http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jastay/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jastay en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:50:26 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:50:26 +0000 Happy belated Thanksgiving to all our American readers We are back home after our travel in Israel with a stop in the island of Tenerife located in the Canary Isalnds off the west coast of Africa. Since our return to the U.S. we even squeezed in a trip to NC for the Thanksgiving holiday.In lieu of the usual playbyplay account let's call this our Tenerife Top Five1. Summit to the top of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Tenerife/blog-455124.html We had about 5 minutes to reflect on our desert adventure before our ride appeared Drora her brother Nachom and his wife Sara whisked us away to their home in Eilat at the southern tip of Israel. After a few hours or half that if Nachom's at the wheel of desert driving and remote scenery we arrived at Eilat. The city is surrounded by the Red Mountains on either side and it marks the begin http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/South-District/Eilat/blog-451038.html Masada is an ancient fortress in Israel and well worth a sunrise or sunset. We combined it with a dip in the Dead Sea after getting our dose of history and gorgeous views at the top of Masada. Gai Elkin husband of Itay's cousin Tirza dropped us off early in the morning. Yaniv Itay and I took the western ramp up while the sun was still gentle. We did a self guided tour with occasional stops http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-451036.html HERE to see all the other entries you missed. Happy readingBefore Matti left us we enjoyed one last big dinner with the extended Shalev family at Kibbutz Givat Chaim. Matti was born and raised on this kibbutz and his parents were among the first pioneers to settle here back in the 1920's. As the sun set and we welcomed Shabbat we paid tribute to his parents and grandparents who are al http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/South-District/blog-451035.html A wise guy aka Gai Elkin once told me Israel is a small country surrounded by enemies. This was glaringly visible on our trip to the Quneitra Tatzpit or lookout point. It was a steady feature throughout the trip to stop for tatzpit moments overlooking cities religious sites valleys wadis and various other geopolitical and natural vistas.At the edge of the Golan heights we enjoyed a http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-451033.html So many great people and not enough words to describe the warmth and hospitality of everyone. Before going I felt like I had met everyone already because of all the stories shared over the years. First and foremost Rivka and Moshe. Rivka is Drora's older sister and also an amazing cook. After our 3 hour run with Matti we showed up at Rivka's and enjoyed an impromptu lunch of fish curry mat http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-450978.html You scream I scream we all scream for hummus kabobs and falafel Rivka Drora's sister hosted us for two unforgettable meals including Hamin. It's a slow cooked dish of meat wrapped in cabbage vegetables and rice wrapped in grape leaves hard boiled eggs zucchini...you name it It's my favorite and takes a lot of effort to make as each bite size piece is hand wrapped. So big thanks to Ri http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-451020.html Our first day in Jerusalem started with what we thought would be an innocent run with Matti. I thought he's twice my age...how fast can he really run Think no more folks we ran on and off for 3 hours I took up running 10 days before going to Israel and could not believe that Matti who is not a regular runner gave us the running tour of Jerusalem. We saw all the important buildings in town http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-450966.html Greetings Everyone Welcome to our journey in Itay's homeland this time. Few thoughts before getting into the details...Israel is a unique country in many ways and instead of pretending to be a historian I will provide links to sites where you can read further if you are intrigued. You can also click on photos on the top if you want to read the blog at a later time. This blog is meant to shar http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-450954.html One last week in India and our honeymoon officially begins. After Pooja and Ashish dropped us off at the train station in Chandigarh we headed to Delhi to meet up with Ritya. She hosted us at her pad in Gurgaon before the Sunday morning flight to Goa. Paradise at last. It's a long way from the cold nights up in the Himalayas and well worth the wait. Our home for the week was the Marriott re http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/blog-354920.html Welcome back....the world's attention turned to India last week and not in a good way. Thanks to everyone who wrote and thought of us. Rest assured we were far away from the horrible events at Mumbai more on that later. At the same we realize that security is a state of mind whether you live in Mumbai New York London or anywhere really. To travel is to live life. No terrorist attack c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-351129.html Back into civilization and apparently just in time for wedding season in India. We felt presentable after a few more showers and finally washing our clothes which took more than 10 buckets of clean water. Ewww. First stop was Dehra Dun and a family friend's wedding. The wedding reception featured all vegetarian cuisine and unfortunately no alcohol. No problem. Itay was ushered into a geta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/blog-347190.html A warning before we begin if Part 1 was short and sweet then Part 2 is anything but....Day 4 was election day back home. We camped the night before at a high altitude meadow so the walking was mostly downhill towards our next destination the village of Pana. We made it to camp at sundown but luckily our crew had set everything up and greeted us with tea and hot soup a daily feature by now http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/blog-344979.html We are back in civilization It's hard to sum up the experience in words but two hyphenated ones come to mind lifechanging and lifeaffirming. We endured a week with no cars in sight a tent for a home and a bucket of water for a shower. But then again 8 guys took very good care of us our guide Prithvi who grew up in the region a shepard and two assistants who led 6 donkeys carrying a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/Auli/blog-343951.html We woke early Monday morning and took the Shatabdi Express from Delhi to Dehradun. Itay got to see the real flavor of India along the train tracks. The scenery gets more beautiful once you leave the city. Included in our ticket price was a thermos of tea option of veg or nonveg eggs breakfast and choice of 5 newspapers. We ate napped and finally made some friends from the Czech Republic w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/Dehradun/blog-340241.html After much needed sleep woke up to first digested meal in India. As Borat would say Success Truth be told our hotel is french owned and on the fancy shmancy side. Breakfast included fresh squeezed limeOJ masala omelette crepes with nutella and fresh jam all enjoyed on the outdoor terrace. Then it's off to explore the holy sights. Muslims Hindus Sikhs and the Ba'hai. They've all go http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/Delhi/blog-339889.html All it took was 3 flights 24 hours and more airport bathrooms than we'd care to view. First off was a long stopover in Frankfurt which gave us enough time to enjoy some European fine dining cappuccinno and sausages with apple tart to go.A brief stop at Mumbai airport the third customs check how many times can they inspect liquids and then we finally landed in Delhi 9 am local time. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/Delhi/blog-339538.html In our attempt to figure out this blog figured we should take a stab before leaving. Yeah that's right you no longer have to hear about our trip to India. Only read about it. Liftoff is Wednesday October 22. From that point on we'll do our best to share the ride especially for those of you personally invested in this trip. So many moments to capture from the elephant ride and couples m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-336401.html