Cheated

Went to draw money 2 days ago from the ATM. As you see, when you draw $$ overseas from the ATM, there is a standard service charge of S$5 everytime money is drawn. So the most logical thing is to draw the most amount of money possible and then hope you do not get robbed. So out of the various banks’ ATMs that I tried, I can withdraw the most money from Bank Leumi, 4000 shekels at a time.

So I happily went to draw money 2 days ago, never count also, hurry put in my pocket and go to school coz scared ganna robbed, especially by the eerie ethopian begger sitting near the ATM every morning. Reached the school, hide in the toilet then realise that I got a 50 shekel note among all the 100 shekels one.. Initially thought so good luck maybe got 50 shekels extra.. Count count count then realise I only have 3950 in total. Thought maybe got 1 note drop into the toilet bowl. But dun have lei.. My friend drove me to the bank to talk about it, dunno wad they talk about also. My friend maybe is flirting with the banker coz she quite chio. The chio banker also damn funny one, can pick up 2 phones simultaneously and put one on each ear and talk. No wonder pple always say jewish pple very the smart, coz can talk on 2 phones and flirt wif customer at the same time.. End up juz ask me to leave my name and Master Card number.. They say will tally the money when they put money into the ATM.. If got missing money then can refund into my account. Think the 50 is gone for good liao.. no wonder pple nvr trust banks la..

then again, bank leumi has ATMs for the disabled in wheelchairs.. cant remember ever seeing such a thing back in Singapore though..

Unhappy? Go on a strike! Sorry, not for Singapore

In Israel people can be unhappy about anything even though they appreciate the tremendous advances this country has made in the past. Early this year, just before I came, there is the lecturers’ strike. The lecturers are unhappy about their working conditions and benefits and refused to teach. The semester was delayed and the matter was resolved only after some time.

This time, the graduate students are unhappy. They will be going on strike, refusing to mark the undergraduate exam papers and do teaching until their benefits have improved. Actually, the benefits they get here is quite good, I think is on par with a graduate student in Singapore but there is no medical benefit, no social security etc. They want more. So go on strike lor. Interesting culture. Will update when I have more information.

7 princesses

Used to think that Jewish people look devilish due to a few misconceptions, like the visiting professor & Avram Grant. That was the past. When you look at the kids, you feel that they are angels. You can just look at them all day.

Mediacorp has 7 princesses, but nowhere near as cute as the 7 princesses of my lab, the children of my labmates. Something must be wrong with the chemicals we are handling though, all the children are girls, no boys. ??? And none of them like me. All look at me like they saw an alien. But they are so cute, I have to forgive them.

Presenting first, the big sister of the group, Maya!

Next is her sister, and my dinner date. Adi.

Then the 2 kindergarten mates, Shira and Noya. For them, its all about a trip going out with each other.

Shira will grow up to be very beautiful, like her mum.

And Noya is my favourite, ultimate cuteness. And for that cuteness, I will put in extra effort to give her another photo space.

Then there is Mihail, who is really shy

And then there are 2 who are so small, they cant even walk yet.

10 month-old Leah.

And Tamah, who has grown quite a bit since the last picture.

When you have children, the whole trip is about making them happy. And its quite fun watching them do senseless children things such as this.

And then they start playing with each other’s hair.

Well, the adults must also have fun too. So the singles + a crazy mum went to a Irish pub for some drinks.

A few drinks and they start a trance. Do I need an exorcist? Nah, you will get into a court case for performing exorcism nowadays.

So this is the whole gang. 21 adults, 7 kids and a empty space beside me to photoshop my girlfriend in.

Nice trip, slow and relaxing. Not much visiting done, especially since the children need to go back hotel for their afternoon nap or swim. You can just look at them whole day though. And not much money spent, a nice subsidy is given. Israel is definitely more socialist than Singapore.

Visit to Rosh Hanikra

Went to visit a place called Rosh Hanikra 2 weeks ago. It was very nice of Sivan and Dafna to bring me for a visit. I guess they are scared of me dying from boredom here. It made a big hoohaa too. Back at work the next day, the whole lab was asking me how the trip was? Not just the whole lab, guys in the neighbouring lab and some undergraduates ask me about it too. Seems like a big event man.. The nerdy boring Asian who comes back to lab almost every Saturday suddenly goes on a trip. Unbelievable for them i guess!

Back to the trip, there is a website about the place. The site is quite power ok, for such a small place, they somehow made it sounds like you can spend half a day there. 1 hour is more than enough actually. Unless you want to take in the scenary and just stare at the Mediterranean Sea.

