Well, I look diseased as a result of the tie-dye tan-pink-white business going on on my shoulders and the colony of bug bites currently existing on my legs, but I’m extremely happy nonetheless. I just got back from an incredible weekend down in the very south of Israel, where I had the chance to hang out with camels, swim in the Red Sea, visit one of the “new” 7 wonders of the world, and get a whole lot of sun.
Last Sunday was Purim, which means we had a long weekend: Friday-Monday, so my friends and I took advantage of the break to take a long trip. We had some snafus getting down there but we eventually made it to Eilat Friday night just in time to walk to the beach and see the very very touristy resorty beachfront that Eilat has. It was interesting seeing the different sections of the beach: the first part was very “Jersey Shore/Santa Monica/beach fair” kind of place with huge fair-ride kind of contraptions, ice cream stands, kiosks selling sunglasses, flip flops, jewelry, clothes—you get the picture. Then we got to a section with a super fancy hotel and all of a sudden there were more high end stores, “gelaterias” rather than ice cream stands, and cafes rather than kiosks. Then we got to an even nicer hotel and everything changed again. We chose a random place for dinner since we were all starving and it looked reasonable/tasty enough and though our food looked amazing when it came out on plates, pretty much everyone was disappointed with it. So don’t go to “Hof Maman” if you ever eat in Eilat. Trust me.
Yet, there are few things a little ice cream can’t fix and we went to bed happy to be in Eilat. The next morning we woke up early to go to Petra, the ancient city in Jordan that is carved into stone, one of the seven wonders of the world, and (most importantly) the site of the climax of Indiana Jones The Last Crusade, and also where they filmed said scene. Needless to say, we were all pretty stoked about this trip. We opted to take an official tour because of the complexities of crossing the border (it was a lengthy, complicated, multi-step process), which was a great decision because we had a series of awesome people carting us around. The first was our driver from the border to Petra. He stopped on the side of the road at one point so we could say hello to some Bedouins and their camels. This was probably the highlight of the morning since I totally bonded with the little Bedouin boy. I (very ashamedly because of the disgustingly American touristy-ness of the action) took a picture with him and his camel and he put his arm around me with a huge smile and said “say cheese”. Then I asked him his name and he responded “Sagran, what is your name?” so I told him and we shook hands. Then after everyone else had had a chance to get a picture with the camel, I went back over and was petting the camel, marveling at the interesting feeling of its fur when Sagran poked me and held out a rubber band bracelet contraption thing. I looked at it and said something like “Oh that’s cool” and he motioned for me to hold my hand out, so I did, and he put it on my wrist and said “For you”, and patted my arm. I thanked him profusely and we had a little moment, then the most brilliant idea occurred to me. I was wearing three silly bands (I always wear them, for times like these) and I thought, “hey, maybe he will think they’re cool”. So I took one off to show him the shape (it was a pink sparkly crown—probably not the best for an 11 year old boy, but it was what I had) but before I got very far he started to pull the yellow one off my wrist too. So I took it off and gave it to him, and he tied them together the same way the rubber bands he gave me were tied. He was struggling a little with it, so I helped him out and then he tried to put it back on my arm, and I told him no, and motioned for him to put his arm out. Then I put the bracelet on his wrist and he looked at me very confused. I said “for you” and he got this huge smile on his face and took my hand and said “Thank you. Thank you very much”. Then a guy came over requesting a camel ride so Sagran said “goodbye” and I told him the same and we parted ways. But, I still have my bracelet and don’t think I’m ever going to take it off because the whole encounter was just that cool.
Eventually we made it to Petra and embarked on our tour with Ali, the local Arab fellow who was the most succinct yet informative tour guide I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. My favorite part of Ali was the fact that he told our group “I have decided to call our group B1. I cannot remember all your names so I will call us B1. When I say B1, that means you.” Then he proceeded to say many times throughout the tour “Okay B1, look here”, “So we know, B1, that the Nabateans were an ancient people”, or “Are we all here B1. Okay B1”. It was hysterical (because he had a super thick accent as well so it made things even funnier). I’m not conveying this well in narrative form, but I promise it was funny. Petra itself, by the way, is even more incredible than pictures, National Geographic articles, and Discovery Channel specials can describe. The city was carved right out of the sandstone cliffs by the Nabatean people in ancient times, then taken over by the Romans and eventually the Byzantines, so there’s influence from all the time periods within the area. You walk into the city through a narrow canyon called the Siq, with super super high walls. The Siq opens up to the most famous site, the Treasury (the home of the Holy Grail, where I was earnestly searching for Harrison Ford and Sean Connery…I didn’t find them). The beauty, legends, stories, and history of the place are just unbelievable. There are other really awesome sites as well including tombs, a theater, columns, etc. and we spent several hours both with the tour guide and on our own afterwards. There’s so much to see in Petra that you could spend a good 3 days there, but our afternoon showed us the highlights and most famous sites, so I was certainly satisfied. Also included in our tour was lunch at this incredible buffet called the Magic Restaurant with the most delicious traditional Jordanian food. I gorged myself. It was, faithful to it’s name, truly magical.
Before crossing the border back to Israel our driver took us on a little driving tour of Aqaba, the border city on the Jordanian side. In the past few years the government, seeing its potential for tourism, has put millions and millions of dollars into the city building hotels and cleaning it up and making the streets nice, etc. I must say they’ve done an incredible job, because it was pretty beautiful.
The border crossing on the way back took another hour and a half or so, most of which was spent analyzing this one Israeli gentleman whose purpose was very ambiguous (much to Cody’s frustration—he was wearing a badge and looked official but was not in uniform, and frankly did absolutely nothing other than stand around, open a window, talk to a security person, stand around, etc for the entire hour we were in the security line. Whatever). We FINALLY got back to Eilat and went out to eat dinner and met a whole host of new characters (which remains a story for another day).
The next day was spent exactly the way a day in Eilat should be: exclusively at the beach. I and two friends took a glass bottom boat tour in the morning: two hours cruising the gulf, looking into four different countries (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia), and seeing some really beautiful fish and reefs (a kid dropped a cheetoh onto the window on the floor of the boat through which we were looking at reefs, so all my pictures have a cheetoh in the middle. Cute.) It was sweltering so I spent a lot of time in the water (much saltier and warmer than the pacific) and relaxing on the beach with pleasure reading. It was a glorious day, and excellent topper to a beautiful weekend.
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