In Honor of Holy Week Pt 2 - Western Wall aka Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, Israel

One of the Views into the Men's (left) & Women's (right) Exterior Courtyard at the Western Wall

The Western Wall aka Wailing Wall or the Kotel is an important Jewish religious site located in the Old City of Jerusalem. The reason why its called the Western Wall is because its the Western most wall of the Temple Mount. An interesting thing to note about the Temple Mount is that -- what you see today is actually the SECOND Temple that was reconstructed by Herod the Great around 19 BCE and additional layers were added in the 7th century onwards by other ruling empires. The First Temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BCE when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon. What you see today is only part of the Second Temple as parts of the Western Wall are located below street level (which, I'm sure you didn't know; and is too much to write about here, but if you want to read more, click here for more info on Second Temple).

Some interesting notes about the wall:

• Though the Western Wall is commonly referred to as the "Wailing Wall", Jewish people never refer to this holy place as the Wailing Wall - only as the Western Wall. The name gained popularity from 19th century literature where people used to call it the "Place of Weeping"... A description that stemmed from a Jewish practice where Jewish people came to "speak" to the wall -- often "mourning" or giving prayer requests... and mourning the destruction of their temple. (A third temple has been rumored to be built, but nothing has occurred).

• There is so much history here that it is even difficult for me to grasp and remember, but for this blog posting, suffice to say -- that after the Roman Empire and the Spanish, Turkish Ottoman, British, Jordanian ruling and now the Israeli ruling, this area of the Western Wall has been designated as a holy place for Jewish people to to devote their prayers (part of the 1930 International Commission) without interruption or interference.

• The exposed Western Wall, or the one you mostly see, refers to an 187 ft stretch of the wall, but actually it stretches 1,600 ft. Where is the other part you may ask? Its "hidden" behind residential structures built along its length.The height of the wall is 105 ft, with the exposed section approx. 62 ft. There are 45 stone courses, of which 28 of them are below ground level. Each stone weights anywhere from two to eight tons, with the largest weighing approx. 570 tons (found on the Northern side). Its amazing how this structure was even created! The area is thought to have been a limestone quarry centuries ago (hence the very large limestone blocks), so that may have helped place the stone into place

• You can visit, with a fee of course, the lower parts of the wall. Its actually an interesting tour and I highly recommend it. The guide books say you need a reservation, but my brother and I were able to get a ticket without one (but you may need a reservation if you go in peak season).

• The Western Wall is supposed to the sole remnant of the Holy Temple and is the "CLOSEST" spot to the holiest spot in Judaism -- the Foundation Stone -- which is expected to be housed inside the Dome of the Rock (others say it is situated opposite of the exposed section of the Western Wall), which is located inside the Temple Mount in the Muslim Quarter. Interestingly enough, Jews are forbidden from setting foot upon the Temple Mount and is considered a sin punishable by Kareth. WHAT?!?! So, one of holiest places located in the Muslim quarters ... can not be accessed by Jews and is considered a sin!

• Every year, more than a million notes, or prayer requests, are placed in the wall crevices. The notes are collected twice a year and buried on the Mount of Olives. If you can not be there to place it, you can even fax in your request to have it placed there. The likes of Pope John Paul II, Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI have placed messages in the wall

• The wall is segregated by gender, which I found surprising (and I will have to ask my Jewish friends why). Are women a substandard class or is this my American ignorance and prejudice towards American society (even though, we all know not everyone is created equal)? I started to think this when I compared my experience with that of my brother's.... here are some of the stark differences. Male's side: Exterior area was nearly double the size of the female side; there was a library and discussion room, not to mention a separate prayer room where rabbis would be present (um, did we mention that only males are allowed to be rabbi's); meanwhile, the female side had a small prayer room, and when I say small, I am not exaggerating -- it would be the size equivalent of two or maybe three restaurant sized bathrooms! you will have to see the photos.

Of course, there are photos to document this experience at the Wailing Wall. Below are a select few and you can visit my FLICKR page to see additional photos. The photos of the men's side was contributed by my brother, Wilson Lee.

Inside a small study room is a private sanctuary to pray (left). Within the Western Wall's crevices are small notes, or prayer requests left behind by visitors.

