Tuesday Oct 5 Shanghai

We got up to go on the Jewish tour.  I was feeling OK; not great, just OK.  We went to the Peace Hotel, an old classic art deco place from the 1930s.  We met the group, who were not hard to spot.  Our guide was Dvir Bar-Gal, an Israeli journalist who came here 9 years ago for a story and stayed.  More about his story later.  I won’t go into all the details, but basically the story of the Jews here comes down to 3 families:  the Sassoons, the Khaduris, and the Harduns.  They were Iraqi Jews who came to China to do some trading of opium starting with Elias David Sassoon in the mid 1840s.  The Khaduris and Hardouns came later as clerks for the Sassoons, and struck out on their own.  The Peace Hotel, which once was the tallest building in Shanghai, was built and lived in by one of the Sassoon descendents.  When troubles began in Europe in the 20s and 30s, Jews came here because of a long standing tradition of open immigration in Shanghai.  No visa needed, just show up and test your luck.  When the Germans really began to crack down in the later 30s and during the war, several Japanese Righteous Gentiles, Mr Sugihara and Doctor Ho wrote thousands of exit visas in Lithuania and Vienna respectively to allow people to get to Shanghai, then in Japanese hands.  The Germans tried to impress on the Japanese how unsuitable the Jews were, but they really had no history of anti-Semitism, so they really could care less.  They did accommodate them by making a ghetto for “stateless persons” arriving after 1937, which certainly did not include all the Jews.  After the war, most of the Jews left for Israel or America, but there are a number remaining. 

Dvir also told us of his “calling” and why he has stayed in Shanghai.  In looking for the Jewish cemeteries, he found that none were left.  One was the site of an office, one a shopping center, etc.  What happened to the headstones? He began looking and found them as walkways, chopping blocks, buried in swamps, etc.  He has been collecting them and is trying to convince the Chinese government to allow a memorial site in the old ghetto area.  Chinese bureaucracy is Chinese bureaucracy.  He is still working at it, but wasn’t even able to ask for donations, as he is still too far from approval fro the project.

We had lunch at a snack shop in the Bund area where the Peace Hotel with a couple from New York who was on the Jewish tour.  The 4 of us then went to the Expo.  Here was our only rip-off of the entire trip, although it wasn’t much.  The taxi took us on a very long ride around Shanghai until we reached the entrance gate.  I wasn’t completely sure until the ride home was less than 1/3 the price.

The Expo is huge.  People, people, people.  And we were there late in the day when the crowds were less!!  We walked in by the huge China pavilion, but the lines were 2-3 hours long.  Israel was nearby, and we went to the VIP entrance, and flashed our passports with Israeli stamps from our trip in the spring.  Sometimes it helps to be Jewish!  The exhibit emphasized Israel’s strong intellectual prowess and technological achievements.  They finely tuned the message to match the Chinese exhortation of A Better Life.  The one thing I was surprised they didn’t include was a reference to the age of the Jewish People.  The Chinese are always talking about the fact that they have been a people for 5000 years with the same language to which I say “So?”.  But al least now the Chinese have some value in tradition and history, and we can share that with them.

After Israel, we hit Cambodia and the Shanghai City exhibits, both of which were pretty lame.  We chose our sites by the line length and how far it was to walk.  Very practical, but enough already.  We had walked around for a few hours at the Expo, and most of the day on the Jewish tour.  We were beat.

Monday Oct 4 Shanghai

This has been a weird 24 hours.  I woke up with a feverSunday and felt like total crap.  I dragged myself through the Shanghai museum, which was wonderful, but I couldn't really appreciate it.  I spent the rest of the day in bed, schvitzing.  Bah.  Ann went on to the pagoda, park and other stuff including the acrobat show.  I don't think I'm too upset to have missed them.

Jewish tour today, and then the Expo

Sat Oct 2 Shanghai

Early plane flight.  It's interesting how we react to different guides.  Li, from Xian, was friendly enough, but had some very annoying speech patterns.  One of them was that she wouldn't shut up.  Every second, she was talking, whether or not there was anything new to say.  She repeated herself on everything.  She tried, but it got on our nerves.

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky day.  It might have changed a lot about our feelings of Xian, but I doubt we're coming back to check it out.  Maybe we're both getting Paul's SAD, and hating the gray weather.

We arrived in Shanghai to more of the same weather.  We were met by "Charlie", who said we couldn't pronounce his real name.  Driving around this city of 20 million, we were amazed to see that it is built on a very human scale.  The land here is very flat, and you can see for miles.  It is all city, but there are low buildings and medium sized buildings and a few very tall buildings.  Yes, it goes on and on, but it feels very manageable from the ground.  Despite the mist, we could see the architecture is very varied and interesting.  Lunch was at another touristy place, but at least there were lots of Chinese there also.  We overlooked the river and the Bund area, where most of the buildings dated to the 1930s.  An oasis of classicism in the middle of modern.

After lunch, we were delivered to a shopping street.  Again, this was not only westerners running around.  Since it was now raining, we bought some umbrellas and sat at a coffee place to people watch.

We had to negotiate with Charlie about Monday.  Ann had booked a separate Jewish tour of Shanghai, and the conflicted with their plans for us.  Charlie realized that he could give us our Monday dinner tonight, and then we would be free to go to the Expo.  The only problem was the tickets for the Expo, since we were booked as a "group" at a specific time to go in.  So we will abandon those and just walk in when we get there.  Chalk it up to stupidity tax.

Dinner was at another touristy place with dancing girls.  Again, most of the crowd was not Caucasian, but the meal was again nondescript.  I fear most of Shanghai will be like this for the food.  Tonight had been our chance to be on our own.

After dinner, we tried to walk around, but the rain and wind really prevented much walking.  We went back to our hotel (one of the tall buildings), and had a drink from the bar on the 50^th floor.  Even with the mist, the view was spectacular.  Many of the buildings have lights, either on the upper floors and roof, or on the sides.  There was a kaleidoscope of colors.  The elevated highways running through this part of town have blue lights underneath, giving a blue glow to the streets below.  Many of the buildings have the same light pattern on them, with a blue neon light running around the upper floors with the white lights above.  Cute.  We could see the Expo, which is about a mile or so from our hotel.  It  is on either side of the river, with a bridge joining the halves.  The bridge had a rainbow of colors.  Very very pretty.

Interestingly, as we drove and walked around, I got the feeling of less traffic and less craziness.  The drivers still barge right ahead, but appear to stop for people in crosswalks.  There are definitely less cars on the road than in Beijing and Xian.  Maybe because it's Saturday night, but that doesn't seem too good an explanation.  More as the week progresses.

Friday Oct 1 Xian

Another non-descript all-inclusive breakfast at the hotel.

Li picked us up and we started off for the Banpo Museum.  This traced the history of the area concentrating on Neolithic times.  There had been an archeological site nearby, which prompted the authorities to create the museum.  It was actually very interesting, showing the earliest stone tools, pottery, and graves, dating back to 7000BCE.  The explanations did not exactly trace the development of this civilization, or give dates or a good time line, but we could tell from the creativity and complexity of the items where things came in.  There was a diorama of life of this era, with a wonderful explanation of the tribal life with everyone equal as a sort of "primitive communism".  Politics enters everything.  The actual site is preserved with explanations of the apparent home building practices with post holes noted.  There was even one house with 3 obvious layers of post holes, indicating successive buildings at that exact site.

On our way to the Terra Cotta Warriors, we had to stop at another factory.  This had the largest showroom we have seen yet, with more and more schlock.  And to top it off, the prices were higher than anything we've had yet.  They just don't stop.

