Palestine and Israel - Friends, religion and history

For the first time in a very long time, we spent five nights in the same place.  And even better it was with friends in their home!  The Maayah family ensured that our time in Palestine and Israel was a highlight of our travels and very informative.  Tareq is a fellow in Christy’s Henry Crown class at the Aspen Institute, and he and his wife, Natalie, and 3 children welcomed us into their home in Ramallah, Palestine.  They not only hosted us in their new guest apartment, they also fed us, entertained us, loaned us their car and ensured that we got the most out of our time there.  

Luke and Ryan were ecstatic to be with kids their own ages again.  Zena, Sammeh and Maajed played video games, watched movies and ran around constantly with our boys.  Since we were there for several school nights, we certainly managed to disrupt the normal flow of life in the Maayah household.

In addition to connecting with our friends, we explored the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Jericho, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. We loved wandering through the old streets of Jerusalem and seeing the historic religious sites – we visited sites that are among the most holy for Islam, Judaism and Christianity, all within an area smaller than one square mile.  We also spent one day in Israel proper exploring Tel Aviv.  Israel’s largest city had beautiful parks and beaches and was a sharp contrast to what we saw in Palestine.  Tel Aviv seemed like a very livable city and had a similar feel to many cities in the US or Europe.

Staying in Palestine was a very different experience than we would have had staying in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.  Despite reading about the Middle East prior to arriving, we found we still had large gaps in our knowledge of history and conflicts in the region.  News and history are often influenced by the source of the information and frequently we hear only one part of the story.  It’s no different in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the bulk of our news in the US seems to come from an Israeli viewpoint.  What doesn’t make the news is the state of “martial law” that exists in the West Bank, and we saw and experienced first hand the restrictions imposed upon the Palestinians.  Our five days there has left us with a more complete view of what is happening in Israel/Palestine.  Paradoxically, it seems that there is no good resolution to the conflict while at the same time it seems obvious that the current situation is untenable and a two state solution is necessary.

Birthplace of Christ

Our travels over this past month have been a wonderful way for us all to learn and experience different religions, especially in places where religion is more central to public life than in the United States.  We certainly never take anyone to the church, synagogue, temple or mosque when they visit us in Boulder!  We learned about Buddhism in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.  We experienced the Muslim way of life in Bangladesh, Jordan and Palestine.  Finally, we learned more about Jewish and Christian beliefs and history while touring the historic sites in Jordan, Palestine and Israel.  It is much easier to comprehend the stories in the Bible, Koran and Torah when you have stood in the sites where the stories actually occurred.

Jordan - Lively people, ancient ruins and a Dead Sea!

Jordan surprised us all with its inviting people, vast ruins and stunning natural beauty.  Any concerns we had about how we would be received by the Jordanians were alleviated right away.  Everywhere we went, people would say, “You are welcome here.  Welcome to Jordan!”  Shopkeepers invited us in to have tea and talk about their area’s history and waiters befriended the boys, spoiling them with special drinks and ice cream. 

Jordan has some incredible history and some of the most spectacluar ruins in the world.  The impressive sites we saw right in the capital city of Amman were dwarfed the next day by Jerash’s vast ancient Roman city that reached its peak in the 3^rd century AD.  We were astounded by the immense temples, columned streets and buildings that we speculate would rival those in Athens and Rome.

With the images of Jerash still in our heads, we headed south to the crown jewel of Jordan’s historical past, Petra.  As advertised, it was even more impressive than Jerash.  Petra is a city that was literally carved out of the red rock by the Nabataeans 2500 years ago in about 400BC.  Petra, with its natural and carved structures, is an explorer’s dream and the kids immediately began scampering up rocks and looking in caves.  The stunning 1.2km narrow rock canyon leading into the village would be well worth a visit on its own, but there is so much more.  Palaces, temples, tombs and homes were intricately carved out of the sandstone walls.  It would take at least 3 days to explore the sprawling city in any depth.  We walked ourselves ragged for a day and a half and were only able to cover a fraction of the excavated ruins.  And they estimate it is only about 20% uncovered!

