The security for boarding plane and entering
Israel was severe, every foreign passport holder had to be
questioned personally by the Israeli’s security staff (they
looked like aircraft police at the Hong Kong airport’s open
counter beside the check-in counter, it means you had to go
through this counter successfully before you are allowed to go
directly to the check-in counter for personally boarding
check-in. I was questioned by a general staff and then a senior
staff because I had been to many other Islamic counties such as
Malaysia, Indonesia, and Israel’s neighbor countries such as
Jordan, Egypt. They asked me why going to Israel and asked me
why I had been to those mentioned countries. Did somebody give
me something to Israel? Did somebody pack the baggage for me?
Did I join the tour? How many days I had joined the tour. Why my
baggage was little? Fortunately, I was allowed to check in at
the airport counter. However, most foreign passport holders has
to be scrutinized by the testing rod just right before the
boarding bridge to see whether we had chemical power, they used
testing rod to search my shoes and my baggage and then inserted
it into the machine like an ATM to see whether something was
found. The security staffs were polite, they greeted you first
to easy your nerve before doing their jobs. Might be we are not
like a terror, so it is just their routine work.
After 12-hour flying, we arrived at the
Israel airport, some tour members wanted the immigration dept
not to chop a stamp on the passport to avoid trouble while
entering some Islamic countries in the future but the
immigration dept officer still chopped the stamp but the stamp
does not show a word of Israel, it only shows the words ‘border
control’.
The weather like
that in Hong Kong in November, a shirt with one jacket can warm
you up. What I don’t expect is I could go beyond the autonomic
areas such as Jericho and Bethlehem which are under control of
Palestine. I was so excited while going through the border
control with armed army stationed there. However, the dead sea
in Israel made me disappointed because we have to go to the
public beach for floating and mud-spreading on ourselves. It
does not like the one I have experienced in Jordan where the
private beach of the dead sea is at the back of our hotel, we
could go down to the beach whenever we liked in Jordan. After
floating at the dead sea in Israel, we checked in the Novotel
Hotel which far away from the beach of the dead sea and the
beach was not good, some salt was accumulated on the seaside. It
seemed that was not good for floating. I only took several
pictures in that morning while I was staying at the Novotel
Hotel.
The most wonderful scene that impressed me was Jerusalem
old town, it made me like going back to the time passage. Such
tour makes me knowing more about the stories of Jesus in his
life. What’s more, I can know the new tour members and friends
in this tour. God Bless You. 