I Ate A Desert Taxi Today
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2008
1
4
11
Trip End
Sep 23, 2008
Bethlehem,
Israel
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Enroute to these places you cross over the giant "separation wall", also known as the West Bank Barrier, which is 16-26' high and 420 miles long and has a deep ditch along it.
Herodian was where one of the palaces of Herod is located at the top of a large hill. It is an excavated ruin. The main thing to see are the columns, soldier caves, baths and cisterns. And oh yes Mr. Pirates of the Carribean- Jack, there were some large cannonball-like objects that they covered with linen, poured oil over, ignited and threw down on the enemy below thereby 'defeating them' as the kid-friendly term for 'killing' goes amongst my family members
Welcome
. By the way guys, how about 'smiting' as another choice in the killing lexicon? One question I've been wondering- When a family pet dies are you going to say it was "defeated"? By the way, how are we going to explain our exuberance to the kids in November when the Seminoles 'defeat' the Gators in football?In Hebron is where the 'Tomb of the Patriarchs' is located. It is where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are supposedly buried. People come here to do the requisite praying and as I witnessed in some cases, sobbing. However they have to do it over the muzzein calls to prayer since the former synagogue now has a mosque covering part of the site and the site is split into the Jewish and Muslim areas. It seems the Muslims are constantly trying to throw a wet blanket on the Jews' religious sites.
While in Hebron we also toured a Jewish settlement and saw where the Palestinians had been driven out of their neighborhoods. I'm learning a little about this Arab-Israeli conflict. Definitely makes life tough, dicey and in some cases- short lived, over here. Your license plate color is one dictator as to where you can/can't go. Yellow = Israeli & Green = Arab/Palestinian. Hostilities abound, though I haven't witnessed any, unless you want to count a guy screaming at a cab driver about using the meter vs
Ruins of Herodian
. not. It is sort of ironic that where the 'Prince of Peace' was born there is absolutely no peace. I even saw graffiti on a wall that pictured a white dove wearing a flack jacket and there were bullet holes in the wall surrounding it.I don't need to tell you what Bethlehem is all about. There is a huge church, the Church of the Nativity, built over the site (cave) where Jesus is said to have been born. Appropriately there is a big star marking the supposed site. Of course people line up in droves to kiss the spot on the floor. I guess if you kiss holy ground you don't worry about sanitation. When you walk out of the front door of the Church of the Nativity what is the first thing you see? You guessed it, a big Muslim turret where they can call the faithful to prayer 5x a day. I was told that even when the Pope came a few years ago to the church, he had to stop his Mass temporarily because they couldn't hear him over the muzzein's chanting. Unbelievable.
Vegetarians stop reading... Doug, this is in response to your duly noted last request-
While we were driving around today I was noticing that I hadn't seen any butcher shops with hanging carcasses outside like I'd seen in Jordan
Former Palestinian Stores
. I mentioned this fact to my guide and he told me that we'd be passing one in Hebron that butchered camels. I asked if he'd ever tried camel meat and he said no. I told him I couldn't believe that he'd lived in the Mid East all these years and never tried it. I then asked him if there was anyplace that cooked it as I'd like to see what it tasted like. He exclaimed that his cousin had a restaurant and would cook it if we took it to Bethelehem. So off we went to get some camel a.k.a. 'Desert Taxi' meat. With ease we found the camel butcher in Hebron as he was hard to miss with a camel's head hanging on a hook in front of his store. We opted for the 'filet' of camel, after all it's the best! We then headed to Bethlehem. We arrived at his cousin's restaurant and proceeded to feast upon a mezze of hummus, baba ganoush, tomato & onion salad, some sort of parsley & yogurt dip, pita and the piece de la resistance... camel kabob. I have to tell you, the camel was pretty darn good. Beats lamb by a longshot and no, it didn't taste like chicken. More like beef.
