… for a couple of weeks. I will be back with rest of the Israel travelogue and other stuff. Please hang on for some time 
I am extremely reachable anyway 
cheers,
On the banks of the Kishon River, the port city of Haifa is a mosaic of diversity and home to the Bahai faith.
A bus journey from Tiberias (तिबेरीया) took me to Haifa (हाईफा) in less than an hour. It’s a straight route going towards the west from the hills of Galilee to flat plains. The bus terminal at Haifa is mammoth, very crowded and for the first time in Israel so far, I saw people in a hurry.
Bahai
Bahai Garden: Shrine of Bab
The Bahá’í Faith (बहाई धर्म) is a religion founded by Bahá’u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. Báb (बाब), the messenger was born in Persia (Iran) and his tomb is located in Haifa. Bahai is one of the religions that is persecuted by Iran. There are about 6 million Bahai’s in the world, 50% of them being in India. The Bahai world center at Haifa is the holiest shrines of the faith.
My first reaction to this was… what? one more? So its Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druze and Bahai (maybe more smaller ones, I don’t know)
The Bahai center is open to public only for a few hours. The gardens can be visited only by booking a tour in advance, and it is pretty simple to do so from their website. I recommend taking a tour of the upper gardens as it gives a wonderful view of the entire Haifa town. The tour is free.
There are 19 terraces of the Bahai gardens: 9 being above the shrine of the Baab and 9 being below. The terraces are shaped like 9 collinear circles with water flowing from the top to the bottom. It generates a very peaceful feeling and immediately takes you away from the noise and rush of the city. 19 is also a sacred number for the Bahai faith.
View from the top gardens is simply awesome. Haifa is a beautiful city indeed, blessed with a wonderful deep blue Mediterranean sea on two sides.
Haifa city:
Haifa City
Haifa, like most other places in Israel, has a long history. It is built on Mount Carmel, which was known during 3 CE as a dye making center for Jewish priests’ temple cloth. The city prospered during the Byzantine rule and competed with nearby Akko town. In 7 CE the city was conquered by Persians and then by Arabs. In 12 CE the crusaders won it after a battle with local Jews and Muslims. The Mameluks captured it in 13 CE. In 1761, Bedouin rulers destroyed and rebuilt the city, an event that marked Haifa’s entry in modern era. Later, the city was held by the Ottomans except for brief periods when Napoleon Bonaparte and then the Egyptians conquered Haifa
German Templars arrived in 1868 and created what is known today as the German colony. This block of the town was very beautiful indeed, and my hostel was located in the vicinity. There were a number of bakeries around and one morning I simply sat at the corner of Ben Guiron street eating warm bread with butter and jam while watching the city move.
Due to its predominantly industrial nature, Haifa had bloody times during the 1948 war of Independence. Today it is one of the largest technology and industrial hubs of Israel.
Sunset at Haifa
Haifa is endowed with a long convex coastline and it was wonderful to spend an evening at the beach watching the sunset with a couple of friends I met there.
Old men playing cards at the beach
Promenade, Haifa beach
The promenade and touristy areas of the Ha Carmel beach (near the large train and bus station). After the promenade ended, we walked on the beach further north. Stepping feet on the naked ground, we were shocked to find what was under our feet. A beach that is covered by, not sand but, used condoms! Yes that’s right, its was a cruising beach. We noticed a number of cars and … [topic terminated]. That was the hardest (no pun intended) laugh I had!
I met some really wonderful people at the Port Inn hostel. There were many Bahai pilgrims visiting the place from all over the world for some pilgrimage. Haifa town is located around mt Carmel and a number of hills around and it is nice to hike on spiraling roads and trails. There are plenty of museums and tourist centers in the town, but what a pity, I was stuck with some school work that was urgent. I had to waste spend a day doing that.
It was quite late into the night. I went to a movie with my buddy and two Arab girl-friends (i.e. friends who were girls, nothing more). The sherut (शेरूत – an Israeli shared taxi) dropped us at the gates of the Old city at 12:53 am (point A). Our destination was point B, across the Muslim Quarter along the narrow walkways.
