Dinner in Ashdod

A few guys from my old group working at F28 in Israel wanted to get together for some beers and chose to meet in Ashdod. Now Ashdod is not far from Gaza and it recently received 2 rocket attacks as reported by my coworker. His kids play soccer and went to play in Ashdod for a match. These rockets landed not too far from the field they were at.

Now that someone pushed the pause button on the war I'm OK with getting a little closer to Gaza.

We meet at a Czech/Irish pub (strange combination) in downtown Ashdod. It's funny because it took us some time to find the place using GPS because there is this roundabout which has all the streets leaving it as the same name. So the GPS was all screwed up and we had to ask a local walking the streets where the pub was.

My mistake at the bar:
So there wasn't an English menu and now came the time to order beers. So I asked for a Chimay which is the name of a beer that I saw on the wall walking in and was recommended by a friend. They didn't have it. So I looked around and saw one of Russian AMAT workers beer and said I'll have what he's drinking. He said something but I didn't understand anything other than "Belgium". Sure give me a liter. They come in halves or liters.

So the beers come and I have the largest beer mug because I wasn't eating dinner like everyone else...just drinking. A liter is a huge mug! The color was nice. The mug was nice and frosty. Then I sniffed it and it smelled like cherry. I looked around and asked the other guy if his smelled like cherry and he said "yes I told you it was cherry". I don't speak Hebrew or Russian.

It tasted like cough syrup or maybe sangria like but it was beer. Now some of you girls may have gotten a kick out of this but I didn't care for it.

I manned up and drank it all. Now I won't need cough drops for a while.

Potpourri

Current conditions:
It's foggy today and there's a chance for rain everywhere. So I won't be site seeing today.

How do you like your steak?:
You'll have to remember that the Israelis' gauge their doneness differently than the US by a single factor rarer. So if you order a Medium steak you'll get a Medium Rare steak. Oh and it seems odd to them when you ask for anything cooked more than Medium.

Street lanes/lines and traffic rules:
They're more of a guideline than an actual lane. Cars may occupy a part of your lane and it's normal. Honk your horn whenever you want and police cars always have their lights on.

Israeli women:
Boots and skirts, boots and skirts, boots and skirts. Some wear boots and jeans but there are boot shops everywhere.

I visit Nazareth

So our work schedules are getting a little crazy here. The group of guys that I site see with just returned from work at 6am so they'll be sleeping most of the day. So I figure I'll go check out Nazareth which on the map is PLO controlled but in Israel.

It took ~1.5 hrs to get there and the drive was beautiful once I got close. The valley just before Nazareth was green and full of crops and then you start to go up the mountain, through a tunnel, and all of a sudden a city appears. What was once a quiet town where Jesus spent his childhood is now one noisy of a place! Automobile horns aren't just honked. They're held down for minutes! Plus the Muslims were praying over the town loud speaker which didn't help. Oh by the way Nazareth is ~75% Muslim and I think ~25% Christian. Anyways so I park the car for 20 NIS and head for the Basilica of the Annunciation. This is where it is believed that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would the mother of Christ.

So I'm walking up the street towards the church entrance and the Muslim voice is just getting louder and louder plus now I hear church bells in addition to the horns I talked about earlier. I look up at the church and I see maybe 5 bells going off which is kind of cool. For some reason Notre Dame came to mind and then I glanced a bit to the left and saw the loud speaker. It's like they turned an air raid speaker into a Muslim preaching loud speaker.

I enter the courtyard outside the church and the walls are covered with mosaics, pictures,...etc, of Mary/Madonna. Countries donated these art pieces as interpretations of how they view Mary/Madonna. My mother-in-law if Filipino so I took this for her.

The 1st floor of the Basilica is the grotto. It's dark with most of the light coming from grotto behind the altar. Apparently the lily or maybe an upside down lily is a symbol for Mary and the churches architecture shows this all over.

Upstairs is another church with a hole in the center of the room where you can see down to the grotto level. I believe this is where mass is held most of the time. Here I found more Mary/Madonna art with interesting pieces from Japan and the USA.

Outside and just pass the side courtyard is another small church called St. Joesph's. There's also a downstairs level to this church and it smelled a bit musty which kind of got me thinking that maybe people shouldn't be going down here or that maybe people haven't been down here in a while. So I go. I wasn't sure what the rooms were for because it looked like the center was a place for prayer but the sides had what looked like tombs and at the rear of the level was an ancient baptismal font. It is said that this is the location of Joesph's workshop.

