This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

From the desert to the green belt.
Continued from previous post.

Moonrise over the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias

Don’t get terrified by the edited picture above. Spending an evening in Tiberias on the bank of the Sea of Galilee watching the moon rise is very pleasant.

Tiberias (तिबेरीया / टायबेरीया) is a town about 180km north of Jerusalem. Located in the Lower Galilee region, Tiberias is a quiet, mid-size centre on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. This region is full of green trees, mountains, valleys and rivers, making it very beautiful compared to the desert city of Jerusalem.

Boarding a bus on Sunday morning, Mumbai ishtyle

Yours truly, sitting in a crowded bus

In Israel, once a Jewish youngster turns 18, s/he has to serve for 3 years atleast in the compulsory Israeli military service. In Israel, the weekend is on Friday and Saturday, the days when hundreds of these young soldiers return home. On Sunday morning, they go back from the cities to their military camps. And this is exactly what I didn’t know…

I went to the Jerusalem central bus station, and got a student (discount) ticket for a bus to Tiberias. The whole bus station looked like a military camp – there were simply no civilians there. Anywhere you look, you could see only soldiers and guns and huge bags. I was confused. There was a young guy who was at the bus station with his parents. They clicked a picture together before he was leaving and everyone was quite emotional. Maybe it was the beginning of his military service?

Minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive, the platform was brimming with soldiers. When the bus arrived, the soldiers rushed onto it from all possible sides – like a swarm of locusts devouring a farm. I was simply standing there (in what I thought was a queue, but there wasn’t one), just blinking and staring foolishly at the mess

Then I smiled and suddenly became nostalgic. It reminded me of my 7:21 Kalyan fast, the train that I took every morning to go to work in Mumbai (read this and this – Commuting every morning). I plunged into the crowd, hoping that my boarding-the-crowded-vehicle skills were not rusted during the one year stay in Canada. Soldiers – guys and girls – were fighting to get inside the bus. Elbows, palms, head, everything was being used to push your way in thru the narrow door. The bus driver was sweating. I was struggling to keep up with this juvenile burst of energy. Just after I grabbed hold of the bar near the door, the bus started moving. The driver was shouting vigorously and I guess he was saying चला चला मागे सरका (comeon, move back) or जागा नाही! (no space in bus). Having plenty of experience in all this, I was happy to have gotten some space to rest one foot and grab the bar with one hand. As the bus pulled out of the station, everyone was sucked in, while soldiers left stranded were protesting angrily. There were few other tourists from US at the bus station, but they couldn’t take the cultural shock I guess, which is very natural. So, finally it was a bus full of soldiers and me. phew!

After a while, people started talking to me. Where are you from? Where are you going? Wow India! I am going there in summer. I am going too. Me too. Himalayas very beautiful. Goa, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Rishikesh, Manali…. wow, these guys knew a lot about India. Apparently there is a trend to go to India after the military service (to cool off and smoke ganja), something that I learnt on my 2006 trip to Himalayas. I got snacks to eat, water to drink and lots and lots of entertaining things to do The bus started dropping off soldiers at various locations – probably where they were supposed to report at.

Within 2 hours, I was in Tiberias.

Road to Tiberias

The city reminded me of Pune. Don’t know why, but it smelt like Pune. Haifa smelt like Indore. Tel Aviv was like Mumbai or Ratnagiri. It was very soothing to see lush green mountains and a gigantic water body – Sea of Galilee.

Tiberias

A little town, very touristy, primarily concentrated around the Ha-Galil and Ha-Banim streets. I thought the whole city was inhabited only by youngsters – delightfully dressed and extremely fashion conscious (all of this in comparison to Jerusalem). Girls go with girls, boys go with boys, holding hands, arms over each others shoulders and even an occasional kiss. Interesting sights.

Ani Simkhoni
आनी सिम्खो़नी (The ‘ख़’ (kh) sound is made as if you are clearing your throat) is one of the most powerful and essential phrases if a vegetarian guy has to survive in off-center eating places where they don’t know English. I went to one of the lovely looking eating joints which, the guy at my hostel told, had vegeterian menus too. I spent about 10 minutes explaining the waiter that I don’t eat meat, but he wouldn’t understand. Finally I scribbled a horrible wonderful sketch of an animal that didn’t looked exactly (stop lying Priyank!) like a cow and told him I don’t want that. All this was so much fun and the guys at the restaurant were delighted – I got a free cup of mint tea. Yay! The first thing I did then was to learn how to say ‘I am vegetarian‘ in Hebrew.