We got to the Terra Cotta Warrior site and walked in.  Again, more and more people.  There are 3 excavations, with huge enclosures over each.  We started with a cheesy movie in 360 degree format (not Imax as we were told it would be).  It looked like it was filmed in the 70's.  I laughed through it all.  The warriors were built for Quin Shi Huang, the first emperor who united China at the Qin Dynasty from 220-207BCE.  He was also they guy who started the Great Wall.  The warriors themselves were destroyed after his death, and were discoved in 1974.  They have been reconstructed since.  The hall places thousands of these warriors all in a row.  Fascinating to see what a megalomaniac with absolute control can do.  Supposedly, he had 1/3 of the kingdom working on this project.

It was raining as we left, but we had to walk through the shopping street.  I saw one couple try to take the shorter route out through the "in" walkway, and was rebuffed by a soldier.

More traffic back to the hotel.  The drivers here are crazy crazy crazy!  Red lights mean nothing.  Turning left or right means nothing.  Just go.  I almost broke Ann's fingers half a dozen times in the near misses.  Changing lanes?  Just go.  Motor cycles or pedestrians near by?  So what?  Just go.  They can take care of themselves.

Then the coup de grace:  Dinner theater.  We had another tourista meal, with mystery meat and mystery fish.  The dumplings at the beginning were half decent, and the orange tapioca stuff at the end was sorta ok.  Everything in the middle was forgettable.  During dinner, we were "entertained" by a female musical group wearing ancient costumes playing ancient music on ancient instruments.  Then came the show of shows.  This was an "extravaganza" of native dancers in colorful costumes prancing around the stage.  Why China promotes this to tourists is beyond me, other than the bucks they get for this.  It would be as if every tourist coming to America had to see a Native American dance show.  It has nothing to do with anything of today or even of the recent past.  During the performance there was a guy playing a Pai Xiao, which is some kind of a wind lute instrument.  He supposedly is very famous, but I had to leave as it hurt my ears.  Ann stuck it out till the end of the show.

Maybe Shanghai will be better, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thursday Sep 30 - Xian

Plane flight to Xian.  1.5 hours; no great shakes.

We were picked up by our guide, Li, and our driver, "Mr. John".  The air here is totally gray from smog.  My eyes burn.  Uggh. The airport was about an hour from Xian, and we first went to lunch.  More typical tourist fare.  It seems our lunches will consist of this.  So touristy they gave us forks and knives, no chopsticks.  I wasn't sure I remembered, but somehow I did.

We toured the Buddhist pagoda from the 7^th century.  It was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty in commemoration of the monk, Rabbi Xuanzang, who walked to India to study and then walked back after 17 years with a load of books on his back.  I don't know why he was called Rabbi, but that's what was on the signs depicting his life.  Maybe he was from one of the lost tribes??? 

While we were walking around, my little camera slipped from my hands and fell directly onto the lens mechanism.  It was completely bent and destroyed.  Bah.  I still have my Canon, but that's the end of the videos.

We went from there to the city wall to look around.  Since the October 1 National Holiday is upon us, there are red lanterns and flags all around.  Essentially, this is the Chinese July 4.  The tradition is for everyone to get up early to watch the flag raising in the central town square.  Supposedly there will be over 1 million people in Beijing.  We are not far from the main square at our hotel here, so we might get up to watch it.  Or not.

In planning for tomorrow, Li mentioned that we could go to a terra cotta factory.  This is becoming a theme here of going to the "factory" and being quickly ushered into the showroom.  We tried to beg off, but she was very persistent at "not wanting to push us".  So we'll go to kill some of the time and to let her think she's doing her job.  They are very pushy in trying to "satisfy" us, whether we want it or not.

Dinner tonight is on our own.  When we asked, we were steered to the restaurants here in the hotel.  I think we'll take a walk.

 

So we took our walk.  We went past the central square of town and saw the flag lowering ceremony.  Traffic stopped while the army squad paraded to the flagpole and lowered the flag.  The national anthem played, and people were singing.  The patriotism was palpable.

We continued our walk searching for a restaurant.  We walked and walked.  This is a city of 7 million, and it seemed most of them were on the street.  People walking everywhere.  The stores were open selling clothes and electronics.  But no restaurants.  I briefly considered buying a new camera, but decided against it.  The traffic is crazy, and crossing a street is taking your life in your hands.  Many cars and motorbikes and bicycles have no lights on, making them even more dangerous.  No one stops.  Cross walks? Hah!  Ann got freaked.  We never found a restaurant that had a menu we could understand.  At one, we couldn't even get them to figure out we wanted to look at a menu before sitting down.  So we finally made our way back to our hotel to eat there.  A "Moroccan" restaurant.  Hmmmm.  Hummus without cumin.  Tasteless couscous.  Ann's schwarma was half decent.  We got what was coming to us.

Wednesday the 29th

The Great Wall.  One of the largest man-made objects in the world.  The only man-made object visible from space.  First begun in the 1400's in the Ming Dynasty, it now travels 8818 km across China.  It was originally supposed to keep out the invading Mongols and Manchus from the west and north, but later when those groups became incorporated into Greater China, it was less important. 

We drove about an hour from Beijing (Bei – north; jing – capital) to one section of the wall.  As soon as Ann saw the steep steps and incline, she opted to watch.  Osteoarthritic hips and steep stairs such as these are not great friends.  I decided to carry on.  I took my camera bag and began the ascent.  My knees and back help out pretty well, as did my heart.  My lungs, however, were another story.  I was huffing and puffing (with a lot of the other ancient travelers – and a lot of the young ones as well), but with a few stops, was able to get up the steep section of the trail.  I could have gone farther, but with that many miles more, when does one stop?  I took out my camera to find the battery had run down in the bag since the switch had been left "on", so all I had was my little camera.  I took a bunch of pictures, and had some fellow travelers take some of me.  This camera is movie capable, so I took some panorama views as well.  Coming down was another adventure, as the steep steps and weak quads are not always compatible.  I did make it down to meet Ann and Mei Ping. 

We went to the touristy Jade Market for lunch, along with all the other tourists.  It seems the guides take all the auslanders to these places.  We saw the demonstration for about 3 minutes and were quickly ushered in to the showroom so we could shop shop shop.  Needless to say, we had seen this coming, and weren't particularly interested.  Ann did find some little jade lions and was able to negotiate much better prices with the usually non-negotiating staff.  Again the lunch wasn't worth describing.

After lunch, we went to the Ming Tombs.  This was the burial ground of all 13 Ming emperors.  It was designed and built by the 3^rd emperor, Zhu Di, also known as Chang or Yongle, in the early 1400's.   He had moved the capital of China from Nanjing (Nan – south; jing – capital) to Dadu and renamed it Beijing (north capital).  He built the Forbidden City.  The complex was somewhat impressive, with the many large gold-roofed buildings.  They are, however, not in great repair, as plants are seen growing from the tiles of the roof.  I am beginning to learn a bit of Chinese history here, and I think there is more to learn next in Xian.

Back to the city.  We made an unplanned stop at the Olympic site, since Mei Ping was embarrassed by our tardiness yesterday to the theater.  We saw the Water Cube, the Birds Nest, and many of the other venues.  This was as close to an Olympics as I've ever gotten.  Fun.

Dinner in the hotel for western comfort food – Italian.  It really was good to have a pizza and minestrone after a week of noodles and rice.  We chatted with the Maitre d', a nice Indian guy about Paul's age who was very engaging and friendly.  He has been to various parts of China and the East, and would love to do more traveling.  A nice conversation.

So, what to think about Beijing?  This place is crazy and frenetic.  Crazier drivers than New York.  Pushier people than Jerusalem.  So many people crowded and trying to do the same thing.  A disjointed history where there were significant gaps in what we were being told.  We had long conversations with our guide about the direction of the country.  From her perspective of a 30-something, China is improving.  She contrasted her life with that of her parents (about our age) who grew up in the 60's & 70's, which was not exactly an easy time here.  She thinks things began changing in the mid 80's and continues to expand her horizons.  She gave us a nice compliment, noticing how compatible we were, and we gave here some parental advice on a long lasting relationship and on parenting.

Tomorrow to Xian and more early history.

