We took a red-eye flight from Hong Kong to Amman, Jordan –
flew on Royal Jordanian Airways, with a stopover in Bangkok (1 hour on the
plane). Nothing particularly interesting about the flight, except that the
windows had no shade that you can pull down, instead, there’s a button where
you can adjust the shade/tint of the window…. that was pretty cool.
We arrived in Amman at like 5am and went through immigration
(got a visa upon arrival, had to get a double entry one as we’ll be re-entering
Jordan after our travels in Israel to fly back to Hong Kong). February is actually winter in Jordan and the Middle
East – many people (including myself) thought that the Middle East was always
warm/hot like a desert, but actually they experience the four seasons as well.
So when we arrived, the temperature was like 0-2 degrees celcius…… I
didn’t expect it to be that cold! Had to take out all my sweaters and coats and
put them on before exiting the airport. There was even frost on the ground!
Thankfully, our first stop was to go to Petra, which is
about 3 hours south of Amman, so along the way you can already see that it was
starting to warm up outside. Looking out the window as we drove south, the land
was barren and sandy.
We reached Petra and I was excited to get started! I started
a pinterest board of places that I want to visit and Petra is on the list! You
can stay overnight and explore the whole area – which is what I wanted to do…
but that’ll have to wait for another trip. This time we only got to walk
through the main siq (that’s Arabic for gorge) and see the famous Petra
Treasury. Just walking through the gorge and taking in the heights of the
rockface took us like 45mins….. but it’s
definitely a lot easier than walking through the Grand Canyon (haven’t been
yet, but I heard it’s difficult). There’s plenty of shade and some of the roads
are paved, there’s also not much of a steep incline.
Along the way into the gorge, you’ll see lots of caves dug
out of the sandstone mountains, they were used as burial tombs. We cannot go
inside the Treasury, and apparently the Treasury wasn’t really a treasury… it
could have been a temple or some other place of congregation.
The area made great photo opportunities – the sky was clear
and blue with a few poufy clouds contrast that against the sandy earth…. These
were like the conditions for photos – I couldn’t take any bad photos they all
came out so nice and crisp.
After exploring Petra for a couple of hours, we made our way
back north and stopped for lunch. This would be the first of many Middle
Eastern meals that consist of hummus and other dips and yoghurts, bread, soup,
10-20 different salads, yummy kebabs and rice…. Mmmm it was all delicious.
After lunch, we made our way to Mount Nebo which is about
one hour away from Amman. This is the place where Moses was able to look out
from and see the Promised Land. After leaving Egypt, Moses was tasked with
leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, but this was land that he was
never going to set foot in. So he went up Mount Nebo and saw what God had
promised his people.
It was slightly cloudy and starting to rain at the time when
we arrived at Mount Nebo, but on a clear day, you would be able to see Jericho
and Jerusalem in the distance.
On this trip, we went to some great elevations and the
lowest point on earth. Mount Nebo is about 800m above sea level.
After making our decent from Mount Nebo, we made our way
into the town of Madaba. This town is famous for their mosaics from the
Byzantine and Umayyad period. We visited one church that had an old mosaic with
a map of the most of the significant locations from the Bible.
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And this is my bed for the night…
Day 2 – Crossing into
Israel > Sea of Galilee > Tiberius > Cana > Nazareth
First thing in the morning, we drove three hours to reach
the border crossing between the north of Jordan and Israel. The experience is
kind of similar to crossing from Canada to the US…. But with A LOT LESS
traffic. Or maybe we were just lucky – as the tour guide told us sometimes the
waiting time can be 2-3 hours…
For some reason the tour guide kept reminding us that the
border guards are very serious and strict. We shouldn’t do anything sudden or
suspicious. Mmmmm, I guess it’s a good warning to those who might talk too loudly
or not pay attention, but I think it wasn’t so bad. The immigration officers
actually didn’t talk much to us.
Leaving Jordan, an officer came onboard our bus and checked
all our passports, then we had to go through security to scan all our luggage
and the bus had to be checked as well. Then we drove across the border, and
went through immigration into Israel – the officers here asked A LOT of
questions. They asked which cities we were going to, what my father’s name is,
what my grandfather’s name is (which I had to pause and think… I don’t ever
call him by name) etc. etc.