Later, I made inquiries and gathered data about cycling around the Sea of Galilee and booked a bike for the next day. Thats where I’ll go next – a bike ride along Sea of Galilee coast.

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

This is where the action is.

Map of the Old city of Jerusalem marking the paths I walked on

I am very much a map person…
Take a look at the map, (I hope it is readable). Old city of Jerusalem is approximately 1 sq.km. piece of land housing few of the holiest sites of Abrahamic religions. It is divided into four quarters namely: Armenian Quarter, Christian Quarter, Muslim Quarter and Jewish Quarter. Until 1860, this area constituted the entire city of Jerusalem. However, currently the New City has expanded virtually all around it. This city is walled and has seven operational gates. It is unbelievable to see how so many sites of significance are fitted into this tiny grid.

I spent almost 3 days wandering in the narrow alleys of the old city. All of the 4 quarters have a distinctive feel: the smell, the people and even the cleanliness levels are different. Streets are lined by hundreds of little shops, alas most of them are souvenir shops selling expensive touristy stuff. Food is plenty and cheap in one of the restaurants. I spent long times sipping mint tea or pomegranate juice, eating falafel and watching people walking around.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

The New Testament (Holy book of the Christians) describes that this was the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and later buried in a sepulchre. The Churchs’ construction was ordered by the Roman emperor Constantine. Later the building was destroyed by Persians, rebuilt by Byzantines, damaged by Muslims, restored by Byzantines, changed hands to Turks, developed by Crusaders, changed control to Kurds and then to Khwarezmians, Turks again, British and finally today it is in the country of Israel. (phew! No, I did not memorize this).

As with other Christian sites I visited, this church was heavily crowded too. I visited this place twice and unfortunately both times were high season – Christmas and Orthodox Christmas. Plus it was quite dark inside, so I don’t have many pictures. The church is gigantic and the guidebook identified atleast 24 different places of worship in different corners of the church. For a person familiar with Bibical stories especially, this place holds lot of significance because one is able to actually see what was hitherto only textual description.

Dome of the Rock:

Dome of the Rock

By far in Israel, this was the most interesting structure I saw. The history of this place is simply fascinating – depressing, exciting and very interesting. The Dome of the Rock is situated on Temple Mount, the holiest site of Judaism. The First Jewish Temple stood here from 967 BCE to 586 BCE (destroyed by Babylonians), the Second Temple stood from 516 BCE to 70 CE (destroyed by Romans). During the Byzantine period and later during Crusader period, this place was briefly a Church. It was largely ignored until the arrival of the Muslims who built the current structure in 690 CE. This place is the third holiest site for the Muslims (after Mecca and Medina). Christians believe that rebuilding this temple will mark the second coming of Christ, while Jews believe that this site is where the Third temple would be rebuilt along with the arrival of Jewish messiah.

I had read before that only Moslems are allowed to enter this place but I went to the entrance anyway. The guard politely asked me to leave after I told him that I was not a Muslim. I disapprove this practise of barring entry for people of other religions – something that is prevalent in some Hindu temples too.

An Arab man praying outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque

There is lot more in the Old City of Jerusalem to talk about, but I have spent 6 blogs in Jerusalem region itself. Lets move north to explore Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee next.

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

Way down in the land of Judea,
God sent to the earth a Savior, for all men
One star for the Holy Light,
Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

From Jerusalem to Bethlehem:
Bethlehem, being in Palestinian territory, is served by the Arab bus network. From the terminal near Damascus gate, bus # 21 goes directly to the stop near the church of Nativity. However, for some reason I was boarding bus # 124 probably because I asked the wrong question. Just like me, there was a couple from Mexico and a guy from Korea. Just a note: Bus 124 does go to Bethlehem, but – not to the place you wanna go. The correct question to ask is – “Which bus goes to Church of Nativity in Bethlehem?”

It was too late by the time we realized that we were in the wrong bus. We found ourselves dumped at a check post in some unknown part of Bethlehem. Fortunately we met a German guy who was volunteering at the church and was passing through that place – he showed us the right way. It was a long 30 minute walk – almost felt like a pilgrimage! I was glad we took the wrong bus, how else would I have seen the real (i.e. non-touristy) Bethlehem town? But, for a non-adventurous traveller the moral of the story is – take bus #21 from Jerusalem, it costs 11 NIS and is the best way to go in my view.

