Christmas in Bethlehem (in Pictures)

Into the Sea

As soon as I woke up in the morning I noticed I had gathered a few mosquito bites. Not that this was anything new though, because I am always having to be out the look out for them back at my apartment anyways and feel like I am in a perpetual state of camping without bug spray. I climbed out of bed and threw my book (Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn) towel and headphones in my backpack and my sandals and board shorts on for a trip to the beach for some snorkeling around the reef. I opened my door and was literally blinded by the sun. Probably not the bed idea to go from near complete darkness to opening an eastward door in the middle of the desert first thing in the morning. I ducked back in and traded my normal specs for some sunglasses and grabbed some complimentary breakfast from the Camp kitchen (fruit, rolls and yogurt) and met the folks staying in the cabin next to me, A nice German lady was staying for five weeks with her son for the some time together since she was teaching at a university in Cairo and he was going to school in the UK. Throughout my three and a half days there I realized that this kind of vacation Dahab was the norm, anything less than a month and you were just kind of passing through.

I rented a set of snorkel gear from a shop I passed for about 2 dollars and grabbed a bed at the beach from a restaurant and sprawled out for an hour or so just reading and listening to some music. I'll warn you now that I'm about to make a stereotype or two: Next to me were a few russians and I can say that over the course of the weekend I met a few more. These are the least friendly people you'll ever meet on a vacation. They are rude to the wait the wait staff and everyone else they encounter and are just kind of a cold people in general from what I observed both here and in Israel. I snapped a few pictures of the beach and the water while I was out there and the mountains you may be able to see in the distance are Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea

I got after some tea and reading and decided to head into the water where I was seeing some other people gather at just a hundred yards away. As soon as I threw on my snorkel gear and ducked under water I realized I was just a few feet away from the coral reef. I don't have the words to express how beautiful the reef was, from the giant urchins to the various kinds of coral and the fish that were a rainbow of neon colors, it was truly a unique experience to just be a few feet from shore and surrounded by such a magnificent jungle of life compared to the arid desert surrounding the Red Sea. Sadly I didn't have a digital camera, but Jeri once told me that sometimes its best to put the camera away and just live in the moment. I spent a total of four hours in the water that day and each time saw new species of fish and explored farther and deeper reaches of the reef. I came to Palestine for a life-changing experience and I have gotten one every day, but this was it's own special treat- to find this beautiful wildlife in such a harsh landscape.

Once again thats it for tonight. I'll do my best to cover the rest of the trip tomorrow night. On Friday it's off to Bethlehem for the holiday and back the next day for Christmas dinner!

Dahab

After about a two hour taxi trip heading south from the Egyptian border we arrived in Dahab and the scuba diver pointed me down the boardwalk towards where he though the Bedouin Camp I was going to be staying in was located. The Bedouin are a group of nomadic Arabs that live a pretty archaic lifestyle. These are the people you see sitting around in large colorful tents in films like Lawrence of Arabia. In Dahab and along the Sinai coast they have found tourism to be a marketable trade and have built small hotels/hostels that they call camps and I had booked a room in a well reviewed such camp for about 10 dollars a night- a private room no less in a small bamboo walled bungalow and I was excited to see just what I had got myself into.

Well after walking the full length of the beach I still hadn't located the camp and everyone I asked for directions offered the opposite directions of the last person I had talked to. If I was headed south, apparently it was north and vice versa. Eventually I got really close to where it was and finally turned a corner to see a small sign pointing down an unassuming alley for "Dolphin Camp." Slightly apprehensive I headed down the path and it opened after about 50 meters to reveal beautiful while buildings surrounding a courtyard with covered sitting areas and a few small huts. It was beautiful and peaceful and for the price I doubt I could ever find comparable accommodations.My hut was pretty nice and head two beds, a fan, a single outlet and a single light inside it and really reminded me of the old cabins I spent my entire summers in while working at Camp Parsons. There were no plants to be found, but the dirt had been raked in nice patterns across the grounds and I really can't express the rustic beauty of the place. Completely the opposite of a resorty tourist town or lodgings. Here's the only picture I snapped of the camp (which I really regret):

I stayed in one of those little cabins!