Tuesday the 28th

We met up with our guide, Mei Pei and went to Teinamen Square  In the west, it is what many people know or remember about China.  It is large, larger than Chiang Kai Sheks's square in Taipei, larger than Red Square in Moscow.  It is smaller than the Mall, but is completely paved.  Security required to get in, and cameras everywhere.  Police and army readily visible.  Probably, many plain-clothes officers around also.  Chairman Mao's mausoleum on one side, with large lines waiting to get in.  People everywhere.  Lots of flowers for the upcoming Peoples Day ceremonies on October 1.  The entrance to the Forbidden City is on one side, with a huge picture of Chairman Mao.  More people everywhere.  We cross the street to get to the entrance.  Fighting through the crowds of people, including school groups in their uniforms, tour groups with their leaders with little flags and boom boxes and microphones, and more people.  Did I mention it was crowded?

The Imperial City / Forbidden City complex is huge, measuring 1.5 miles long.  It is built along a central axis, with multiple entrance gates as one goes farther in.  There are often 5 archways leading into each subsequent area.  The center was reserved for the emperor, and the lower ranked officials were moved further away.  In fact, only the emperor was allowed to walk on the central line.  There were moats with 5 bridges, 5 sets of stairs as one ascended the entranceways, etc.  Much of the complex has been restored, but much still needs to be done, as the paint is faded and peeling in many places.  According to legend, evil spirits only travel on the ground, and cannot lift their legs.  Thus each entrance or doorway has a raised threshold of a foot or so that you have to raise your leg to climb over.  This prevents the evil spirits from getting in. 

We continued to penetrate deeper into the city until we got to the main areas for the emperor and the officials and the empress and the concubines.  With all the events of the last 100 years since the downfall of the last emperor and the communist takeover in 1949, there really wasn't a lot left.  Most of the buildings had fresh paint, and there was a small museum of the porcelains and cloisonné objects.   The gold roofs of the buildings and the dragon and phoenix motifs were everywhere.  We got a lot of history about Tsu Hsi, or Cixi, the "Dowager Empress" or the Dragon Lady.  She ruled in the background for decades, as the "voice behind the screen".  I guess its time for me to watch The Last Emperor.

Nondescript lunch at a tourist trap they took us to.  We do better on the street.

On the way to the Summer Palace, we were talked into going to the Silk store.  This is a government operation for the tourists.  We did see the cute little silkworms, and how the make the cocoons.  I never did understand how the silk was gotten from the cocoons, but they really do unwind it 1 little strand at a time.  They weave 8 together as a real strand, which then is weaved into a fabric.  Then came the hard sell.  We did get a duvet cover for a reasonable price; reasonable being defined as less than we would pay in the west.  At least we were pretty sure it was genuine.

The Summer Palace on the outskirts of town was a smaller representation of the Forbidden City.  It did have a very lovely garden, with statues and large rocks recovered from lake beds in interesting shapes.  The cypress trees were hundreds of years old.  There was a long corridor that CiXi would walk, with a view of the large lake.  We took a dragon boat across the lake to be picked up by the driver.

Traffic into town and we were late for the Kung Fu Ballet.  Again, the drivers in this place are crazy, and would make a New York cabbie blush and recoil in fright.  The performance was nice, but still touristy.

 

On of these days, I'll find the time to organize our pictures and upload them to illustrate this trip.

Monday the 27th

Up early to get to airport for a 9am flight.  Cab to the fast airport train, and 20 minutes to the airport.  I've got to say that the airports in Asia seem to be much better organized and have better infrastructure than any I've seen in the US.  Just having free carts is a major plus.

Thoughts on Hong Kong:

I am again amazed at the verticality of this city.  There are so many high rise buildings that it boggles the mind.  Eve on the train to the airport, there were dozens of high rises in what appeared to be the industrial/shipping area.  Hong Kong is one of the busiest ports in the world, but I saw in today's Washington Post (now that I finally got my wifi working) that the Chinese government is proposing to transform Shanghai into a major financial/shipping zone by 2020.  Maybe they are anticipating a change in Hong Kong's status at the end of the "Special Relationship" period ending in 2047.

 

We got to Beijing on an easy flight.  The airport was huge, but efficient.  We got through passport control as well as customs with ease, once we found our bags.  We were met by Mei Ping, who also goes by the name of "Silver".  We drove into town to our hotel in the central area, and checked in.  We had a free afternoon, so we went to the "Silk Market", which has everything under the sun in 6 floors of little stalls.  As you walk in, the clerks were literally grabbing your arm to pull you into their stall to sell you something, anything.  Bargaining is crazy, and they are very aggressive and relatively nasty when you say no.  Ann was looking for beads and pearls for Ellen, and found some at a reasonable price.  After a while, I couldn't stand it and waited outside.  Even there, people were trying to sell stuff.  Socks, watches, gloves, etc etc etc.  Negotiating for a cab back was fun also, as 3 cabbies didn't want to bother and refused to take us.

After a nap, we went out to walk to get dinner.  We went to the "Walking Street", which one would think was like the open air markets of Taipei.  Not on your life.  This was glitz central.  Every brand you can think of, and many I never heard of.  Mercedes, Rolls, Lambhorgini stores next to each other.  Rolex, Hermes, Van Cleef & Arpels, and more.  A cell phone store that looked like a jewelry store with phones locked in cases.  There was a kiosk of candy, and people were rushing in, well, like a kid in a candy store.  Everything is frenetic.  The traffic is crazy; lights don't matter; turning lanes don't matter; pedestrians are on their own.  Everyone is out to make a buck, and those who have the bucks want to spend it and show off their bling.

Dinner was at a little restaurant we found and I had real beef & broccoli with Chinese broccoli.  I had been told we couldn't get what we would otherwise consider Chinese food, but this was outstanding.  Ann had the eggplant.  As good as it was, we couldn't finish.  Too bad we couldn't get a doggie bag.

Tomorrow Tiennamen, Forbidden Palace and more.

Sunday

Lazy morning. Slowly got ourselves up and made our way to the History Museum. Stopped at Starbucks on the way to get coffee. When we got to the museum, I realized I had left my unipod back at the Starbucks and had to double back to get it. We had been told this is a safe city with little crime, and it was confirmed by my unipod still being there.


The Hong Kong History Museum traced the evolution of Hong Kong back to 1 million years ago. After they got past the first almost million years, they got to the past 10,000 years which were more interesting. They had some of the development of pottery from the first inhabitants, and how it became more detailed and glazed. The earliest peoples fought wars, and moved back and forth from the mainland. The various dynasties of China (Han, Qin, Ming, etc.) came and went. The British came in the 1850s for trade. They first mostly bought things from the Chinese, but soon realized they were losing out in the balance of payments. So they introduced opium to provide something for the population to buy back from them. Hmmmm. The museum itself was very well put together, with large rooms of multiple artifacts from all periods of history. It was so big, however, that Ann and I became separated, so I did the last half by myself. We finally met at the end.

Lunch at an outdoor café. The food itself was nondescript (Sorry, Adrienne). But the conversation with our neighbors was very weird. These were 2 Americans who were working for the “Chinese Royal Family”. It seems that the Royal family is still fabulously wealthy and controlling things. Back in 1758, George Washington borrowed over $1 billion in gold from the family, and every 10 years every president and leader has signed a pledge to pay it back. Now it is over $10 trillion. About 1/3 of the continental US is pledged to this royal family. Huh? They are more powerful than the Jewish banker, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, and Lehman Brothers. Huh? The reason Lehman Brothers collapsed is because the royal family decided not to lend them any more money. Huh? We quickly ate our food and left.

We met Kathy for a trip to the top of Victoria Peak, overlooking Hong Kong Island. We took the 15 bus up the mountain, sitting in the first row of the upper deck of the bus. Interesting, going around the tight curves. We got to the top for the spectacular view. Hong Kong is a very vertical city, and you could see down on top of all the buildings. These are easily 40-50 stories, and there were hundreds of buildings that high, as far as the eye could see in either direction. Most of these buildings have been built since the 80’s.

We took the tram down, and went to the JCC to see the synagogue. It was in the Sephardic tradition, with the bima in the center. Very reminiscent of the synagogue in London.

We met back up with Stuart, her husband, and we drove to the south side of the island for dinner at a little hole in the wall restaurant in Stanley. Traditional Chinese/Thai food. Fried noodles with chicken, tofu, eggplant, curried noodles, and the garlic green similar to what we had in Taipei. Yum.

Early plane tomorrow to Beijing.

Saturday

Early flight back to Hong Kong. We took the train into town which was surprisingly fast and efficient. Nothing in DC or anywhere in the US compares. Our hotel in the Khaloom section of the city overlooks the harbor. Very impressive.


This is a very vertical city. Hundreds of skyscrapers, which are very thin. Many of the buildings are only one room wide. It’s like many toothpicks standing in the air.

We took the Metro to the Jade market, and spent the afternoon haggling with vendors for jade beads for Ellen. We walked back to the hotel to take in the sites, but realized it was long. Ann’s other hip is giving out, and it is not always happy with long walks, despite her desire to do the walking.

We met up with an old friend Kathy Chiron and her husband who have lived here for 10 years now. We took the Star Ferry across the harbor and got a cab to their apartment. Dinner at the historic Correspondents Club where reporters over the ages have gathered to share news and drinks. Very colonial looking with dark wood and carpeting. Old fading newspaper headlines on the wall - :”VJ Day”, “Nixon Resigns”, “MacArthur Relieved of Command”, etc.

Exhausted, we took the ferry back across the harbor and watched the lights of the city across the water.

Friday

A late slow morning. We wandered over to Paul’s apartment and hung out until we were able to say hello to Harry via Skype. He was supposed to be around at 9:00 but wasn’t found until 11:00. Aah, the life of a college student.

We finally got our act together to go out for lunch at the local Chinese schmorgasboard. This was a collection of many different colors, textures and tastes that is particular to Chinese society. I didn’t recognize some of the foods, but took some of what seemed most interesting. I didn’t take the tofu, but Ann and Ellen and Paul did. There were various chicken dishes, veggies, and meats. Probably the best was the broccoli. Also included was the rice, soup, tea and desert. Supposedly they were supposed to weigh it, but the lady eyeballed the plate and gave a price. Who was I to argue for $2 per person???

After lunch we took the Metro to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial. Chiang was, in Paul’s words, “the greatest loser of the 20th century”. The square surrounding it was huge; one of the largest open place I’ve seen. The memorial itself is at one end, and 2 huge buildings, the National Theater and National Symphony Hall were flanking the sides. The architecture of the theater and symphony were traditional Chinese, with red roofs and golden ornamentation. The memorial was white with a blue roof, and an opening reminiscent of Lincoln.

We got to the memorial and up the hundred stairs in time for the changing of the guard. This was a ceremony similar to Arlington or London, with the peculiar Chinese way of stepping and strutting in their military precision.

The memorial, as I said, was reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial. Chiang sitting there in a large hall. There was some writing on the sides, but otherwise very stark. Downstairs, there was an exhibit to his life and works, mostly consisting of pictures of his childhood, his early military career, his association with Sun Yat Sen, and the glorious re-taking of Formosa from the Japanese at the end of WW2. Then it jumps from 1949 to 1968 with no mention of any of the events in between. Hmmmmm. The reproduction of his desk and office with him there in wax reminded me of the Truman library with the Oval Office reproduction and it reminded Ann of Ben Gurion’s office in Sde Boker.

We went back to rest, and were going to go with Paul to the Night Market for dinner, but the BBC called him for an interview with Owen Bennett Jones about GastroDiplomacy. So we went and left Paul. It was a moderate disaster for both. The night market was like many others, but with unrecognizable foods and smells. The worst was the “Stinky Tofu”, which really did. We did manage to eat some waffle-like things stuffed with beans, custard and other goodies. A Taiwanese couple we met who was explaining to us offered some of their spicy chicken feet. I was able to get in one bite but couldn’t swallow. Luckily I was able to turn around before I spit it out. We finally ate an omelet type thing that didn’t look to have anything non-edible in it. Ellen found something that looked like a spring-roll but she had to convince them to only put the veggies in without the pork.

We got back to Paul only to find out that his interview got scrapped in the middle due to “technical difficulties” with the Skype or any kind of audio connection with London. He was VERY frustrated that he hadn’t spent the evening with us and couldn’t even get the publicity in either.

Teary good-byes to Paul & Ellen as we left. Ann marveled over and over how taken in she had been about the surprise. We probably won’t see Paul for a year or so as he wanders through Malaysia and gets to South Africa in January. He might need to come home this spring for a Fulbright interview, if he gets that far in the process. We’ll see….

Thursday

Still working on getting to this time zone.  I awoke at 4, and couldn't get back to sleep until 8.  Paul and Ellen & Sam arrived at 9 while I was still in the shower.
After breakfast and some coffee, we headed to the National Palace Museum.  This is the collection of all the objects that the Nationalists took/stole on the way out of the Forbidden City and Palace in 1949.  It is an immense collection of objects including paintings, ceramics, jade, bronze, official documents, etc. dating to the beginnings of China in the Neolithic Period of 9000-7000 BCE.  (That's "Before the Common Era", a phrase also used by other non-Christians, especially in the Middle East).  We all sort of split up, and I walked with Paul.  We worked our way through the various collections, beginning with the official documents of the Emperors to other writings.  Many of the objects had English explanations as well as Chinese and Japanese.

The museum traced the art of the emperors from late Paleolithic times through the Qing Dynasty of the 1800’s, ending in 1911.  The tracing of the development of porcelain from 5000 BCE to its heights in the 1800’s is fascinating.  Even in the 1200’s and 1300’s these people were making delicate and beautiful work while the Europeans were barely able to make a pot.  One could see the influences from century to century as people moved back and forth across the continents, and influenced each other.  What we call Delftware from England and Holland of the 1700’s was being produced in the 1500s and 1600s in China.

Lunch at the museum was “traditional” Taiwanese fare:  Noodles & soup, shrimp rolls and a type of shrimp toast with a corn and shrimp and veggie filling.  Also was our favorite, the fried calamari.

After lunch the crowds took over the museum, including hundreds of scouts in their white and blue uniforms.  Since they were teenagers, they were mostly bored, and playing with each other.  Paul, however, was able to amuse them as we were standing next to a porcelain figurine of an emperor with his hand raised, and Paul assumed the same position.  Of course, they cracked up and waved and played back.

After the museum, the skies opened up.  It rained for the rest of the day.  We holed up at Paul’s apartment and read.  Sushi for dinner at a local place.  Why Sushi as a “Chinese” food?  Japan owned this island for many years until WW2 and there are many residual Japanese influences.

Another note on the Taiwanese people.  My impression is that they are very similar to Americans.  I’m speaking about their dress, their mannerisms, and their body language.  It appears to me that this is a very American city, as opposed to a European one.  In Europe, people hold themselves differently and for me, at least, are fairly obvious as different from America.  Here, not so much.  My impression was the same in Rio, as opposed to Buenes Aires which is of the European character.  In Rio, people looked and acted like Americans until they began to speak.  Here, obviously, the faces are different, but the feel is similar.  One difference here is the politeness and orderliness.  People line up at the subway rather than crowd the doors as I’ve seen everywhere else in the world, especially Washington.  There are lines painted on the floor of the platform and people que up for each subway door.

Wednesday

Wednesday

Well, we pulled it off. We were too late to see Paul last night, so he came over this morning. He told the story that our hotel was haunted, since it was on the site of an old prison. Then there was a knock on the door, and Paul said, “It must be a ghost”. Ann opened the door and Ellen was standing there. We had arranged for her to get here yesterday from Seattle, and she was going to spend a few days with us and then travel a bit on her own with her friend, Sam. Ann was totally flabbergasted. After 4-5 months of careful planning, secret emails, clandestine checks, laundered money, hushed whispers into the phone, and careful shushing while Skyping, we had completely left her in the dark about this surprise. It was really wonderful. She had absolutely no idea it was coming.

