Summer 2007 Week 5 ::: Israel

Day 30 ::: Day 30 would have been a chill day in Aqaba spent between the internet cafe and the spa (for a quick massage) if it hadn't been for a chance encounter. I was in the internet cafe blogging when the router went down and I decided to take a walk and get some dinner. As I was leaving, I asked the owner about a place to get a simple bite to eat and he kindly offered to take me out himself. I know what you're thinking... dangerous, stupid... exactly the thing an American woman traveling alone shouldn't do, blah blah blah. But this is me we're talking about... and we all know I don't play by the normal rules (-;

So I went... and wound up spending 2-3 hours at the cafe talking with Alaa, a 35-year old unmarried Muslim originally from the Jordanian capital, Amman. Before we even started talking, he told me the reason he had been friendly to me at the internet cafe was because he could tell I was a very simple woman which I later found out was a huge compliment and something he had deduced by my dress and my lack of makeup. We started out by talking about our lives as singles in our respective cultures and about many of the misconceptions the East and West have of each other. But after sometime, the conversation got much deeper and he started to confide in me on more taboo topics. He whispered across the table about his respect for Israelis (their success in business, their standard of living, etc.), prostituion (apparently far more common in the Muslim world than one might expect) and his darkest days when he wasn't sure he wanted to live. We even talked very candidly about religion - he told me why his (moderate) faith was so important to him and this time around I actually confessed my lack of faith and skeptical view on religion. It was a really insighful conversation and one I won't forget anytime soon. It ended with him walking me back to the internet cafe to finish my blogging and then a polite good night as he set off for his home. Not the finish to the story you were expecting, huh? (-:

Days 31 & 32 ::: I got up and walked in search of a Turkish bath, but the only one I found was nasty so I decided against it. I cruised around a bit more, but didn't find anything very interesting so I checked out of my hotel and made off for the Israeli border, a mere 10 minutes away. The border crossing was nothing out of the ordinary except for the very interesting border guard on the Jordanian side who searched all of my bags and then asked me if I had a camera. Of course I said, "yes" and pulled it out thinking he wanted to examine the photos. He picked up the camera, looked at it and then handed it to his buddy, who used it to take a picture of us...ha! I was laughed and then moved through to the next check point. I deleted the photo before I got to the Israeli guards - just in case. How random!

Once I got into Israel, I met some backpacking Brazilians with whom I shared a cab to Eilat, Israeli's Red Sea resort town. In short, the next two days were spent sizzling in the extreme heat (mid/upper 40s) between dips in the Sea, shopping (wait till you see the new Armani shades) and reading Harry Potter feverishly. I finished it in less than two days - so good!!!

Day 33 ::: I caught the 8am bus to Tel Aviv and arrived by 12:30pm. In an ironic twist of fate, the person I came to visit in Israel (Shirley) is actually in New York at training for work. So cruel! The good news is that she kindly agreed to host me at her apartment, which is one block from the beach...woot! I spent the first day exploring her immediate neighborhood and getting some beach time. Later that night my good friend from Kellogg, Gal (also from Tel Aviv), came over to meet me. After a nice long catch up session on our respective summer travels, we took a long late night walk down the beach to Jaffa, one of the most ancient port cities in the world. Jaffa, just outside Tel Aviv, sits upon a hill with a lovely view of the coastline and has a significant Arab population. We stopped at Abulafia bakery (a famous bakery and a symbol of Jewish-Arab coexistence) and then walked through the old city before heading home around 2:30am.

Day 34 ::: I got up early and explored more of Tel Aviv by foot including the Carmel and Flea Markets as well as the area around the Dizengoff Center, one of Israel's first shopping malls. Later on I met up with Gal for some coffee and then went out to the beach for some sun and Matkot (Israeli beach paddle ball). Later that night we went to Evita, a hip little gay bar off of Rothchild Blvd, to chill out and have a drink before picking our friend Dan up from the airport. Dan's flight from Istanbul (he has been traveling in Turkey, Tibet and China) got in an hour late, so Gal and I prepared a luggage cart with a balloon and a big sign that read "We Came to Make Party™ Special Forces Unit: Middle East" and then ambushed him when he came through the door.

Day 35 ::: Food, beach, disco nap and... then it was time for the Special Forces Unit to take to the streets to MAKE PARTY™ Tel Aviv style! We started off at Evita, then made our way over to Haoman 17 (an Israeli megaclub slightly past it's hay day) for Anthony Collins (Get Physical/Paris). I hadn't heard Anthony before, but went on the recommendation of my global dancefloor partner, Sami, who knows him from Paris. The music was really good, but unfortunately Anthony was forced to play to a virtually empty club. After about an hour we decided to meet up with a bunch of Shirley's friends at Maxim, the club they call home. It's a nice medium sized venue with a great vibe. That night some local DJs were playing mostly electro. We stayed until sometime just before 6am... a solid outing for night one of the weekend. Note - The weekend is Friday and Saturday in this part of the world.


Days 36 & 37 ::: Food, city exploration, beach, disco nap and then out for another night of MAKING PARTY - do you see a pattern here? This time started the night around 2am at Barzilay, another medium-sized club with a great, underground vibe. Dark, dark and darker...just the way we like it! Carsten Klemann (MyMy/Berlin) headlined the night, only a few days before MyMy's NYC debut at the Blk Market Membership and Wolf & Lamb boat party. Thanks so much to Tubi (Exercise/Israel) for hooking me up! I hung around with more of Shirley's crew until sometime after 5am when I went back to Haoman 17, this time to meet Gal and Dan for a party for the boys. This time the club was packed and the vibe was great. Tal Cohen (Israel) and Elliott J Brown (Fire/London) were on the decks and actually played pretty damn well. I couldn't believe my ears when Laurent Garnier's "The Man With The Red Face" got dropped sometime around 7am - simply amazing!! We closed out the party at some unidentifiable time (outlasting all of Shirley's friends!) and then proceeded directly to a rooftop afterhours after getting an invite from one of the boys I had been dancing with all night.



We hung around with the random mish-mosh of characters for half of the day before it got too wacky and I decided to retire for three hours back at Shirley's. Then it was back up, out to the beach and onward to the next party. Dan and I went down to check out the sunset at a rocking little beach party near the apartment and then crusied back uptown to meet Gal at a great South Beach-style lounge on the beach just below the Crowne Plaza. As expected, all of the gay boys from the night before were back in action. The antics continued until about 3am when I decided to call it quits. The boys... well, the boys met boys (-;





Day 38 ::: Recovery, shwarma, beach, sushi, sleep.

Trip reading list:
--The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis
--The End of Faith by Sam Harris
--The Risks of Sunbathing Topless: And Other Funny Stories from the Road by Kate Chynoweth
--A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
--Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
--Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell