/26/2004
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| The closest to the kingdom that you can comeI've hesitated to post about israel- It's been written for a few months now so I might as well post it now that 5 months later I'm in Israel AGAIN, and haven't posted this last one. So here it is-the January analysis. New impressions coming next.
The subject line btw (in addition to being a Mars Volta reference) is the thought I kept thinking as I looked across into the Promised land from Mount nebo and Bethany in Jordan. You can see jerusalem, but I honestly expected I might be denied entry due to my history of unsavory countries (many of Israel's enemies) combined with the Gaza situation. Fortunately, I got closer than Jordan to the kingdom...and I do Believe Jerusalem is as close as you can get...
There are so many nuances here it's hard to capture them. You must go there- simply the most intriguing corner of the world- or perheps the "eye of the world" (Holy Sepulchre) of Naval of he World (the Foundation Stone- in theDome of the Rock, formerly the Hebrew Temple). So let's get to it.
Israel is a very odd state. I was constantly struck by its uniqueness-even more obvious on this trip than my last one because I spent so much time on this trip enmeshed in the Arab world. Of course its obvious that its the only predominantly Jewish area (in the region), it was created under very unique circumstances, and so on. But knowing that and re-experiencing it after the last 3 weeks of middle eastern travel, immediately upon crossing the border its a different place. Womenwork. And of course don't wear headscarves. The Star of David is a source of pride, not derision. Also, the prices and level of development are close to Western, while the state, even amongst its Jewish population, is incredibly diverse, religiously (level of outward piousness) as well as racially- more so than elsewhere in the Mideast (though Syria and Lebanon are religiously very diverse). It is known that there are levels of racism in Israeli society, (a perhaps weak example: that Ethiopian Jews are always the most menial positions) but its levels of modernization is essentially western in how society treats its citizens.
Before I start pontificating, let me review some of Jerusalem's main sights. First, the Western Wall. This is all that remains of theTemple when it was destroyed in AD 70. I have prayed here several times, as has President Obama and every Jew that comes through Israel. The notable thing is that men and women are divided with women are given only 1/3 of the wall to pray at. It feels odd, though apparently only in the last 20 years were they given ANY of the wall. The place is of course very conservative, which makes it very atmospheric- mostly due to the Haredim, Ashkanazzi Jews dressed in traditional eastern european clothes- mostly big black hats and suits, and with various levels of long hair from their temples-long sidelocks, or in Hebrew Peyot. some interpretations of Jewish law say this should not be cut- and there are a plethora of styles originating form Jews in the Diaspora in many different places. Also notable especially (thoughalso throughout the state) is the tons of security, armored soldiers everywhere, more than on capitol hill in DC. Perhaps rightly so, after numerous violent events here. When Israel won East Jerusalem, they cleared the Moroccan quarter of the old city of Jerusalem so now the area below the western wall is an open plaza.
The mount of olives is also a famous landmark- covered with tombs of the (primarily) Jewish faithful departed. At is base is the Garden of Gethsemene, where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion; there are still olive trees there that were possibly alive at that time (olive trees olive for thousands of years. The mount of olives is the route Jesus took on Donkey through the (now permanently closed) Golden Gate into Jerusalem on "Palm Sunday". It's also, nowadays, the best view of the old city and a great place for the sunset. This was sunset from the mount of olives this time; not quite as awesome as 5 years ago (taken from mount scopus which is part of the mount of olives massif).
Of course the most famous Christian landmark in the city is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is a single church housing the tomb and the spot of crucifixion of Christ. It's maintained by 5 (or even 6 apparently)different branches of Christianity- The Armenians, Syrians, Catholics, Russians, Greeks, and Coptics. Since protestants didnt come along till the 16th century, they did not get a piece of this old bizarre church, and consequently claim the tomb is at another spot, well outside the old city. The location of Jesus' crucifixion (and burial) is not necessarily known. While he was somewhat of a celebrity during his crucifixion, and his followers no doubt knew of the spot, Christianity was made illegal during the roman empire for 250 years, so no great churches could be constructed. The spot of the Holy Sepulchre owes to Helena, Constantine's mother who traveled to Jerusalem when Christianity was legalized in the early 4th c. and searched out information about the locations of the historic events. It seems that various pagan temples were often built on top of Christian holy spots, so Helena located two such pagan altars which she then determined to be- calvary and the tomb. Whether she used local Christian traditions/knowledge, archaeological evidence, or just guesswork, its not obvious. But the locations line up with biblical descriptions so certainly this traditionally held location for the Holy Sepulchre is plausible. So this great church was built and many holy land pilgrimages ensued. The destruction of he original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 11th century by the Caliph led in part to the Crusades. Even the "new" building is almost 1000 years old with lower chapels even older, presumably to the original. And still it is a major pilgrimage spot and despite the dark and dirty nature of the ancient church, provides an intriguing look at Christianity and its multitude of factors and (For the record, the Catholics have the least interesting and most insignificant corner of the Church, though we did attend Italian mass in one of the two catholic chapels. The Russians have calvary and the Greeks have the tomb. The catholics, however do get the lion's share of the Church of the nativity...)