So we went out for a little breakfast at Flora Café, and were taking pictures, and the Taiwanese family next to us were also taking pictures, so we all started taking pictures of each other and had the staff take pictures of all 10-15 of us. Fun personal diplomacy. No one spoke the other’s language, but all were smiling.

We then went to Teipei101, the largest building in Taiwan. 101 floors, towering over the metropolis, with definite Asian architecture of 8 sections. Eight is a lucky number, so the building had the right “feng shui”. We took the fastest elevator in the world (certified by Guiness) up to the observation deck at floor 98. It was a very impressive view, to say the least. Taipei is situated among 3 rivers and in a valley of large mountains. We could see all around for miles. We saw the exhibit of the dampers which keeps the building from swaying too much in the wind and, I guess, in earthquakes. They have even popularized the concept with the cute little “Damper Babies” who are character representations of the engineering structure. Sort of like IM Pei meets Disney. Of course there were souvenir shops everywhere, from Jade to more Damper Babies to the mall in the bottom floors that you HAD to exit through.

After that, we began a religious expedition. Today being the full moon in fall led to the “Mid-Autumn Festival” of the 3 main faiths, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. We visited a temple of each to observe the customs and to look at the architecture. People were burning incense and offering fruits to the gods/spirits, and in other places the tradition is to burn paper in outdoor receptacles. It looked like any type of paper would do, as most of it looked like old newsprint or napkins. At the Buddhist temple, the incense smoke was overwhelming to me and I had to leave and get out to the “fresh” air (which wasn’t a whole lot better).

As dusk fell, we worked our way to the Night Market, which could have been the Shuk, the 9^th Street Italian Market in Philadelphia, or Pike Place Market in Seattle. The difference was the types of foods and object offered. One does not normally see snakes, live turtles, shrimp and other unknown crustaceans, and other un-mentionables being offered for sale. I saw no fruits or vegetables.

We went back to Paul’s apartment to pick up his roommate, Ken, who took us to Din Tai Fung, a restaurant serving local Chinese food. We had steamed dumplings of chicken, shrimp, and veggies, which were wonderful. There was also spiced cucumbers, stir fried cabbage, and a garlicky spinach-like green which was delish. Dinner for 6, 2000 NTD, or about $60US. The restaurant, as with so many other places here, was brimming with employees, all of them most willing to serve and make our experience pleasant. A lost concept in America.   

First Day

What day is this? Wednesday, I think.

A looooong day. Never let it be said that a 14 1/2 hour plane ride is short. Getting to JFK airport from Philly was a breeze, and parking and the little train ride to the terminal was fine. We stopped into the Duty Free store and they were sampling the most delicious flavored liquors. We bought the mango and coffee to carry to Paul, since I didn’t want to carry them with us for the next 2 weeks. Since we were flying business class, we were allowed in the Cathay Pacific / British Air lounge. We made a few phone calls, answered some email, and munched on the sandwiches and fruit. Ann went to buy a neck pillow, and could only come up with one that had “I (heart) NY” plastered all over it. Ugghh.

The plane was called, and we were off. The business class was a new experience. Individual pods or cocoons tilted sideways to the aisle, with enough room to lie back and really get horizontal. Nice view of NYC as we took off, and turned to fly over Long Island and the Sound to go over New England. I took some Tylenol PM, had some drinks, turned on Broadway music on the entertainment system, and fell asleep somewhere between Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. I awoke 6 hours later, and realized we STILL had over 8 hours left in the air.

The route took us over the North Pole, over Russia and Siberia, west of Beijing to get to Hong Kong. The plane’s video system had a little map to follow the plane’s progress, and it gave a North Pole/Polaris view of the trip. A little weird to see it from that angle. It was dark out then, so there was not much to see. Even when it got lighter, the cloud cover was too great, and I never really see anything out the window. I busied myself with a Wrist fracture DVD that took a few hours. It helped that there was a regular plug at the seat for the computer. A few hours on the Kindle (Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond. More when I finish it). Some food. More reading. Ann slept through most of the trip, growling at me when I tried to wake her at about 2:00 and again at 3. Whether that was AM or PM, I couldn’t really be sure. Trying to switch 12 hours produces a lot of jet lag. Being horizontal made it soooo much more endurable. Backs and hips at our advancing ages (!) don’t take kindly to sitting that long.

It was dark already as we landed in Hong Kong in the rain. Thankfully, the typhoon had passed, and it was only rain. We disembarked and headed to our next gate for the flight to Teipei. There wasn’t much time, or so we thought. Once we got on the plane, the captain announced that one runway was closed due to a cargo plane running into a ditch (I guess the typhoon was stronger than he thought), and takeoffs were delayed by 2 hours. They were pleasant enough and fed us and plowed us with drinks. A cute 3 year old 2 rows away with a very annoying video game. I finally had to ask the parents to turn off the sound.

We got to Teipei at midnight or so and were greeted with a sign saying that drug trafficking is punishable by death. Cute. Such fun-loving people,

Getting money from the ATM was fun. Ann convinced me to get $100, and I got a nice shiny 100 Taiwan dollar note. Then we realized that the exchange rate was 30 to the US dollars, so I nicely had about $3US in my hand. So back to the ATM to do it again for more. Well see how much my bank charges me for that stupidity. An hour bus ride into the city and finally to our hotel in the city center. We collapsed into bed at 2AM, but still being on east coast time, it was hard to fall asleep.   

Beginning of the Road

3AM, Philadelphia @ the Watermark

So we are on the road. One might wonder why I'm up now. I know I am. One reason might be that I am trying to get on Taiwan time, 12 hours ahead. That might be a good assumption, but it would be wrong. We ate last night at a wonderful Thai restaurant in Philly, Trio, (Hi, Adrienne) which really was good. The first time. Now it isn't as much fun. I had the Drunken Noodles, and now my stomach has the hangover. Ah, well, I hope this doesn't portend other GI indiscretions in the future. And I was laughing at Ann for her Chinese food paranoia!

Daily Puppy

The Daily Puppy is a cute site to show puppies.  This shows an "American Eskimo", sometimes known as a Spitz.  Our first dog, Nikki, was a wonderful Spitz who lived 17 years.  He was wonderfully warm and protective of all of us.  When Paul was born, he began sleeping under the crib rather than on our bed.  Maybe he was looking for a few toes to nibble on, but it seemed more like protection!

Videos of Israel & Petra

You might be able to find my videos at www.youtube.com and search for "sjrockower"

Final Days

Ok, now I'm back in the States, and no longer jet lagged. I can write about the last few days of the trip. When I last wrote, we were in Jerusalem, preparing for our final dinner. This was at "Olives & Fish", around the corner from our hotel. We were all very nostalgic about the trip, and marveled at how much we had seen and done (and hardly had any arguments!). A representative of Mabat Tours was there to thank us for our visit and gave us a souvenir Jerusalem plate with some marzipan. More later about the gifts that kept on giving. Danny gave some concluding remarks, but his remarks at Rabin's grave had been so much more poignant. He discussed the ancient history, the modern history, and the social-political climate of modern-day Israel. Near the conclusion of his remarks, my friend, Joe Lowe, arrived, and we had coffee and desert next door at another restaurant, Cup of Joe. He was accompanied by his wife, Anat, and we had a chance to catch up.

The next morning, we all piled into the bus again for the trip to Ben Gurion airport. It had to be an early departure(7:30), since one is never sure of traffic conditions. As it turned out, traffic wasn't too bad, and we got to the airport early. We bade good-bye to the half of the trip who were going home, and had to quickly collect Mimi who was busy off the bus taking pictures. We then went to the other terminal for the domestic flight to Eilat. Noam, our guide, was joined by his wife, Yael, who had never been to Petra.