Another highlight of Jordan was our overnight in a Bedouin Camp at Wadi Rum Reserve, only about 20 km from the border with Saudi Arabia.  Wadi Rum is Moab, Utah on steroids with its sculpted sandstone mountains and vast desert plains.  We stayed in a rustic tented camp run by the local Bedouins.  We sat on the floor in the communal dining tent while we drank tea and listened to our guides sing and play their local music.  We climbed up to rock bridges, ran down sand dunes, visited Lawrence of Arabia’s old home and took an uncomfortable but mercifully short 30-minute camel ride. 

To contrast our experience in the desert, we went to a posh hot springs resort near the Dead Sea to pamper ourselves and get the grit off of our bodies.  It was a beautiful place but also probably the emptiest hotel we have ever been in.  Definitely more staff than guests!

On our return from Israel/Palestine, we spend one night on the shores of the Dead Sea and had a memorable swim/float/mud bath.  Although we had heard that the salinity would provide extra buoyancy, we were shocked to find that it was difficult to even fully submerse yourself.  You couldn’t drown in the sea if you tried!

Sri Lanka - Buddhists, Beauty and Beaches

Sri Lanka was full of surprises for us: it's Buddhist, not Hindu; it is only 18 miles from India and used to be connected by a land bridge; and it has every climate you can imagine from tropical jungle to high mountain plains.  In 2009, the country ended 25 years of civil war with the Tamil Tigers and rejoined the list of viable tourist destinations.  The Sri Lankans are just now reaping the benefits of peace and tourism is picking up.

It is a chaotic place, with vestiges of its British colonial past, the bustle of a rapidly growing economy, the marginal transportation infrastructure of a less developed country and some of the greatest natural diversity on earth.  Not to mention recorded history going back several thousand years, a whole host of important Buddhist locations, eight World Heritage sites, and a mountain considered by some the location of the Garden of Eden.  And it is all packed into a compact 25,000 square miles, about the size of West Virginia.

After recuperating on the beach from a flight that arrived after 1:45 in the morning (really!), we headed inland and spent time in the towns of Kandy and Nuwaru Eliya. The towns are high in the mountains and have beautiful views over the cloud filled valleys below.  We drove through lush terraced tea plantations where women toiled with heavy bags on their backs as they picked the tea, which is still a major export.  We also made the pilgrimage to the Temple of the Tooth, where one of Buddha’s teeth is venerated.

From Nuwaru Eliya we drove to a nature preserve known for its astonishing view down across the entire Eastern half of the island.  After a hike up through the park to the ridge viewpoint, we looked down over the swirling mists that obscured the view and gave us the impression that there was nothing beyond the wall of white in front of us.  It is yet another place known as the “End of the Earth,” making it the third one that we have visited on the trip.

Our drive from the mountains to the beach looked short on the map, but turned into 8 hours of curvy nausea-inducing twists and turns that ensured we had to keep our eyes on the road and a barf bag nearby.  We were grateful that we had a driver who kept us alive and allowed us to keep our eyes on the road and the beautiful landscape around us.   

We spent our final days on the Southwest Coast, followed by a day exploring Colombo on our way out to the airport.  After Bora Bora, we are finding ourselves a little jaded about what a spectacular beach looks like!  To be fair, Sri Lanka’s best beaches are supposed to be further down the coast, but we were disappointed to find that the beach we visited suffered from two curses common to rapidly developing countries – a tendency to use the ocean as a trash disposal and the disturbing habit of local beachgoers to freely litter their beaches.  Equally puzzling was our hotel’s disinterest in cleaning the beachfront right in front of their hotel.

Despite the disappointing beach conditions, frustrating tummy problems, pounding tropical rain, crazy roads, and a bit of homesickness (yes - we had a lot of problems this week), we enjoyed the beauty of Sri Lanka.  If we return, we will explore the World Heritage sites we missed, go blue whale watching (we just missed the season) and enjoy the beaches that are a little more difficult to get to.  On to Jordan!

Myanmar/Burma – A Country Undergoing a Massive Transition

We have dreamt about going to Myanmar for many years, but its a tough destination because the country has been largely closed to tourists since 1989.  Over the past year or two, the military government has been opening up the country and paving the way for an open democratic election in 2015, when Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to become the President.  The US re-established full diplomatic relations only in the past year and as we were planning our trip, the chance to visit Myanmar was the primary impetus for us to visit Asia after South America.  We really wanted to experience it as it begins opening up to the outside world. 

