haifa.3

Haifa Fornightly(Editor--Huzefa Mehta) 3rd edition 1/12/92 One thing which has amazed me over the last one month is the general awareness of these guys. Most of the people here have been to India. It is a common thing to take off and travel around the world just after they have finished their military training..and India falls high on their list since it is very cheap and also it contains the same amount of cultural backdrop these guys are used to. Most of the arabs know hindi since they watch a lot of hindi movies and are very hospitable and very good salesmen at whatever they are selling. Adventures of Huzefa & Reena continue in the Land of God. Highlights of the fortnight were going to Jerusalem. Its about 2 1/2 hrs from Haifa and it passes thru hazaar kibutzes. After losing direction in the city and getting lost we finally found our way to the Old City. Parked near Jaffa Gate, near the Moslem Quarter of the village. Saw the wailing wall and such ..could not get access to Aksa mosque which abuts the wailing wall since it was Friday and no one except the locals are permitted on Friday. Bought some few souvenirs...and after haggling for about 30 mins with an arab on a price of a camel ride($40 for 1 hr) we finally continued our tour walking. We walked in the Jewish Quarter everything was closed since it was Shabath night. We will later on plan our trips in Jerusalem such that we see the correct religious quarter on the right days. There are four quarters(Christian, Moslem, Jewish and Armenian). The city certainly is very beautiful..very well planned.. I started swimming in the Technion for praciticing for the triathlon. Have to go early in the mornings since the swimming team practices in the evenings. Its pretty costly about 17 shekels for one swim. We left for Eliat this weekend(Dec 5th). It is a very tiring drive(5-6 hrs) since after Beer Sheva it is mostly desert country. One lane road for about a 100 km. Battered tanks and machinery surround both sides of the highway which hugs the Jordan border for quite some time. And also signs which say "Shooting next 39 km" or "Do not leave highway DANGER mines". We saw some Israel tanks practicing shooting far away in the desert. The Sinai desert is party in Jordan, Israel and Egypt with the Jordan river forming the border on one side. The Eliat tip is only about a couple of kilometers from the Jordan border to the Egypt border. Reached Eliat around 3 pm and after a frantic search to find the triathlon register counter before they closed down for the evening I was lucky to "ghiss" in. Eliat as a city is mostly of Hotels and beaches and lots of nightlife. The only good Indian restaurant in Israel "Tandoori" has one of its chains in Eliat. Anyways after touching the water I wanted to find a wet suit(rent one) but mostly all shops close Friday evening to Saturday evening. So could not find one. The hotels also were very costly($70 min to about $150 average per night). We had taken our camping equipment and decided to search for some legal site to camp. Finally found a camping site in a Field school about 1/2 km from the Egypt border. A couple of Swiss guys doing the triathlon were also on the beach. The school was directly on the beach so we camped on the beach. After setting camp and inspecting bike etc. we attended a briefing for the triathletes in the evening and also a pasta party in King Solomon hotel. On Saturday we woke up early to set the transition area.. The event was really well received by the press. The distances were 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10k run. As usual my target was to finish approximately twice as fast as the fastest male runner. The swim extended about 500 meters into the sea around a parachute raft and then inside the bay. About 400 participants were there. Anyways I finished the swim in 40 mins(must have been among the last 10 of the participants) the bike was a real killer because it extended in the desert and it was veery windy on the going route however coming back was quick because the wind was behind me. The run I finished at about 6 mins a km(veery slow..) Reena ran with me the last 2 kms. She was very disappointed especially after seeing a huge chunk of the triathlon crowd finish before me, I was happy to have just finished. My timings were 3 1/2 hrs. The fastest guy was around 1:40. Left Eliat in the evening, the desert country was kind of tiring us. Reached Haifa late in the night. In Israel there are couple of places which people ask us to avoid specially while driving around. The West bank, the Gaza strip and Upper Galilee. I personally do not care-After all these guys are not criminals just people who have been politically wronged--when a kid throws a stone at a car --he is not doing it out of fun.. Since most of the signs are in Hebrew we really have to follow the map closely to make sure we done get into these regions. Especially when returning back we had to make sure we picked up a certain highway going north or else we would land up in Azza(Gaza) Here's to wish Kapshya, G, Bhatia, Umesh,Vivek and rest bon voyage as they leave for desh. Major rumours have confirmed a strong possibility of them not remaining single.