Not 10 miles from Jerusalem, but on the other side of the Palestinian Wall, is Bethlehem, the purported birthplace of Jesus. While Jesus' life before his public ministry is very obscure, this detail is very much less than certain (the story perhaps fits a little too well as him being David's son 42 generations larter- born in the city of David...) but nevertheless, Bethlehem houses the venerable Church of the Nativity, one of the very oldest churches in the world. This trip was a cakewalk compared to the 2003 visit (when we jumped the pre-wall barb wire fence into Palestine at night and then bribed a Palestinian authority official for Christmas Midnight mass tickets. We got the previous year's which were good enough with a strategically placed thumb).
On to the issues. There are a plethora of opinions on the conflict-most of them very polarized: that Israel wants peace but don't have a partner. That Israel forcibly took lands on a weak mandate that for hundreds of years were occupied by palestinians. That "peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us." That the Palestinians target civilians while Israel warns civilians of impending attacks, meaning that Israel is fighting the Humanitarian way. That Israel is an Apartheid state that operates itself in a racist manner. That Israel could absorb millions of Russian and African Jews and still maintain its prosperity while the Palestinians in exile still live in camps throughout the Arab world. That Israel is a Zionist entity seeking to establish itself, as promised in the Bible, from the Nile to the Euphrates. That there is no such thing as a 'Palestinian." That the wall creates ghettos like Nazi Germany. That Israel has completely/ has not honestly complied with UN 242. The whole issue is extremely complex and almost every nuance of it can be seen from a plethora of points of view. For the record, all of the viewpoints above I disagree with.
I have studied the Is/ Pal situation as much as a 3rd party could for 7 years now. But this trip, my second to the area, brought me at least one major insight: the 2 sides are fundamentally and culturally different to the point that any resounding argument on one side will be almost irrelevant on the other. It's not a debate where points are scored by an unbiased judge. It's a football game where both sides think the referee is favoring the other player. And, given the asymmetries of he situation, they are both right. Actually its a game of football where one side is playing Canadian football and the other is playing rugby, and there is no referee except the news reporters and fans.
The major point being missed is that there is an incredible collision of worlds. The Arab world is, for the most part, corrupt and dysfunctional, and most all of the best minds leave for the west. Israel was created from largely European Jews who flowed into the country, having already adopted the developed way of life. They created a Western state founded on a tribal idea, smack in the middle of one of the slowest developing places around. It's as if the USA suddenly bordered Guatemala and Bolivia. Or if the UK suddenly was wedged between Russia and Mongolia. Neighbors mean a lot; when you don't share a lot in common, its hard to come to agreement.
The basic point here: Israelis live in relative comfort. Palestinians, in general, live in relative squalor. Both sides live in constant threat of violence, so the psyches there are of course substantially off. But the difference is that, while the fear is on both sides, the humiliation is largely one-sided, with checkpoints and modern ghettos.
The safety situation: completely fine. If we wouldn't have been reading and watching the news (which Liora was hours each day) we wouldn't know anything was going on. The Arab market in East Jerusalem apparently closed for 2 days immediately following the Gaza bombings but was up and running after that, by the time we got there a day or two later. I ventured into Bethlehem- as normal and easy as buying a falafel here! Of course a lot of shop owners have been moving out since the second intifada all but strangled tourism, but really, Bethlehem is normal.
Palestine is really six or eight cities, tightly controlled. The rest of the West bank is used by Israel to grow crops, eggs, milk, etc. Occasionally you'll see a roaming Palestinian goatherd or camel-master, but mostly Israeli cars, shops, and land use throughout the Jordan Valley. Palestinian cars are generally restricted to cities; this leaves Israel with essentially full control of all of the West bank, both for land and road use. If Palestine were to be independent it would be at a huge infrastructural and logistical cost to Israel.
The Wall dividing the west Bank from Israel proper? Indeed it is a divisive political target. Only 6 feet high when Liora and I came in 2003, now it is fully assembled. I will say that while it is a horrible thing to build a wall, it does add a feeling of security in Israel proper, especially now that the "Third intifada" has begun while we were over there. The Palestinian-side graffiti included an artfully done Hebrew lion destroying a peace dove and a dove with a bullet-proof vest flying in the crosshairs of a rifle. Most, if not all, wall graffiti is in English. This is, in my estimation, done by Western sympathizers. Most locally done graffiti takes the style of the tricolor paint (red-green black), is written in Arabic, and is less artistic, perhaps more militant (bleeding swords, etc) and less poetic and artistic.
