Entries this day: Dead_Sea!

Dead Sea!

9:13pm IST Monday 14 November 2005

Big big big big big big big big fun at the Dead Sea!!

It was originally my idea, so I was quite pleased when Dave and Ben chose to join me! Hisham told us to go early and stay late in En Gedi and guaranteed us a good time. He looked up bus routes and times for the main bus station in Jerusalem and I set my alarm for 7:15am so we could get the first bus there. 7:15am came earlier than planned and Ben easily convinced me to sleep in so we could take the next bus.

Dave was already well awake and had gone for a run, taken a shower, and eaten before we left. Ben and I both got morning sustenance on the 30+ minute walk to the bus station.

We were greeted with the most inane security at the bus station entrance. I was able to get my cellphone, camera, and wallet through without them being scanned. Simply put them in my bag as I walked through the metal detector and then put them in my pockets as my bag went through the X-ray machine.

Walked into what I expected to be a bus station and found a food court of a shopping mall! We followed signs upstairs to another mall looking area with ticket windows on one side. The first two windows were full, so I went to the next one, but it she grunted and pointed over her shoulder when I tried to get a ticket.

Went to the next window (which had become free) and she was like, "what?" when I asked if I could buy a ticket and wondered why she was in the same room as the first woman, and *then* I realized the first two windows were *tickets* and these other were *information*.

Ah. I saw they were labeled with signs that blended in well with the decor.

Got the tickets (54.4 NIS per person round trip from Jerusalem to En Gedi) at the next counter with limited problems. I forgot to ask her which gate to use, for the next customer was already pushing forward with an order.

Asked one of the many soldiers if he could tell me.

"No. You should ask information," he said, pointing to my original window.

I did that and I was like, [something] and she answered a different question or something and then something else, and we finally communicated enough so I knew to go to Gate 3.

There was a queue behind the door, but it was sparse and disinterested, so I figured we could walk to the front. Past a certain point, people became interested, and I asked a nice looking soldier if she knew if this bus went to En Gedi.

She said I should ask the driver, but the first guy in line kept pushing me toward the back of the line when I tried to speak to the driver, who was standing outside the bus trying to field queries from about 5 different people with different problems and varying degrees of impatience.

Various parts of the mob stayed in place, while various other parts seemed to move semi-smoothly onto the bus. Finally the driver spoke to Ben and Dave, saying something like, "this other guy (referring to the older guy who wouldn't let me talk to the bus driver) was here first, so if you don't mind, just wait a minute,"

Dave was like, "well we just wondered if this is the bus to En Gedi."

"How many people are you?"

"Three. One, two, three," pointing to himself, Ben, then me.

The driver looked at me before Dave finished counting, "and what do you want?"

"I'm with them."

And that seemed to be the back-breaker as he was like, "you three; go go to the other bus," and shooed us away.

We sorta wondered where he had pointed, but soon enough the next bus pulled up, and it had the correct bus number on it and it dawned that we had been barking up the wrong bus and that our bus was simply late.

People crammed for the door, and I commented to Ben, "they're not even letting anyone off the bus," but it turned out no one *wanted* off the bus. The driver punched each person's ticket as they boarded, and the mob slowly diminished outside the bus.

Right in front of me was the butt of a rifle, and I told Dave I wondered what it was for. He was like, "I dunno," and a soldier who saw me said, "-------" which only Ben heard, and then laughed.

Ben said he said, "to hide the pot," and I laughed, too.

We politely waited for everyone to get on the already crowded bus and ended up standing in the aisle with a bunch of soldiers for the first part of the journey.

I ended up next to the soldier who said the secret compartment was for pot, and I broke the ice by asking, "so, what is it really for?" and he explained that legend says back in Viet Nam, the soldiers used to hide drugs in the back.

"In fact, this little mark on the gun shows the exact middle of the gun," oh this gun doesn't have one, "but it shows the middle so we can balance it at that point and if it doesn't balance, we know there's something hidden in the gun."

This seemed like a pretty interesting story to me for two or three reasons: 1) it seems easily defeatable by stuffing some other counterweight in the barrel as well as drugs in the butt, 2) these guns were apparently used in the Viet Nam war, and 3) it wasn't "his" weapon, for he didn't know that there was no mark in the middle.

I didn't pursue any of these to continue the conversation, but just said, "wow."

He asked a bit about where I was from and what I was doing and what side of the wall I was on and blah blah blah and I was just a bit curious about my emotions; it was a bit delicate situation to be dancing around trying to see just what would make him say, "what do you mean?" or "what were you doing there?" or the like. He started to tell me both sides of the conflict, but said at the end, "and the other side is...." and just left it hanging. I didn't say, "and the other side is?" in an expectant way to remind him I was still listening, because, given how quietly and obtusely he was speaking, I didn't even know which side he had already described, and therefore if I was assumed to know what the other side was.

