April 3rd – 5th – An Enlightening Tour of Israel

As we toured around the small border town of Sderot, we remarked that we’d never seen a town with so many playgrounds. One playground boasted a large and colourful caterpillar for the children to run in and out of. However, this image of childhood innocence took on a rather shocking character when we were told that the tube that the caterpillar’s body was made out of, was re-inforced concrete, because it had to act as a bomb shelter during (the many) times of conflict with neighbouring Gaza. 

A playground that doubles as a bomb shelter sums up some of the feeling of everyday life in Sderot.

Because Sderot is just across the border from the Gaza strip, and people have somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds to find shelter, from the time the air raid warning goes off before a missile or shell hits the town. It brought tears to our eyes to be told the stories of the children living under this kind of constant stress and danger – of course, these traumas were being felt on both sides of the 2 sets of forbidding walls that separate Gaza from Israel.

Our two and a half days in Israel took us to see some of the amazing community programmes and remarkable individuals who are doing their best to improve the lot of ordinary Israelis caught up in the conflict, or who are struggling to make ends meet in a country where so much money is spent on security.

We met the wonderful charity workers who are counselling the traumatised children – using animal therapy to give them an outlet for their suppressed emotions of terror and lack of control. You might wonder why people choose to live in a place so directly in the line of fire. For some, it was a patriotic decision. For others it was an economic choice – in a country of skyrocketing housing costs, this is (unsurprisingly) simply one of the cheapest places to live. For others there was no choice – new arrivals from places like Ukraine and Ethiopia get put where there’s space.

The thing that gives you hope for the future, are the people working selflessly to make other people’s lives better. From the projects to integrate the Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society; to the inspirational headteacher of a school in Lod who is doing an amazing job in some extremely tricky circumstances; to the man who had put together an ingenious food redistribution programme to help the needy. These people are incredibly optimistic, energetic, and enthusiastic, but also realistic about the limitations of what’s achievable in this difficult environment. It made me think that if we could put people like this (most of whom were women) in charge of the various governments of the region, there would be much more chance of finding a peaceful solution to the complicated conundrum that is Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Standard tours of Israel generally take you around the biblical sights or to amazing natural sights like the Dead Sea. Along the way, you might pick up some of the many issues and nuances that contribute towards the making of this incredibly complicated country. But, you rarely get the chance to see the issues and the fears that so many people have to face in everyday life. This was an absolute privilege.

These were an incredibly eye-opening couple of days in Israel, that left me full of admiration for its charity workers. I’m sure that there are just as incredible and inspirational people working across the border in the Palestinian Territories – let’s put these people in charge.

March 29th – 31st – Three Days in Jordan

For tourists, the contrast between Jordan and its neighbour, Saudi Arabia is massive. There’s a much more open atmosphere; there’s a level of organisation to Jordan’s tourist industry that Saudi Arabia can only aspire to; and there are few of the restrictions that make Saudi a more “difficult” place to explore (visas, stricter dress codes, alcohol etc).

I visited the haunting desert landscapes of the Wadi Rum, while Tracy visited the amazing site of Petra again – both looked as spectacular as ever. On our other days, we spent our time in the less picturesque environment of Aqaba, a sometimes scruffy town that presents a friendly introduction to Jordan. We visited the town’s small souk, we lounged around at the Kempinski Hotel (Aqaba does luxury hotels rather well), and we had a lovely lunch (including beer!) at an old favourite, Ali Baba Restaurant. 

Jordan is a place that makes the best of what it has – its coastline is only 16 miles long, yet it’s become a beach destination; much of its territory is barren desert, yet it’s made that into a tourist attraction; its main historical site was hidden away for centuries, yet it’s become one of the world’s must-see sights. A lovely place to spend three days.

March 24th – 26th – Expect the Unexpected in Saudi Arabia

By reputation, you wouldn’t expect a cruise to Saudi Arabia to be much of an enjoyable experience (never mind that the ship had to be “dry” for three days!). However, I found our time in the Kingdom to be fascinating, illuminating, and dare I say it, enjoyable.

I am massively behind on blogs, so this will be brief – here are some of my main impressions of a country that is trying to carve out a rather unlikely role for itself as a tourist destination:

1. In general, the people (apart from a few grumpy immigration staff) were very friendly and welcoming – I was wished “welcome to Saudi Arabia” countless times, and there was a refreshing curiosity from the locals about why we were here.

2. I didn’t detect a threatening atmosphere in the least – quite the opposite in fact (apart from a Yemeni missile hitting an oil storage facility just as we were leaving Jeddah, which was slightly concerning!).

3. Saudi Arabia (at least the parts of it I saw – Jeddah, Taif, Yanbu and Medina) does not remotely resemble the flashy side of the Gulf states like Dubai. In fact, much of it is rather scruffy – mainly because there are so many building projects going on (although there doesn’t seem to be much of a unifying vision behind it).

4. There is scarcely anything to see that is over 30 years old here – anything older than that gets torn down and gets re-built. Even the once-attractive old towns of Jeddah and Yanbu are pretty much falling apart (although there is finally a project to restore them).

5. Tourism is very much in its infancy here and they have much to learn (see “grumpy immigration staff” above). Some guides are very good, but some are terrible, and they need work on some of their tour structures to fit into what us western cruisers are used to. 

When they do get their act together, this is a great place to see somewhere that’s completely different, and where westerners are still a novelty. There’s not many places these days where you’re right at the front of the tourist vanguard, but Saudi Arabia is it. 

March 16th – Two Days on Mahé

After the supremely relaxed atmospheres of La Digue and Praslin, then the Seychelles main island (Mahé) can seem a little hectic. Of course, it’s nothing of the sort, but there’s a bit of a buzz to its pint-sized capital, Victoria, that acted as an interesting contrast to those tranquil sister islands.

Like the other Seychelles, Mahé is all about its beautiful beaches, and there’s a greater tourist infrastructure here of resorts and upmarket hotels. So, on various itineraries of the island, we visited the lush botanical gardens, explored Victoria, swam to the lovely Beau Vallon beach, and visited the Hilton for lunch where we paddled at the shallow Anse Forbans.

The highlight was a superb beachside evening meal with great company at the Eden Restaurant in the Story Hotel – a supremely romantic setting, even if it was so dark that we could only just make out what we were eating!

If money were no object, there can’t be many more idyllic places than the Seychelles.