Haifa is somewhere at the horizon of the picture.

You have to take the steepest cable car ride in the world to reach the grottoes. Sounds good, but its a very short ride and its nowhere as thrilling as a roller coaster.

Into the grottoes we go. So what’s a grotto? check wikipedia yourself la, lazy. Some sort of caves made by the power of nature, from the waves of the Mediterannean sea.

After that was lunch at the beach. The whole city is at the beach, since no shopping center is open. Israelis love the beach a lot, they are crazy about it, they go there every weekend it seems. Much more than Singaporeans.. I prefer hiding in MacDonalds. Or maybe its just me. Anyway, they keep telling me to go to the beach as often as possible now, before the jellyfish season wadever this means. Seems like Mr. Jellyfish and family will come visiting soon and then you cant go into the water anymore for a while. No photos of the beach, kinda forgotten after a filling lunch.

But more photos coming up, from my Jerusalem trip last week. Till next time (which probably may be tomorrow)

Sandeep is leaving, room to share

Sandeep is going back to Singapore tomorrow. One more night and I will be going back into an empty apartment alone every day. Lost my phone confirmed, cannot get it back, don’t know where the driver has hidden. Sorry friends, I lost all your contact numbers. Won’t be getting a new Singapore SIM soon. But Offra is giving me her old phone, so that I can get a local SIM. Thats great!

Now that Sandeep is leaving, I need a new best friend at home. Xun Lei is now my official best friend, he will keep me entertained when bored. Oh, and my laptop too. Lucky only my phone went missing, if my laptop goes missing, I will go berserk. The laptop costs 3x as much as in Singapore.. Must cable-lock my laptop at all times!

Oh, and I am now advertising my apartment, the utilities and municipal fees are a bit too costly for me. Even the cleaning lady who washes the common corridors and staircases (which always look dirty) charges me S$20+ a month. The landlords are very nice to me though, always ensuring that I feel comfortable and nothing is spoilt in the apartment, their hospitality is more than what I can ask for even though I have difficulty communicating with them. Best if the prospect roomie can cook, clean, give massages, goes jogging and tell jokes, I will give a serious discount.

My chronic back pain is disappearing, thats a great news. Not sure why, might be due to not playing soccer anymore, the dead sea treatment, the diet, the bed, the weather, or the jacuzzi and sauna in the Technion (Yes, the University has steam and dry saunas, a jacuzzi and 3 pools in the swimming pool). Wish to go back to the Dead Sea again, that is the nicest place in Israel.

Tour Day 2 @ Masada/Dead Sea

After a good night sleep in a hotel in Jerusalem, the second day brings us to Masada and Dead Sea. I’ll start with the boring part 1st. Firstly have to travel through the Judean Desert to get to our location. Look at the picture, not the sandy desert that i always look at, its more of rocky mountains. jus checked the definition of a desert: its not all sand ok, its defined as an area with very little precipitation, so this one still is a desert after all.

The customary camel to prove that it is a desert. And they have some roadside stalls in the middle of nowhere.

A lot of trees can still grow despite the harsh conditions. The lady in the picture is a brazilian by the way. And she wears real skimpy bikinis. (Tip for guys: Go for a English/Spanish speaking tour guide when going dead sea, your tour group will have the south americans wearing brazilian bikinis and make you nose bleed)

We are starting to see the Dead Sea. But we cant go there yet, we will have to visit Masada first.

Very beautiful from the bus. We should have just gone for a dead sea trip instead of adding the Masada into our itenary.

We reached the Masada. This is a historical site of Jewish-Roman warfare during ancient times.

Trying to look excited as I got my tix for the cable car ride up to the fortress of Masada.

At the cable car point

Inside the cable car. There is standing room only, but the trip is only 3-4 mins, so its still ok.

View from the cable car while its going up.

At the fortress

This was a storeroom to store all the food for the people guarding the fortress.

Boring picture of 2 guys. There should always be a mix of gender on overseas trips.

This is a model of the fortress.

You have time for photos as the tour guide takes turns to speak with the English-speaking people and the Spanish-speaking ones.

This is their ancient bathroom.

This is a sauna. If you remember your geography, the desert is very cold at night. They need some form of sauna here.

These used to be catapult stones used by the Romans when invading this fortress. Now they are just bum rests.

Last boring picture. Stopping before anyone complains. Anyway, Masada is another sad story for the Jews. The Jews were losing to the Romans. They decided to choose 10 warriors by drawing lots to kill everyone else, the women and children included. Then among the 10 warriors, they chose one to kill the 9 others before he commited suicide. 宁死不屈。Oh, and they have a outlet here that sells dead sea products, that is the only one that interested me more. Too busy shopping and forgotten to take photos though. opps..