His stop came soon enough, so everything turned out fine when he said, "nice to meet you," shook my hand, and got off the bus.

Once we all got seats as the bus slowly emptied, we were seated near the back where I chatted a bit with a couple from the Czech Republic, and Ben talked to a really cute soldier.

The cute soldier translated that we have a ten minute break as the bus stopped at a rest area of sorts. People got out and took picture of various things and ate and smoke and played jump rope. Actually the jump ropers were with a different group.

I asked Dave and Ben if one of them would take pictures of me and Francois by the signs. Ben agreed and hooked me up. Interesting to wonder about all the other places on the signs. Are they cool? Would any of them have become my favorite place so far?

We chilled out in the grass and then headed back to the bus. There was no real control of passenger entry, so I wondered if someone could just hang out in that rest area and hop on the next bus to anywhereville and just go. What would that be like?

Back on the bus and drove on and on and on and on until we finally got to the Dead Sea, where we didn't stop, but turned and drove along it for miles. Surprising crops of trees in the middle of the desert punctuated the barren plains.

I kept saying to Dave stuff like, "Dead Sea in da house!" and "guess what?" (what?) "we're goin' to da Dead Sea, baby!! whutwhut!" and all variety of silliness. Definitely in a great mood!

After a while, the sea started to look really nice.

The bus stopped at about 5 places called En Gedi. We kept wondering and waiting and not getting off and then Dave went up and asked the driver. We ended up getting off with the crowd at En Gedi Spa, which was uber-touristy, and probably a great way to spend about 100 NIS per person. I talked to the information desk woman who talked to a guy who drove us most of the way back to En Gedi Beach. We walked the remaining kilometer or so in a few minutes.

Next time we want a free and lovely place to experience the Dead Sea, we will get off the bus at En Gedi Beach. Without a doubt. Free entry, free showers, not free restroom, but it was so uncrowded that we just changed quickly down between the parking lot and the beach.

The food is definitely not free, so we'll bring our own next time. We each ate a 20 NIS sandwich and Dave got a 10 NIS 1.5 or 2 liter bottle of En Gedi branded water that didn't taste all that awesome.

We wondered if we'd be able to swim across to Jordan, and tried to make educated guesses. I was really anxious to splash around in the sea so I was all like, "let's rock," at the first minute that seemed like everyone could be ready.

We learned that the restroom cost like 3 shekels and the shower was 7, so we skipped that part and just went down toward the water in search of a place to change. Covered for each other and changed but seriously no one cared and then we were ready to engage the water.

But first, a quick picture of Francois on this white rock holy cats that is *salt*!! The rock was basically covered in an inch of salt except for the top where it had regrown only 1/8th inch after layers had been converted to souvenirs.

The Dead Sea was *freeeeezing* cold!! Ben and Dave were both like, "what are you talking about??? it's so warm.." and I was like, "you are *crazy*; it is freezing!" but I got used to it quickly enough as we splashed around. We were giddy with silliness as to how easy it was to float! I was pleasantly surprised that none of my body had any open wounds; no pain involved for me to bask in the water.

At it was *so* *floaty*!! Really weird to float effortlessly, and when we tread water, we could get out entire chests out of the water. At least Ben could, and it felt like I did. Dave was like, "wow; are you *standing*?" cause I was so far out of the water.

We decided we could easily make it to Jordan; the sea was a bit wavy, but on a calm day it would be *trivial* to float there! Unless someone were actually monitoring these things...

At one point Ben got a bit of water in his eye (while wearing contacts) and he was like, "augh!" cause it really burned, and he said quite dramatically as if to assure himself of this truth, "I must not rub my eye."

I offered the service of holding his wrists so he wouldn't be able to rub his eyes even if he couldn't resist the temptation. The searing pain went away after a bit he said he would be okay, so I let him go and we continued our float. Hard to call it a swim cause we couldn't really submerge our legs for a normal kicking type motion, and if we submerged our heads for a crawl, we were in for a world of searing eye and nasal passage pain.

Ben, however, noticed how easy it would be to do the butterfly stroke, so he tried it, and immediately submerged his ehad and immediately realized what an unwise decision he had made. Especially considering he was still wearing contacts.

He kept his eyes closed and I led him floatingly out of the water and carefully onto the rocky sometimes sharp shore and onto the beach where we had our stuff and Dave's 10 NIS bottle of water. At one point Ben sorta stubbed his toe on a sharp (salt crystal covered) rock and scraped a bit of skin off. "Ouch!"

"Oh; sorry;" I had seen it, but didn't think quickly enough to tell him to avoid it.

"Okay, lean your head back," and I poured water onto his eyes, trying to balance between wasting Dave's drinking water and actually flushing the brine from Ben's eyes.