A puddle jumper to Eilat (so to speak, as there aren't really any puddles), and we arrived at a little airport. The bus ride to the hotel, the Rimonim (formerly the Neptune) took all of 3 minutes, and I protested that we could have walked. The rooms weren't ready since it was only 11:30, so we piled the luggage into a storage room and went out to the Aquarium, a short car ride down the old Egyptian coast. This was actually quite cool, as there was an underwater viewing station. The exhibits were fascinating and we got some great pictures. There was a Disney-style movie and ride which was a little cheesy, but cute.

Once we did get into our rooms later, I went out to walk by myself, and easily walked to the airport. Nearby was the Eilat History Museum and the Art Museum, with fish statues all around, a la the pandas in Washington, the lions in Jerusalem, and, I suppose the apples in New York. Eilat has the quality of Coney Island or Ocean City: lots of "honky-tonk".

The next morning, we again piled into the bus for the trip to the border. We had to exit Israel, and walk about 100 yards across "no man's land" to the Jordanian side. I thought I'd get a picture of the guard at the gate, but he saw me take the picture and motioned me to come over to him and watched as he made me delete the picture. Oh, well, taking orders from a 21 year old... Once we were on the Jordanian side, it was like we had gone back into the early 1900's. While we waited for our passports to be returned, some braved the toilets. None worked or flushed, and some were "squatty-potties". I was reminded of the time in 1969 when I crossed Check Point Charlie into East Berlin and had left modern civilization and gone into another era.

We found our Jordanian guide (Noam was not allowed to guide here), and took the 1 1/2 hour ride to Petra. We were supposed to ride down the canyon on some type of horse-drawn buggies, but there weren't enough for the whole group, and only the least capable rode down to wait for us. We walkers were satisfied to be able to get a little exercise, and there were some discussions from the guide of the Nabateans who build the complex.

Once we got to the bottom of the canyon, we were amazed to see the carvings that were the actual sites here. The "Treasury" was 50 feet high and carved into the rock 2000 years ago. Actually, it had deteriorated some since it was rediscovered in the 1830's by people trying to find riches (which weren't there). The evidence of the "original" condition was in hand drawn pictures by an Englishman, David Roberts. We learned of the burial caves and other things to be found at the site. We didn't climb the 900 steps necessary to get to the upper Temple. After a couple of hours, we climbed out and got back on the bus for the ride home. There was a stop at the Petra Marriott for lunch, where the food was part of the trip, but the beverages were not. Of course, the beverages were waaaay overpriced ($2.50 for a small water, $10 for a beer). Despite that, the trip had been well worth it to see these ancient carvings. And, at least, the modern facilities at the Marriott.

A return trip to the border and again a walk back to "our home". Since it was almost dark when we got back, there was a very noticeable visual difference between the lights of Eilat and the lack of lights in Aqaba.

Sleeping late on Wednesday, and even missed breakfast. We had a group lunch at an Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel, and then piled back on the bus to go to the airport. This flight took us back to Tel Aviv, but to the little Dov Hoz Airport, on the beach. There was one woman on the flight with bizarre frizzy two-tone hair and fingernails 2 1/2 inches long. She disappeared in the front of the airplane, and we all joked that she was the pilot (or maybe a "service lady"). As Bill Cosby said, "There's one in every car". Our previous bus driver, Moti, picked us up and took us to Ben Gurion in evening rush hour traffic (it rivals Washington!). The Mabat representative worked some magic to get us into a shorter security line for our luggage. When asked "Did anyone give you anything?", we told about the Mabat plates and the marzipan. That's when the discussions among the security agents stepped up 3 notches. They furiously talked to one another, frowned, looked at us, talked more to each other, disappeared for a while, came back, and looked more at us. When our luggage was xrayed, every one of us had to open our bags and produce those plates. The agent noted that we had eaten our marzipan, as he didn't see it on the xray. Ann allowed that she had taken one bite and threw out the rest! As I said, the gift that kept on giving. Luckily, we all passed security and we were allowed to get on the plane with our "dangerous" plates. 12 hours later, we were in Newark at 4:30 am. The sleepy customs agents didn't notice or care about the curry, zatar, or figs we were carrying. Another wait and a 1 hour flight to National. We hugged our good-byes and went home to sleep the day off and try to get acclimated to this new time zone.

Days 8 9 & 10 - Shabbat and beyond

Friday - Day 8
Ok, picking up again. I was sick Friday with a bad cold, so I did not go to Yad Vashem with the group. The weather had turned cold since we left Ramon, and it didn't help. I got some Claritin from a pharmacy(had to try 2 since the first was closed for vacation), and felt better by Friday night. Ann went to Yad Vashem and said it had been significantly improved since the last time we had been there. A new building and a new order of the exhibit. She was impressed, thet they had updated since the Holocaust Museum in DC had done such a good job.
Friday night we went to Tsur Hadassah for services. This is what was called a suburb, but felt more like an exurb. The little Reform community had fought for a building from the state, and finally got essentially a one room school house. It was a pre-fab building and very stark. A nice service and we spoke for a while with the members. The Reform movement seems to have very few native Israelis, and many English speakers. Our contact was a Canadian immigrant, and many of the families had at least 1 immigrant. We went to dinner afterward with some of the "mixed" families. This was a very pleasant experience. The families were artistic, and worked in metalsmithing and jewelry. We spoke of Ellen's current endeavors in Seattle. The other family did ceramics, and it turned out that the mezuzzah we have on our door at home was made by him! Very small world indeed. They have a small shop in Jerusalem, and he sells in America as well. We'll try to get him into the Temple Micah shop! On the drive back to the synagogue, the thermometer in the car read 6 degrees C, (about 41F - I SAID it was cold!!!)

Saturday - Day 9
Shabbat is Shabbat, especially in Israel. The pace is very slow and there is a very restful quality to it. We awoke late and meandered over to the Armenian and Christain Quarters of the Old City. Pottery and more pottery. It is still cold, but moderating some. I am not shivering in my sweatshirt.
We had Havdallah on the roof which was short and sweet. Also cold since it was outside.
Dinner at El Gaucho, a South American restaurant. Good steaks, and even chicken for Ann. The waitress was a very cute immigrant from Chile who somehow managed to speak English with an Israeli accent.

Sunday - Day 10
Sunday is Yom Rishon, the First Day, a regular work day. Everything is open and busy. We went to the Hadassah hospital on Mt. Scopus to get the usual hospital tour. For those who don't know, this hospital was the original hospital built in the 1930s. After the 1948 War of Independence, it fell into Jordanian hands and was converted to horse stables and destroyed. O Jerusalem has a terrific explanation of the fight for and loss of this area. Hadassah built another hospital in the Ein Kerem neighborhood in western Jerusalem (with the Chagall windows). After 1967, they built a new hospital on Mt. Scopus, and have expanded it. It serves a mixed Arab/Jewish population.
Then to Mt. Herzl, the Arlington Cemetery of Israel. This cemetery has the remains of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism. We couldn't get close to his grave site since the army was rehearsing for the parade and marching in preparation of Independence day, Yom Haatzmaut in April. We went to Rabin's grave, and Danny gave a very moving talk and prayer. The Herzl museum was a little hokey, but tried to give some explanation of his vision for a homeland for all the Jews.
The closing dinner is tonight, and we should see my friend Joe Lowe afterwards. He was a resident with me at Ein Kerem in 1978, and we have kept in touch over the years. He has hosted the wandering Rockower Jews on many occasions, and I often catch up with him at the AAOS meetings in the states. This year it was in New Orleans during this trip. I chose to come here instead but luckily he has returned in time for a meeting.
Tomorrow back to the heat in Eilat and then on to Petra. I'm not sure of the internet accessability, but I'll try.

