Day 114: Sea of Tourists at Sea of Galilee

(Her: Joanna)

Because there is no bus running during the time of Sabbath, our plan to bus to the Sea of Galilee fell through.  With the time that we have, joining a tour was the best option though it was a bit pricey.   I was really excited to see these places that I have heard from church and the bible where Jesus lived his life and started preaching the gospel.   The story about his first miracle in turning water into wine (Cana), feeding 5000 people with only 5 pieces of bread and 2 fishes (Tabgha), and the place where his first few disciples started to follow him are all stories that I have grew up with (Capernaum).  I cannot tell what I expect from these places exactly but I am hoping I can find or feel traces of Jesus.  

Boy, was I disappointed.  Despite the fact that the Sea of Galilee was a beautiful place to spend a summer holiday, the places where significant events happened in Jesus life are now no more than any regular touristy place.  I cannot see or feel any association to the holiness I was expecting.  On the contrary, all these places are very touristy.  The worst was the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John.  Inside me, it hurts to such a religious place to be so commercialized.  There are different sizes of “Holy Water” you can buy and for the convenience of the tourists, the price is even in US dollar; tourists rushed to buy shirts with Jesus’ icon on and have a deep into the Jordan River; a full complex of souvenirs.  

Day 112 - 114: Jerusalem – Where is the holiness of the Holy Land?

(Her: Joanna)

Throughout our journey thus far, we came across a few where a few popular religions live “happily” and “peacefully” together, such as Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sofia in Bulgaria.   But none of these cities were these religions “live” together as dramatically as Jerusalem.  Muslim, Christian, and Jews with the same origin all live actively in this small city.  The somewhat “peace” in Jerusalem is thank to an order or rule book that the Ottoman Empire lay down detailing how the city will be run base on the snap shot when the order was recorded to eliminate any argument.  Whoever wants to change anything, everyone has to agree (which is nearly impossible).  It is quite bizarre that the same Muslim family has been locking the door of the Church of Sepulchre for over 500 years.

Bizarre and crazy are the perfect words to describe Jerusalem (and of course fascinating).  I have never seen so many religious people in one place.  Let alone religious people from 3 religions.  Everywhere you see people praying. 

Jerusalem is divided into 4 quarters – Jews quarter, Christian quarter, Muslim quarter and Armenian quarter (yeah…this is an odd one).  It is total craziness to see a street full of Muslim with ladies all covered up and see Orthodox Jews just around the corner who also dressed in black but with fashionable curly sideburn and big hat.

It seems like that the location where the foundation stone is seems to be the point of conflict.  The foundation stone is situated where the Dome of Rock in the Muslim ruling but this object is both the holy of holy for both Muslim and Jews.  Christians seems to be out of this conflict. 

It is quite bizarre to see people are so intensively touched by the holy objects and speculated location of where Jesus or Prophet Mohammed had been.  There is no evidence where exactly the places are but people just treat these places as the holy depending on your religion.  For example, there are 2 places where Jesus were crucified, died and was buried; there are 2 tombs of the Virgin Mary.  

I was bought up from a Catholic family.  I have always thought that the most important thing is my spiritual relationship with God being a person with a religion.  Rituals and ceremony are solely to assist a person’s relationship with God.  Being in Israel with so many people of different religion cramped in one country was an eye-opener for me to see how differently each religion and each person interpret the meaning of religion and their relationship with God.  Being on this land, I understand why religion has always been in the history of man a source of conflict.  I don’t feel that the Holy Land is a holy place.  What I see is the nature of human being – unfortunately, the ugly side of human being.    

Day 111: What I saw in Palestine… - Bethlehem, Palestine

(Him: Charlie)

The Palestine/Israel conflict makes news every other day, but until being here in person, I have to admit that I am quite oblivious about the true situation. What I have witnessed here, Israel or Palestine depending on who you speak to, is a one-sided tragedy that everyone should know about…

The plot of land, bounded by Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, used to be Palestine. After the WWII, the British who controlled the area at the time, allowed Jewish people in Diaspora to settle on this land. Over the next few years, the massive immigration continued grew, and on 1948, the State of Israel was founded, within the land of Palestine, and has been here ever since. The Jewish people believe this is the “promised land” given by god, but Palestinians and the Arabic nations believe that the Jewish people stole their land.

Fast forward to a few wars later, Israel managed to triple its size, and displaced millions of Palestinians from the Israeli area. Today, Palestinians in the area mostly reside in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and even these areas are under strict controls by the Israelis.

On our trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, we witnessed a lot of unfair treatment to Palestinians. We saw the Palestinians were being yelled at while crossing the border from Jordan. We passed through numerous check-points that were set up to restrict the movement of Palestinians. We witnessed the segregation walls and electric fences between West Bank and Israel. Apparently, these fences and walls were erected well into the Palestinian territories based on the internationally recognized border. We also witnessed pockets of Israeli settlements inside the West Bank, which are fenced and secured by armed forces. Apparently, Israel has a long record of human right violations.