Success. He opened his eyes without further ado, and without any ado whatsoever, he talked to a bikini-clad woman who looks somewhat like Halle Berry as I waited around for the water on my skin to dry. I wanted to see just what it would be like, but it wasn't all that amazing once it dried on my shoulders, so I didn't wait for it to dry everywhere.

I found a Sprite bottle and filled it with just a sampling of water so I can send to my mom for the next welcome-back-after-summer water ceremony at her church. It looks crystal clean and clear. Mmmmmm delicious.... "I must not drink this 'Sprite.'"

A group of people came as some kind of tour, and Dave and I decided they were speaking Italian. Many of them got their own samplings of water, and some tried to break off chunks of salt to taste and show their friends.

I went a bit Francois-picture-crazy (surprise), but used him to introduce myself to the woman Ben had met. She was quite friendly and seemed happy to chat with us. I learned her name is Delphine, and she's from Switzerland. She's here on vacation for about 2 weeks. We all chatted for a while about the locale and our adventure in not knowing exactly where to get off the bus, and didn't want to pay high dollars for the mud bath at En Gedi Spa. However, we all agreed a mud bath would be fun, and after a guy walked toward us covered in mud, we all decided to go where he had come from to try this mud for ourselves.

I chose to carry my stuff since it wasn't all that much. Ben put his stuff with Delphine's and she covered it all with her towel. I think Dave carried his.

Dave and I walked ahead while Ben and Delphine were engrossed in conversation. I looked back at them and thought it would be a good pic for Ben's collection and was like, "hey Dave; grab my camera out of my bag...."

He was on the same wavelength, "and take a picture of them?"

"Yeah."

And he did and I don't think they even knew.

We came across a really cool chain frozen in place by the salt crystals coating it.

We arrived at a little speck of a mudhole, and then another, and I kept walking forward expecting to find an entire swamp of muddy entertainment, but that never appeared.

I noticed that the two mudhole we found seemed to just be where people had dug up some rocks from the beach, and figured that we could dig anywhere and come up with muddy goo-dness.

"Hey Dave, help me lift this rock," I suggested, pointing at one that looked like it might cover a nice cache of mud.

He gave it a bit of a tug and was like, "no way [can we lift this]."

I quickly agreed after I tried as well.

We went back to the original two holes and started slathering. And posing. And slathering. And getting more and more into it until we all just slicked back our hair and turned ourselves into a new hue of Blue Man Group.

At one point Delphine stepped into the hole we hadn't really been using and fell in!! It was quite deep and turned out to be quite muddier and lovelier than the mud we had been using, which commonly featured bits of sticks and little pebbles.

This new mud was pure muddy goodness, so I put on a new layer and basked in it.

After a while, we decided it was time to start heading back; the 3pm bus would arrive soon and the consensus was we should go back. (I could have stayed longer, but Delphine has this certain allure.)

Back into the water, which had gotten *cold* again for some reason, and the mud sloughed off into a cloudy waft of dark. I had coated my swimtrunks in mud, so it took a bit of extra scrubbing to get them rinsed out. So fun to just be floating and scrubbing and not worrying about swimming! I could have stayed in the Dead Sea all day.

I didn't dunk my head in the water, so I was completely clean and completely covered in mud depending on which side of my neck one examined. Walked back with Delphine as Dave and Ben had gone ahead to the showers. She told me she is a nurse in Switzerland, doing post-op care for patients. I didn't query for details on types of surgery, but just blessed her efforts toward helping others.

Into the shower where I got most of the mud off without direction from Dave and Ben as to what I had missed (specifically, a blob of mud right under my nose).

Got rinsed, headed back toward the umbrella area between the sea and the 7 NIS restrooms and changed quickly, Delphine doing some girl-magic under a towel.

At the bus stop, another woman walked up and joined Dave and Ben's pullup contest. Her name is Frederique, and is from Quebec. I don't remember what city.

After waiting many minutes as several different tour buses did not stop for us, the five of us rode together in the back of the bus to Jerusalem's main station. For the first part of the journey Ben sat between the girls and me an' Dave, but Dave was pretty much sleeping and I was pretty much wanting to bounce around and be crazy cause I was so excited to have just had such a cool experience in the Dead Sea!

I took several pics of mountains and basically wanted to climb *all* of them because they all looked climbable and none of them looked cold. I could imagine climbing and camping and having a blast for quite a while.

Also got a picture of an interesting curved contrail, apparently from an air force jet.

I noticed sections of mountain had been cut beside the highway; I think it's slated to be widened.

And I saw a bedouine settlement/camp/village/home that just looked poor.

Outside the bus station slash mall in Jerusalem, four of us said bye to Delphine, then ate at a vegetarian restaurant then came back to the Faisal. She is switching from her hostel to ours to save ten shekels and get free internet!

My new Dead Sea hair style, matching Kris' after she got back on the ship in Sri Lanka: