Masada And The Dead Sea

A few bleary eyes this morning after the late night last night, and one lady stayed asleep when we got to our first stop, which was the Ahava kibbutz which mines and processes the minerals found in the Dead Sea to create a line of skin care products that are world famous. We were encouraged to buy at least $140 worth, as then we would be able to get the VAT rebate at the airport. If we were too stingy for that, we could always settle for the $100 boxed package. However, they badly underestimated just how stingy our group really was, with most of the ladies whispering that they were a lost cause. Perhaps a $10 Elixir of Youth might have sold better.

Then it was on to the highlight of the day - a visit to Masada. Masada is a cliff top fortress inhabited by various civilisations over the centuries including the Romans, but is most famous as the last centre of resistance for the Jews in their uprising against the Roman occupation around 70AD, which had already led to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Romans lay siege to the last Jewish resistance at Masada for some three years as they built an artificial earth ramp all the way up to the top of the Masada walls. When they finally stormed the fortress, and burned the gates, the Romans entered the city to find that everybody inside has committed suicide rather than be taken slaves. It became the symbol of the struggle for Jewish independence in the 60s and 70s, where young Jews flocked almost as a pilgrimage, especially those in the military service.

After the introductory video, we took the cable car up to the top, and explored the palaces, store rooms and community areas with a lot of other groups, before a select few of us decided to walk down the Snake Gully trail back to the bottom, much to the disappointment of our tour guide who felt sure that all kind of plagues and pestilence would overcome us on the way down for being so reckless as to want some exercise. Needless to say we beat the cable car down. Let's just say that our guide isn't in to adventure tourism. A great place, but on the down side, most people in our group were disappointed to find that there was a McDonalds serving burgers there.

For a while after Masada our bus was tailing another tourist bus that had a sign on it indicating that it had free wi-fi, so it was a bit of a game amongst some on the bus to surf the web off the bus in front of us, with varying degrees of success. Our guide gave us lots of information about the animals that lived around the area, leading to the quote of the day - "There used to be lions and tigers around this area too, until nature took them all away, and now there are none." A bit like the quote about how the Jews, the Christians and the Palestinians are all Israelis and have the same rights, until we got to the check points and miraculously found that this bit is designated as Area type A, which means that Palestinians cannot enter.

On the way back to Jerusalem, we stopped at another kibbutz which controls access to the Dead Sea beaches. (I told you that the kibbutzim were all sophisticated money making ventures!) Had a lovely lunch in the sun overlooking the Dead Sea, and munched on a lovely fresh salad roll. Sure beats being cooped up in a restaurant. Mandy decided that the day was nice enough to have another float in the Dead Sea, so she headed off to the water, and I lazed around enjoying the scenery.

Back on the bus, our guide handed around the chocolates, and then a few minutes later she handed around the feedback forms as she is leaving us today. When I commented about the timing, Mandy called me a cynic. Wise woman, my wife.

After getting back to the hotel late afternoon, we finally had an opportunity to do some walking around Jerusalem. We ventured in to the Old City through the New Gate, and walked around the Christian Quarter admiring the Christmas lights, though we decided not to frequent the tattoo parlour. Then it was up through the main Jerusalem streets and city mall, past the Holy Bagel Cafe, down through the traditional jewish area of town (keeping to the main streets) and back to the hotel for dinner.

Israeli youth have to do 2 or 3 years of National Service after they finish school, and then be on reserve standby for some 20 years. I think that it's non residential, as I can't see where they would house that many people, and we see lots of youth in fatigues on buses and the light rail presumably going home. Which gave rise to today's interesting sight. We passed a kid of about 18, dressed in military uniform and boots on his way home, with a hoodie pulled over his uniform to keep warm, his mobile phone glued to one ear, and his automatic Kalashnikov rifle slung over his shoulder.