Israel - Like a cork

I enjoyed showing around the places I have come to know in the past month to DH. It really felt like the first time when he was in the US and I was showing him around my little city of Madison, its buildings, my work place, the coffee shop, the Union South, the lakes. This time I showed him the crazy drivers on the road, laughing at how they drive always with atleast a wheel on the white line, never within the lanes, the tallest building of Israel, the hotel which happens to be the third tallest building, the stink in the parking lot of the hotel, the guy at the lot entrance who is now a friend, the lady who brings a dark chocolate every evening to my room and so on and so forth.

I without any mercy, made him get ready for a tour at 7:15 the very next day he landed. He had slept for a couple of hours the whole night, and had, ahem, apparently watched me sleep, on and off. But he didnt complain.



We went to Jerusalem first, I showed him all the interesting places, and explained most of the history to him. He said I was his own personal tour guide. We headed off to Masada near the Dead Sea which is the eastern side of the hill on which Jerusalem was located. This other side, was absolute barren land. The green bushes became scantier as we went farther away from Jerusalem. After a while it was as if we entered a whole different picture. A proper desert. without any sand dunes or fine sand. In this desert live a group of people, the Bedouins. They are a nomadic Arab community, which do not like to live in concrete homes. Their homes were literally, sticks with sheets for walls and ceiling. They have very little necessities and their means of living is raising livestock, sheep, camel and donkeys. Only these people live in the scotching Jordean desert.

I was appalled at the way they lived. I tried to relate it to India, and DH said there are poor people living by the dirty river of Chennai day in and day out.



A little history about the Dead Sea. Dead Sea is formed by a natural rift which is supposedly part of the rift between Africa and Asia. As the two continents separated a small rift formed the Dead Sea. It is the lowest point on earth on dry land. 400meters below the sea level.

We crossed the point which was exactly sea level, and there after within 20kms distance we went down 400meters. My ears popped! It was not like going underground, it was just like driving down a mountain slope. Apparently all the extra oxygen in this part below the sea level is good for one's health. Also the harmful rays of the sun cannot reach this place, and hence this place is good to heal skin ailments.

Our first stop was the Ahava factory outlet store. They sold all kinds of cosmetics made from the Dead Sea mud, which is supposed to be packed with mineral salts.

We also saw a couple of Oases, yes, real ones, in the middle of a real desert! A group of palm trees, green in the middle of barren yellow. We also passed by the Caves of Qumran where the original Bible scrolls written many years ago was found intact recently. Long history, no enthu to write. I think we passed through WestBank, not sure, as we did see signs to Jericho, which is in WestBank.



There on we headed to the Masada. It was a fort cum palace built by Kind Herod. Err, just the remains of the fort as it was built over 2000 years ago. It was very very hot. We took a cable car to the top of a cliff where the fort was built. It is history that a group of Jews found refuge from the Romans and hid here, and Romans spent many months trying to destroy the barriers and kill the people in the fort. Long story short, the 1000 people in the Fort didnt want to be killed by the Romans and hence killed themselves. All this history might be interesting for the Amrikans, not for us Indians right.

So we looked around the ruins, the bathhouses, the Palaces, the cisterns to hold water, the ramp the Romans built to break the Fort etc. It was super hot. The Dead Sea was visible far away, looked forlorn, not at all deadly, but sad and mysterious.

It was a relief to get back into the AC in a shop for lunch. My God, I wondered how the Bedouin people live, and how the people lived in this fort so many years ago. It was really really hot, 100 plus F for sure. Which makes me wonder if the overall temperature of the earth was lesser than it is now, what with global warming and all. Imagine, these people were these long robes, fully covering themselves, they must be insane to do that in this hot weather.

DH loved the falafels he had here. After lunch we set off to a Spa near the Dead Sea. So the dead sea is land locked with the inlet being the Jordan River and the only outlet being evaporation. So the concentration of the minerals and salts in the Sea has been increasing for years now. Dead Sea is ten times more saltier than normal sea. And hence it supports no living organisms and hence its name.

We stepped into a Sulphur pool, which was at 100deg, first before entering the Dead Sea, floated for ten minutes. They warned us to take off our Silver ornaments, or gold coated silver ornaments, as sulphur turns silver black.

Then we headed to the Sea itself. It was super hot, impossible to step on land without slippers. DH headed to the swamps to cover himself in mud. Hehe, yes, it was a green-black mud, near the sea, which was supposed to be very good for the skin. The Ahava people make mud masks and other cosmetics out of the Dead Sea mud. I covered myself with the mud as well, and took the customary, dipped in mud pictures. Our guide said that after a few minutes with the mud on and a dip in the dead sea, we will look atleast five years younger.



Dead Sea shore is shared between Israel, West Bank and Jordan. The Sea might have looked beautiful but for the haziness, it was definitely not fog in this weather. The guide said it was hazy because a lot of evaporation was going on. The other side of the Sea is Jordan.

We went into the water. It was muddy, but the mud was supposed to be healthy! It was super exciting to find my legs automatically be lifted up, it was so difficult to sit or stand, but easy to float! It was unbelievable. We floated on the water, DH danced a little, wiggling his body, it is definitely impossible to drown in the Dead Sea. The guide warned us not to try to swim, as if the water gets into the eyes, one might be blind for a few minutes.



We got back to the buildings showered, and had cold icecream for the heat.

I have heard of Dead Sea and read about it before, but I never thought in my life that I would actually see it for real. Not only see it but also experience the increased density of water, causing me all my weight to bob like a cork.

PS: And I just realized with all the fun we had I forgot to click pictures for the blog, there are no pictures without us of the Dead sea up-close! The floating pic is from Wikipedia.