Solo trippin' in Israel and Jordan: Day 5: Jericho and Bethlehem

I had booked a half day tour to Bethlehem on Tuesday earlier, hoping to come back and do the Mount of Olives tour in the evening. At 9 am, a taxi by the tour company came to pick me up. The driver then drove to another hotel nearby, made a call, and then went down into the hotel lobby while leaving me in the taxi. Half an hour later, he came back and told me that the people that were coming with me didn't show up and I had a choice to make: do the Bethlehem half day tour alone or upgrade to the Bethlehem and Jericho full day tour. I decided to upgrade because being in Bethlehem alone sounds a bit scary for me since Bethlehem is in Palestine, not Israel. Thus, the taxi driver now drove me to join the tour van, which was really nice and brand new. It was the "Business class" tour, which means a very small group instead of sitting in a big bus full of other tourists. It's nice to get to know people by name sometimes.

Old and New Jerusalem.

The tour first headed to Jericho from Jerusalem. One cool thing was that the tunnel leading out of Jerusalem is nicknamed the "time tunnel" because after exiting the tunnel, there are only desert lands. Jerusalem is quite modern actually. Theres Old and New Jerusalem. The Old Jerusalem is the walled city and New Jerusalem is outside of the wall and there are modern cars, trains, buses, buildings and even a high way. As you can see in the picture, there even trees (even though I didn't see a single cloud the whole time I was there).

Just outside of Jerusalem

Jericho is the probably the oldest city in the world as well as the lowest city on Earth. It is about 250 m below sea level and has been settled way before biblical times. Jericho is an oasis in the middle of the desert and it is a Palestinian city.

Palestinian territories were divided into three different types of territories by the Israelis: A, B, and C zones, with A being the most "free" and C being the least "free". I believe that Jericho is an A zone, which means that the Palestinians have full control over the land. It is also the only Palestinian city that I've seen that wasn't walled by the Israelis.

Walls of Jericho

Back to Jericho. We all know about the Walls of Jericho story in the Bible. Well, I must say that the actual wall is really not special at all. The reason why it is walls, with an s, is because the ancient city of Jericho is built on a hill and the archeologists found 3 walls surrounding Jericho.The archeologists also found that Jericho has been inhabited by many civilizations since they found like 20+ layers of ...something (I forgot what it was).

Mount of Tempation

Sycamore tree

There are three other places of interests in Jericho. One is the Mount of Temptation, which is where Satan try to tempt Jesus after he fasted for 40 days and nights. There is a monastery there, but we didn't go and I'm glad that we didn't because you have to go by a cable car and I wouldn't trust a Palestinian cable car (I heard they sway). The next place of interest is where Jesus healed a blind man. Its location is about 1 kilometer from Mount of Temptation. It is just on a mountain that looks like Mount of Temptation. The last place of interest is the sycamore tree that the short tax collector climbed to see Jesus as Jesus came to Jericho. In that story, the tax collector turned into a good, charitable man after Jesus told him to come down from the tree and visited the tax collector's house.The tour guide said that the tree is over 2000 years old, but how the heck do they know? Plus I don't think the tree can survive that long.

Bethlehem from the Israel side. Beautiful wall isn't it?

Inside Bethlehem. This wall protect Rachel's tomb.

After Jericho, we drove back to Jerusalem and then we went to Bethlehem, which really, really close to Jerusalem. Turns out Bethlehem is the walled place that we drove by earlier. Bethlehem is also an A zone, except that it is obviously walled completely from Israel. Israelis cannot enter Bethlehem (or Jericho) because the government does not want to take responsibilities. However, Palestinians in Bethlehem cannot enter Israel either because Israel is considered a different country! I learned later that you have to be over 40 yrs old to get a special permit to enter Israel. One story the guide told us was that if a Palestinian needs emergency treatment, he/she is driven to the border, pushed through the gate, and then gets picked up by an Israeli ambulance at the exit, hilarious. Not only did the Israelis took the Palestinians' lands, they lock them out of the land they took. I totally understand the Palestinians' pleas now and I must say that I feel sorry for them.

There's really only one thing to see in Bethlehem: The Church of Nativity, or the birth place of Jesus. The other two places we went were the Milk of Grotto, which is basically a church built upon the place where Mary spilled a drop of her milk while nursing baby Jesus, thus turning the place white. As a chemist, I know it is CaCO3 aka chalk, so I didn't believe in the miracle stuff. Still, I collected two tiny pieces of the white "rock" just in case. The other place is the Shepard's field, which was extremely touristic and not interesting at all. It was a place that some event in the Bible took place in but I can't remember what.

Church of Nativity. Yes, that tiny hole is the entrance!

Inside the Church

That's where Jesus was born.

The Church of Nativity is a Church built upon the birth place of Jesus. It is the oldest church in the world, and ironically, the first church that I've ever been in! The entrance to the church was large, but the Crusaders sealed the original entrance and made it really small. This was to prevent camel mounted soldiers from intruding. As we were about to enter the tiny room to see the birth place of Jesus, one of the member of our group asked a priest if he can throw his empty water bottle in the pot on the floor that had a plastic bag over it. The priest EXPLODED. "This is a church! Not a trash can! blah blah blah!" And then when the other people started to record him. "Don't you dare to publish this! Don't record me!". People turned around quietly and walk away. Luckily the tour guide jumped in and diffused the situation. Anyways, we entered the room and it is really small. On the right, we saw a star that marked the birthplace of Jesus. One of the lady in our group cried because I guess it was quite emotional to actually see the place in person. On the left we saw the manger that Mary placed Jesus in because they couldn't afford an Inn. I don't know the story of his birth so I can't really fully explain the place.

Where the Three Magi thing took place (I think?)

Anyways, we went to see a few more things in the Church but they weren't really interesting. They were just Greek Orthodox paintings. We left to go to lunch at a touristic place (okay, I absolutely hate touristic places). The food was watered down grilled chicken. They didn't really season it well and the meal was very average at best. It cost 75 sheckles though ($20!), typical shady, prearranged restaurant with the tour company.

Anyways, we then went back to Jerusalem and I had to say good byes to my partial friends. I hate making temporary friends because just as you were about to be comfortable with these people, you have to say good bye to them!

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