Map of the Old City. The points A-I are used to explain the events below
The four of us were laughing, joking and talking about the movie until reality stuck us. It was late night and we had to cross the Muslim Quarter. Women were not allowed to travel alone after 9 pm. They had to married and accompanied by their husband. Hanging out with male friends so late at night was against the rules. The punishment was death for the girls and 200 lashes for the guys (not sure if rules were different for non-Muslim guys).
We were two Hindu guys with two Muslim girls, trying to cross to point B.
One of the girls was called Hafza and I don’t remember the name of the other. Hafza wore religious black head dressing, while the other girl was modern, dressed in jeans. The four of us were so close friends that we never realized until now that we belonged to different religions, or such man-made differences.
We became serious. As a self-declared leader I announced: “Three of you stay here (outside the gates) while I go and checkout if it’s safe inside. Don’t go anywhere.” I asked my buddy to protect the girls (ah, how sexist!).
Ignoring their protests, I ventured in. It was typical old city. Nobody around, occasional drunkards (strange to find them in Muslim quarter) and drug addicts lingering and looking at me with suspicion. For a moment I thought I was on those narrow alleys of Mumbai or Toronto. I started to run on the route. Too bad it was too dark, I couldn’t see my feet and everything was so confusing. At point C, instead of going straight, I took a left turn – blunder…..
In total darkness, I ran till point D because I saw light there. To my right side was a Turkish shuk (शुक् – market) – brightly lit and very clean. Just one perfume shop was open. The guy inside was wearing a blue Islamic cap. He looked at me and sneered (as if mocking at my panic). I went back and continued to point E, which was a junction again.
PS: I hate junctions.
I turned left and approached gate F. It was a huge gate, really massive. It looked similar to the Damascus gate, except that it looked evil and gloomy. The doors creaked. They were closing. There were men and women standing in front of the gate. Someone started yelling भागो भागो… (run, run!) and as the gates closed they started running. There was loud music, someone playing a Flute and मृदंगम् (Mridangam – South Indian percussion instrument).
I started running too. The road was a steep hike and I was trying my best to run but even the women dressed in blue abayas were overtaking me. Somehow overcoming the screams and fear, I made it out to gate G. I was exhausted with all this running around in darkness, full of fear and panic.
I saw a plaza in the front. I recognized it was the tourist plaza in the Jewish quarter where I clicked pictures yesterday. I saw few tourists and tour buses there. Somehow I dragged myself to point H.
Holy shit, I was lost (realization 1). It was 30 minutes since I left my friends at point A (realization 2). I didn’t carry my cellphone today (realization 3). I couldn’t speak Arabic or Hebrew (realization 4). I was terribly worried about the safety of my friends (realization 5). What can I do now? Going back would mean another half-hour of running thru terrifying dark alleys.
I collapsed on the floor crying, unable to take all of that.
1:23 am. But then I told myself to get rid of the melodrama and got in control of myself. I got up and started looking for help. Tourists were running towards the bus and the driver was honking. I wanted a cellphone and I was ready to steal one if I didn’t find any. I saw 2 girls and begged them to make a call from their cell phone. I waved a 10 Shekel note (Rs. 40 or $2.5) at them. But like any other friendly Israelis I met, they simply gave me their cellphone. It was a RIM blackberry.
I started dialing the number. But I couldn’t. My hands were shaking, my eyes were full of tears and I was so weak that I couldn’t press the buttons. Embarrassed, I asked them to help. The girl dialed the number. Suddenly ten little Arab kids appeared there from somewhere, grabbed the cellphone from the girls and held it to my ear (aww.. so nice). Probably because I looked so damn weak that I couldn’t hold a cellphone. When the call connected, they all yelled – “helloooo….” I took the phone and said, “I’m okay, Toda (तोदा – Hebrew for Thanks.)” They turned away without saying a word, strange. Then I realized they were Arab Muslims (and probably trained to be apathetic to Hebrew) so I shouted again Shukran (शुकरान् – Arabic for Thanks.) They turned, smiled, waved and disappeared.
Back to the call, I started blabbering to my friend in Marathi (strange!). I was so delighted to hear my friend’s relaxed voice that I talking to him frantically. He said बोल बोल, मी बघतोय (keep talking, I am seeing it). What the hell…. I turned around and there he was – walking from point I to point H. The girls were giggling too.