As we looked ahead to Myanmar, we had two things that made us nervous.  First, there had been fighting between the Buddhists and Muslims and many Muslim homes had been burned and people killed (see our blog post on Thailand to read about the protest we witnessed there).  On the first leg of our flight from Laos to Myanmar, our flight attendant even warned us to be careful since the airline had warned their staff.  Second, forecast temperatures were between 100-106 degrees and after suffering in the 95 degree heat in Bangladesh and Bangkok, we feared we would literally die in Myanmar. 

Because of these fears, we cancelled one destination (90+ degrees, mosquitoes, no air conditioning,  no pool – a really bad combo) and shortened our time there.  We never saw any hint of conflict, but temperatures were scorching.  You know it is "crazy hot" when it is too hot to even go into the pool.  We now have three definitions of extreme heat - the stifling heat and humidity of the Amazon Jungle, the city heat combined with more conservative dress (no shorts!) in Bangladesh, and the extreme dry heat in Myanmar!

We visited the old capital cities of Yangon (Rangon) and Mandalay, with their magnificent Pagodas, and spent a few days in the ancient city of Bagan, with its 2200 temples that were built between the 11^th and 13^th centuries.  Bagan was our favorite town in Myanmar and reminded us of Angkor Wat, Cambodia with its endless crumbling temples.  One day, we met two young boys, astride a rusty bike far too big for them, who followed us back to our hotel after lunch.  The boys were 9 and 13 and spent their days during summer vacation selling postcards to tourists.  They offered to be our tour guides and proceeded to wait outside our hotel each evening to show us around.  They proved to be wonderful guides and our boys had fun exploring the ruins with them.

We also met a constant stream of entrepreneurial people trying to make a living in the developing tourist trade.  It was a tiring process to negotiate constantly, but we helped support the local economy by taking horse cart rides to temples and buying water and handicrafts from the numerous hawkers there. 

Part of the Burmese culture for men is spending a week to a year as a monk while between the ages of 5 and 16.  Monasteries and monks are everywhere and the Buddhist religion permeates life.  We were most amazed by the numbers of young novitiates who were Luke and Ryan’s age.  We kept pointing out how quiet and well behaved the monks were, but our kids did not seem to take note even after we threatened to send them back to Myanmar to spend a month as a monk.  

After the Buddhas themselves, Ryan was likely the most photographed image in the country while we were there.  In the way we run up to cute puppies, the Burmese seemed to be attracted to him.  Poor Ryan wanted nothing to do with all the people that touched his hair, kissed his cheek, held his hand and wanted a photograph with him.  We aren't sure if it was his blonde hair and fair skin, his young age, or the elephant pants he liked to wear – we only know that he was a magnet.  We had to laugh, because at first we tried to discreetly take photos of the monks and by the end of the trip, the monks were taking pictures of Ryan (and all of us).

We were impressed with the immense sparkling Shwedagon Temple in Yangon.  After burning our feet during a daytime visit in the blazing sun (you have to remove your shoes and socks before entering the temples), we returned at night to the sparkling golden exterior and what we call "Buddha meets Vegas".  Another highlight during our scorching walk around Yangon was stumbling upon an indoor snow palace that had cheesy ice sculptures and sledding.  We thoroughly enjoyed our half hour of ice heaven!  

We learned a lot about the history and changes occurring in Myanmar.  It gained its independence from Britain in 1948, and spent the 49 years from 1962-2011 under military rule before the current gradual transition to civilian government. The country was called Burma until 1989 when a new military group took power and wanted to rid the country of British’s influence including the names of many cities and the country itself.  Many western countries, including the US, continue to call the country Burma since they do not recognize the military government. 

Since 1989, the country has been isolated and largely closed off from the outside world.  Things are starting to change and today, property is being returned to the citizens, industries are being decentralized, people can travel in and out of the country and there is a vibrant optimism about the future.  The Burmese welcomed us with open arms and told us how much they liked America and frequently commented about Obama, who visited in November.

As Myanmar opens up to the world and the elections are held is 2015, we expect the country to grow rapidly.  With its natural beauty, smiling happy people and welcoming attitude it is sure to become part of the beaten path in Southeast Asia.  We were only able to scratch the surface and look forward to returning for a more in depth visit sometime soon (well not too soon - we do want to be home for a while)!