20 Dishes

Andy requested that I blog everyday so I'll try to do so.

My new boss is in town and invited everyone to go to dinner at a place in Jaffa which is located in southern Tel Aviv about a 10 minute walk south from my hotel. Now I've heard good reviews from this place which is known to us AMAT folk as the 20 Dishes place. We call it this because rumor is you're served many dishes (probably 20 dishes for a large group) of salads and other small eats.

So we get there and are greeted by an English bouncer. Oh and FYI all places have security guards. Every time you enter any building you are checked for explosives and it doesn't matter where. Restaurants, clubs, hotels....they all have security guards that check backpacks. So we sit down and look at the menu.

It's primarily a Kabob restaurant with other local Israeli/Mediterranean dishes which we kinda skipped as recommended by my boss. I'll have to come back later with Mel. So as we're looking at the menu sure enough many small dishes are placed at the center of the table and warm flat bread is also served on the side. We had various salads, slaws, falafel, humus, tuna salads (tuna salad with cheese is a big thing here), beets, fried eggplant, and many other dishes which I could not reach on the other side of the table. It was a lot. So while we nibbled and drank some beer we ordered some kabobs. The list includes chicken, lamb, chicken heart and liver, goose liver, turkey testicles, goat testicles, and a few more. Of course I stopped after I saw the testicles.

Now I'm adventurous and for a split second I considered ordering the testicles but I must say that after a few seconds I think I snapped out of it and clearly decided to pass. The group ordered the safe bets which were the chicken and lamb but I could not be so boring. I had to try something new. So I requested the goose liver. Everyone looked at me and since we were doing this family style kind of pushed back as I would be the only one eating it. Luckily one of my coworkers said he would try it and it was done.

Now just eating the appetizers can fill you up. I wanted to try everything although I would then have no room to taste/eat my single order of goose liver. So I stopped and waited and later came a huge plate of meat.....mmmmmmm. All of the meats tasted sooo good but I know you're waiting to hear about the goose liver. Now I've had liver many ways. Beef both raw and cooked (raw is better! I had it in Japan), chicken liver, duck liver (Foie gras - awesome), and now goose liver. So the goose liver has the same color as the chicken on the plate so the guys had a some difficulty distinguishing the two. The liver was soft, easily cut with a fork, and after I put it to my mouth......mmmmmmm. Tastes like foie gras! No metallic sick taste. Just soft delicate liver.

Maybe Mel will eat the testicles when she visits.

Bethlehem

We signed up for a private tour to go to Jerusalem for a day (Saturday) for 6 people which came to $75 per person. Not bad at all and we left at 9am from Tel Aviv. Our tour guide Smadar(rrrrrrrrrrr) AKA "Smooth" picked us up and we started our trip to historical Jerusalem.

Now we've all wanted to go to Jerusalem although our company had some recommended guidelines.

1) Don't go on Friday's - For fear of protests
2) Don't go in the Old City - For fear of protests
3) Don't go into the West Bank - For fear of no return

Now Smooth asks us why we aren't going to Bet Lehem (Bethlehem) as we should have more than enough time. We didn't book the Bethlehem trip because it costs more and it's in the West Bank. Now Smooth tells us it's no additional cost and if we want to go she needs to wake up the tour guide on the other side of the border (alarm#1). So everyone's a bit scared to make a decision and I speak up and agree to go to Bethlehem even though it's against company recommendations but hey I'll risk my life to see where Jesus was born and save a little money as well! So we continue our drive and go through Jerusalem and then to the West Bank/Israel border.

We reach what looks to be a standard border between 2 countries. There's a wall, gates, barbed wire, and an attendant at the crossing. We park and wait for the other tour guide on the other side to meet us. He pops up and crosses into Israel and talks with Smooth who introduces us. We then proceed to the crossing and Smooth informs us that she'll wait on the Israel side and park the car while we enter the West Bank with our new tour guide (I don't remember his name but we'll call him Jack). So we pass through the gate not needing to show our passport and continue without our Israeli tour guide in a foreign country (alarm#2).