Men's library and prayer room (even has a rabbi) inside a building adjoined to the Western Wall. In the FLICKR photo album you'll see a stark size contrast of the prayer/library rooms between the men and women's side.

In Honor of Holy Week -- Photos of the Old City In Jerusalem, Israel - Part 1

I figured since its Holy Week, I thought I would share some of my photos from the Old City in Jerusalem, Israel. After all, Jerusalem is part of the Holy Lands and is the place where many religious sects were born, and inevitably leading to many religious wars/fights stemming from differing religious viewpoints.

So, this is PART 1 for the week, giving you an aerial view of the different parts of the Old City while walking on "Ramparts Walk". I began the journey at the old Jaffa Gate and ended it near Lion's Gate. Through this walk, you will see bits and pieces of people's lives in the four quarters, where their daily routines though may be similar are separated by their religious faith and ethnic backgrounds -- Armenian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish. I ended my walk at the Lions Gate, but also continued forward through to the Jewish quarter, where I discovered the Western Wall, or more infamously known as the Wailing Wall. I hope to elaborate further on the story of the Western Wall and give you a view of the wall that you may never have imagined in a later posting. Additionally, some of my following postings will include photos from Jesus' Christ walk through Via Delarosa, the stations he stopped at, the Holy Sepulcher, and perhaps some photos of his origins - Bethlehem and Bethany Beyond Jordan. But, until then, enjoy the aerial view of the life people lead within the walls of the Old City.

Here is a quick glimpse of the photos within my FLICKR account... These photos are here to illustrate the lifestyle of the people living within the Old City Wall. Click here for more photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyeverywhere/sets/72157623607445109/

Cycling Through Tel Aviv in a Day

January 17, 2010 - Cycling through Tel Aviv For the Day

Wilson and I had about a day in Tel Aviv before we had to catch our flight back to Cairo. So with a day, there is only so much you can do by foot, so we decided to rent a bike. I did the same while in Kyoto, Japan and its an amazing way to see all the sites you want to see without the hassle of relying on public transport or cabs --- just your own two legs and your "culo" (aka but*t)! So with a map and two bikes, we were off!.

We started our journey with a bike ride along the beaches of Tel Aviv. The beach was nice, the waves were rough and we took in some good deep breathes from the Mediterranean Sea... We continued on the beach path, pretending we were riding down Venice Beach in California and rode our way to Old Jaffa City.

As we were heading towards the collection of flea markets in Old Jaffa City, something unfortunately happened to Wilson's bike -- his brakes were stuck to his wheel and was unable to cycle with his bike. Grrrr... After one guy helped us loosen the front brakes (loosen as in detach the front brakes from the front wheel), we were ready to start again. Unfortunately, the bike would not run again. The back tire was now hitting the frame everytime you turned the wheel -- now thats odd, we didn't have that problem before!?! We thought it was Wilson's weight making the tire hit the wheel, but that couldn't be. We couldn't figure it out. So we called our bike rental shop and they were of no help (never rent from PINKY's bike rental place, near Harayakon Hostel). Bring the bike back, is what they said - lovely, how about them come and pick us up since we're a good 20 minute bike ride away. Nope. So we were going to find a car to cab it back, but we were lucky enough to find a taxi-cab driver that was at his home, who helped us fix our bike (a nut was loose, which caused the brakes to tighten and hit the frame -- go figure). So once that was fixed, we were off again! Wait... one other thing occurred. Wilson's tires were flat! Crazy! I'm thinking -- wilson and any type of vehicle with tires is not a good thing (recall, Wilson also got us into a car accident while driving in Jordan!) ... well, fortunate for us, luck was on our side again and a block away we found a mechanic shop. With an exchange of hellos and "where are you from", they graciously filled Wilson's tires with air... phew... anything else? This time we were really off!

We eventually found the collection of flea markets, cafes, and antique markets within Old Jaffa City, but nothing really piqued our interest. The only interesting thing we found was the Clock Tower, and taht was only beause we wanted to take a photo to remind us where we were. ha ha. After our photo op, we got back onto our bikes and went to our next destination -- Neve Tzedek.