Regardless, actual danger is low, and actual difficulties crossing into or out of the territories are minimal, and even have genuine pleasantries (if you're an American/ European/ non Palestinian).
I've also been trying to understand the conflict through the scriptures. The land of Canaan (the promised land) was actually taken by force- Jericho destroyed and every one if its inhabitants killed; Jerusalem likewise was taken over by the Israelites by force. This history, a very bloody and violent Tanakh/ old testament, might have something to do with the justification for violent in present-day Palestine. Reading the Pentateuch, I actually think that, were Hebrew, I would be settling the west bank ("Judea and Samaria) as well... Hebron with the tomb of the Patriarchs and other quintessentially Jewish lands are in the current west bank. So this of course conflicts with modern day respect of other cultures, but in the tribal approach, you take what you can, and most certainly fight for what is yours; the Jews have a claim to the West Bank- they took it fair and square according to the laws of the day in the time of Joshua...
For the record: The border crossing into Israel from Jordan, into Galilee took 3 hours, more than an hour of it due to the inefficient and absurd jordanian system, 5 minutes to pass through the Israel formalities, 30 minutes of additional questioning because of my Syrian Lebanese and Afghan visas (3 of the bad 7- not too shabby!), and more than an hour waiting- presumably as they checked my file. I waited far longer than anyone else. However, notably different than 5 years ago, all border guards and also Westbank and checkpoint staff were very friendly, wishing a happy new year, a good day, etc, seemingly genuine. The only one I met with an attitude was at the dome of the rock, were I also met a security guard with attitude last time. I guess this is the single most sensitive place in the entire region (the Temple Mount) so things are very tight.
Ironically, we had originally decided to go through Galilee for security considerations. The more widely used Allenby bridge goesstraight across the 30ish miles between Amman and Jerusalem in a direct line, but passes through the heart of the west bank. As it was, we drove north on the Jordan side, crossed, and then picked up the Israeli bus which then just drove back down the other side of the Jordan and took the same road that we'd have taken after the Allenby bridge. So our trip spent even longer in the West bank (the Jordan valley there, especially the clouds, are gorgeous) driving back south.
Pictures exist. But not today. I will post about my most recent Palestinian and Jerusalem adventures (from today and yesterday) probably this weekend!
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| Swiss Miss-teryPhotos of the Mideast below; Israel commentary and more photos to follow soon. But first some Europe.
On the way back from the Mideast I got to stop over in Switzerland. The Swiss' claim to fame is putting together an incredibly developed and efficient state despite a multitude of cultures and rugged terrain- and therein lies the mystery.
While Kyrgyzstan is known as the Switzerland of Asia, Switzerland is known as , well, the Switzerland of Europe. I will say that Kyrgyzstan's mountains are 3000m bigger than Switzerland, so in fact landscape-wise Kyrgyzstan's a super Switzerland. But other than that, Kyrgyzstan falls very short- not a profitable banking sector, not an efficient melding of cultures. Switzerland has 4 national languages, and Zurich is in fact only 70% "native" Swiss, which means 30% 'foreigners' in addition to the "native" Italians, Germans, and French...In fact I had a better pizza here than any I had in Italy...
In addition to mountains, Switzerland is known for cheese, chocolate, watches, army knives, yodeling, and not least, efficiency. I did sample some of the first two, and definitely saw the efficiency as well, which was particularly contrasting to Egypt. Everything in Zurich is automatic, a tech-city built within snowy chateaus. Trains run right on time (though I did see one late), everything is easy, albeit expensive.
 
Zurich Churches are odd and beautiful; and also warmer than the freezing streets.
I never saw any mountains due to the cloud cover, subzero temps and falling snow.I did however see the sun, albeit as the familiar dark disc behind the quickly moving translucent sheet of mountain clouds. I also saw a guy carrying a surfboard wen I arrived to Zurich, hundreds of miles from an ocean in a landlocked country. Especially bizarre considering it was below freezing with snow all over the ground. He said he was on a trip to morocco in a couple of days...solving that mystery... Zurich is also famous in the alternative fashion scene for bicycle messenger bags made by Freitag. The rage for scenesters everywhere, they combine truck tarps, inner tubes and seatbelts, taking old worthless items and making a bag that costs hundreds of dollars. Nice work! And they're even more popular in Zurich, there place of origin.
Zurich has some gorgeous gothic churches (mostly Lutheran but also at least 1 Catholic) and is easy to navigate, and with its broad riverside corridor, its is a perfect tourist city. But it also has a bizarre edge. Quite a few of the paintings I saw in churches seemed like modern art. Also, culture-centrism is here, as everywhere: portrayals of a blond, shaven, short-haired Jesus!
