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 :-<