On our way, we saw one of those city tour buses and decided to follow it since it was "surely" going to Neve Tzedek (tourist area)... uh huh. We followed it, but lost it as our bikes weren't fast enough to keep up with its pace. So, undoubtedly, we were once again relying on our maps. I got our bearings straight and we ended up at Ho' Karmel Street, which is souq, or a street market. We were going to end up there later, so decided to try and find Neve Tzedek again. So we were off...

We biked around and found Herzl street which led us to Rothschild Street/Sderot -- near the heart of Neve Tzedek. Woo hoo! The area was cute... it reminded me a lot like Soho in New York. Lots of boutique shops, restaurants, coffee/expresso cafes and a lot of people walking around. We decided to stop in this neighborhood to grab lunch. We cycled around the streets of Lilenblum, Gat Rimon and Yafo, Derech and settled on a restaurant named Express on Herzl Street between Rothschild and Lilenblum. The restaurant/cafe looked quite modern and their menu offered soups, salads and sandwiches. Wilson and I decided to be healthy (for once!) and ordered a medium Tuna Salad with a white vinagrette. I have no idea what was in that vinagrette, but the white vinagrette was extremely tasty! We had a simliar one at Cafe Rimon in Jerusalem and loved it as well!

After lunch, we continued our Tel Aviv bike tour on Rothschild Street. As we journeyed through Rothschild Street, we were surprised by the beautifully landscaped walkway/bikeway that catered to cyclists like us, loafers who wanted to eat their lunch and two legged humans walking the path. It was a beautiful ride 5-15 minute ride, depending on how many times you stop to take photos, and reminded me of the bike path on the Westside highway/Upper West Side with -- trees and benches -- but with restaurants and shops lining the outter edges of the path. We even saw a non-conventional McDonald's -- decorated not with the Red and Yellow signs that you nromally see, but with a green awning with yellow wording. With only a hour left of our journey, we decided not to stop and continued on to our next street, Sheinkin street.

Photos from Rothschild Street

We turned left onto Sheinkin and made our way down the hill -- only to find more boutique shops, restaurants and cafes. We quickly rode down the hill and eventually hit Allenby and Ho' Karmel Street, which led us to the our final destination - Ho Karmel. Since we didn't want to venture into yet another souq (we've seen plenty in Egypt, Jordan and other parts of Israel) we decided to just chill and relax. Well, Wilson did. I decided to see the shops along Sheinkin street (come on, afterall, I did have about 45 minutes)... So I will leave you with the visual imagery of me popping in and out of shops along Sheinkin street, looking for hip clothes, some neat designs and good bargains. Sadly, after 45 minutes, I didn't find anything... :( Oh wells -- i couldn't fit the clothes in my bag anyway! haha. (continue reading below for a Mandarin phrase I learned from Wilson)

Photos from Sheinkin Street

p.s. As Wilson and I were heading to Ben Guiron airport, I asked Wilson to teach me a few words in Mandarin... and he decides to teach me the words "swei" -- meaning stylish, which I knew; "hung tung" - hurts a lot -- and then he added a few more words to make the following sentence... spelled phonetically...

"Zhe ga swei ga da pee gu hung tung" -- This stylish guy's butt hurts a lot. :D

Can you imagine what that was in reference too? haha. Our 4 hour bike ride hurt his butt. :D

Cooking While Away from Home in Haifa

January 15, 2010 -- Cooking on the Road at Port Inn Guest House -- Haifa, Israel

Cooking on the road was something I didn't think I'd do, but Wilson was tired of paying $15 for crappy spaghetti bolognese, so we decided to cook it ourselves! haha. We probably should have paid the $15! just kidding. Surprisingly, our spaghetti bolognese didn't turn out that bad. I mean, everything came out of a jar or plastic packaging, so how could we go wrong? We were the Sara Lee cooks in Israel! All we did was boil our pasta and make the sauce... For the sauce, we added in ground beef cooked with onions, oil, salt and pepper ... then, boiled the bolognese sauce (totally Sara Lee style), mixed in the meat and wah-la ... bolognese sauce! Yummy, spaghetti bolognese for dinner and breakfast for the price of $12! (and we probably got ripped off since we were buying the ingredients at the AM-PM like store)... but cooking while away from home with my brother -- PRICELESS!

