Day 79, October 3rd, 2008
The political situation between Israel and her neighbors is complicated at best which I’m sure comes as no surprise to anyone. Most Arab countries, and several others, do not recognize Israel as a sovereign state. Luckily, Egypt and Jordan both have treaties with Israel recognizing her as an independent state. Because of these treaties, tourists and nationals may cross the border. It’s not quite that simple, though, because Jordan still claims some of the territory of the West Bank as it’s own as does the Palestinian Authority. The West Bank is one of the most disputed areas on Earth. For the moment, it is the Israeli government that controls it. Even with the treaties in place, it is still a major production so get across the Israeli/Jordan border.
There are three places from which to cross: the Sheik Hussein Bridge which is north by Galilee, the King Hussein Bridge which is closest to Amman and Madaba where we were staying, and the Arava land crossing which is at Aqaba where I entered Jordan.
Since we were staying in Madaba, we wanted to cross at the King Hussein Bridge. This crossing also affords one more advantage for many travelers which is that Jordan won’t stamp your passport upon exiting the country. Here, you are crossing into the West Bank and since they claim it as their own, they don’t see the need to stamp your passport if you really aren’t leaving Jordan.
This is important to many people because several countries will not allow entry if there is ANY evidence of a visit to Israel or Palestinian territories: Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Qatar, and Lebanon.
Once you cross the King Hussein Bridge, the Israelis stamp an entry/exit card instead of your passport thereby erasing, from any of the aforementioned countries, any evidence of time spent in Israel.
That is how it is suppose to work.
This is how it did work…..
I am traveling in Israel with 3 other people from my tour group: Maria, the crazy Colombian, and Karen and Brain who are two friends traveling together from Canada. We shared a taxi to the King Hussein Bridge, paid our departure tax, and gave our passports over to be examined and not get our stamp.
One passport, two passports, three passports…then my passport.
Apparently I had a different kind of visa from the other three which didn’t allow me to cross at the King Hussein Bridge. My visa was issued in Aqaba and they all got visas before they arrived. My three traveling companions were allowed to exit the country and I was stuck in Jordan.
I wasn’t really stuck, however, I was in a small race against time. My visa allowed me to exit Jordan at the Arava crossing or the Sheik Hussein Bridge. Arava was several hours away and the Sheik Hussein Bridge was about 50-60 miles north so I hopped, alone again, into a taxi bound there. It would take about an hour to get to the Sheik Hussen Bridge and I didn’t have too much longer than that to get across the border. Due to the Jewish Sabbath, the border shuts down on Friday afternoon through Sunday morning so if I didn’t make it on time, I’d be in Jordan for another couple of days.
When I got to the Bridge, it was a ghost town which made it more surprising to me the trouble that they gave me exiting Jordan. The first hassle is the transportation. I took a taxi to the Bridge, then you have to hire another taxi to take you through security, finally, you have to hire a bus to take you across the actual border.
The second hassle is the security. They unpacked every pocket of every bag that I had. After three months of travel, my backpack is not very orderly. It was a mess. Thank God that there were so few other people crossing here or it really would’ve been a disaster. As the Jordanian security was going through my bag, they are also playing with my belongings. They tried on several hats that I had and laughed at each other (and me too indirectly, I am assuming); They thumbed through some books I had and were asking me questions about the plots; They went through my entire toiletry bag asking me what prescriptions were for (diarrhea, heartburn, and hair loss, if you’d like to know) and why I had so much soap (gifts from the Dead Sea); They pulled out T-shirts I had bought and wanted to know why I chose these particular ones like my fashion decisions had national security implications. Mostly, I just think they were bored. As much of a hassle as it was, it was incredibly funny to see three men with machine guns trying on Nepalese hats. I was so tempted to ask for a picture but my time was running out and I didn’t want to risk spending the next week in a Jordanian prison.
After what seemed like hours of security, immigration, and transportation, I finally arrived into Israel.
Shalom!
From some internet blogs and from some of the Israelis that I had met in my travels, I had heard that the real fun begins once you cross into Israel. I had heard that security was incredibly tight and I would probably be pulled aside and interrogated. Once I actually got into Israel, besides the thorough search of the bus, immigration was quick. They did a cursory search of my belongings (2 minutes, maybe) and stamped my passport. My friends that crossed south of me at the busier King Hussen Bridge had considerable more trouble with Israeli immigration.
Since you're asking, yes, I did get my passport stamped. At this crossing, you cannot request the Jordanians to not stamp your passport because you are crossing directly into Israel officially leaving Jordan so it makes no difference if the Israelis stamp the passport. The evidence of a visit to Israel is stamped into your passport before you even enter. So I guess that there is no Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, North Korea, Libya, Syria or Lebanon for me. That actually reads like a list of countries at the bottom of my list of places I’d want to visit so I’m no too upset with my freshly stamped passport. Maybe someday, I’d like to see Syria and Lebanon but there are enough places in the world to see that I don’t think I’ll be missing out on too much.
Once I exited the border terminal and as the Jordanian side was earlier, the Israeli side was a ghost town. This is the much less frequently used crossing and as such, has none of the amenities of the one 50 miles south. Also, there, I would have been with 3 other people to split costs and get to where we wanted to be. Here, I was in the middle of nowhere, alone, and had no clue what my next step would be.
I decided that my first step had to be to find a taxi or bus station and an ATM. I waited outside the border station for over 45 minutes waiting for a taxi. No tourists crossing means no taxis. One finally came and wanted to charge me 50 sheckles or about 15 dollars to get the nearest town with a bus station that was 10 kilometers away. I didn’t want to pay that much but really had no other choice. I briefly thought that if I walked to Tel Aviv, I could make it in time for my flight home next week.
Once I got to the town, whose name escapes me right now, I had to figure out where I was going to get to before the Sabbath started and all the buses shut down. I was suppose to get to a town called Ein Gedi which was at least 4 hours south of where I was now with no direct transportation except for a taxi which would’ve cost more over $200. That was out. The taxi wanted to charge me $100 to get to Jerusalem but I found a bus for under $10. I figured that I’d get to Jerusalem, see if I could get a bus or reasonably priced car to Ein Gedi or just stay there and see if I could check into my hotel a day early.
Right now, I am in my hotel so staying in Jerusalem won out. By the time that I got here, there were no buses that could get me to Ein Gedi and it was still going to be too expensive to take a car. With a little luck, I’ll catch up with my friends here so we can travel the rest of Israel together.
I walked around for a long time last night when I got here. I am staying right inside Old City Jerusalem which is the location of almost all of the ancient places of significance. I am within a 10 minute walk of the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and Mt. Zion. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is right down the block about a 3 minute walk. The Church is where tradition says Golgotha was located. Golgotha was the “Skull Place” where Jesus was said to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. My hotel is right inside the Jaffa Gate, or David’s Gate (appropriate, I think) from which every conqueror of the City has entered. Also, my hotel is said to sit (if you remember your Old Testament or Rufus Wainwright songs) directly on the site that King David saw Bathsheba bathing and subsequently stole her from her husband. After the orchestrated death of her husband, Bathsheba became the wife of King David and eventually bore him the son, Solomon.
I guess for the rest of the day, I’ll start to explore Jerusalem some more and hopefully meet up with my friends tomorrow.
More updates later...
The political situation between Israel and her neighbors is complicated at best which I’m sure comes as no surprise to anyone. Most Arab countries, and several others, do not recognize Israel as a sovereign state. Luckily, Egypt and Jordan both have treaties with Israel recognizing her as an independent state. Because of these treaties, tourists and nationals may cross the border. It’s not quite that simple, though, because Jordan still claims some of the territory of the West Bank as it’s own as does the Palestinian Authority. The West Bank is one of the most disputed areas on Earth. For the moment, it is the Israeli government that controls it. Even with the treaties in place, it is still a major production so get across the Israeli/Jordan border.
There are three places from which to cross: the Sheik Hussein Bridge which is north by Galilee, the King Hussein Bridge which is closest to Amman and Madaba where we were staying, and the Arava land crossing which is at Aqaba where I entered Jordan.
Since we were staying in Madaba, we wanted to cross at the King Hussein Bridge. This crossing also affords one more advantage for many travelers which is that Jordan won’t stamp your passport upon exiting the country. Here, you are crossing into the West Bank and since they claim it as their own, they don’t see the need to stamp your passport if you really aren’t leaving Jordan.
This is important to many people because several countries will not allow entry if there is ANY evidence of a visit to Israel or Palestinian territories: Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Qatar, and Lebanon.
Once you cross the King Hussein Bridge, the Israelis stamp an entry/exit card instead of your passport thereby erasing, from any of the aforementioned countries, any evidence of time spent in Israel.
That is how it is suppose to work.
This is how it did work…..
I am traveling in Israel with 3 other people from my tour group: Maria, the crazy Colombian, and Karen and Brain who are two friends traveling together from Canada. We shared a taxi to the King Hussein Bridge, paid our departure tax, and gave our passports over to be examined and not get our stamp.
One passport, two passports, three passports…then my passport.
Apparently I had a different kind of visa from the other three which didn’t allow me to cross at the King Hussein Bridge. My visa was issued in Aqaba and they all got visas before they arrived. My three traveling companions were allowed to exit the country and I was stuck in Jordan.
I wasn’t really stuck, however, I was in a small race against time. My visa allowed me to exit Jordan at the Arava crossing or the Sheik Hussein Bridge. Arava was several hours away and the Sheik Hussein Bridge was about 50-60 miles north so I hopped, alone again, into a taxi bound there. It would take about an hour to get to the Sheik Hussen Bridge and I didn’t have too much longer than that to get across the border. Due to the Jewish Sabbath, the border shuts down on Friday afternoon through Sunday morning so if I didn’t make it on time, I’d be in Jordan for another couple of days.
