Shalom! from Tel Aviv..... (My first visit in 2007)

Sent: Nov 26, 2007 7:42 AM
Subject: Shalom! from Tel Aviv

This is Sunday morning - 7:15am. I am sitting in the balcony of my 16th floor hotel room overlooking midtown Tel Aviv on the right side and a vast expanse of the beach on the left. The Mediterranean Sea seems lazy from this vantage point. I can see little waves disappearing into the sandy beach which is almost vacant of any human traffic. A stray runner sometimes jogs across sparking a desire in me to dash down and join him/her but alas, I can't. I am waiting here in my room to be picked up by the tour bus as I am on my way to Masada and the Dead Sea today.

This is my 3rd day in Israel. I landed here on Friday at 9:30am. The Continental flight from the US was tiresome, as any 10.5 hour non-stop flight can be in coach class. Some of my co-passengers were orthodox jews whose practice and mannerisms aboard the flight provided me a sliver of window into their world. It was a big aircraft and at the back there was a large kitchen area where the crew busied themselves with their duties. Thrice during the flight, men in black attire and hats scurried about draped in a "tallit" ( a long beige shawl with black stripes shawl) and wearing "Tzitzits". They congregated in the kitchen/pantry area and performed prayers. It was my first time but I found the ceremony fascinating.

At Newark, there was a special gate assigned for the flight to Israel. There were two sets of security screenings - one at check-in and the other at the departure gate just prior to boarding. That gate was accessible not until 45 minutes prior to departure.

Upon arriving at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport, I was grilled (more like sauteed) twice separately by two women officials. Took me a while to clear immigrations. The second woman was very tough and very attractive to look at. She shot questions at me with rapid fire briskness. Why am I visiting? Why am I carrying a laptop? Where do I work in NYC? Show me your business card? So, who is handling your job while you are here on vacation? I told her my colleague Adam Greene is handling my work. Who is Adam Greene??? He is a VP, I answered. I spoke with a dead pan expression but was hysterical within. I have no idea why Adam's name shot through my cranium but I spat it out and it was too late to inhale the word back into my mouth. Do you know anyone in Israel? I told her about Gadi. How do know Gadi? I told her that I met him online about a month ago. She looked at me directly into my eyes. I did not blink. She burst into a smile for the first time during the interrogation. I smiled too. We both silently acknowledged each other. She let me go.

The Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport is rather impressive! It is a new terminal and very modern and sleek. After the sauteeing interogative exercise, I collected myself and dashed to grab my bag and exited the terminal to catch a cab to the hotel. Gadi had advised not to take a cab charging me more than 130 NIS (New Israeli Shekels) and if a cab driver bothered me, I was to text message Gadi immediately who would then call and settle the fare with the driver. So I insisted on settling the cab fare with the driver before getting into the cab. "110 Shekels", he spat out and I dived into the cab. The ride from the airport to the hotel afforded me an opportunity to check out TLV. The market places, the structures of private dwellings reminded me of Delhi. Yes, very similar to the facade of Delhi but of course much cleaner, less crowded and slightly fancier. Apparently, Israel has a thriving economy. The country is doing well. The standard of living is very high as compared to others in the region. The infrastructure is similar to any European country but at heart it is very middle-eastern.

After arriving at the hotel at 11am, as per my instructions, I sent a text message to Gadi who called me immediately. He insisted that I have a quick shower and meet him right away. I, on the other hand, was ready to crash and take a long nap but Gadi would hear none of it. I met Gadi at 1:30pm and we went out walking into the city. He took me around to help me get familiar with the neighborhood and give me a general idea of the city, places to see and dine at, and various other pointers about getting around in TLV. We walked through the famous Carmel market which is a long, slim, colorful street abuzz with frenetic shopping activity, a riot of sights, sounds and smell and extremely congested. You can't walk through it without brushing against another person. We also walked through a handicrafts market adjacent to Carmel where we browsed at various stalls displaying beautiful artwork and other very engaging handicrafts. Gadi bought me a few DVDs of Israeli movies and a bunch of audio CDs of Israeli music. It was very generous and sweet of him. He wouldn't let me pay for anything. He insisted on paying for everything. I almost had to fight him over this. We stopped at a delightful coffee shop - Cafe/Cafe - where I enjoyed a marvelous cuppa soy latte. Yumm! Gadi paid. Israel has a very active and thriving coffee culture. Reminds me of Barcelona. There are cozy, comfy coffee cafes everywhere and the coffee is excellent. They have Turkish coffee, Arabic coffee (it is filtered coffee spiced with cardamom - delish!!), expressos, Americana and other varieties. I believe Starbucks descended upon Israel but the Israelis booted it out as no one here cared for their coffee. It was declared as putrid for the Israeli palate. The local opinion about America is not as flattering as I had suspected it to be. People are critical of America and more than once in my confabulations America was labeled "dumb" and "puerile". Ouch! So much for the American-Israeli relations!

Okay, back to Friday - later in the evening Gadi took me to this wonderful middle-eastern restaurant (here they refer "middle-eastern" to be "oriental") - a very modest establishment, even more modest prices but the food was out of this world!!!! I paid for dinner after waging a war with Gadi which included stomping my foot, grinding my teeth, thumping the table, and various threats and ultimatums hurled.....he reciprocated in equal measure...but I won the contest this time around! Phew! That man exhausts me! When the check arrived, the dinner was only 90 Shekels (one Dollar is around 3.9 Shekels). I looked at Gadi who flashed a mischievous smile. He had planned it. He knew it would be a very small amount! Argh!!! Earlier while shopping and browsing I ran out of cash and he doled out wads of notes to pay for my purchases. I resisted and he admonished me. (Of course, I reimbursed him as soon as I came upon an ATM but he didn't want me to worry about not having any cash on me as I browsed and shopped). He sounded like a combo of Tiffany and Carissa together admonishing me. Can you imagine this - I just met this guy 3 hours ago and he was treating me as if he had adopted me!! Why do people in my life feel the urge to adopt me????? Argh!!! By the way, he is 6 feet and 2 inches tall and verrrrry slim. Did I tell you I met him online a month ago and he has been extremely good to me. He is scheduled for a colonoscopy on Monday afternoon. He is taking a day off from work on Tuesday to be with me - I am trying my best to dissuade him from doing so.

So that was Friday. Saturday (yesterday) morning I was to meet my friend Monica in Jerusalem. She was driving in from Jordan to spend the day with me in Jerusalem. I was out of the hotel at 8am and was given step by step instructions by Gadi how to reach Jerusalem via local transportation. He also wrote the Hebrew dialogues and their English translations and made me recite the dialogues in Hebrew until I attained phonetic accuracy. So, armed with the instructions I descended upon the street to hail a "Sharut". A Sharut is basically a van with seating capacity of 20 people. The charge is typically 5 Shekels per trip to anywhere in the city. I was to ride the Sharut to "Central Station" where I was to hop on to another Sharut to Jerusalem. I waited at the corner for 30 minutes before one arrived who was willing to take me. The other two did not have any empty seats left and so did not stop at the sight of my flailing arms. I managed to reach Jerusalem by 9:40am after changing a Sharut at Central Station. Met Monica and then our day began in the walled Old City of Jerusalem (or Yerushalayem). We walked for hours winding through the Arab Quarters, the Jewish Quarters, the Armenian Quarters and the Christian Quarters all within the Old City. We floated through the "Via Dolorosa", the precise path Jesus walked through with the cross (except I had my Rockports and he didn't!); we visited the "Dome of the Rock" where Abby (Abraham) is to have laid his son Issy (Isaac) on a rock in preparation of a sacrifice (we weren't allowed access to the Mosque upon the rock due to Sabbath prayers); we visited the "Church of the Holy Sepulchre" which houses the areas where Jesus was crucified, then brought down and then laid to rest in the sepulchre; we visited the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall) which is a special place for prayer on Sabbath (we visited it on Sabbath - no photography is allowed). I walked up to the wall, scrutinized the wall gorged with innumerable little pieces of paper from people listing their wishes thereupon, touched it, checked out some of the dudes plastered plastered on the wall with their arms and legs spread eagle (what??? They were cute and I could help checking them out even if it is one of the holiest sites in the world!), turned around and came away. Later Monica informed me that the etiquette demands that you don't turn your back to the wall as you walk away. Oh well, I am going to Hell anyway, whatever.....!!!! We wrapped up our visit to the Holy City with a stop over at the Garden of Gethsemane (we all know what happened there, right?? The place where Jesus was betrayed by that dude Judas). The garden still house gnarled olive trees which are 2000 years old. Argh!!! They looked scary!

Wrapping up our visit to Jerusalem, Monica and I returned to Tel Aviv where we met our friend Jeff and we had a delish meal at a Thai restaurant very close to my hotel. We chatted, exchanged old tales of yore and then parted for the night. I was exhausted! Dropped into bed in preparation of today's program.

Okay go to go now. Will write more about my travels a little later. I am not sending to Heather lest she keels over in dismay and absolute horror at yet another the long detailed email from me but you can provide her a synopsis if she cares for it.

Lechim (Cheers in Hebrew)
Lehitraot (See you soon in Hebrew)
Deepak

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T