Happy Cooking!

p.s. I can't even remember the last time I cooked with Wilson -- probably while we were still in grade school, back in the California days... Now he's in Hong Kong and I'm in New York! cray-zzzz!

A Difficult Night of Sleeping in Tel Aviv

January 16, 2010 (Night of) -- Our only night in Tel Aviv

Wilson and I checked into Hayarkon 48 Hostel and due to the enormous price difference between the private rooms vs. dorm rooms, we opted for a dorm room for $45. Many may say, you get what you pay for and we probably did get what we paid for - limited sleep - but our night stay provided a few comical moments that we will remember for a lifetime. If you haven't stayed at a hostel before, they often offer dorm rooms and private rooms. With dorm rooms, sometimes they can fill up to 8 people or in our case 4. Sometimes you may be lucky and have no one else join you, but of course that didn't happen ... our room filled up with two other girls -- which, doesn't seem so bad -- better chances for Wilson to score! jk. Ugh, that's a dirty thought... Ok, moving on. So what do you think happened? Did someone sCore in a room of four? or did someone sNore??? Snoring was the main culprit for our lack of sleep.

Wilson snores every now and then and for the last week he has been snoring quite consistently. He's a considerate person, so knowing he could potentially snore, he decided he'd try to sleep on his side -- no such luck. I heard someone snoring throughout the night. In the early part of the night, it was a modest humming noise and then it progressed to a roaring like noise that could wake up people down the hall. It was intense! I was unable to fall back asleep and decided to get up to hush Wilson, but to my surprise, it was not him! Wilson's eyes were open and we quickly discovered that it was one of the girls in the room. WOW! That girl can snore! Whew! She could be the drummer in the band and play without any equipment! just amazing!

Wilson and I looked at one another and tried to figure out what time it was -- 6:00 am -- still too early to get ready for the day (especially for Wilson who normally gets up around 8:30/9:00 am). So what to do?


Wilson slept in the bunk below hers and since her blanket was slightly hanging over the bed, he decided to tug on it a little, hoping it would wake her up. The blanket moved, but she didn't budge and her roaring snore grew louder. Wilson tugged on the blanket a little harder and it was now halfway down to the floor. Still no movement and the snoring continued. Wilson and I couldn't help but laugh. And even our laughter didn't wake her up! (and for those of you who know us, we can laugh pretty loud)... so, Wilson and I were in disbelief... Man, this girl snores like a rock star and she was a heavy sleeper!?!?! What a lucky combo!

Next, we decided to try and make some "real" noise - but not so much that it would wake up the third girl -- who was quite remarkably still asleep (not sure how she was still asleep, since the building next door was probably awake from her snoring!). But our noise didn't work either -- and Wilson and I just stared at each other and decided to try and go back to sleep. Yeah, right -- wishful thinking!

Eventually, the third girl woke up and said aloud "I can't believe this, this is the worse snoring I've ever heard -- worse than my ex-boyfriends!" She quite simply yelled over to the girl to tell her she was snoring very loudly and asked her to sleep on her side. Finally, the snoring girl woke up, apologized, and turned on her side. Within seconds she was back asleep and the SNORING continued. Unbelievable. We were just in shock and unaware of what we could do next. Nothing really, but to let the rock music continue.

It was 6:45 am... Wilson decided to play music out loud on his iPhone, the third girl decided to get ready for the day, and I decided to continue on with my blog. There was no way anyone would be able to fall back asleep. So, I guess sometimes, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get! And in this case, sometimes its hit or miss with random roommates. Unfortunately for us, we got a free show to a rock concert!

... want a taste of the music? I of course, recorded a part of the show. Its not the entire event ... I wouldn't do that to you because we wouldn't want a hole developing in your ear drum. So when you're ready, press play!

Haifa and Akko (North of Tel Aviv, Israel)

January 15 - January 16, 2010 -- Two days in Haifa and Akko was more than enough time there.