Immediately on the West Bank side there are cabs waiting to pick up fares. Jack has a car but we are more then 5 people so some of us get into a cab and we split up (alarm#3). I'm luckier than the rest I guess and I land a seat in Jack's car vs riding in a Palestinian cab in a foreign country during a time of war in Gaza. We then all proceed to drive to what we hoped was Bethlehem. The streets look like old town Jaffa in Tel Aviv and you can tell it's a little war ridden. We then stop and pick up another man who we'll call Amir and he gets into Jack's car (Alarm#4). Amir speaks very good English and he's introduced as our true tour guide who will show us the Church of the Nativity. As we continue our drive we are then stopped by a large truck blocking the street. Jack doesn't know what's going on and get's out of the car (I've seen this part in the movies! This is where they blow up the car in the middle of the caravan! Alarm! Alarm! I'm in the middle car!). Jack comes back, speaks something in Arabic to Amir, and we are instructed to walk on foot to the Church as the street is blocked. Amir huddles us on the sidewalk and explains that many street vendors will ask us to buy souvenirs and that we should avoid eye contact and just keep walking. That's like saying whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever happens, keep walking! We walk up the hill for about a few minutes and sure enough there were street vendors asking for us to buy stuff and we ignored them but it wasn't anything I would not expect from a tourist town.

By now you're probably freaking out about how crazy this sounds but now we're at the Church and all my worries go out the window.

On top of the building of where the Church is you see 3 crosses/figures. Each signifies each of the 3 christian churches present. Catholic, Armenian, and Orthodox. We enter through a very small door which is embedded in a larger older stone door. Apparently someone disrupted the church mass on horse back by storming in through the large stone door so it was filled in with more stone and a really small door was made to prevent this disrespect. You actually have to bow down when entering through this small door. One story is that this was done so you have to bow and show respect as you enter.

Immediately behind this door is a large room which is a part of the Orthodox Church. Here there is a hole in the ground which shows a portion of the original church. There are many icons around which are typical for Orthodox churches. We then proceed around and below the altar. Here is a dark room which houses the manger where Jesus was born. It was in this room that things changed for me. I was playing tourist this whole time and enjoying the historical significance of the sites and art. But it was here where I was overwhelmed with emotion. I bent down in adoration of Jesus's birthplace for a few seconds at the Grotto and got up to look around the room. There was a tour group in the back reading a passage from the bible and to my left there was another section that had some small peculiar altar that I went to investigate. I came back to the Grotto section of the room and it was then that the tour group I mentioned earlier started singing, "Away in a manger no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head". Now picture yourself standing where Jesus was born, recall the nativity story, and then sing that song. I was overwhelmed with emotion and truely realized where I was standing. It was one of the most powerful moments in my life.

We then proceeded up and out of the manger which is shared by the 3 churches and out into a room next to the Orthodox church. This room is smaller compared to the other churches and houses the Armenian church. We continue on down through the Armenian church to another door which leads us to a more familiar room of the Catholic church. If you've ever watched the televised Christmas Eve mass you've seen this church. Down some stairs from here we enter a room with an Altar for St. Joesph. I'm not sure if this is his tomb but St. Joesph was born in Bethlehem.

We then head back up and out of the Church of the Nativity. The guide then tells us that 3 Christmas masses are held here. 1st on December 25th in the Catholic Church, January 6th in the Orthodox church, and January 18th in the Armenian church. Although celebrations have been limited due to the war going on in Gaza (Aza in Hebrew) and he explained that Bethlehem relies heavily on tourism which has dropped significantly due to the war. The unemployment rate is greater than 50%.

Ok so I'm alive writing this blog so you know we got out OK. It was a bit scary in the beginning but it was worth it. Since Bethlehem relies so much on tourism I think tourists are pretty safe. It's the Israelis who aren't allowed in the West Bank.

Jerusalem is another blog but I leave you with a picture taken in the Church of of the Holy Sepulchre right above the 10th station of the cross. The ceiling is dimly lit by candles and natural light but I was able to light up the ceiling without using my flash to get this great picture. Calvary or where Jesus was crucified is in the next room.

Dead Sea

Start: -Short Version-
Ok. Ready......ready......and float!

"Holy crap this is awesome!"

End: -Short Version-


Start: -Long Version-
So we decided to go visit the town of Masada yesterday and check out the dead sea. Until a few hours before we left it was still undecided on what route we would take. The preferred route (being the most traveled and shortest) runs through Jerusalem and the West Bank. Now every Israeli I've talked to says there's no problem with the highway although the chief of security for my company suggests otherwise. So the group takes a vote and it's determined that we will take the secondary route which goes around the West Bank but takes us closer to Gaza. Sweet.