 
A sleepy national center of industry with the highest quality of life of any city worldwide. How does that happen? A mystery!
The first Swiss mystery can be solved by crediting German efficiency but the second Swiss miss-tery is neutrality. Switzerland makes a lot of noise about being neural- never being in war for 200 years, not joining he EU, Keeping their Swiss franc instead of using the Euro, etc, but in practice, they ARE in the EU: even their passport stamp has EU stars. Euros can widely be used and even restaurant bills convert swiss francs to euros. Nice try, neutrals...
Now have a look-see at what most of you are more interested in: the images of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Here are several of the 1000+ I took:
Jordan
Ruins atop one of the 7 hills in ancient Philadelphia, now Amman, Jordan's capital.
 
The desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan's number 2 attraction after Petra. It was much like the southwest. With Camels and Bedouins. Ameliorator is here looking down at the locale where "Lawrence of Arabia" was filmed.
Our camp with the Bedouins.
That Sea is most definitely not alive. Yes, it is Dead. And very salty.
That River Jordan is not so deep and not so wide. That's Israel (really the West Bank) you can see on the other side.
The promised land that Moses viewed: the view into Palestine from Mount Nebo.
Syria
Old City walls of Damascus, one of the world's most atmospheric cities for the past several millenia
1300 year old Mosquue in Damascus, build by the Umayyads. There's a shrine inside containing what is supposedly John the Baptist's head.
Aleppo's food was, as reputed, delicious! This is tahini and foul (smashed fava beans), with raw onion. A very tasty breakfast!
Inside Annias' house, now a chapel, from where Annias was called to met Saul to give him sight on the street called straight.
 
Outside, inside Aleppo's Citadel
There are a lot of these across the Arab world. Apparently (?) not stars of David though?
If you love the late Hafez Assad, post a neon heart!
Pan Arab unity and (outward) love of dictators, all throughout the Syrian countryside...
Lebanon
Beirut's corniche has some nice views.
Inside a Marionite Catholic Church. Not often does one see Arabic Catholic inscriptions but in the Mideast, especially Syria and Lebanon, there are millions of Christians.
Activist plasterings from the American University of Beiruit
My kinds Lebanese hosts, showing me the good Lebanese eats!
Cooking it up hot in a bakery in the ancient city of Sidon.
The most famous trees of antiquity, consequently now one of the rarest trees in modernity: the Lebanese Cedar.
The Christians fled to the mountains under ottoman rule, but they didn't leave Lebanon.
High above even the Christian monasteries and towns, the Mount Lebanon range hosts ski slopes and the highest point in the Levant. Hopefully I'll hike it next time.
The Palestinian refugee camp outside Sidon. Though it shows basically nothing, I got in trouble with the po-po for snapping this zoomed shot.
 
In Beirut, commercialism and religion mingle (l); inside Harari's posthumously completed mosque (r).
 
If you look carefully, you can see the pockmarks from shelling in these Beirut buildings. Plenty of this all over the city. Things are either spanking new or still bombed out.
The Lebanese military is ubiquitous, including at this crusader castle in Tripoli.
 
Byblos, where the alphabet was born
Hariri joined me an my friend Ali. Apparently he looks up to me.
Delicious Delicious Lebanese cuisine
Shukran!-Thanks for reading!
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| Every Mountain is HolyWhen he was dropped from being a Patagonia spokesman because he climbed Utah's delicate arch, Dean Potter quipped that he didn't know why people attached so much significance to that one rock- to him every rock was holy. So likewise, we decided against another ascent of the world's most holy mountain, Gebel Musa (Mount Moses aka Mount Sinai) and opted for Gebel Katherina, another venerable peak in the Sinai Desert, which again impressed me with its awesome landscape. It is not a sahara-like sands but a Red Rocks/ Southwest USA-like set of rugged canyons and peaks.
The most holy mountain, Mount Sinai, with its church just visible if you look close enough on the summit.
With the most terrible info from a couple online sites and some good directions from locals, we made it to the top of Egypt- Gebel Katherina, the highest mountain in all of the Sinai and indeed the whole country. The sunset was gorgeous as its light hit Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa) across the valley. The round-trip 10 miles/ 3500' gain was the perfect reintroduction to real physical activity since my bike accident more than a month before.
Strange that I have been to the highest summit of only 2 countries- Kazakhstan and Egypt- neither country of which is extremely high on my favorites list. In Kyrgyzstan, Germany, Poland, Romania: countries that I like a lot, I've only been to their 2nd summits or close, but not quite, to their high points. In Israel, Ukraine and Lithuania-my favorite places, I've not really been to any mountains at all. Odd, no?