Their situation was stark in contrast to mine. I felt like I was almost dead. Although I was so relieved to see the three of them safe and sound, I was agitated at my buddy for being so risky. It was me who proposed the night movie idea. Although tourist, I was the guy who knew the streets well. The Muslim girls (locals) were my responsibility. I was agitated, I roared and ran towards my buddy, with this strong urge to slap him.
“Dude, it’s okay trust others too”, he said.
I wake up with a shock, look at the watch, it was 1:30 am. That’s right, this was a dream.
Influences:
- Recent trip to Jerusalem old city and one night when I was roaming there with friends.
- Asking strangers in Israel if I can use their cell phone
- Turkish shuk in Akko (Will post about this shortly)
- My superior (self-declared) map reading and navigation skill
- Japanese anime – I have to protect my friends at the cost of my life
Like I said, all this was a dream. Feel free to tell me what you think it means:
Thats me and my sister.
Try commenting without the use of following words: aww, cute, sweet, (ok enough)
This is 200th post published on my blog!
-24°C, dressed shabbily, sleep deprived, debt laden, searching for identity, yet delighted…
Rant:
I registered priyank.com in September 1999, barely 6 months after I first started using a computer (after 12th grade, kinda late). I remember the thrill of discovering Notepad on a black & white computer running windows 3.1 and DOS, the apprehension of using the mouse and 14-kbps shell access to text-only internet (no pictures, colors, graphics). Today, 8.5 years after losing my computer-virginity, I look back at those days with wonder and awe.
I created my first website in early 2000 and in all the time it existed, it has served no useful purpose to the world, other than to entertain myself.
A look at the Archives would reveal that the ‘blog’ part of this website was born only in June 2005, thats approx 2.7 years back. Till then, my website was a collection of static pages, seldom updated, and filled with stuff that fascinated me then
The last 8 years (18-26 years) were the formative years of who I am today and this is vividly reflected in my writings (wow that sounds like an elegant word). It has become my habit to read older posts and have a laugh Some of the things I blogged about two years ago were really immature and childish, and I’m sure that two years into the future I’d have the same opinion about today.
Apart from serving as a convenient online public journal to add on to my personal diary, I’ve made some wonderful contacts via this website all these years. Thanks for all the love showered by you, yes you reader, by means of the comment box, e-mail, chats and real world interactions. I admit, it has given me nothing but encouragement all along.
So let me invite you to join the party with me to celebrate an important milestone of this blog (and the website). Why? Because you are an essential part of it
cheers!
Safed is one of Judaism’s 4 holy sites and is the center of Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism.
Note: This post is going to be superficial since I just ‘touched’ Safed. Honestly, I underestimated its importance, since most guidebooks (and people) recommended spending only few hours at this optional site. In my opinion, spending one night here is highly recommended. This town is the best place to ‘do nothing’, and get soaked in nothingness.
A typical street in the old town
This travelogue is about Safed, Zefat, Tsfat, Zfat, Safad, Safes, Safet, Tzfat!! Relax, all these are names of the same city. Like in India, the English spelling of the town becomes crazy. Actually its still a mystery for me to correctly pronounce this town as Israelis – who have different accents – pronounce it in a number of identical ways. Safely, we can call it – स्फात. Interestingly at first look, स्फात town looks सफेद (Safed = ‘White’ in Hindi/Marathi). (Ok enough play of words)
There are infrequent direct buses from Tiberias and the bus drops you at the central bus station, which is the right place to start exploring. However, since I am a wise guy, I got off the bus early, got lost in the city, tried to ask people but nobody could read the map I had. Usually I can tell directions of a city better than the residents themselves, but here my GPS got screwed due to the twisting and winding roads. 
So finally I simply shrugged, told myself ‘whatever‘, and went for a giant Falafel at one of the roadside cafes on Yerushalem जेरुशलेम street.
Tsfat (I am going to use different names each time to confuse you) is a little town located north of Tiberias on a hilly terrain. The old city is made up of narrow cobblestone alleys revealing artists’ galleries, medieval synagogues, private homes and small guest houses. A citadel is located at the top of the central town is actually a war memorial. There are a number of Synagogues and museums hidden in the town.