In talking to some Palestinians, they feel helpless about the current situation. Undoubtedly, Israel is overpowering Palestine, who is in dire poverty. It is ashamed that the Arabs lost so badly in previous wars against Israel and conceded so much land, but Palestinians these days are happy just to have a full control of the land they have, namely West Bank and Gaza Strip, and carry on with life. On the other hand, Israel doesn’t seem to keen on loosening its grip on Palestinians’ neck. To get a sense of what Israel is thinking, we bought of copy of the Jerusalem post, and we found it rife with articles about the Israel/Arabic politics and there’s even an article criticizing the two-state solution.

To me, as an outsider, the two-station solution is the best solution for the current situation for a couple of simple reasons. 1. Israel can say what they want about the “promised land”, but they took it away from the Palestinians after all. 2. Ideally, it would be nice to integrate the two communities and share the land, but given the historical problems, it would be wise to each have their own area to avoid mass displacement.

Day 108: Cleanest Me in 30 Years - Amman, Jordan

(Him: Charlie)

Turkish Bath, Hamam, is world famous, so we definitely should not miss out. But we decided to have it Amman instead of two simply reasons – less touristy and much cheaper. So the cleansing begins…

The experience was an authentic one right from the beginning as we first walked into the Ottoman style dome architecture. The bath building, which is decorated with nostalgic furniture, central fountain, antiques, and lamps, creates a serene setting for bathers seeking complete relaxation. With a cup of Turkish tea in my hand and listen to bird chirping in the background, I was ready for the cleansing.

As with other things in these Muslim countries, women and men are always separate. So Jo and I actually had a different time slot of our bath. The process of Turkish bath goes like this: you first enter a steam room for sauna, and then you jump in a hot water bath. After that, you will be in for a world-renown full body scrub. The person scrubs you would also clean you with soap and wash you down, before releasing you to a full body massage. Finally, the bath would end with a relaxation on a heated marble slab and a dry sauna.

It’s an excellent experience for me because I’ve never been pampered like this, and definitely never been scrubbed so meticulously before. And for Jo, a bonus would be seeing the normally all covered up Muslim women in bikinis during her women section.

Day 108: Ramadan and the Lively Cities - Amman, Jordan

(Him: Charlie)

Ramadan has always been a remote concept to me. I heard of it in Canada, but never really understood what it is, but this time Middle East, I was fortunate enough to experience this holy event.

As a background, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Muslims worldwide observe this as a month of fasting. The month lasts 29-30 days. While fasting from dawn until sunset Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids and sexual relations. Ramadan is practiced as a way of reflection and to please god.

During the month of Ramadan, we visited two Muslim countries, Turkey and Jordan (Lebanon is actually 50:50 split between Christians and Muslim), and experienced Ramadan first hand – great experience!

First of all, as tourists, Ramadan could pose some challenges to us. Not only it was difficult to find food during day time, when we actually found it, we would also have to consume food and drinks discreetly as a courtesy. There were a few times where we forgot about Ramadan and almost had to starve for the day. But luckily, we were always able to find some restaurants open for tourists.

Inconvenience aside, Ramadan is an intriguing event and presented us some of the liveliest city life we have seen. Everyday, just before people break the fast, many families would gather in public space and prepare for the end of the daily fasting. You would see people sitting in front of food and drinks waiting for the Call to Prayers from the nearest mosque. It must be a great feeling to enjoy the food and drink after a day of endurance. As the night progresses, the city would become increasingly lively – street vendors chanting, cars honking, restaurants bustling – until 1-2am, creating a stark contrast from the streets during the day. For 30 days straight, the end of daily fasting was celebrated like a festival!

At the end of the Ramadan, people would celebrate it like people celebrating Christmas in the western culture (or so we heard). So I was really looking forward to the celebration. We even timed it such that we would “enjoy” this in a big city, Amman. However, what we didn’t know was that the “celebration” is literally the same as Christmas in the western culture, meaning people stay home and stores are closed. So on the day after the end of Ramadan, the street was essentially empty. Well, I guess that’s part of the experience/learning curve. Good to know.

Day 107: Welcome to the “Yellow City”

(Her: Joanna)

You can literally feel you are in Jordan.  The dryness of Jordan felt like all of the moisture in my skin was being suck out of me.  Jordan is very different from all the cities we had been to so far.  Like how the picture depicted in my child bible, it is yellow and with buildings with 1 -2 stories high covering the endless number of hills that make up the city of Amman.

Jordan is the first country that I have been to who you will definitely feel 100% welcome.  No matter where you go, a local will say “Welcome” to you.  I think “welcome” may be the first or only English word they know.  It is such a pleasant feeling to be greeted and welcomed when you visit a foreign country.  

While you think that everyone in Jordan is nice and friendly, little did you know that when a female is walking on the street alone, the local might be commenting that you are a whore in Arabic while you think they are saying "Welcome" in Arabic - true story from a friend we’ve met who strolled on the street with her friend who knows Arabic.

Day 106: What a Small World

(Her: Joanna)

Guess what?  We bumped into the family from German who we did the jeep tour with at Wadi Rum at the resort across where we were staying.  We ended up moving into their resort and spent a day of amazing time with their kids.  This couple let their kids to freely explore and try things.  It was great to see parents who give so much freedom to their kids.  It is difficult for parents to do as I saw from the mom’s facial expression and eyes that she was afraid the kids to get hurt or fall but this freedom to explore is critical to develop the self confident and independence of the kids.  Miran and Marsha are 2 active and energetic kids with very cute face.