Note: Some of the following pictures will see me 露点。Please do not consume any food stuff when watching the pics, I scared you all vomit. Please stop viewing the article immediately if you feel uncomfortable.

Then its a rush to the dead sea, the best part of the tour. Water flows from a high to a low point. Since the dead sea is the lowest point on earth, where else can the water go too. Water evaporates and leaves behind all the salts and minerals, making this place very salty and very easy to float. It is said to be a very good place for sun bathing too, since there is less UV due to being the lowest point I think about 400 metres below sea level. If you ever come to Israel, this is one place you have to visit. You cant find it anywhere else on earth.

The correct ritual when coming to the Dead Sea is this. Go into the sulphur bath (where the temperature of the water is about 40 degrees C.) and sit inside for about 10 mins. Then wash off the water, go into the dead sea and have fun. Remember to rub your skin with the salt crystals found there. Lastly go and do a mud bath. And you will find that you have the smoothest skin in your entire lifetime. I did it wrongly though, I went to the mud before going into the sea, only knew the mistake towards the end.

The sulphur bath is shiok. You can smell the sulphur the moment you step into the resort. There is a common bath for males and females, and another bath for males only or females only. No photos of the sulphur bath coz some guys go into the males only bath nude. You smell sulphur on your body even on the following day.. Kewl..

This is me after the sulphur bath. There is a freshwater pool if you have had enough of the super salty dead sea.

Its onto the mud bath nxt for me. You take mud from containers like this to rub all over your body. (Hint: Go to the container where there are most people, the mud there is of better quality, this one here most of the mud dried up, difficult to rub on the body)

Arghhh.. I am ready for war!! Feels like doing camo when in the army. There are mirrors provided for you to put the most pretty make up.

Apply the mud on the whole body.

You can roll yourself in the sand for fun and add colour. (note that there is NO SAND in the dead sea area, its all salt crystals. They imported the sand from somewhere.) Ok, I did not roll very properly here. still a large part not covered with sand.

Have had enough fun in the mud. Time to wash off and take the tram to the seaside, which is 5 mins away.

We have reached. FInally can step into the dead sea.

So many people here.

Look no sand! Just hard salt crystals.

Pluck out one piece and do a salt rub over the body.

And into the sea we go, We float so easily even thoug its still very shallow. (Looks like Sandeep is just lying on the ground though)

Ok, hope that this pic is more convincing. I am floating easily!!

The feeling is good.

You can even sit like this. This is a bluff, its not a stable position, I am in unstable equilibrium. Sorry, need to maintain some engineering terms. I am doing work in Israel, not touring lol.

When the water gets into your mouth, or if the water touches areas near your eyes, you have to wash it, why? coz its bloody painful.

I also need the water. The salt water is terrible. And the freshwater here tastes better than the tap water in Haifa. Drink more..

One big gang of people singing and cheering. I wish I could join them. Come to think of it, there are some taiwanese which are on the same tour bus. didnt see them anywhere.

Looking satisfied in the end. Feeling so cleansed and smooth.

Back to Haifa after that. I hope to visit Tel Aviv some day, its very beautiful as my tour bus passes through it.

Conclusion: Masada is ok, worth visiting once, but once only. Dead Sea is the real highlight of the 2 day tour. I wish I can go there every weekend though. Hope to visit again while I still here.

Tour Day 1 @ Jerusalem

Disclaimer! The text in the following blog is subjected to the author’s memory. The author, while trying his best to give factual accounts, does not guarantee the accuracy of the accounts. Apologies in advance to those who may feel offended by the inaccuracies.

Terrible start to the tour. Woke up early in the morning, we rushed to take a taxi to the nearby train station only to find that the train is not operating because they are doing rail repairs. Ended up taking the same taxi to Tel Aviv to meet up with the tour group. AND I DROPPED MY HP IN THE TAXI. Sianz.. Still cant find the phone till today.. And the taxi ride costs more than S$100.. Double Ouch!!

No choice, we still have to start our tour since we paid for it already. The tour group was quite cool though, a mini united nations, we have pple from US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, etc etc and even from Khazakstan and Afghanistan, the afghanistan people ma jiam look like east asian lei, i thought they were japanese initially. Early morning we went to take an overview of Jerusalem. So we manage to have a nice panoramic view of Jerusalem and took some great pics such as this.

