Israel: Dead Sea & Jericho

Something I was looking forward to do in Israel was to float in the Dead Sea. Well, I can't say swim because it's pretty much impossible to do so. The Dead Sea has 33% salt concentration, ten times more than a regular sea so once you enter, you begin to float. Unfortunately, I managed to taste some of the sea and the saltiness stayed in my mouth for quite some time before leaving! It was absolutely yucky.

Before our dip in the lowest part of the world (400m below sea level), we visited the Ahava factory store nearby. It is the place where they make and bottle all their famous products with ingredients like the mud and salt from the Dead Sea. Because of that, we were able to enter their Dead Sea spa for free!

We couldn't stay too long in the sea so after that, we drove to Jericho where we saw Mount of Temptation. It was where Jesus was tempted by Satan after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. Satan asked Jesus to command stones to become bread. That was when the famous phrase 'Men shall not live by bread alone but by the word of God' was born. 

Jericho was under Palestinian control and so, as usual, we felt really afraid going in. It was there that we had our most expensive meal in Israel. Our 'guide' brought us to his brother's restaurant, fed us tonnes of food to the point that we asked him to stop and then charged us a bomb. There was no menu and the cost of the food was very unclear. These people like to be sly and hide things from you. If you ask them the cost of the food before eating, they'd tell you not to worry and just enjoy your food. 

To get to the Mount of Temptation, we took a cable car. Well, the cable car stuck out like a sore thumb in their city. In the poor environment where houses are shabby and people are few, there stood a cable car running for a considerable distance and height. After we paid for our ticket, we got up to the ride and found a big group of kids waiting for us so that they could get a ride on the other carriages going up with us. I felt really sad for the people. They're really poor and it seems like tourism is possibly one of their only sources of income :'(

View from Mount of Temptation

Once we got up to the mountain, there was nothing other than a monastery (what a waste of money). There, we met a Singaporean couple and discovered that the monastery was closed. Dad being dad, climbed the steep stairs up to knock on its door. We stayed up there for some time till we noticed a group of monks ascending the foot of the mountain. They eventually got up to the monastery which opened for them but refused to let us in -.- The monastery apparently contains the stone which Jesus sat on while he was fasting. 

While trying to get in, a palestinian came by and told us that he'd help us. After squabbling with the keeper of the monastery, the palestinian asked us for money to let us in. I was really offended because this man had turned a religious place into a money-making business. If it was for the maintenance of the monastery, I would understand. But if it was meant to be a bribe, forget it. The rock pales in comparison to seeing Jesus, so no thank you.

Although the day didn't end off that well, I was amazed by the variety of landscapes in Israel. We travel from the coastal town of Jaffa to the pretty green Jerusalem before entering the deserts on our way to Jericho! And despite the rough terrain, the people in Jericho grow bananas! Amazing?