Dahab itself was a really pleasant little town and I can't recommend it enough. Particularly for people who like to get away from the hustle and bustle and just want to experience a quiet seaside resort town. It was almost like something off the Oregon coast, just with more of a Tropical feel to it. There were a lot of small stores lining the side of the street opposite to the beach, but there was no pushy sales pitches to come look at their wares, and even if there were to have been some I think besides the occasionally t-shirt vendors, they all sold authentic spices and Egyptian arts and crafts. The ones that did invite me to their shops were always very kind and responded to my "La Shokran" (no thank you) with wishing me a good day. It was just a feel good kind of place to be. The beach side of the board walk was lined with restaurants- and I mean lined with them. Dahab doesn't have a sandy beachfront anyways so there really wasn't a good place to just throw down a towel, but if you wanted a view with the water you had to go into a restaurant and buy at least a coffee or something. The same applied for if you wanted to snorkel, there was a bed rate of 20 pounds Egyptian (about 4 dollars) for the day to sprawl out on the decks and sun yourself or get into the water from the restaurants.

The Boardwalk across the flash flood drainage bridge

I spent my first night just wandering around and getting my bearings on the town. It's crazy being in a place with bars so I took the opportunity to sit and have a beer by the seaside. I can honestly say a beer has never tasted so good and the sound of the ocean has never been more relaxing. After spending the last three months hardly drinking except the periodic glass of wine, I was really feeling it after three beers and walked back to the cabin. After all, I had been traveling since 5 AM and was looking forward to a nice night's sleep.

Heading South

The night before I headed to the Sinai I spent in Jerusalem in a hostel in the Old City. It was a beautiful stoned-walled place down a side street and was located above a small cafe. The dorm room was pretty cheap, 50 shekels and was in large room with a domed ceiling. After I dropped my bag off, I headed off on foot just after nightfall to locate the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, which I knew was located along Jaffa street a few miles outside the Old City. I knew Jaffa street well enough because it was the street that the central post office was on. It felt like a pretty long walk, somewhere around an hour, but I got a chance to really see one of the main arterials in the city. Many of the municipality offices and upscale markets are located on the street and the weather was nice so I enjoyed the trip. The demographics on the walk were interesting to say the least. The most common thing that I saw was orthodox Jews in their long black suit coats and beards and large hats, followed by IDF members. It's odd seeing IDF members in Jerusalem because they are not really "on-duty" but they are still wandering around in their uniform with their rifles. It's way more than anything you would even see on a marine base in the US, but like I said, this is in the middle of Jerusalem. Anyone who talks about America having a military or a gun culture hasn't seen anything compared to Israel.

Anyways, I got to the bus station okay and bought my ticket for the next morning and headed back towards the old city. I was lucky enough to run into my french co-worker in the lobby of the hostel who was on her way home for the holidays and we went out to the only open cafe at night in the old city for some tea and talking before heading to bed for an early morning. I was up at 5:30 and got to the bus station and loaded up on the bus for the five hour trip south. In between naps I caught glimpses of the Dead Sea and the Negev, the vast desert area that constitutes the southern region of Israel. At the one resting point we got off the bus for a few minutes to stretch our legs and very nice young Jewish man went out of his way to introduce himself and ask me about my trip. This was an especially nice moment for me because until this point all the Israeli's I had met had been less than friendly, and I was happy for a chance to break the stereotype that had been forming in my head that these must be rude people. Back on the bus, we continued south until we arrived in Eilat, the southern most city in Israel, where I grabbed a quick bite to eat and waited for the bus to the border with Egypt.

 Pictures of the trip thus far:

 In the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea

 The Dead Sea

 The Negev Desert

The mountains of Jordan as seen from Eilat

The border crossing was easy enough. I passed through Israeli Security quickly and Egypt was also a breeze. My passport is finally starting to get some character to it with various visa stamps! At the border I met a British dive instructor who was returning to Egypt doing essentially the exact same thing I was but in reverse- renewing his Egyptian visa by coming to Israel for a few days. He was a nice guy who had been living in Dahab for the last year or so, ever since he got laid off in England and decided to seek out a new occupation. It's interesting to see that other people in the developed world are looking away from home for work and finding new adventures along the way. We partnered up with some other English kids and got a cab down to Dahab. I wish I could tell you about the trip and the Red Sea at this point but we were all too busy talking. I didn't even get a chance to take a picture along the two hour trip south!

I'll write more tonight while it's still fresh but for now I need dinner and to work on my lesson plans for teaching english next week!