So I suggest to the group that we should leave early in the morning to see as much as we can but I am shot down by popular vote as everyone thinks we'll only need a few hours to sight see once we arrive. (Hey, I'm Asian and I'm a professional tourist by my very DNA) So we leave at 11am to take a 3 hour drive to Masada.

We go through the standard towns that we've seen before and it's not until we reach the outskirts of the Judean Desert that the scenery changes. It's of course a desert and we see camels, goats, people walking their camels, desert looking towns, and lots of trash around. Not like dumps of trash, just scattered trash that no one picks up maybe because the desert keeps blowing it around.

We make it to a town/junction just before the first Dead Sea town and the group/car I'm following takes a turn going north. We follow and I pull out my map. It appears that this side road can take you straight to Masada so I see the logic. Immediately though you see that it is an unending snake road of desert death and there are very few cars seen. But we're men and men don't ask for directions. That's what we have GPS's for....oh wait....we don't have a GPS? So we continue to drive and the car keeps swaying left and right, left and right, up and down, left and right for about 2o minutes. After traveling the equivalent distance of Jesus's 40 day and 40 nights we reach the end. The dead end.

We hit the top of Masada which has no road down..lol. We arrived at another entrance to the top of Masada where people can camp and walk up the mountain vs. taking the cable car up from the bottom. Now we could have just entered and hiked to the top to see what we came to see, but we're men and we decided that we have to go around anyways to the bottom so we can see the Dead Sea so we rest for a bit and drive back into the desert and make our way down the correct way.

We then arrived at the first town that had beach access. We parked and started to walk to the beach area where there were a lot of people hanging out in and out of the water. As you get closer and closer you not only see the Dead Sea but now you're starting to smell it. Oh yeah you can smell the sulfur, it's actually pretty strong. Nevertheless I strip and put on my swimming trunks and step in. Buuurrrrrrrr! It's cold! As I continue to take my steps I realize that the sand beneath me feels different. I'm now up to my knees in Dead Sea water and I look down through the super clear water and see crystals. I was excited and knew I was walking on large clumps of sea salt. So I carefully reached down and pick up some salt making sure no water gets near my mouth or hair. The clusters of salt were around 1 inch in diameter and there were tons of it.

Ok so I'm up to my waist now and I get ready to float. As soon as I start to lean back the Dead Sea takes over and I'm instantly floating on my back. Sweeeetttt!!!!! It's the coolest feeling as you are pushed up by the water higher than you've ever been. After messing around for about 10 minutes while keeping my face dry I started to get brave and do some tricks. I rolled on the water like a log with no effort and laughed after doing a few turns. My coworker then drifted towards me and I told him to check this out. I then started rolling and rolling and rolling and then BAM he bumps into me and I get water in my right eye and some in my mouth.

"Bleeehhhhhhhhh......puuuuh......puuuuhhh........Crap it's in my eye!"

My eye was stinging like crazy and my mouth was telling me to keep spitting. Think about how much salt just went in my eye and how much sulphur I just tasted. I immediately start to head out of the water and head for the showers just 3 feet from the water and rinse everything. Even with the not so tasty water it was an awesome experience. Today was a good day.

We never made it to Masada. The last cable car left at 3pm. Maybe next time because we are men and men don't plan or ask for directions :-<

"No Pre-Spending Limit"

So I'm staying in Israel for 2 months and the hotel needed to lock up ~16k dollars on my credit card. No problem here's my American Express......eeeennn.....eeeennnnn......eennnnn...

"Do you have another card?"

What? My AMEX doesn't have a spending limit? Or so I thought. I had never had a problem with AMEX. In fact it's one of my most favorite cards. It adds an extra year for warranties on purchases, gives back rewards, and forces me to pay it down every month. I never had to worry about credit limits when I traveled for business. Never needed any other card. I figured they sometimes do this to prevent fraud if your card has been used on multiple continents within X amount of hours. So I call customer service.

AMEX I think hands down has the best customer service vs other credit card companies that I have had in the past. So I call and speak to some dude in India and he tells me that I have reached my spending limit and the card is on hold until I pay off the amount currently charged for. I said what? It's not even the end of the billing cycle! And what spending limit? I've never had a spending limit and when I was traveling in Japan I've charged a heck of a lot more.

