Israel & Jordan 2018 (Part 6)
So our last day in Israel, most of our group had decided to go to Masada and the Dead Sea. So we hiked up to meet the Big Gay Tour bus and joined guys from other tours and headed out. Now, after a long night of dancing, I was a wee bit tired so my tour bus narcolepsy kicked in and the next thing I know I wake up and we are approaching the Dead Sea. We are going down, and down, and down, and I didn’t realize that the Dead Sea was one of the lowest places on earth. It’s something like 400 meters below sea level and it’s actually a rift valley with the tectonic plates under the Dead Sea. We pass Jericho, one of the old cities in the world, which is now a Palestinian city. So I’m paying attention now and all of a sudden the tour guide is like, “Now we are leaving the Palestinian controlled portion of the West Bank and entering the Israeli controlled portion.” Umm. West Bank?
Anyways, we finally approach Masada which is an ancient Jewish fortress that was built by King Herod on top of a mountain. It’s been in the news recently because when Trump was in Israel, the Israeli’s wanted him to come to Masada. But he would only come if he could take a helicopter directly to the top. And they were like no, you need to use the cable car. And he said no, so he didn’t go. The cable car was actually pretty cool. Great views of the Dead Sea as you go up. But the main issue is that there’s not a lot of shade on top and HMOG it was hot. I think it was in the upper 90s and very little shade. But the ruins were interesting and the story quite sad. After the Roman’s destroyed Jerusalem, they hunted down all of the Jewish “rebels” and the last Jewish settlement was Masada. Herod was super paranoid so he built this fortress that couldn’t be taken. So the Romans came and at first just tried to starve them out. Built a wall surrounding Masada, but they had lots of food and water so nice try. But then the Romans’ decided to build a ramp from one of the closest mountains to Masada using Jewish slaves. When it became apparent that the Romans were going to breach the fortress, the Jewish commander decided it was better for them to kill themselves before God than to become slaves or killed by the Romans. So they killed themselves. It’s really a tragic story. But now Masada has become a rallying cry for Zionist movement in Israel, “May Masada never fall again.”
After the cable car ride down and hitting the Ahava factory outlet (what can I say, I love me some product), we headed further south to the Lot Hotel for our Dead Sea experience. First a tasty lunch buffet and then we went to the spa to change into our bathing suits and hit the Dead Sea. When they give you the towels, they also give you some Dead Sea mud as a mud treatment. So after we changed, we headed to the turquoise colored water. Stepping into the water, my first thought was holy shyte that’s hot. My second thought, as my flip flops broke, was that was $15 dollars down the drain. But I got into the water for the obligatory floating in the Dead Sea pics. And it’s weird because I was so buoyant in the water it was actually hard to get my feet under me to stand up. And you have to be careful because you cannot get the water in your eyes. It’s really bad for them and will sting like crap. After photo op #1, we went back to apply our mud. Which was interesting. And felt kind of good in a weird way. But the time we finished with photo op #2, it was time to go back into the water and wash the mud off. So I think the reason my skin was stinging and itching was because I had a bit of a sun burn, so while I would have liked to have stayed in the Dead Sea longer, I really wanted to rinse off and the covered pool looked really delightful. Which is was. Plunging into the cold water was just what I needed. And the fact that it was covered with a tarp meant I didn’t have to worry about burning anymore.
It was a long bus ride back to Tel Aviv and we barely had time to change before we had our farewell dinner. Some of our group had already left, but it was still a great dinner hosted by the owner of the tour company on a rooftop deck in the middle of Tel Aviv. Pretty awesome way to end the trip. After dinner, I went back to the hotel, packed, and then crashed. The driver was picking Dan (other other Brazilian) and I up at 0845 to take us to the airport for our flights home.
So that’s my totally amazing trip to Israel and Jordan. I cannot recommend it enough. I had a fantastic time and my tour group really was awesome making the trip even more enjoyable
