23Nov2010 Day 1

23 November 2010 Day 1
We didn’t need to get off the plane at Colombo. However, at Dubai, we had to walk a super long stretch to Gate 117. It was a good thing we had more than 1hr 30min to do it. Some enterprising group members hitched a ride from a driver of a motorized cart. Strangely we had the same seat numbers, 44F and 44G, on both planes. I had to readjust my watch at Dubai and a second time at Amman.

We boarded the bus at Amman at 11.10am. Sihon (Numbers 21:21- Israel sent messengers to say to Sihon king of the Amorite…s) is where the Amman Airport is located. South from the airport is Edom. In Numbers 20:14. Edom was punished for not allowing Israel through. Amman airport is in Jordan. 63% of the bible stories took place in the Jordan. Yearly, Jordan exports one and a half million tonnes of organic tomatoes and bananas to the Arab nations. North of Amman airport is Gilead. Half an hour north from the airport is the river Jabbok, where Jacob wrestled with the angel (Genesis 32:22 - That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.). The highway the bus was travelling on is called King’s Highway, the oldest highway in history, and was used by the people of Moab going to Sinai.

Lunch was at a Christian town called Madaba (Numbers 21:30 - But we have overthrown them; Heshbon is destroyed all the way to Dibon. We have demolished them as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba.; Isaiah 15:2 - Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off.). ‘Me’ means water, and ‘deba’ means fruits. Our tour guide used the acronym GAME to help us remember what the Jordan of today has that we read about in biblical history.

G – Gilead

A – Amman

M – Moab

E – Edom

The population in Jordan is 6 million, while the Christian population is only 3% of that The local Christian guide took us to a 115 year old place for lunch, a place called Haret Jdoudna (Tel: (05)324 8650/324 8651) , located along King Talal Street. This place has always been used by Christians. The place is rather quaint, with its original four walls of stone blocks. The original roof has been replaced by a flat glass roof, allowing maximum light into the restaurant. Each table is painted green. The food they serve is Jordanian food. When the food came (a few plates of raw greens, mushrooms and tomatoes, and dips and pita-like bread), we tucked in heartily. One of the dips was the hummus: a cream of chickpeas, tehina (a paste of ground sesame), onion, lemon and olive oil. Must have been the nice and cool weather that whetted our appetites. We thought that was the whole meal. We soon realized that we shouldn’t have eaten so much of the first course when we saw the waiters bringing out the second course, which was roast chicken with a naan-looking thing. Third course was a kind of coconut cake and a sweet fried dough ball.

After lunch, we boarded the bus for Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 32:49 - "Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.) The guide told us that even though Christians are a minority in Jordan, they acknowledge that they share the same roots, and they live peaceably with each other. Children in Jordan walk to school, even in winter, for a distance of about 2 miles. Moses went to the top of Pisgah (Deuteronomy 34:1 - Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land-- from Gilead to Dan,) and that’s where we went. From there we could see the Dead Sea and the land of Gilead. We spent half an hour at Mt Nebo. There was a 1400 year old Byzantine church, Church of the memorial of Moses, built by Constantine and his mum. This church served as the landmark that identified this mountain as Mount Nebo.

At the beginning of our walk towards the church at the top of Mount Nebo, we saw a short rainbow. There was a very tall stone sculpture that looked like a Bible standing up, done by the Franciscans monks. There were names and faces carved into the sculpture. In 1933, the Franciscans came to look for this Byzantine church and they’ve been restoring it. There was a Bedouin tent there made of gunny sacks sewn together. It protects the original mosaic floor of the Byzantine church. The mosaic patterns were so nice, those who laid the floors could not possibly be ordinary construction site workers. We climbed higher up to see the view Moses saw when God told him that he could not enter the Promised Land.

We read the scriptures and Rev Niam explained. Higher than where we were was a very tall statue of the bronze serpent spoken off in Numbers 21:8-9 - The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. We looked at John 3:14, which compares Moses and the bronze serpent with Jesus on the cross. John 3:14 - Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. In Moses’ time, bronze was used because that area had a lot of bronze. History also concurs with Biblical accounts because that period of history during which they made the serpent was actually the Bronze Age. We left for the border crossing into Israel. We were told that it would take half an hour to 45 minutes.

The sky was a beautiful clear blue and the sun was blazing. Last year at this time, it was 9 degrees Celsius on the mountain. This year, it was 24 degrees.

On the way down the mountain, we saw lambs actually queuing up neatly. We also saw some donkeys. We were told that donkeys know the best way to find water, and will lead their owners through the shortest path. They go in a zig zag fashion. The roads were built according to the donkeys’ path of travel. The sharp turns of such roads made it awkward for the vehicles. As for camels, they are used for hauling stuff.

At the Israeli side of the border (Allenby Border Crossing), I was asked if I was carrying any weapons. We had a little hiccup as one tour member, a Malaysian, had been given too few days in his visa pass. No one knew the discrepancy earlier as the wordings on his visa were all in an unknown language. The rest of us were automatically given a 3 months visit permit each. Amazingly, we were finally on Israel soil! Amazing feeling. I heard that the other Singapore tour guide Georgina (from Palm Travel Pte Ltd), and our Israeli tour guide Nee Wong (from the Guiding Star travel agency) were at the Israel side of the checkpoint since 11am that morning! We only made it across in the evening, at 5.10pm. It was already pitch black as the sun sets early. There were a lot of people crossing the border that day, 5000 people, as they were Muslims who had completed their haj. Our bus driver was Ramon, a nice Christian man who has 5 children.

It was a two hour ride to our hotel, Hotel Nof Ginosar, where we were to have our dinner. The Hotel was in Galilee, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  Our tour group was known as the Steps of Jesus Group. Dinner was quite an affair! There was such a wide spread of food: from many types of freshly baked breads and many types of cheeses and jams, butters, etc, to a variety of whole and cut fruits, smoked and cooked fish, cooked and uncooked vegetables galore and different meats, that those who just took a little of everything ended up with a huge mountain of food. What was nice was the porters bringing our bags to our rooms while we were eating our dinner. The place looked cosy and very nice indeed. It had a very relaxed environment, with many types of seats out in the gardens. My room was number 90. The room was well equipped with an electric water jug, extra blankets, conditioning shampoo, lots of towels.