Wilson and I had a few extra days so we decided to spend two days up north at Haifa and Akko. Both Haifa and Akko are port cities located on the Mediterrean Sea. Haifa does not have much to offer other than the Baha'i Gardens and a few beaches. Akko offers more of a tourist experience with visits to the Citadel, Knights Hall, Templars Underground Tunnel, Lighthouse, boat rides, diving, seaside restaurants and beaches. Sad to say, the highlight for this part of the trip was not adventuring in the Templars Underground tunnel or roaming around the Knights Hall, rather it was seeing a jelly fish swim near us and little girl who was brave enough to hold a snake.

At first, I thought this was a lump of ice floating in the sea or a plastic bag... but as Wilson and I looked closer, Wilson told me otherwise -- its a HUGE JELLYFISH!! so of course I was super excited... i didn't see this big of a jellyfish on my dive in DAHAB. hee hee... Wilson thought about catching it ( we saw loads of fisherman on the other side, so why not?), but thought perhaps it could be a poisonish jellyfish. haha. oh wells, no chinese jellyfish dinner tonight. :D Below are a few photos of it swimming around ... I was sitting on a restaurant terrace above it (Abo Christo).

The other highlight of the Haifa and Akko trip was seeing a fearless girl peering into this snakes eyes... EEEEEEkkkkkk...

I'm not a big fan of snakes and some guy of course was walking around the seaboard with two snakes trying to entice tourists to take photos with it. I of course went to take photos of it, but was skirmish about being too close to it. ha ha. One child though was fearless. She stood still and watched it with curious eyes. The owner was watching the girl to see how scared she would get. She didn't. The snake came extremely close to her face and she didn't flinch (see the photo) ... I on the other hand, who was standing beside her, screamed and jumped when it got so close to her face. Talk about a wuss, right? I screamed so loud, the girl behind me also screamed and jumped away too! haha. I guess it is true, as you get older you become more of a scardy-cat. I wonder if I was eight again, would I stand still and want to hold that thing? ugh, I'm afraid not.

NOTE:

If you want to know about Baha'i Gardens and The Citadel (Akko) read more on wikipedia and the quick summary here...

The Baha'i Gardens houses eighteen beautiful terraces overlooking Haifa and the landscaping done aroud the gardens is a gardener's paradise, but unforutnately, did not pique my interest (sorry not that into flowers; only the tulip garden in Amsterdam put a big smile on my face). The gardens are sometimes described as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Within the garden is the Shrine of the Bab, which adheres to the Baha'i faith. Baha'i is a monolistic religion emphasizing spirtual unity among all humankind. If you want a visit to the shrine or the inner-part of the gardens, you will need a guide -- which is free and only available at noon. If you are into flowers and gardens, this would be your ideal spot. I personally am still in love with the Tulip Gardens in Amsterdam -- but that's because I love tulips!

Akko was a great seaside town if you want to lounge and see some touristy things. There are plenty of restaurants and sites to see if you want to occupy your time; however, it was slightly boring for me. The Knights Hall was ok ... and the highlight there was seeing a few bats up on the ceiling in one of the areas. Can you tell how excited I was? Ha ha. What else? The Templar Underground Tunnel, which lead from the Templar fortress to the lighthouse, was interesting and fun, but 350 meters was not that long of an underground tunnel -- so I found it short-lived. Overall, the histroy of the town is interesting -- it has been taken over by many different groups. From what I recall, it was first inhabited by Muslims, then taken over by the Crusaders, then the Ottomans... then the British and the list goes on...

Overall, I think Haifa and Akko can be avoided without any guilt!