The building in the middle with the gold colour roof is the Dome of the Rock. Its the 3rd most holy place for muslims (after Mecca and Medina) as it is said to be the place where Muhammad went to heaven. Its also the most holy place for Jews. However it remains under muslim control as of present times, the tour guide says that you cant remove it from muslims as 2 billion muslims will be angry if you do that. Lan lan for the jews. And we cant visit it since we do not practise Islam.

Such a historical sight, needs me to be in the picture k.

There are a lot of graves everywhere. Jerusalem is like a necropolis. Below picture shows some Jewish graves. There are also Muslim graves and Christian graves. Everyone wants to be buried here for this is the place where the messiah will return.

After the overview, we visited the tomb of David. It is situated on Mount Zion.

You must wear skullcaps (known as Kippah) when entering the site.

I uploaded my first youtube video! This shows some Jews praying at the tomb of David. IThe tomb is covered by the black cloth and divided into 2 parts. The other part is on the other side of the wall where ladies pray.

This is Virgin Mary’s tomb, supposedly coz I cant really remember.

There are some drawings on the ceiling of the tomb. Its Jesus with some people, not very sure who though.

This is the place where Jesus supposedly had his last supper with the 12 apostles. Nothing very special in here.

A random shot of a beautiful structure, one of the thousands you can find in Jerusalem.

Just before lunch, we went to the Yad Vashem. This is the place where the Jews commemorate the victims of the holocaust. More than 6 million Jews perished for the crime of being a jew and 1.5 million of them are children. Its a very emotional place, as I see some Jews tearing when walking through the memorials.. There are so many stuff to see here, you won’t finish it after 2 days I think. And the tour guide only gave us 1 hour +.. Too bad no photos are allowed inside, so only the main entrance can be shown to you guys.

Its lunch time. We spent our budget on the morning taxi fare. So we can only buy some ice-cream (reminds me of Hleb the shit head who went to eat ice cream with directors from Inter on the eve of the match against San Siro at Milan) from the ice-cream man and take nice pictures.

Oh and I saw a group of Jews singing. Very nice and soothing. Until they stopped when they realised that I took their picture. opps.

Its into the old city of Jerusalem in the afternoon. There was nothing outside the old city 160 years ago. This is one of the 8 gates that surround the old city.

We entered via the Jaffa gate. The tour guide keep mentioning the name, because if we get lost from him (which we really did and a lot of other pple too) we will have to meet him at the Jaffa gate. This picture below shows the view when you step in from the Jaffa gate.

When you walk through the streets, you feel like you are walking through some shophouses though. Beware of tourists traps.

The rocky architecture makes the old city SO BEAUTIFUL.

This is the very famous western/wailing wall. The last remaining wall from the second temple of the Jews. Every Jew comes here to pray.

I decided to join in the fun. You write your prayers on a piece of paper and stuff it into the cracks of the wall. Tall people have an advantage here.

I am nowhere as serious as the Jews though.

A family of Hasidic Jews, the very religious and orthodox Jews.

Armed guards are a common sight. I cant find the pretty female soldiers that Prof Liao Kin showed me though. The soldiers are allowed to bring their firearms home I think. They are ever ready.

Next up, the tour guide took us to Via Dolorosa, the route by which Jesus took on the way to crucifixion. This is station 3, where Jesus fell down for the first time.

This is station 6, where a lady called Veronica wiped Jesus’ face on a silk veil. It is said that his features are imprinted on the veil and preserved and kept somewhere. Many Christians and Jews kissed the station for the deed. This is my favourite shot of the day.

Meanwhile, I see people taking a smoke. This instrument is very similar to Chinese 水烟。

This picture show the exact location where Jesus is put on the cross. Many people queue up to get a look and touch of it.

This place marks the position where Jesus is put to rest.

Many people bring stuff from home to rub on the stone where he was put to rest. Make the items more holy ba.

This is the position of Jesus tomb. I got lost from the tour guide trying to get a good picture.

We rushed back to find the tour guide after this as time was up. If you don’t find him by 5 pm, he will abandon you and assume you went back to the hotel.

At least dinner was provided by the hotel. Its a buffet so I took my lunch cum dinner there. And guess what, I have seafood for the first time in Israel. I found some fish. Even though the taste wasnt really great, I took a lot of servings, because I don’t know when is the next time I can get to eat fish again. Wow, this is a really long post, to think I can spend so much time blogging. Oh well, at least it is a cheap form of entertainment.

Conclusion: Jerusalem is a very beautiful city. But for atheists like me, its hard to appreciate the significance. I like the holocaust memorial a lot though, I wish I had more time there. Nxt post will be on the trip to the dead sea, where I had more fun.