Vacation
 

So I'll start off. I always take time off to see my grandma in Hong Kong, she's 88 this year, 180+ pounds and is now having difficulties walking. She walks at home but has to be on a wheelchair cause she's just walking too slow. She just got her teeth taken out and dentures has done her well.

So this time, my uncle went with 10 of his classmates and booked a all inclusive private tour to Jordan and Israel. His invitation was to go with him and he was offering to pay for 1/2 of my trip for my dad and I. It's weird to not be going on a vacation with my gf to all inclusive vacations but hey, family comes first and it's not like I get to go with my dad and relatives on vacations too often.

First off, Hong Kong. always fooked up with weird and cheap food. Then I'm off to Jordan and Israel.

Hong Kong
This is steamed bun, but instead of 4, it’s ONE big ass one.
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epic large Razor clams…
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Very big Abalone… it’s illegal to catch them in Vancouver BC
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Guess what this is?
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It’s goose’s intestines
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Dried fish; do you know what it is?
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Dried eel
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Then I went from Hong Kong to Thailand then to Jordan.
From Thailand to Jordan was all business class, we sat beside 2 air marshalls which was pretty weird.

On the flight; flying business class

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Can you tell me what this hole is for?

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It’s for you to tie it to your shirt while eating

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So we got to Jordan in Jerash
Gates of the Jerash: (Luke 8:26-39) The Demons And The Pigs parable

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Food in Israel and Jordan... man, it's amazing the first few days, but no pork, lack of chinese food really got to us.
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After 12 days, 3 buffet meals a day… it got boring
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Jordan: Petra
This has influences from Egypt: as you can see the Obelisk (cones) on the top 4 = 4 family members

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Walk another ½ hr, you get to the entrance of Petra (where they filmed Indiana Jones 2.) The two sides are where they collect waters to funnel as water channels into their city

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Nabataeans were great cravers: does it look like a fish?

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Or does it look like an elephant now?

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Johann Ludwig disguised himself as a Muslim and someone led him to the temple / monastery. It wasn't until then he wrote down all the notes and Petra was discovered to the public.

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This is just the treasury which is like not even ½ the site.

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People thought there was an urn on the top with treasures that’s why people would shoot at it.

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There is actually a basement but they no longer do anymore digging

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You can take the donkey and it’s a set price set by the government.

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People used to live in there and after 1980s, the street vendors are no long allowed to sell stuff or use the insides as store front to sell stuff because in 1985 it's a National park (or protected historical site) whatever you call it.

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This is the start of a 2 hour climb with 800+ steps.

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This kid had no shoes…

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People are able to take the donkeys

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It’s really dangerous going DOWN cause they go really fast and you’ll fall right off.

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This is the LAST part of Petra, a 4.5 hour hike in the making. This is the monastery

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Highest point of Petra the monastery
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It took another 2 hours to go back down. Entire day is 8 hours of hiking. Wake up at 6, buffet at 7, hiking at 8 AM at Petra (70 =USD dollars admission), lunch at 12:30, 2 PM at the top and got back to hotel at 5 ish
Me as a reference… It’s HUGE.
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Mount Nebo: the place where God told Moses this is his land but will never be able to step foot on. It says dead sea, Jerusalem etc.
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Now I got over to Israel

1) Did you know if you have a stamp from Israel, places like Dubai will treat you like shit? If you ever fly emirates, they will literally not allow you on the flight on in their country (iran, iraq or any middle eastern country). That's why you have to request "no Stamp please" and htey will have a separate form to stamp upon your arrival and departure.

The Rock where Moses struck the rock and water came out. (Numbers 20:11
)
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This is where Jesus was at Peter’s house in his village. And throughout the years, people would build churchs right ABOVE the site, as you can see, originally a house is there, then a chuch is on top and now a bigger church stands above it.
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Sea of Galilee: Jesus Calms the Storm (Mark 4:35-40)
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Really good pomegranate. And it’s freshly squeezed. I was going to buy one of the presses but it was way too heavy.
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Dead sea at the highest floor, my hotel room. It’s NOT the area where you get to have blakc mud but it’s the lower part of dead sea.
1) Only place in the world where you probably won’t get hay fever cause there’s not trees.
2) It’s not salty but BITTERRRRR and SALTY.
3) If you have any cuts eg// athelete’s foot, it will totally cure it ahahhaha, if you shaved last night, it will sting.
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They totally did the Mexican resort thing and blocked it so it’s like a private site.
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Famous Masada: The Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Jewish rebels holed up there.
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960 jewish stationed up there for 3 years until the Roman empire found a way to go up there
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They built a surrounding wall ALL around, and later found a place where it’s like a steep hill and built a ramp
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On the last night, they drew straws for the last 10 and killed everyone. They much rather die than to be slaves of the roman empire. The last 10 killed each other until the last guy had to commit suicide = only one person couldn’t go to heaven.