I also found out that supposedly if you’ve been to Israel
then you won’t be allowed into other Muslim countries (like Malaysia) – but the
reason for this is not very clear… they just don’t like Israel for some reason…
(well there’s a lot of tension, but I think it’s ridiculous, especially as the
other countries just assume I am a threat because I’ve been to Israel).
Anyways, so what you can do is don’t go to Malaysia or other Muslim countries
until your passport expires and you get a new one. Or you can ask the
immigration officer to stamp on a piece of paper instead of in your passport.
There! Easily solved.
Once we pass through customs, we were greeted by our Israeli
tour guide and driver. Israel is not just a place inhabited by Jews, there are
many people who identify themselves as Jews but come from all over the world.
Also there are other minorities in Israel who now call this place their home –
for example our driver is Muslim and an Israeli Arab.
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| after passing the border into Israel, the sky cleared and you see all these green hills all around |
We made our way to the Sea of Galilee (also known as the
Kinneret), a large body of water in the middle of the north of Israel. This is
an important body of water as this is the natural reservoir that supplies water
to the whole of Israel all year around. Water is an important resource and one
that is rare so during our trip we were often reminded how even though we had a
couple of rainy days, it’s a blessing to Israel as they don’t get a drop of
water from the sky for six to eight months during the dry season.
Tiberius is a town on the side of the Sea of Galilee that
was one of the largest Jewish cities in the 2nd-10th
centuries famous for it’s hot springs, now it’s developed more into a
holiday/resort destination.
Visiting Israel is amazing because you get to see so many of
the places referenced in Biblical stories. One of the most famous rivers
mentioned is the River Jordan, which runs through Israel and feeds into the Sea
of Galilee and joins to the Dead Sea. Many visitors will take the opportunity
to be re-baptized in the River Jordan where Jesus also got baptised.
The exact location of many of the places mentioned in the
bible are not definite, but archeologists and historians have studied and found
many places that they believe to the location of a particular story or
incident. We visited Yardenit a center that is located next to a part of the
River Jordan where they think Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. We had
lunch there, but didn’t do the re-baptism ceremony as it was raining and very
cold…
After lunch, we drove to the town of Cana, this is believed
to be where Jesus performed his first miracle. Jesus and his mother Mary
attended a wedding in Cana, and during the wedding banquet, there was not
enough wine, and so Jesus asked the servants to pour water into some large
vessels and when they scooped out the “water” it was wine.
Many of the places that we visit, the buildings and
artifacts have been preserved and protected because of various religious groups
who set up churches – mostly it’s the Catholic church who have done this. Under
the church, we visited the remains of the house believed to be where the
wedding of Cana happened. We see a replica of the type of stone vessel that was
used to hold water at the time.
And in the church, we did a marriage vow affirmation
ceremony for the married couples in the group.
Afterwards, we drove to the city of Nazareth. This was the
city where Jesus spent his childhood as the son of a carpenter. Today it is a
city that is known as “the Arab capital of Israel” where the population is made
up predominantly of Arab citizens.
Nazareth is the city where Mary and Joseph lived in before
the birth of Jesus, so here the Catholic churches have erected churches on the
locations where they believe is the house of Mary and the house of Joseph. The
Basilica of the Annunciation is where the Angel Gabriel told Mary of the news
that she would give birth to the Son of God. There are many artworks of Mary
decorating the church and the surrounding walls donated by different countries
and churches (this is something that we’ll see at a lot of churches as well).
Next door, a block away is the Church of St. Joseph,
believed to be where Joseph had his carpentry shop. It’s not as elaborate in
comparison.
That night we stayed at the Golden Crown hotel in Nazareth.
Some of the names of the rooms in the hotel remind me of the Knights of the
Round Table…. And funnily, before boarding the plane in Hong Kong, I watched
the movie “Kingsman” at the theatre at HK International Airport… where they
also referenced the Knights of the Round Table.
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