I find out that AMEX has a new calculation for your spending limit on the cards with "no pre-set spending limits" where they use a rolling average of your charging habits and you can't go much higher than that per month. I guess I can't go and buy that fighter jet I always dreamed about and charge it to my AMEX anymore (another dream crushed). Since I haven't been traveling much last year I find out my limit is $500. I just about strangled the phone and told the guy I have no use for a card used for occasional business travel if for one I trusted to be able to cover all my expenses and second has a spending limit which freakin changes every month!

"Going on vacation? Don't forget your AMEX. It's all you'll ever need"..................WTF! $500 maximum vacation to Greshem?

So I look online to see if I'm the only poor soul to have this problem. Maybe I stepped on too many cracks, walked under multiple ladders, or did the sign of the cross backwards. I seem to have bad luck especially in Vegas. So I search Google and boy oh boy there are worst stories. People who have had a long history with AMEX were hit the hardest. Imagine trusting you could charge for items you have in the past for your business, travel, or events with a special someone (I think his date wasn't impressed). First you're confused, then embarrassed for being declined in front of everyone, and then you figure out you're screwed because you only brought your trusty tried and true AMEX. Uh all I have is my AMEX. "I never leave home without it."

Well I left Portland with it but I'm coming home without it. I'm donating it to Hamas for target practice.

Just Arrived

It's a whole new world. I'm excited and scared at the same time.

The ~11 hr flight on Delta from JFK to Tel Aviv was interesting/educational. You immediately know what flight you're on while waiting at the gate. I've seen Jewish people before but it was still somewhat of a culture shock to see so many. I started playing Matisyahu on my iPhone and it was actually cool! Like I was at the concert again.

As the time drew near for the boarding to begin things got crazy and chaotic. First of all my ticket did not have a seat assignment as did a few other people. Apparently the flight was overbooked and we were on the standby list to get on. Now I just spent 8 hrs already at JFK and I was ready to get out of there. Eventually they called my name after Zones 1-7 were called. This is were it got crazy.

There were maybe a dozen transportation security personnel scattered across the gate entrance. They set up a screening table on the side and some people had to get screen again by random (right! whatever!). This is where I got the 3rd degree the 1st time. I was selectively chosen, passport looked over, detailed questions asked about my future business in Israel, frisked, and bagged checked.

After the frisking we went through the first doors and the next room was another security x-ray room. No one knew where to line up. Bottles and trash were just being laid anywhere as there were no bins to but them in. I had to down my water as I already crossed the outside security checkpoint in Portland so usually that's it and you can bring on airport bought drinks. Nope. People were putting their belongings on the conveyor belt to be scanned but the scanners were slow and it took some time after you crossed the metal detector for your things to be zapped and reviewed. I was waiting for this lady in front of me to go through the metal detector and saw that she was pregnant but thought nothing of it. I guess it's either bad for the baby or she just didn't want to go through.

On the plane I had an aisle seat and this fairly bulky guy who sat at the window next to me. He slept most of the way but kinda crowded me but at least he didn't smell like he looked. Hey I guess that's economy class for ya. I stood up a few times during the flight and looked towards the back galley. I noticed prayers or a gathering going on with people wearing Jewish robes and a strange headband with I think 4 square stones on their forehead. I wanted to ask what it symbolized but it's probably improper to disturb someone rocking back and forth speaking a language you don't understand.

The plane finally touched down. After I exited the aircraft I was again given the 3rd degree (by chance) at the 1st security checkpoint here. I'm starting to think I should have shaved. I then proceed further to the immigration room. What's interesting is that there is only 1 Israeli passport line and more then 3 others for visitors. This sounds like it makes sense but the Israeli line was really long and there was absolutely no line for foreigners. I gave the agent my passport and she freaked that I said I was staying 2 months. I got my passport back with a stamp I think (I hear it's hard to see and I haven't checked yet) and a red piece of paper. At the next check point I give the guard the red paper and proceed further. In a few moments I'm stopped by a security woman and given another 3rd degree (how many 3rd degrees can you have?) She asks me lots of detailed questions and to provide another ID showing my company's name. Luckily I packed my ID in my backpack and quickly show her. I really should have shaved.

Renting a car and driving to my hotel is saved for another blog entry.