When I got to the Bridge, it was a ghost town which made it more surprising to me the trouble that they gave me exiting Jordan. The first hassle is the transportation. I took a taxi to the Bridge, then you have to hire another taxi to take you through security, finally, you have to hire a bus to take you across the actual border.
The second hassle is the security. They unpacked every pocket of every bag that I had. After three months of travel, my backpack is not very orderly. It was a mess. Thank God that there were so few other people crossing here or it really would’ve been a disaster. As the Jordanian security was going through my bag, they are also playing with my belongings. They tried on several hats that I had and laughed at each other (and me too indirectly, I am assuming); They thumbed through some books I had and were asking me questions about the plots; They went through my entire toiletry bag asking me what prescriptions were for (diarrhea, heartburn, and hair loss, if you’d like to know) and why I had so much soap (gifts from the Dead Sea); They pulled out T-shirts I had bought and wanted to know why I chose these particular ones like my fashion decisions had national security implications. Mostly, I just think they were bored. As much of a hassle as it was, it was incredibly funny to see three men with machine guns trying on Nepalese hats. I was so tempted to ask for a picture but my time was running out and I didn’t want to risk spending the next week in a Jordanian prison.
After what seemed like hours of security, immigration, and transportation, I finally arrived into Israel.
Shalom!
From some internet blogs and from some of the Israelis that I had met in my travels, I had heard that the real fun begins once you cross into Israel. I had heard that security was incredibly tight and I would probably be pulled aside and interrogated. Once I actually got into Israel, besides the thorough search of the bus, immigration was quick. They did a cursory search of my belongings (2 minutes, maybe) and stamped my passport. My friends that crossed south of me at the busier King Hussen Bridge had considerable more trouble with Israeli immigration.
Since you're asking, yes, I did get my passport stamped. At this crossing, you cannot request the Jordanians to not stamp your passport because you are crossing directly into Israel officially leaving Jordan so it makes no difference if the Israelis stamp the passport. The evidence of a visit to Israel is stamped into your passport before you even enter. So I guess that there is no Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, North Korea, Libya, Syria or Lebanon for me. That actually reads like a list of countries at the bottom of my list of places I’d want to visit so I’m no too upset with my freshly stamped passport. Maybe someday, I’d like to see Syria and Lebanon but there are enough places in the world to see that I don’t think I’ll be missing out on too much.
Once I exited the border terminal and as the Jordanian side was earlier, the Israeli side was a ghost town. This is the much less frequently used crossing and as such, has none of the amenities of the one 50 miles south. Also, there, I would have been with 3 other people to split costs and get to where we wanted to be. Here, I was in the middle of nowhere, alone, and had no clue what my next step would be.
I decided that my first step had to be to find a taxi or bus station and an ATM. I waited outside the border station for over 45 minutes waiting for a taxi. No tourists crossing means no taxis. One finally came and wanted to charge me 50 sheckles or about 15 dollars to get the nearest town with a bus station that was 10 kilometers away. I didn’t want to pay that much but really had no other choice. I briefly thought that if I walked to Tel Aviv, I could make it in time for my flight home next week.
Once I got to the town, whose name escapes me right now, I had to figure out where I was going to get to before the Sabbath started and all the buses shut down. I was suppose to get to a town called Ein Gedi which was at least 4 hours south of where I was now with no direct transportation except for a taxi which would’ve cost more over $200. That was out. The taxi wanted to charge me $100 to get to Jerusalem but I found a bus for under $10. I figured that I’d get to Jerusalem, see if I could get a bus or reasonably priced car to Ein Gedi or just stay there and see if I could check into my hotel a day early.
Right now, I am in my hotel so staying in Jerusalem won out. By the time that I got here, there were no buses that could get me to Ein Gedi and it was still going to be too expensive to take a car. With a little luck, I’ll catch up with my friends here so we can travel the rest of Israel together.
I walked around for a long time last night when I got here. I am staying right inside Old City Jerusalem which is the location of almost all of the ancient places of significance. I am within a 10 minute walk of the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and Mt. Zion. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is right down the block about a 3 minute walk. The Church is where tradition says Golgotha was located. Golgotha was the “Skull Place” where Jesus was said to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. My hotel is right inside the Jaffa Gate, or David’s Gate (appropriate, I think) from which every conqueror of the City has entered. Also, my hotel is said to sit (if you remember your Old Testament or Rufus Wainwright songs) directly on the site that King David saw Bathsheba bathing and subsequently stole her from her husband. After the orchestrated death of her husband, Bathsheba became the wife of King David and eventually bore him the son, Solomon.
I guess for the rest of the day, I’ll start to explore Jerusalem some more and hopefully meet up with my friends tomorrow.
More updates later...
2 comments:
Amazing stuff Biondi. It is a similar process crossing the border from Missouri into Kansas.
I have to say, good riddance to the mustache! It made you look like your name should be "Snidely". You are way more handsome without it :) Can't wait to hear more about Isreal, good luck finding your friends!!! Keena
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