Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Discover Israel Part 2

From the last posts of Israel; you must have atleast got a outline hang of it. Now lets travel to different places in Israel. Starting from where my hotel was. Ramat Gan, a small city in itself near Tel Aviv. Around 20 mins from Petah Tiqwa, where my office was. I stayed on a street called Bialik street, famous for it shops. 90% of the shops were for women. From Stylish hats to boots, fantastic collection. If you are a girl reading, this is a dream street for shopping. Check out some snaps to get a bird's eye view of the street. I did get a waist coat from this street.

Next stop is Dezing Off street, another marathon runner; when it comes to shopping. A huge mall called the Dezing off center. Amazing brands, and amazing prices. I had been there during the new year celebrations, so checked all kinds of discount and sale. Got lot of cool t-shirts from here. There is a brand called "Bee Good", which apes makes a funny cartoon of it. I got a tshirt that said COMA, with a picture of puma shown upside down. No prices for guessing which brand was the scape-goat.

After some costly shopping, it is time for some cheap stuff. From fixed prices boards to bargaining prices. The name is Caramel market. The place for all cheap and duplicate brands. One of friends, is very interested in duplicate brands. He even shows off his duplicate brands and asks people to guess the price of it, just to make a mickey out of himself. Some snaps of Caramel; it sure looks like Dadar station.



Very near to Carmel market ("Sukh ha carmel" in hebrew) is Allenby. Once I had been to a handy craft exhibition, awesome paintings and hand craft. One guy made the chess board and coins with just nut and bolts. One guy had made a number of things like a guy fishing using just spoons and forks. The streets of Allenby is also cool. We had a stroll for some cheap stuff. I got a ManU scarf for one of my friend.

The Tel Aviv beach was also cool. But I could not find time to go into it. Just had a stroll outside it. But did get my feet soaked in dead sea mud and into the cold waters of dead sea. It is considered to be the lowest place on earth, below 400 m of sea level. Enjoying the view of dead sea and seeing Jordan on the other side of the sea was a freezing experience, as it was very cold.



Jerusalem, what an amazing place it is. One of the oldest city in the whole world, and had been the center of attraction for such a long time that the roots of its history has almost touched the core of the earth. Just kidding exaggeration. Amazing orthodox city, with both past and present which is very much alive and kicking. The place where Jesus was crucified and his tomb; were places to be remembered and cherished.


And the streets of Jerusalem with shops all around with colourful shawls and key chains, stores for holy water, t shirts, etc. The streets were really colourful. Hope you don't get lost in one of them. Very confusing without a guide. And atlast the most controversial part of Jerusalem. They say there was a temple of Jews built lot of centuries ago, but was destroyed by Arabs and a mosque was built on its place. The archaeologist could not find the remains of that temple. The mosque with its golden dome stands today. There is a big wall which faces the mosque, wherein the Jews pray.

Places to visit are aplenty in and around Jerusalem, if you are a historian. When I was there there was this war ongoing with Gaza. The rockets from Gaza hit many locations at Israel. Being so much into war, Israel had taken precautionary measures. Having enemies surrounding your country and living a normal life is not a easy task. Israel has done it for almost 60 years now. The Gaza problem is one such minor part of their everyday life.

All students after the college have to undergo compulsory 3 years in army. Everybody is trained as a reserve army solider. When there is a need, normal common man are called in to fight. Most of them have well built physique. Fun loving people, adventure sports freaks and not to forget very cute girls and stylish girls. As we ape the westerners in our style of living, they too follow the Europeans.

The one month trip in winter to a place where Jesus was born and had lived during the Christmas was the cheery on the cake. Malls and retail market have not caught up that much in Israel, may be they will eventually. I had a great gang and enjoyed meet new people and tried my hand in learning Hebrew the local language. Hope this being my first visit outside India, be the one that will be followed my many such tours to many other countries. After all, some habit of the Israelis must catch up with me, which is of seeing the world.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved a certain black outfit that seemed to be on a 30% discount.(Sign!!!)
I know very little bout Israel. My only knowledge is based on the news snippets bout the violence in Gaza. So this was definitely good read. Keep posting :)

Lan said...

oh that is cool; there is one more blog about Israel; you will get another point of view check two blog down. Todah raba; means thank you very much!!

Anonymous said...

Good to know n yep have read tht one.

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