More Snippets of Tiberias

More snippets of Tiberias to see....

Esplanade by the Sea of Galilee




A complex beside our hotel

Beautiful flowers by the esplanade

Amazing beauty and colors of the flowers. I LOVE IT!!!!

Snippets of Tiberias

We had some time upon arriving Tiberias. So, after dinner, a group of us walked around the hotel. The time was about 6.30pm local time. Interesting just to see the life in this area. Apparently it is very busy during winter time.

Kelvin (my new friend from Singapore) and I walking together

Some of the things being sold in the night market

A horse carriage parked on the side of the street

Night view of Tiberias. Brightly lit.

Day 3 (Part 3): Mount of Temptation, Jericho

After our sumptuous lunch at the Temptation Restaurant, Jericho, we headed towards Mount of Temptation. Due to the 3 hours delay at Allenby Bridge, we had to change some of the schedule.

The summit of Mount of Temptation, rising to a height of 350 meters above sea level and commanding a magnificent and panoramic view of the Jordan Valley, is the site where Jesus (pbuh) spent forty days and forty nights fasting and meditating during the temptation of Satan, about 3 km northwest of Jericho.

A Greek Orthodox monastery was built in the 6th century over the cave where Christ stayed. This spot is another of the holy sites said to have been identified by Queen Helena in her pilgrimage of 326 AD.

The mountain; which from early Christian times has been called the Mount of Temptation; was referred to as "Mons Quarantana" by the Crusaders in the first half of the 12th century, and is locally known as Quruntul mountain (from Quaranta meaning forty, the number of days in the Gospel account of Christ's fast).

"... Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" Matthew (IV, 8-10). (clipped from here)

The Mount of Temptation can be accessed using cable cars. It can be taken from the Temptation Restaurant.
The other alternative is to walk up - that would be horrible on such a hot day.

The Monastery of Temptation. According to Sudqi, our tour guide, only one monk oversee the place and he is 70+ years old.

At the tip of the mountain is where Satan tempted Jesus.

Background is the Mount of Temptation

We now drive towards Tiberias to spend the night.

View from our hotel


Night market

The good news is that, we will be staying here for two nights. Hurray! No need to wake up early to do packing :-)

Now, let's go and wash some panties and shirts. Oops. Should not air my dirty linen in public.

Day 3 (Part 2): To Israel via Allenby Bridge

After Bethany Beyond Jordan, our next destination was to go into Israel via Allenby Bridge.

We left the border at Jordan and moved towards the border of Israel. The security was very tight. We are not allowed to take any photographs. Which make sense.

There were easily 5-6 buses waiting in queue. It was about 11am.

It took almost 1.5 hours just to get to our turn to unload from the bus. All of us were required to take our baggage out of the bus to be "checked in" to the Israeli immigration. There are two check-in counters. After our baggage were "checked in", we had to go through a metal detector machine - belts, handbag, watch and all metal things off.


When it came my turn, the metal detector went off 'teet teet teet". I took out everything including my earrings but it still beeped. Oh no. I was nervous. The officer pointed to my bra. I think she was trying to ask if I had an under wired bra. I said, "Yes". She asked me to wait at the other side. I almost freaked! Strip search? I have heard so much stories about problems at immigrations that I am about horrified. Already.


I prayed. And prayed. And prayed.


Suddenly it occurred to me to take out my heat pack which I used on my back. So, I summed up my courage and told the Officer that this might be the problem. Voila! No beeping sound!!! I was so relieved that I could jump for joy but must remain cool.... Don't bring any attention to myself... No strip search. Phew! My lucky day.

Now all I have to do it quene up, get the approval, DON'T get a chop on my passport and EVERYTHING will be fine.


We have 4 Malaysians and 29 Singaporeans. Most of us DOES NOT want an Israeli chop in our passport due to the difficulty of entrance into Arab countries e.g. Dubai. As for the Malaysians, the obvious reason. So, the Officer chopped on a piece of paper which we have to return at the check out counter.