Market on the path to Church of Nativity


The Church of Nativity is accessible only on foot. There IS a road, but it is lengthy and inconvenient, so most people prefer to walk (except the large tour buses). Even the bus #21 drops you at some distance away from the Manger square where the church is located. It is a pleasurable walk thru narrow alleys full of shops on either sides. The cost of goods was, in general, lower that that in Jerusalem (for example, the Jerusalem bread cost only 3.5 NIS as opposed to 5 NIS in Jerusalem). It was fun to walk thru the market, and every five minutes there was either a chapel or a mosque.

Church of Nativity:

Virgin Mary and baby Jesus in Church of Nativity


This church is one of the oldest Churches in the world that is still operational. It is built over a cave that is believed to be the birth place of Jesus Christ. This church is administered jointly by the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian Apostolic branches. The guidebook I used said that all the three styles are identifyable. However, I am not architecturally endowed, so it all looked the same to me. As the case of most other historical sites in Israel, this site too was built, destroyed and rebuilt over the past 1500 years. I was in Bethleham just two days before Christmas, and it was nice to see shops and houses decorated, not to mention truckloads of devotees.

Birthplace of Jesus Christ:

An array of photo frames and idols of various figures, crosses, worshiped using flowers and lighting of oil lamps. There is a marked symbol looking like Sun over which people rest their heads – touching that symbolic representation of God is very important. People push you around in the zeal to grab a quick view (darshan?) of the holy place. The place of worship itself is underground in a damp and stuffy chamber. You are supposed to clean your feet before entering. Wearing a cap is prohibited. The priest doesn’t allow you to linger there and hurriedly thrusts a bit of holy food (prasad?) on your palm before signaling you to move out.

Wait a minute – did you think that I was describing some Hindu temple? No, I wasn’t, infact I was telling you exactly how it was in the core of this Church! The lines of distinctions between religious worship are not as deep as we think, are they?

My visit to the Church of Nativity (and Israel in general) exposed me to a whole new world of Christian symbolism and iconography. In the pictures above, the star symbol was the exact place where it is believed that baby Jesus was born. Immediately after birth, the baby was lifted and placed on a manger because Joseph and Mary were too poor to afford anything luxurious. That’s the white platform in the picture.

The church is really old and is preserved in that fashion. As soon as you enter the church, there is a large open square with complex arrays of lamps hanging on either sides and all over the church in general. The walls are decaying but the golden mosaic can still be seen. The pillars, largely worn out have delicate paintings on them. The whole place gave me a very distinct feeling that I am just a tiny dot in the universe. Suddenly, I discovered that I have unknowingly joined my hands to pray.

I am glad I visited the place where Jesus Christ was born. It is rare for ‘others’ to visit this shrine.

People:
The Korean guy was lost and the Mexican couple was very religious, so they probably spent more time in the Churches around. There is nothing else really important in Bethlehem other than this place so I was on my way back. Meanwhile, I met this European guy while I was having some Arabic coffee in one of the shacks on streets. People were naturally curious about us and it was very entertaining to talk to them. One of the local Arab guys knew a Hindi song from the 80′s and was delighted to sing it (it took me a while to understand what he was saying!)

Salespeople! Ah, well, I missed the aggressive Indian-style sales tactics since I came to Canada last year. It was the same, same old technique that is so common in India. People will pursue you and virtually beg you to buy their stuff. As an MBA student taking ‘negotiations’ courses, all their tactics fascinate me. The little kids always seem to know what price a person is willing to pay, and they are excellent negotiators! One girl even said, ‘Your girlfriend will love it’ – they know exactly what to say (well, almost )



Manger square in Bethlehem, directly in front is the Mosque of Omar

There is a famous ‘wall’ that separates the West Bank area from rest of Israel. Every vehicle from Palestine to Israel is stopped at the checkpoint – every passenger has to exit the vehicle, stand in a queue and get his ID’s checked by Israeli soldiers. They also check the vehicles. It seemed just another thing for the Palestinians but I was trying to imagine a similar situation in India. I think we must pause and appreciate the freedom that we enjoy regardless of our religion (in India, or the rest of the democratic nations in general), because not all the people in the world get the same.

There was a separate queue for foreigners (just the two of us). I met a soldier of Indian origin at the border checkpost and had an interesting conversation with him (will post later) .

Soon the bus navigated to Jerusalem and dropped me off at Jaffa gate – The main entrance to the old city…

And that’s going to be my next blog: Old city of Jerusalem.

Beginning composition by New hope Music

This blog post is part of my Israel travelog series. I spent 3 weeks in Israel during Dec’07-Jan’08 and all my travel stories and pictures are recorded on this website. Please visit the Index page by clicking here to get a complete Israel travelogue. Thanks

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte