i went to the beautiful island of sri lanka over the jewish sukkot holiday in october! the journey there and back was half the fun. it was only financially feasible (dirt cheap, actually!) to fly out of amman, jordan. strangely, the cheapest way to get to amman from beer sheva is to take a four hour bus all the way to the extreme southern tip of israel to cross the border from eilat, israel to aqaba, jordan, and then take another bus five hours north to amman. in eilat i stayed with some of my classmates who were doing their internal medicine clerkship there. thanks to mayuri for letting me sleep in her bed while she was gone! i really wanted to do my internal medicine clerkship in eilat as well but alas the spots were limited and luck wasn’t on my side this time. a frustrating thing about this border crossing is that there is a monopolistic taxi mafia on the jordanian side. even though the city of aqaba is just a few kilometers away, they collaborate with the military to prevent anyone from walking. they charge exorbitantly for the short trip into aqaba and physically accost you when you try to arrange with others to share a cab. the bus from aqaba to amman on jett, the national bus company of jordan, is very pleasant however – there is even a stewardess who makes fresh arabic coffee and sandwiches for passengers on request! in amman i had a few hours to kill, so i smoked way too much shisha and chanced upon a huge brand new beautiful shopping mall called the galleria that had just opened!
after a late night flight to dubai, i slept on the airport floor in terminal 2 (an antiquated terminal for low cost airlines only), and found an excellent breakfast place across the street from the terminal – foul (arab bean paste) with pita and pickles for $1! i then took the metro south to the dubai marina, which is a huge new development that i hadn’t been to yet. there is an excellent mall there, and a new epically tall building that is shaped like a spiral, ostensibly defying the laws of physics! then i took a monorail out onto one of dubai’s massive man-made island paradises called the palm – from space it looks like a palm tree jutting into the gulf of arabia. at the tip of this palm tree is an opulent hotel called the atlantis. after numerous unsuccessful tries, i was able to find my way into the guests-only area through a back entrance. inside the hotel is the largest aquarium tank in the world, which when it was first unveiled contained a whale shark, the largest fish ever to be held in captivity. there is one of the nicest water parks in the world there as well, but unfortunately it is grossly overpriced so i was not able to avail myself of its awesomeness. finished the day at the dubai mall – the largest in the world! the newest proliferating coffee chain in the gulf region is canada’s own tim hortons! there are about four outlets in the dubai mall, which i patronized about as many times! on my way back from sri lanka i again went to the dubai mall and spent an entire day there, because how could anyone ever get enough! kobe bryant was also visiting the mall that day with his entourage as publicity for its huge nike store.
coming back through jordan i spent a few late night hours discussing islam and christianity with a proselytizing muslim gentleman on the streets of amman. the following day i was able to cross from jordan into israel at the allenby border crossing – the most direct crossing between amman and jerusalem, saving an entire day of buses. interestingly, the reason tourists can cross from jordan to the israeli-occupied west bank but not the other way around (at least without a jordanian visa issued in advance) is that jordan officially still considers the west bank to be part of jordan (as it was before 1967), so will not issue visas at the border because in their view it is not a border. there is also another border crossing between northern israel and jordan – but it is in the middle of nowhere and public transportation is lacking, necessitating expensive taxis. the allenby border crossing is the only crossing that most palestinian residents of the west bank may use – and it is understaffed – so it is insanely overcrowded. it can take hours to push through the throngs of hundreds of palestinians trying to push their way to one or two open windows. there were some elderly women who were quite literally being crushed. more than one palestinian shared with me during the push-fest that they believe israel deliberately understaffs the terminal so as to make the crossing less than easy. then come the israeli interrogations, which in my experience are more intense there than elsewhere. always an enjoyable “welcome home” to be interrogated like you are a criminal.