If it wasn't enough, I was stopped AGAIN. An Israeli officer told me to take out whatever I had in my pocket. It was just a hair pin. He scraped it with a piece of cotton and put it into a machine. The results came out in a piece of paper. After that, he told me that I could leave. Relieved.


I was so curious what the procedure was all about that I asked him, "Why did you do that?" *feeling stupidly brave*. He answered briefly, "Security reasons". I silently thought that he was going to push my head to the floor and handcuff me... Such vivid imagination. Thanks to all the spy movies I frequent *sigh*.


I was randomly chosen. Me, again? Do I have, "Lack of Attention" written on my forehead??! Let me check through my photographs for the trip. Maybe I do.

By the time the whole group finished passing through the Immigration, it was almost 2pm. What do you know, 3 hours!!! Most of us were starving. Way pass lunch time.

Immigration at Israeli side

Our tour bus was already waiting for us, the bus driver, Ibrahim told me that they waited for 5 hours. Since 9am. Poor thing.

Temptation Restaurant, Jericho. Where we had our lunch at almost 3pm. The guy in blue is our tour guide, Sudqi Hawash. Since the microphone in the bus didn't work, he had to scream most of the time... He kept saying, "I am going to loose my voice". He really loved to talk.



Glorious food! Glorious food!


Look at how large this orange is!

I had my best meal in this restaurant. Burp!

Day 3 (Part 1) : Bethany Beyond Jordan

Itinerary for Day 3 - 12 April 2008

• Bethany Beyond Jordan - Site where Jesus was baptised
• Cross border of Jordan to Israel via Allenby Bridge
• Mount of Temptation
  
• Overnight in Tiberias

As usual, we woke up early. Today is a busy day, the day we continue our tour into Israel. We have been staying in each hotel for one night and it's getting a little annoying having to pack up EVERYDAY. I feel like a nomad. Consistently on the move.


The destination is Bethany Beyond Jordan.

The Baptism Site (Arabic: el-Maghtas) on the Jordan side of the Jordan River is one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archeology. Excavations only began here in 1996, following Jordan's peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but have already uncovered more than 20 churches, caves and baptismal pools dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

Although the identification is not absolutely certain, archeology has shown that the area known as Wadi Kharrar has long been believed to be the biblical Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, where John the Baptist lived and Jesus was baptized.

This area is also associated with the ascension of the Prophet Elijah into heaven, which is commemorated at a hill called Tell Mar Elias.

Note: This Bethany should not be confused with Bethany in Jerusalem, where Mary Magdalene lived and Lazarus was raised from the dead. (clipped from here)

The walk into the site



Across this river Jordan is Israel. Over the years, the water has receded.

They are currently doing excavation. Many things yet to be uncovered.

The site where Jesus was baptised.

Using some pre-1948 studies and the early pilgrim accounts as their guide, archaeologists quickly uncovered an astounding number of ancient sites - 21 at the last count.


After this visit, we will be going Israel via Allenby Bridge.

The First Few Days In Amman, Jordan

On the day I dropped the children at Laurie & Mary's and went to the airport, I received a call from Joel. My flight was 12am and he called about 11pm. He sounded horribly sad *my heart sank*. Saying how much he missed me... I arrived in Amman, Jordan, concerned about his well-being. I know its very bad to do things like that when you are thousands of miles away... 10 hours by plane to be exact. The calls were very costly but I had no choice but to call him and timed myself at the same time.. A few minutes at a time... just to make sure things are OK.

Sometime during the 1st night in Amman, Jordan, I received a call from Joel ...crying on the phone, saying how much he missed me. He was crying so hard that I couldn't hear a word he said. He woke up with a nightmare. Oh my. I need to be near to soothe him. I always have been. Especially after a nightmare. I absolutely need to. But I can't, can I?

I managed to calm him down and prayed for him.

Capture on camera, the intense moment on the phone

On the phone and timing myself at the same time... The calls was about THB45 per min (USD1.50 / RM4.50 per min)

I must admit that I was not fully into the tour.... My mind was far away... I eventually felt better when Joel called me later to say that he felt better.

I sent an SMS to Sean and Ong to take him out so that he will be occupied and not have his mind on me. It worked. They went to church, shopping, Ong's office and had meals together.

