Behind Jerusalem

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Bethlehem is only 10km away from Jerusalem. But it may as well be on the other side of the world.

Because getting there so I have to cross the security fence and enter Palestine. Actually I was quite nervous about it as well. The West Bank has been built up by the international media into a extrememly dangerous world, loaded with unexploded bombings.

Getting into Palestine wasn't difficult, I walked up from Damascus Gate of Jerusalem from my beloved Petra Hostel near Yaffo Gate, I paid NIS4 (HK$13) and hopped on the government official minibus and at about 5km west, I was pulled off to the check point, this is the end of Jerusalem also where the "Berlin Wall in the east" located. The Israeli may refer the wall as security fence, but the Palestines usually called it as country border : Jewish are not allowed to cross over to Palestine, while the Christians and Muslims in Palestines side are not allowed to leave the West Bank. Foreign tourists are required to present passport and pass thru several metal gates, imagine that you are going into a public swimming pool. After I passed thru the metal gates, I had to deal with the gun armed Israeli securities and thousands of metal detectors, expect two detectors in between 5 to 10 steps. In general, however, the procudures was pretty quick, straight forward and easy for us.

The experience of the security fence aka Palestine Wall was great, now I have entered Palestine, and I was picked up by one Christian driver outside the gate with his German made Mercedes cab, he offered me a ride for NIS100 (HK$250) a day hire but I paid him accordingly of NIS20 (HK$75) for taking me to Church of Nativity which is just another 5km down instead, where people believed Jesus born.

As in other parts of Israel, enter into the church is free, however, I was very disppointed with the management and queue arrangement of the site, the church itself wasn't very great, nothing surprised me at all, I lined up to see the grotto (where exactly Jesus born) but I found myself was sandwiched between three huge groups of pilgrims from Spain, Philippines and Indonesia, each of them needed to knee down, kissed from roof to floor and take a picture, one is not enough so maybe two, three, four, oh this one I was not smiling so take the 5th one then, I need another one with flash so take 6th one......HEY HELLO!!?? only the proccess of taking a picture by the pilgrims already took me an hour to wait. After an hour in line I was allowed to file in, kneed down and touched the ittle star-shaped marble floor where we believed Jesus entered the planet.

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Photos

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Jerusalem Wall

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Towards to Jerusalem

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Jerusalem Wall

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Jerusalem Wall

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Jerusalem Wall

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Downtown Bethlehem

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Wooden trapdoors in Church of Nativity

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Inside the Grotto of the Nativity

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Church of Nativity

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Tons of pilgrims

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This is where Jesus born