Early alpenglow on Mt Sinai, Viewed from Mt Katherina. It got a lot better but my batteries died. Liora has some shots of it.
On the approach to the peak of Egypt we hiked up the wadi, or dry river bed, which contained many walled-off orchards in its center, meaning the valley was even narrower. The crosses on gates of the orchards led us to believe they belonged to St Katherine's monestary, the monestary at the foot of Mount Sinai. In this wadi we we encountered a group of Bedoiun women and their kids, with their donkey which the oldest boy claimed was "better than a car." Apparently celebrating a holiday from school, they invited us for tea and bread. The bread was being cooked in charcoal, so the ladies took it out of the ashes, wiped/ brushed the ash off (more or less) and gave us some. It was the best ashy bread ever, and in fact the best bread we had the whole trip. This cultural experience was Liora's favorite moment of the whole trip!
Our friends!
Liora thinks that Gebel Katherina is the real mount Sinai- i.e where Moses received the 10 commandments- because God would pick the highest mountain. I think that God would pick the most rugged mountain, and even with the tourist steps hewn in the rock, Gebel Musa is still more rugged than Katherina. So by this logic we might have gotten the right one (Liora and I climbed Gebel Musa 5 years ago so are covering our basis in either case..).
In reality, I dont think its too possible to know where the real Sinai is since it was ostensibly climbed by Moses alone, in the wilderness, 3500 years ago.
According to Wikipedia, "earliest Christian traditions place this event at the nearby Mount Serbal, and a monastery was founded at its base in the 4th century; it was only in the 6th century that the monastery moved to the foot of Mount Catherine, following the guidance of Josephus's earlier claim that Sinai was the highest mountain in the area. Jebel Musa, which is adjacent to Mount Catherine, was only equated with Sinai, by Christians, after the 15th century." So even the earliest monastary is almost 2000 years after the fact- pretty shoddy odds,even in a region not known for its absolute impeccable ability to pinpoint historical and biblical places. But nice hiking in any case, and all mountains are holy, as Anatoli Boukreev said: "Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion."
Posing below the most recent "mt sinai." Not so frigid as locals warned.
Despite the overwhelming pattern of tourists hiking in the sinai late at night (i.e. leave at 1AM to see the sunrise), I think its far more normal to hike these peaks in the day, or to watch the sunset even. Certainly in the winter it's much warmer this way- and actually a pleasant hike as opposed to a crowded, noisy frigid ordeal. We saw no others on the actual hike from noon until 5. There are literally hundreds of people on Musa for sunrise. Also, you are "required" to have a guide, but since the local tourist monopolist "Sheik Musa" charges exhorbitent rates, and guides are not, in fact, required by aw, they only tell you they are required. Similarly, at the pyramids I was asked "do you want to ride a donkey or a camel?" to which I replied I will walk, to which they said "its not allowed to walk" which of course like saying you can't drive in California. So we didnt use any guides and got along just fine, despite being warned that our route needed a guide (by a guide of course, who was lazily sitting around town)
After this brief but glorious day of outdoors in the Sinai, it was back to the noise and pollution of Cairo. The main destination was "Islamic Cairo." Since the entire city, minus the small coptic area, is Islamic, there is some ambiguity about where this actually is. However it basically means the old town of Cairo, which has been cleaned up for one narrow tourist stretch. Beautiful buildings and cool street scenes, the most interesting of which was a bizarre man who had half a dozen cats sitting around him in a semicircle, talking to them like a schoolteacher. One of only many odd sights in this complex and quixotic megopolis.
View of "Islamic" Cairo from a minaret window
On the way from Sinai there were tons more scrutiny and checkpoints due to the Gaza situation (the Gaza border with Egypt was apparently breached during the Israili assault) but we nonethless had no real hassles. I did enjoy the drive up the west finger of the Red Sea (the gulf of Suez) which I saw for the first time; I also enjoyed the street food at our minibus' pit stop along the way. Egyptian food uses fava beans almost solely (even uses them for Tameya, a variant of Falafel) so a few alternate ingredients from this pit stop, like tomatoes, were delicious!
Liora dresses conservative for "Islamic Cairo"
I have often used the National Museum as a judge of a country. In many ways it reflects the attitudes etc.
The Egyptian National museum has some of the most amazing relics of any museum in the World, rivalling even the British museum (which pillaged its best stuff from Greece Syria and Egypt in the first place). However, the displays are explained only briefly, typwritten with a plethora of typos, put on index cards- and have not been changed in 50 years. Only the most famous pieces even have a card! It's more a warehouse, complete with all kinds of random things stores amongst the artifacts!