History:
In 12th century, the Crusaders built a castle here. After its destruction by Saladin it was rebuilt by French Templars, who were forced to surrender it to the Mamelukes in 13th century. Zefat started to get populated mostly after Spanish Inquisition, an event at the end of 15th century that saw the expulsion of Jews from Spain and many parts of Europe. It became a Jewish town in the 16th century, under Ottoman rule. During the 18th century Jews from Poland arrived. The town was pillaged by Druze raiders, and in 1837 it was destroyed by an earthquake. 
Towards the end of the 19th century new settlers came to Safed, and it had about 6000 Arab and 6000 Jewish families. When Israel became independent in 1948 there were 12,000 Arabs and only 1700 Jews. In May 1948 a group of Palmach fighters stormed the Arab positions and drove the Arabs out of the town, which since then has been purely Jewish.
The old town has a number of distinguishing flavors depending on the population there. Some of the walls are distinctly blue, while others have a different style. More time must be spent to understand this.
Synagogue
Kabbalah:
This is a mystical branch of Judaism that refers to a set of esoteric teachings and mystical practices meant to define the inner meaning of the Tanakh (Hebrew holy books), traditional Rabbinic literature, and Jewish religious observances.
At the Kabalah information center, I met an interesting person. He was an orthodox Jewish person (dressed in black) who was simply overjoyed to meet someone from India. (I got so used to this reaction, that it became predictable.) This guy spent 3 years (phew!) in Haridwar and Rishikesh studying Hinduism. From the little conversation I had with him (it was 30 minutes actually), he seemed to have had tremendous knowledge about Hinduism, Buddhism and eastern philosophy in general. Over some (free) tea and bakery snacks, he gave me a ton of information about Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. The interesting part was, he was relating most of it to the Hindu philosophy, so I could understand it much better and faster. 
Indeed, I was stunned to find so many concepts of Kabbalah fundamentally similar to ours. 
I was a bit surprised to see that this gentleman never tried to tell me ‘Judaism is greatest religion’ and stuff like that which would have ticked me off immediately. Later, I learnt that, just like Eastern religions, preaching religion is not a practise sanctioned by Jewish laws. cool
I desist from talking more about it here. Mom says ‘little knowledge can be dangerous thing!‘
I wanted to stay longer in the town, and the 3-4 hours spent there were grossly insufficient. However, it was time to go.
Old city of Tsfat
Hitchhiking:
The sun was setting, I had no clue when the next bus was and I had to get back to Tiberias. I usually plan most of my travel but this day I overran my schedule. With heavy heart, I ran towards the bus station hoping that it wasn’t late.
oops!
There were no buses to Tiberias. So the only people at the bus stop were a bunch of soldiers, me and some kids playing. I started thinking about finding a place for the night. The other way was to go to Rosh Pina and then to Tiberias, but it was getting dark to do all that. In a way I was happy that I missed the bus, because then I could stay longer in Safed. Seeing clearly the panic and confusion on my face, one soldier screamed (just like Indian style) at me and asked if I was looking for something. Generally, Israelis are no-nonsense people who will leave you alone and never bother you, so I was a bit surprised. I explained my situation to the group.
“No problem, you come with us.”
Expectedly, I hesitated, I wasn’t sure. 3 soldiers, barely 20 yr old army guys, with large guns on their backs, in a foreign country, not knowing Hebrew.. hmm… what could happen? Before leaving I asked questions on Trip Advisor forum about hitchhiking and I was firmly advised against it, except if there was a soldier with me. (The concept of security is rather strange in Israel, I noticed in many places and will post about it later) I didn’t have much cash on me, and I wasn’t useful from an abduction point of view because Indian Government wouldn’t care anyway. Most people thought that I looked Jewish (attractive for kidnapping) but I told these guys I wasn’t. They were soldiers so they couldn’t be Palestinians (I mean the brainwashed types, no offence).
So after quickly evaluating all those complex conditions, I decided to go with them. One of their non soldier friends was driving them to Tiberias for their next day reporting to a military camp somewhere around. The ride in that car was interesting – it was like a smoke chamber, with loud incomprehensible Hebrew songs (with occasional English words) and lot of shouting (talking) and laughing amongst each other.
Finally this interesting day (Beit She’an and Safed) ended on a fantastic and memorable evening.
Next post is going to be about Souvenirs – not the tourist shopping ones, this is different!
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