Renee also took the children to her home for a swim and they spent the whole day together. I was so grateful. They had so much fun. Till today Renee was still talking about the things they did together.

Thank you Sean, Ong & Renee!

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

Extraction of Wisdom Tooth

I had a previous post on my visit to the dentist. I did mention that I had to extract my wisdom tooth eventually. So I did. Today.

I was jittery. All you out there can understand my pissing-in-the-skirt feeling, surely. Prayer was requested at Cell Group yesterday. I felt peace after that. But still jittery.

I was secretly hoping that the Dentist would be down with flu, called in sick or the dental hospital burnt down by some arsonist. No such luck. It was there when I drove in this afternoon for the 2pm appointment.

The Dentist was friendly and nice. As expected of most Thai. He assured me that everything will be fine. Gave me 2 injections which didn't hurt at all, an x-tray before the extraction and I was out within 30 mins.

The whole process was very pleasant and didn't hurt at all, till now. My anesthetic just wearing off after 5 1/2 hours of application.

Anti-biotic, painkiller and anti-swell medication

Filled with cold water to bring down the swell. Given by the kind nurse at the dental hospital



The tooth. Looks pretty ugly and dirty. Wonder why it looks like this. The middle looks pretty black.

I have an appointment next week to take out the stitches. Not sure if he will extract the other wisdom tooth then.

The total bill came to THB3,000 (RM300 / USD90).

Snippets of Amman, Jordan

I thought maybe I will give you some more stuff of Amman before I move on to Israel....

At the hotel where we were staying, a couple was getting married. A very beautiful couple.

Amman at dawn

The hotel we stayed on the 2nd night

The tour bus we used while in Amman, Jordan

Day 2: Dead Sea, Jordan - 11 April 2008 (Part 3)

Floating without any floating device or ability to swim in the sea? That would be a dream come true for a non-swimmer and basically magic. Well, what do you know.... I am in a dream sea... The Dead Sea. My children, especially Joel think that is COOL. How is that possible? Defying nature.

So in order to experience this, we were driven to a local hotel (I cannot remember the name of the place). We were there around 4pm. I was amazed that the local hotel actually allowed outsider to use their beach front, toilets and shower. We were not staying there (eventhough I would have loved to).

Its an oasis in the middle of a desert. A few swimming pools, water slides, spitting whale and just water and water everywhere. There were many children playing. I wanted to jump in and join them on such a hot day. Chubby, fat little boys and girls BOUNCING and splashing around :-) So cute. I am sure if translated to an adult, would be almost gross. Eeww! Let me erase that thought.

We went into the changing room which was absolutely free, clean and ta-da, I was in my very modest swim wear. Its a church tour, so I must 'show' to be modest and not reveal too much flesh. Anyway, showing off too much of flesh might scare the fishes in the sea, oops, its the Dead Sea, there are no living organism there... But still.

I can swim pretty well but you don't have to know how to swim. You just float. Its an amazing feeling. Fully recommended for at least once-a-lifetime experience.

Walk towards the beach

Just look at all the men showing off. You should have heard their squeals, laughter and excitement. It was so funny! Actually, one thing even more funny is that... The 2 men i.e. Kevin & Ps Leslie have very fair legs and bodies. When they first took off their towel, it was glaring man! In Chinese Cantonese, we call it "Pak Chum Kai" which means "white chicken". Andy took some photos which I will get off him. I had a great time teasing them, I should feel horrible, right? Later. Maybe.

Everyone trying the mud mask. Who is who? Your guess is as good as mine.
(Sorry for the small and poor quality of photo)


Me in a hat, black top and pink skirt. Modest eh? One of the ladies commented that she liked my swim wear (Hey, I hear someone whispering "bad taste")


Our tour guide in Jordan mentioned that the Dead Sea products are so good because in actual fact, he is 52 years old but he looks so young. It cost him USD20,000 for all the products. I didn't believe him so the next day, I cornered him for his I.D. What do you know, he lied. He is actually the same age as me ;-) But I look younger, right?