Politics: Days 6, 7 & partial 8

I apologize for the tardiness of posts. Getting to a reliable internet connection is difficult when we are running from 7am to 10 PM. I can only take the time today since I didn't go with the group because of the disease I am carrying (and spreading to the group - more later) and could find a real internet cafe where I have the time to write, and not worry about being cut off. The hotels (which are exceedingly expensive anyway) make you buy the time in advance, and it just cuts you off when your time is up. If you want more, you have to go purchase it and come back to the computer. I found an internet cafe on Jaffa Street where I get all the time I want, and I pay less than 1/3 the price. At least now I'm sympathetic to Levantine seeing how much time it takes to get a reasonable blog done. Now back to business.

Wednesday - Day 6
We got on the bus to go to the Separation fence near Bethlehem and Gilo. This is in the southern section of Jerusalem, within the "Municipal Borders" but in the "West Bank". Real estate is very special and confusing here, as everyone gets VERY caught up in blocks, yards, and feet. In this area, Gilo is a neighborhood built outside the Green Line (The 1949 Armistice line), but inside the municipal area of Jerusalem. Of course, they never told us when this municipal boundry was decided, but this is still very close to the downtown part of Jerusalem, still south and west of the old city, The barrier here is a tall cement barrier, with additional 12 foot "Jersey Walls" on the Gilo side. It seem the people who were on the Palestinian side were using high-power rifles to shoot across the valley into people's apartments. Not fun to have a potshot taken out of your refrigerator. The closeness of the opposing sides is beyond belief. It is as if people from DC were shooting across Western Avenue into Chevy Chase, Maryland. Welll, maybe they do, but not too often.
We had a lecture by a talking head, Neil Lazarus concerning the problems of the city and how the Israelis are _mostly_ building along the western side of the city, north and south, but still in formerly Jordanian occupied territory.
Having said that, we spoke about the newer plans for building more on the eastern side of the city. This is the most recent controversy relating to the announcement just prior to Biden's trip here. We spoke of the 45 minute dressing down Hillary gave to Bibi, and noted that this was also a significant snub BY the United States since it was the Sec. of State talking to the Prime Minister, not head of state to head of state. By the time I am writing this on Friday morning, most of it seems to have died down, since we have moved on to other flash points.

We went into the Old City, surrounded by the new walls built in 1570 something by Sulieman the Great. We went to the Westen Wall and saw how the men's side had significantly expanded crowding out the women. I watched in amusement as 3 cleaning guys scraped the written messages out of the wall. Maybe a message/prayer has a expiration time and they have to redo them. We went down the tunnel along the rest of the Western wall, which is still under the Arab sections of the city. The excavations go down 30 feet or more back to the earliest settlements of Jerusalem and the building of the Temple by Herod. Coming out of the tunnel in the Arab section, we had an armed guard escorting us back to the Jewish Quarter. The people in the shuk (stores) seemed somewhat dumbfounded by all this, but they are not the problem. They are just trying to make a shekel.

After lunch we went to the Davidson Center, exploring the excavations along the South wall of the Temple Mount. This was the main entrance to the Temple in Biblical days, and we saw the fallen stone from the southwest corner that was inscribed, "Here is the place to call the people to prayer". There was more in the museum that we missed because of time restraints. Ann & I had seen in in 2004 when we were here. There had been a very cool 3D presentation of the history of the site from a hill to the 1st Temple to the 2nd Temple to the present-day mosque and Dome of the Rock.

At the end of the day, we gathered back in the hotel for a presentation by Yoel Hassan, one of the youngest members of the Kinesset, and one of the founders of the Kadima Party. This is the centrist party founded by Ariel Sharon to try to bridge the divides. He was one of Sharon's "Kiddie Corp" as many of that government's functionaries were young (in the 20's). He gave us 45 minutes talking about strengthening education for all, electoral reform of the Israeli system, criticizing Bibi, and approving a 2 state solution. He was actually very persuasive, and might be a significant rising star. We also heard from a fellow Sharon graduate, Oren Magnezy, who had more time to give us. Most of the group remained interested/awake throughout the 2 hour session, but there few a few drop-outs.

Thursday Day 7

Long drive to Tel Aviv. We went to Independence Hall, where the State was established in May 1948. This was on the very spot of the first house of Tel Aviv, built on the sand dunes outside Jaffa in 1909 by Meyer Diezengoff who later became Mayor. They spoke about the War of Independence and how Israel absorbed the refugees from the war in Europe and the refugees from the arab lands immediately after. Very moving.
Lunch in Jaffa, and on to the new Rabin Center. This was a pretty well done exhibit detailing his life and death. It started with a large video from the rally just before he was shot, talking about how Peace was the only answer. There was an audio-visual tour, where your headphones picked up the sound in front of each pane/video and played the appropriate section. It worked, mostly. There were videos of his life, and the events in Israel at each point. The video of his speech from the White House lawn when he and Arafat signed the Oslo Agreement with Clinton showed portions of the Seeds of Peace delegation, including Joel Bloom and Tim Wilson who were instrumental in setting up and running the camp (formerly Camp Powhatan. Go Gray!!!) We had a spirited discussion afterward with a member of the museum staff who was accompanying us until time restraints again got in the way.
Dinner was in a restaurant called Maganda in Jaffa, a wonderful Yemenite restaurant. The walls were covered with old photos of the founder's family from 80-100 years ago, and how the restaurant was started in the 60's by the father of the present owner. The food was good, too, with salads fist (Always Salads!) followed by kabobs of meat and chicken and baklava for desert. Oren Magnezy joined us again (it was his birthday) and we spoke more of the politics.

Friday Day 8

I am sick. I have been sneezing for the past 2 days, and now have the full crud. I did not go with the group to Yad Vashem today, but hopefully will get to join them for Shabbat.

Days 4 & 5 - Negev to Jerusalem

I tried to do an entry yesterday, but the internet connection in the hotel in Ramon in the Negev was so crappy, I couldn't get anything done. And since the idiots made me buy only 20 minutes at a time, the whole connection would time out befor I could get anything uploaded. So here we are in Jerusalem after a busy 2 days.

Yesterday in the Negev was spent at the Ramon Crater. Not a real crater from an asteroid or anything, nor was it from anything volcanic. It is called a "Machtesh" whis is a huge crater formed by a type of erosion from the inside. Not like the Grand Canyon where a river ran through it, but a mountain that collapsed on one side leaving a hollow. Only this hollow was 25 miles long and 9 miles wide! We drove in Jeeps (not Pink)into the depth of the crater (in a wind/sand storm) and saw what we could of the geologic formations. Our guide, Yankel, was very colorful as he explained the formation of the crater. He is the former director of the Israeli Nature Society, and had lots to say. More later about him/
We went on to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev where David Ben Gurion retired. We saw his living quarters, and went through a small museum dedicated to his life, both personal and political. The only picture in his bedroom was that of Mahatma Ghandi. He was a real visionary, predicting much of what Israel and the world was going to be, even in the 1930's. He especially loved the Negev, which is why he retired there.
We went to Avdat, a Nabotean ruin in the Negev. The Naboteans were an ancient people who maintained "way stations" along the travel routes from North to south to Petra. They called it the "Incense Route". More about Petra next week. They knew how to control and capture the little water there is in the desert, and were able to survive. At least, that is, until the Romans came and changed the routes. The died out in the 700's.
We went back to Ramon, and some of us went to the Visitor Center to get more information about the crater: a movie, some exhibits, etc. I couldn't get any good pictures because of the sandstorm, but on the way out I had a very strange encounter. A gentlemen saw the shirt I was wearing (Maryland) and asked if I was American. He introduced me to 3 young adults who were with him, saying they were from Utah. His accent was Israeli. We made small talk, and he asked me if I was a believer. This worked into a conversation about the afterlife and what I thought of Jews for Jesus. When I told him I thought they all were crazy, I bade them goodby and quickly left. The whole experience was strange: being proselytized for Jesus by an Israeli in Israel.
After dinner, we had another talk by Yankel. He spent 1 1/2 hours on politics of Israel, and all the conflicts. He is a very special guy, who has very patriotic and practical feelings toward Israel. I don't have time to go more into it now, but may later.

Tuesday - Day 5

20 degrees colder. Long sleeves and sweater all day! We drove to Masada and took the cable car up. I was not going to climb at any rate, but they didn't give us the choice. The age range of our trip ranges from 55 to about 70. Masada was interesting as always, as they recounted the life and death of the Zealots in 73 CE as they resisted the Romans.
A drive by of the Dead Sea, and we went to Ein Gedi. We did not get to hike into the spring or along the Wadi, but instead saw a 4th-5th Century synagogue they had uncovered. This was much different thaan the one in Zippori, as the orientation was now toward Jerusalem, and the motifs of the mosaics had changed. No Zodiacs, no images of people.

Back up out of the depths of the Dead Sea to go up to Jerusalem. A stop on Mt. Scopus overlooking the old city for a prayer from Danny and some great pictures as the setting sun broke out of the clouds.

Tomorrow more politics. I understand there are some reports of violence here in Jerusalem. For what it's worth, we have not seen or heard any, and I would suppose we will be kept away from any areas of police activity. None the less, I'll keep an eye out, and in the spirit of my daughter's former photojournalism career, I keep my camera ready.

Day 3 - North to South

A very political day. We started with a tour given by Lydia Aisenberg of the Givat Haviva organization which is working for the reunification of Palestinian families separated by either the Green Line or the Security Fence. She is a Welsh immigrant from the 1980's and is working to fix the inequities resulting from arbitrary and semi-arbitrary border lines. We toured the places where the security fence bent in funny ways to include some Israeli villages/settlements within the security zone, but well outside the Green Line of the 1948 borders. We also went to East & West Baarta, which is a town split in 2 by the green line. The line was drawn by diplomats in Cyprus to go through a valley, but they didn't know (or maybe care) that there was a town there. We saw the ditch which used to be the border, and how the border literally went down the center of a street. Since then, it has grown to a sizable town, with kids intermingling from both sides. The problems arize when other family members are on the "wrong" side of the line.
As far as the fence itself, she seemed of 2 minds about it. She acknowledged that the number of bombings and terrorist acts had decreased significantly since its erection, but complained that it was indeed a barrier to peace. I understand her thoughts about the tortured twists and turns the fence takes (and it really is a fence for 95% of its length) and acknowledged that the Israelis have dismantled 4 towns on the "wrong" side of the fence and moved those residents. This is really a very complex issue, which seems far beyond the politicians who want to proceed along broad general lines. Here, they are talking about yards.
We drove south along Highway 6 which parallels the portion where there is a real wall, made of cement approximately 30 feet high. On the Israeli side, there is a berm to within a few feet of the top, but it is 30 feet high on the other side.
South, South, South through a sandstorm which obliterated the sun and made for a lot of haze. We came to Sderot, which is a stone's throw (or a Kessem Rocket's ride) from Gaza. There haven't been any rockets in over a year now, but the people have shelters all over town. The bus stops have cement bunkers. The schools have bunkers. The apartment complexes have bunkers. When the alarm sounds, the people have 20 seconds to get to protection. We stopped at a community center for kids, adults and elders. The kids who were there mugged for the cameras and had a good time. They were interested in my unipod for the camera, not having seen one before. The people we talked to had different reactions to being so close to Gaza. Many cannot leave as they really have no place to go. This is not a rich town at all. Some had a typical Israeli attitude of "We'll survive and go on", but they have many programs (organized by the government and by the Joint Distribution Committee) to provide stress counseling. Interesting.
Then further south past Be'er Sheva to Ramon where we will see the crater tomorrow. The temperature has gone up by about 20 degrees. Tshirts and shorts.

Israel Day 2 - Shabbat & Zippori

Interesting day and evening last night. Shabbat last night at Or Hadash was wonderful. Temple Micah was transported to Haifa and we were at home. Even though the entire service was "in the vernacular" - entirely in Hebrew - we understood it all as the songs were Micah-esque and the Rabbi was Danny's clone. Actually his singing voice is better than Danny's. Danny gave the sermon entirely in Hebrew to their congregation, but knowing Danny's speech patterns, I could follow along. We also met the parents of Tal, our visiting teacher. Afterwards, we had dinner with the congregation as well as a Boston delegation that also supports this synagogue. They have been instrumental in consolidation and integration the Ethiopian community. It was very moving to see and hear the Ethiopians speaking fluent Hebrew and becoming part of Israeli society, despite the obvious difficulties.
Shabbat was a late morning, and we headed for Mt. Carmel. This is where Elijah fought the representative of Ba'al to prove whose god was stronger. Obviously, we know who won.
Next was a bus ride to Zippori, a Roman town at the time of the 2nd Temple, which became an important center for the rabbis after the destruction of the Temple. There were numerous mosaics on the floors, but most spectacularly, a synagogue from about 2-300 CE. The mosaics represented an amalgam of Greek, Roman, and Hebrew/Aramaic, with depictions of biblical scenes, but also a zodiac. It was obvious that Judaism was evolving and the rabbis of that time were trying to incorporate "modern" thought into their beliefs. Sort of like the Reform Movement.
The rest of the afternoon was spent napping.
Shabbat was over and the town came alive again. A bunch of us went to a seafood restaurant. The St. Peter's fish was good, but not as good as I remember in Tiberias.
Tomorrow we go south. Heading for Sderot and a more politically-oriented day.

Day 1 - Friday

First stop - Atlit - where the British used to house the refugees in the late 40's before the state. The people who were coming from the camps in Europe had to deal with another VERY similar looking camp with barbed wire and separation of the sexes. Also they has "disinfection" and "showers" to go through which must have been VERY chilling. At least the people were fed by the British. We saw a movie how Yitzak Rabin helped free 250 of them one night. It brought back memories of when I was here with Ellen, and we had done a role play with the kids trying to "escape".
Then to Zichron Yaakov, one of the first moshavot from the first Aliyah in the 1880's. They had a very hard time, and appealed to Baron Rothschild for help. He sent his men who bought up all the land and basically subjugated the settlers. After about 10 years, they finally relented and returned the land, but it wasn't pretty. We spent way too much time going through a museum to the Aliyah, and I bolted to wander in the park across the street. Lunch of schwarma and felafel on the walking street. Satisfying, but not scrumptious. (I had to say that for Paul's sake)
Now we are waiting for Shabbat at the hotel. We are going to a sister congregation of Temple Micah, Or Kadash. The people who have been there say it is a clone of Micah. I'll give my report tomorrow if I can get on the internet on Shabbat.

Beginnings in Israel

So it was a long flight. Two, actually, if you count the puddle jumper from National to Newark (which was 45 minutes late). The flight from Newark to Tel Aviv was uneventful. Ann got through the "extra" security in Newark without a hitch, and we were off. The plane was entirely full, and we were in the LAST row. That means the seats don't go back much at all. UGGGH.

The nicest part of the plane was the electronics. Over 250 movies to choose from, 150 music albums, games, shorts and also a map! It kept the time going..

Arrival in Tel Aviv went well untill gathering the entire group in one place. This IS Temple Micah, so some had wandered outside customs when we were all still inside. Eventually we got it all together.

A 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Haifa, slowed because of rush hour traffic. Yes, even here! We first went to the top of Mt. Carmel to see the view and say a Shehechiyanu. Danny is Danny, but it was good.

Dinner at the Crown Plaza Hotel, with the same wonderful view. The hotel is built into the side of the hill, so the lobby is on the 9th floor!

Hopefully more tomorrow. You're welcome, Adrienne

2nd Post

So this is my second post, to see what's happening. Medical Society stuff continues, with Annapolis slowly trudging along. Interesting bills this year include the Assignment of Benefits, Nurse Practitioners, and Apology. MCMS march on Annapolis March 10!