Contrast this to, say, Israel, whose "bible lands" museum (not even the national museum, which I will talk about next post) captivated us for hours with only a few artifacts. Displays and explanations are everything for a good museum. Of course the system here is to pay a guide to describe things to you. This somewhat explains the shoddy displays, but still it's hard to believe that a museum with so many awesome busts statues paintings sarcophogi mummies etc, from Akenaten, Tutankhamen, Ramses II etc all here, but really very little learning can go on due to little information. I did however learn that dwarfs were revered in ancient Egypt. Everything else I had to know before coming in to get even some modicum of understanding...
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| River Jordan Deep and Wide, Hope to Make it to the Other SideA few more days in Jordan allowed us to explore the East Bank of the Jordan River, the forgotten half of the Holy Land. We went down to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, and up to the top of Mount Nebo which, like Moses, may be the closest we come to the promised land, depending on how the situation in Israel develops.
Mount Nebo was visited by John Paul II in 2000, and is the site of several ancient churches and shrines dedicated to Moses. The view West across the Jordan valley takes in much of the rugged West Bank terrain, and a few towers in Jerusalem are even visible in the distance across the hills. Christians beginning in the 4th century used to make the pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Jerico and across the Jordan to Mount Nebo. We also stopped by Jorden's modern Christian area, Madaba, where several ancient mosiacs adorn churches packed with hundreds of tour bus-tourists from europe. Greek Orthodox schools with kids running left and right add to the bustle.
The most interesting site was Jesus' baptismal site at Bethany. This site was only excavated in the 90's after the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan allowed the clearing of the mine fields there. The River Jordan is the border. Apparently the ancient site of John's baptisms was at the confluence of the Jordan and a spring; excavations revealed an ancient church and a baptismal font at this site. The Jordan River has since changed course so the baptismal site is no longer at the riverbanks. In fact, even in modern day (since Israel took control of sea of Galilee outflows after the 1967 war), the River Jordan has changed as water is siphoned off to Israel's burgeoning population. According to our guide, once, if a man was to cross the river Jordan he was very strong. Now, the dropped water levels mean that such a crossing could be accomplished in a bound by a good long-jumper, making a the drama of a crossing like Yasser Arafat's back in the day no longer notable. The River Jordan is today no more than a meandering creek, and that it delineates such a major international border seems odd. Still the sky in the Jordan Valley is beautiful and the sun breaks through the clouds exactly as biblical paintings portray, leading to amazing views of the very low elevation towns like Jericho. The area of Bethany, in addition to being Jesus' baptismal place, was well known as a wasteland that produced prophetic and religious characters. Bethany was the home of John the Baptist when he wore camel hair and lived off of locusts and honey. It hasn't developed a whole lot since- the land is just percipitous enough to escape desert-hood, but otherwise very dry decolate, and empty. Truly, the stunning scenery makes things like a 40-day fast here seem much more dramatic. Elijah, too, resided here and there is a church commemorating his stomping grounds and ascension on a chariot of fire.
The lack of flow down the Jordan is also dropping the levels of the dead sea, which is lower now than when I visited 5 years ago-repeatedly setting the world record as eart's lowest point. The salinity also increases constantly, meaning each trip is ever marginally more fun to float in the ridiculously salinated water. The salty taste is so terrible that even a small drop to the tongue is a terrible burning- contact with the eyes is essential to aviod. Today the sky was sunny and the usual heat-haze of the area remarkably absent so the hour long cork-float was quite enjoyable. And of course its a great thrill on the way out to have one's ears pop as you drive up to sea level.
Jordanians are historically desert nomads, Bedouins, and Liora and I took the advice of many before us and shelled out for Jordan's biggest adventure tourism site: Wadi Rum. A wadi is an old dried up river, and the huge rock walls are very reminiscent of a Zion National Park- with lots of sand in between peaks and walls. The biggest difference is the presence of resident Bedouins, who we took a jeep safari with and then stayed with overnight. Truly it is spectacular to see the night sky and to breathe the dry desert air. The one downside is the proliferation of tourists, which has made the Bedouins in the area rich, but also lackadaisical and indifferent toward tourism, instead of their usual friendly, welcoming spirit. Tourism has actually exploded in Jordan with new luxury hotels at Petra and oodles of tour buses; this has led to an increase in prices, but more unfortunately has let to a tourist gouging culture that is still easily avoidable but obnoxious to deal with when we confront it. Stories abound, but suffice it to say that my last assessments of a uncorrupted friendly Jordan are a little off. Safe it indeed is, but the tourist tax is now in effect in Jordan. The ironic exception is Amman, which is large enough that tourists don't form the main economic engine here. So the big city is actually cheaper here...fine stuffed-to the gills meze meals for only $2 here! Versus $30 in Petra...