Israel-Palestine's Berlin Wall in Bethlehem

January 14, 2010, Photos of Israel's Security Wall in Bethlehem (A view from Palestine's side of the Wall)

According to wikipedia, The State of Israel has been constructing barriers along its borders, which are mainly located on Israeli-occupied territories in the West Bank and partly along the 1949 Armistice line, or "Green Line" between Israel and Jordan. The length of the border is expected to be 436 miles long (703 km) and as of August 2008, only 58% had been constructed, 9% was under construction and 33% of it has not yet been constructed. The barriers have been under a lot of scrutiny and are highly controversial. Depending on which story you read or who you are hearing it from, everyone has their own point of view of the walls -- that well, for a tourist is tough to believe who is right or wrong and will certainly take longer than a few days to understand. After my brother spoke with the hotel manager at our hotel, who is Israeli-Jewish, he learned that the security walls or fences have been built to protect Israeli civilians from Palenstinian terrorism, aka suicide bombing attacks. Since the construction of walls, the number of bombings have significantly reduced. He mentined that people used to be afraid to walk around the New City town center because there were frequent suicide bombings! According to wikipedia, opponents of the barrier say that the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security, which violates internatinal law. To put it quite simply, the barriers have in a sense "trapped" or restricted Palestinians from traveling freely within the West Bank and finding work in Israel.

So, that's a bit of background on borders and barriers built within Israel, which brings me to the photos I took of the security wall on our way out of Bethlehem. The photos you will see are from the Palenstinian side. G raffiti artists and commoners alike have creatively used Israel's "security wall", which places an Israeli/Palenstinean divide between the two warring countries, as a means to add their social commentary on the Israel / Palestine situation.

The photo above is of two Palestine men sitting in front of the Israel/Palestine Wall.

Note: Israel continues to place security walls and fences throughout its country. Over the last few days, I've been reading in the Jerusalem Post that Israel wants to put up a fence along the Israeli/Egypt Border, which stretches from the Gaza Strip (west part of Israel) to Eliat (southern tip of Israel). The project which is expected to cost north of 1.5 billion NIS, or approx. $6 billion US, is "supposed" to prevent illegal drugs from entering Israel among other things like illegal immigrants (from Nigeria, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast). The project is expected to start in two weeks.

For more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39368875@N04/sets/72157623094617725/

Gotta Love the Food Markets (Mehane Yehuda Market) in the New City of Jersualem

January 13, 2010 (Wednesday); Mehane Yehuda Market

Every city I visit, I always make a trip to the supermarket, street markets/food stalls, bakeries and fruit/food markets (see any connections?? its all related to food!). I love to see what the locals eat and I'm usually not afraid to try anything new (well, as long as its not insects or some rare meat/fish that will kill you if not cooked properly). So, in general, I find it fascinating to see all the local foods -- what is fresh for the day (though, don't expect an honest answer from the vendors) or most importantly see where all the locals are standing so I know its a good spot to buy something from. In Jerusalem, Wilson and I sought out the Mehane Yehuda Market, which is located north of the center of the New City (or just ask any local and they will point you in that direction). Its an easy 10 minute walk from the New City Center, and if you feel like the market should be there already, walk a little further. You won't miss the one long alley of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, nuts, and freshly baked goods.

Wilson and I of course splurged a bit -- I bought some freshly baked mini-cinnamon buns and blueberry filled croissants (D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S) and both are highly recommended! I have to say -- the bread in Jerusalem is out of this world... Reminds me a lot of Chinese bakeries in Hong Kong -- once you take a bite, you want another and another and another... Oh so good!!! So, let your nose take you to the bakery (there are a few inside the long alley and another two outside of . The two outside have more variety and you can just smell your way through the store ... and is where we grabbed our share of carbs!). Btw, we didn't learn this until later, but you get more bang for the buck if you purchase a lot versus one or two (its like Costco -- you get the volume discount! But, since I'm traveling, I probably don't need a few months worth of bread.)

Wilson also bought some nuts and discovered how expensive it was. For a kilo of cashews it was 64 sheckels (NIS), or approximately $16. Yup! Where is Planters Nuts when you need it! Surprisingly, Israel has been an expensive country to travel in. The food market and restaurants are comprarable to New York prices and sometimes more expensive for less tasty foods ... but welcome to Jerusalem where the dollar is weak and the price is high! Or, perhaps, the prices are just high here!

We also bought a few other goodies -- strawberries that cost 20 sheckels per kilo, or about $5; tangerines that cost 8 sheckels per kilo, or about $2. If Mehane Yehuda Market doesn't spark your food interest, there is also another alley of goodies about two streets up from this market. So enjoy your travels in Israel!