Also the view of the dead sea separated into two seas. In 50 yrs, it’ll be gone.
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Standing on Mount Olive and looking over Jerusalem
Entire site = surrounded by tombstones “it’s to keep jewish people away” cause they are not allowed to touch the dead as it’s unholy. (take it with a grain of salt)
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The Golden dome (Dome of the Rock ) According to some Islamic scholars, the rock is the spot[17] from which Muhammad ascended to
Heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. Further, Muhammad was taken here by Gabriel to pray with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

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The 14 stations of the last walk of Jesus. Station 3,4,6,7,9 are not noted in the Bible; in the 14-16 century, St. Francis church wrote them in so people get a better understanding of it.
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Church of the Holy Sepulchre
This is the rock where people recognize where Jesus died; the church where the rock were from had earthquakes; conquered by empires and it has been moved here now. It’s to signify where Jesus lay before he died. Is it still the same rock? No idea, but everything is built “in remembrance” of him.
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Catholics around the world would bring necklaces, clothing and RUB them on this The Stone of Anointing.
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Behind the church there is also the place where the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus

Crazy streets in Israel in Jerusalem
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Very clean streets in Israel in Jerusalem; why? Cause this street is jewish = epic clean. They all have their zones and areas.
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The Torah says, "You shall not round off the peyos of your head" (Leviticus 19:27). The word peyos refers to sideburns
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A lot of people are doing this now, I’m like wtfffff
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Wailing wall
It is a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard, and is arguably the most sacred site recognized by the Jewish faith outside of the Temple Mount itself
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Men are on one side, women on the other, during Bar Mitzvah, girls would reach over and throw candy at the men
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Deut 6:8 “Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.”
Tephillin are two small cube-shaped boxes made of leather with long straps attaching them. The tefillin worn on the forehead is divided into four compartments, one for each scroll and the one worn on the arm contains just one sectionand all four Scriptures are written on one parchment. The whole thing is sitched up so the scrolls cannot be seen. They are ALL hand written by Rabbi and extremely expensive
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Now I’m in Palestine; their own ruling / area / Israelis are not allowed in and Palestinians are not allowed out.
I’m in Bethlehem. Not a clean place it’s night and day. This is where Jesus was born.
The Church of the Nativity is considered to be the oldest continuously operating Christian church in the world. There is a gold star that is considered to be located over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth. There were over 400 people standing in line JUST to touch it and stuff
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Museum of Israel, where parts of the dead sea scroll is located.
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Last night in Tel Aviv, I still had 3 days in Israel when bombing started. After I left, it was declare a yellow zone. This is Mediterranean Sea http://img547.imageshack.us/img547/5831/day1429.jpg
This was the Yad Vashem:Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. I spent 1.5 hours there and it still wasn’t enough.
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Side note.

I went with 10 people on vacation and these were all retired people at middle high income. I went to Vietnam, Egypt and now Israel and Jordan with them. It's an honor to be invited as I'm like the youngest kid out of the gang. It wasn't a huge issue back then, but DAMN, now, EVERYONE of them are FACEBOOK WHOREESSSS. They are all into taking pictures with their compact camera, DSLR and iphones. Some guy had an iphone5 and couldn't enjoy himself because he forgot his external battery. We had to go all the way back.

second, WIFI is like HUGE for these people, all they wanted is to 1) check on their stocks 2) post pictures on WIFI. I had spend an hour in the Holocaust museum, whereas this couple spent 5 minutes so they can go and sit at the cafe to post pics on FB. I found that extremely sad as their life resolves around FB.

this is it, until next time.

Pretty awsome but was this some sort of religious retreat?
Posted via RS Mobile

Nope, my mom went a month early and it was a religious retreat.

I went with a group of people and only 2 of htem were religious. They were running out of places to go check out and they decided on Jerusalem.

Yea quite the locations, very cool
Posted via RS Mobile