Since the Gaza War has begun, the plan to cross the tense Allenby/ King Hussein bridge through the West bank to Israel has been scrapped and our idea is now to cross to Israel directly in Galilee en route to Jerusalem, thus avoiding the Palestinian areas. Also, this less sensitive crossing will mean less Israeli scrutiny and trouble because of my Syria/Lebanon/Egypt/ Jordan/Afghanistan bearing passport. So in Shah'Allah, we will see 2009 in from the holy city.
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| Mr Tambourine Man played a song for meEgypt: The biggest Arab state, a foremost proponent of Pan-Arab unity, and the first to be kicked out of the Arab league (for making peace with Israel in exchange for the return of the Sinai desert and peninsula). Also the juggernaut of Arab culture- movies and most notably music. Also bizarrely, save the few Bedouins in the Sinai desert, Egyptians are not actually Arab, in that they do not hail from the Arabian peninsula, but rather from north African stocks. The facial features are diverse, but notably darker with curlier hair than Arabs, to name a few general characteristics. But a lot of diversity throughout the country.
Cairo is of course one of the world's biggest cities, 15 million, so I was prepared for an all out smog fest in Karachi-style street pandemonium with the legendary horrible traffic and dangerous chicken street crossings. In reality the downtown is filled with designer shops. The air, yes, is ridiculously, eye-bleed polluted, but really only that bad when the dust storms blow in (it's then unbearable- I hope to post some ridiculous pics of this soon). Otherwise, its just cough inducing, probably mush worse in industrial India or China (though I've only seen photos and can't say for those places firsthand). Though the volume of traffic is high, it goes slow and obeys traffic cops so street crossings are way worse in Istanbul, Damascus and Beirut. What makes Cairo special is the constant activity- day and night the place is dense crowded and crawling with Arab street bustle. Such a diversity of people makes people watching almost as good as new york- guys on bikes carrying trays of hundreds of breads on their heads, young couples fashionably dressed walking arm-in-arm, mannequins with dreadlocks, burkha-clad women and bearded old beggars are just some of the crowd.
Alexandria's Cornish is a perfect way to breathe pure Mediterranean air and its European designed buildings offer laid back Euro-atmosphere gourmet meals for happy meal prices. Alexandria, home of parts 1 and 2 of Dalia and Sean's wedding is a gorgeous necklace of buildings along the Mediterranean coast, backed by 4 million strong of urban poverty in unfinished apartment buildings, backed by a Nile delta full of rural poverty, harvesting Egypt's food on the backs of workhorse donkeys.
Egypt is the poorest Arab state I've seen (and I believe possibly the poorest overall). I am seldom shocked by poverty, having seen rural Afghanistan, Guatemala and the Pamirs, amongst other places, but here the urban poverty is sickening. I saw a man's eyes light up when I bought a pack of tissues from him for 20 cents, on which his profit margin couldn't have been more than ten cents. For him to give such gracious blessings for this act is something I still have not internalized.
What Egypt does have is rich music. Dalia hired a group of Nubian dancers and musicians from the south for the henna party (part 2 of her wedding) and their chants and drumming went well into the night during the greatest wedding party celebration I have seen. Part 3 in a posh hotel in Cairo overlooking the Nile, ritzy and classy though it was, didn't even compare to this organic pre-party.
The music in taxis and buses across the entire Middle Eastern region is Egyptian, and much of it is quite good. Still, the greatest musical experience I have had here was a back alley tea/waterpipe cafe, where locals had gathered on the weekend to hear live music. I heard the live music from the market and Liora and I followed it to its source, a quintet of motley but skilled performers led by the most amazing tambourine player I have ever seen. The tambourine is usually an instrument given to the backup singer or perhaps to the groupie who joins the band on stage. But in this case, the keyboards, drums, and even singer, seemed to form around this one charismatic tambourinist. He beat the instrument so hard and so consistently I wondered how his fingers did not bleed, or the skin did not break. His crisp rhythms were only surpassed by his bizarre demeanor- cigarette hanging out of his mouth, alternatively standing and sitting, completely in his own zone like a famous star singer. The whole time he was shaking his head like he had Tourette's, like the music was fueling his nervous system like some sort of powering of high power machinery.
Several times his eye caught me, sitting in the very back of the alley, entranced by his incredible energy-and he'd seem to knowingly continue, realize I was watching his every movement while other chatted or smoked. He'd passionately keep his head ticking like a metal guitarist fully embracing the layers of sound. For an hour we sat, overpowered by the sound and the ambiance. While every other attendee seemed to play cool like a jazz cafe, I sat focused and rhythmically moving my body in sync with the tambourine leader. He seemed to appreciate my appreciation, and even gave me a wave when I looked back down the alley after leaving. I have seen amazing bass players, guitar players, violinists, pianists, that truly deserve fully musical kudos. This is the only such tambourine musician that I have ever seen.
Back to reality, Liora encourages paranoia of the food in Egypt; I have, as I have always done, have thrown food caution to the wind in an effort to fully embrace the street food culture of each country to which I travel. One belly demon did pass through me, causing one extreme night of wrestling and abs-flexings and sweating it out, but really nothing compared to the constant torment of Chinese inspired food-borne illnesses.
What does bear attention is the intense tourist tout framework that surrounds the world's number one tourist site (the pyramids) and the surrounding hundreds of lesser sites. Though I mostly flew free from that ( I wasn't in Egypt to see monuments and moreover, I have Liora with me , who lived in Egypt and speaks Arabic), my friends who are attending Dalia's wedding went to all the big sites and have many terrible stories of scams and tourist traps- sometimes hilariously accompanied by a "welcome to Egypt".
I did go to the Pyramids, which are actually now in the Cairo suburbs- the city has almost enveloped them. They are huge, wonderful and have rightly inspired generations to wonder why and how they have been created. The Sphinx, a single piece of stone, is also wonderful, and I actually buy the conspiracy theory here that explains the small head that in it was re-carved in the likeness of a Pharaoh by the pyramid makers from a more ancient monument, built as many as 10,000 years ago. The entire area is surrounded by mystery not unlike Stonehenge- but with a sunny dry climate, bright and wondrous instead of dark, windy and mysterious.
Also interesting is the Coptic population of Cairo- Coptic is the old language of the region and the language embraced by an Orthodox branch of the early Church, still based in Cairo (Their patriarch is equivalent to the pope in the Catholic Church). The ancient rituals of the Coptic Christians (which we witnessed) included taking their shoes off to pray in the sanctuary area, as well as kneeling with forehead to the ground, identical to the method Mohammad later adopted. Also, their ritual include kissing and wiping their forehead on religious icon tapestries that hang in their chapels- which leads to the white robes of the Virgin Mary, for instance, being gray and brown with sweat and dirt from about the knee down...There is also a tiny (40ish families) Jewish community to add to the 5% Coptic Christians here.
I spend Christmas time in the city- the City of Cairo. There I attended mass in Arabic with Italian and Rwandan priests at a French Church that had occasional songs or words inserted in English (for the Benefit of Liora and I). The church has some truly beautiful mosaics but was otherwise virtually empty (according to the priest, all of the Catholics attend Church in the residential area, not downtown). The mass was so empty that I was asked to be a reader (2nd reading!) and we were invited to join the priests for tea after mass (which we accepted).
The Egyptian bureaucracy was put to the test when we went to add a second entry to our visas (you cannot do this at the airport-though it took me 1/2 hour to establish this this from the immigration officers who were willing to (and successfully did ) sell me a worthless second visa). The visa building is 20 stories tall and hundreds of meters long, dominating the central square downtown. Inside its almost complete organized chaos, with refugees, locals, and who knows who else crawling like ants from window to window. It's like a Soviet nightmare, except with people who are friendly and willing to help. It's almost like they would be more comfortable without their dysfunctional system, which requires many ridiculous steps including going to a pay window to buy stamps, which are then affixed to your application (at another window) for the proof that you've payed. Nevertheless, everyone was nice and the process didn't take more than 40 minutes in total, plus several hours to process. We then proceeded with our visas on to the Sinai desert, an extremely rugged peninsula of land where the Israelites ostensibly wandered for 40 years. The land is so mountainous that there would be very few possible spots for a camp of their size...but now there are plenty of military checkpoints, owing to the Israeli presence (Israelis occupied the Sinai as recently as the 70's) and the Palestinian situation (the Sinai borders Gaza). We chose not to climb this time (we climbed mount Sinai in 2003) but instead proceeded to the border crossing.
However, we thought it might be better not to tangle with Israeli border guards and instead go direct to Jordan via boat. While ports are in general slow, we decided to go for it given our seemingly ideal timing. (Arriving 3 hours after the scheduled departure time, we were told if we hurried we could catch the ferry). In reality, the dysfunctional Egyptian port authority took another 6 hours, dashing our chances for a sunset cruise over to Jordan and enraging the Jordanian Palestinian and other passengers who were cooped in the cat and fly-infested terminal waiting room. This truly horrible experience finally led us to board an ancient Baltic cruise ship formerly from the Tallinn-Helsinki route, as evidenced by the posters and signs still hanging. This was the very route I took 18 months ago at the conclusion of my trans-Siberian journey. While the duty free shop was 21st century, the toilet was nauseatingly disgusting, and of course did not supply toilet paper despite our $80 tickets. Welcome to Egypt. Well, really goodbye to Egypt, on back to Jordan, a much more developed country, where tourist touts wait, but at least the visa processing is done in 60 seconds...more on Jordan part II in a bit...
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