Financing the Middle East

You don't to be an oil mogul to travel in the Middle East, but it wouldn't hurt. Here's the lowdown on what Andy and I spent during our time in a few countries in the region. These rates include any visa or exit fees, activities, food, lodgings, and transport for two people, but not flights. (And we included the numbers for Egypt in our last Africa finances post.)

Jordan: $103/day. You can find fairly cheap food (50-cent falafel sandwiches!) and budget hotels ($15-$30 a night) in most places in Jordan, and public transport isn't crazy expensive. What drives the average up is high admission prices for tourist attractions--the main example for this being Petra, which costs a whopping 50 dinar (about $70 US) per person to visit for the day. Our jeep tour around the Wadi Rum desert was a bit expensive too. But since those are the two coolest places to visit in Jordan, there's pretty much no getting around forking over the money. No visa fees here if you're a US citizen, but there is an exit tax (which we learned the hard way is nonrefundable , even when Syria won't let you in and you have to come back into Jordan).

Israel: $94/day. Israel is basically the opposite of Jordan in expensiveness--many historic sites of interest are free to visit, but food is incredibly pricey...and good luck finding a hotel room(or even two dorm beds) in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for less than $55 US per night. Public transport is also quite expensive, though Israel does have an excellent network of buses, so at least it's fast and easy to get around, with no negotiating necessary.If you want to visit Israel on a small budget, we recommend trying to couchsurf. Again, no visa fee if you're American, but a hefty exit tax upon departure.

Turkey: $82/day. Turkey is pretty good value, since for the most part it feels like you're in Europe, but you're paying closer to developing-world prices. Istanbul is expensive, with two dorm beds (around $10 per bed) costing much less than the cheapest double room we could find (around $35), but even there, you can always find a cheap kebab if you don't want to eat fancy. In the rest of the country, we were able to afford better food and a private room most of the time. As for transport, a quirk we discovered in Turkey is that an overnight bus pretty much always costs the same price (around 50 lira, or $33) no matter how far you're going, so we paid the same for a 7-hour overnight bus ride as we did for a 20-hour one. Buses are kind of pricey, but quite luxurious, with personal seat-back TVs (Turkish-language movies and shows only, sadly) and refreshment carts bringing you coffee, juice, and packaged cakes at random times (usually right after you've dozed off for the night).

That's all for the Middle East. We wish we could bring you some financial data on Syria, but they turned us away at the border for not having a visa arranged in advance in the US. Feel free to write to their government and complain on our behalf.

Obsession for MEN (Middle Eastern Nations)

Not so many countries that we traveled to in the Middle East (not our fault--most of them didn't want us), so not many obsessions. Here's what we have, though. As a reminder, we included Egypt in the last Africa obsessions post, though it is arguably more like the Middle East than like Africa.



Jordan- Sweets. Most of the Middle East has a sweet tooth, but it is most pronounced in Jordan. In addition to tons of regular candy shops selling everything from candy coated almonds to gummy rings, most of the sweets come in two basic baklava-like types: fresh and dry. Fresh are generally not so good, but the slightly drier ones (shelf stable, nonetheless), are really, really good.



Israel- Security. Probably an obvious one, but after practically strip searching me on the way into the country (before they had even decided if I could come in), and having to have our bag x-rayed to go into a supermarket, this is definitely the only choice for Israel's obsession. Well, unless being really expensive is an obsession...



Turkey- Sensor Lights. Is Turkey part of the Middle East? I say yes until they are part of the EU. What's a sensor light, you ask? One of those lights that only comes on when there is movement, like some people use for security lights. Most of Turkey's lights seem to be sensor lights, especially in hallways. Most annoying, though, are the bathroom sensor lights that turn off if you stand at the urinal for more than about 10 seconds. Sure, you just have to move to turn them back on, but it's hard to wave at the lights if your hands are otherwise occupied.



Short and sweet. Hope that you enjoyed!

Expensive Eats in Jordan and Israel

Because Jordan and Israel are both small countries, and because neither one has a lot of foods that uniquely belong to that country, we are combining their foods. Israeli food also costs more than we can afford and we didn't think our readers would appreciate ten pictures of bread that we were eating for most of our meals, so those pictures are particularly limited. Enjoy the rest, though.

Egypt has hummus sometimes, but Jordan has a lot more hummus. I like hummus, but Tara loves hummus, so this was good news for her. For those who have no idea what hummus is, it is chickpeas, tahini (sesame paste), and olive oil blended with some other herbs and seasonings. Normally eaten on pita bread or as part of a sandwich. Here is the first hummus we bought in Jordan to eat in the Wadi Rum desert area because the restaurant selection was limited to one place that served one thing...And here is that one thing. In Jordan, they really like french fries on their sandwiches. This place made sandwiches with hummus, fried eggplant, french fries, and other salad. Pretty good and much, much cheaper than the food at the hotel where we were staying.

The owner of the restaurant also helped us book a day tour, so he provided us with lots of free tea. Jordanian tea is inspired by the nomads of the desert and has nice herbs, unlike the boring Lipton of Egypt. On the day that we drank these, we counted nine glasses of free tea consumed.

The yogurt of Jordan is apparently thicker than in many countries and the most popular flavor is plain. Tara seemed to enjoy it.

Jordan has lots of sweet shops. Fresh sweets come in two main varieties--soft and warm or harder and long lasting. The soft and warm look like baklava and related pastries that we really like. However, we were unpleasantly surprised to find that they are all filled with a weird cream-cheesy like substance. Tara loves cream cheese, but she still found these less than good.

The best part of the warm sweets is the vat of goo that they scoop over them. It seems to be a mix of honey (or maybe just sugar), rosewater, and some other spices. It makes everything taste a little better and every sweets shop has one of these steaming vats. Due to the high cost of food compared to Egypt (just wait until we get to Israel...), we resorted to our old friend, polony. At least that was what it was called in French speaking countries. Americans know it as baloney, but it is normally a little higher quality than American baloney. And it comes in fun flavors like garlic or pepper. For only a couple of dollars, dinner is served.Tara discovered these sesame-oregano breads in Jordan that she loves. We doubt they are Jordanian--probably originally from Syria or Lebanon, but she is still sad that Jordan was the only country that we were allowed into that had these.

In Jordan, they have "Strawberry" Fanta. Despite being the red color that normally equals horrible for Fanta, we were dumb enough to buy it. "Strawberry" is the same as Latin America's Rojo flavor, which is terrible. More like bubble gum than strawberry, but you can't even blow bubbles with it.

Despite the less than great warm sweets in Jordan, they make amazing baklava like pastries that are not quite as moist and sticky as normal baklava. They are more expensive, but are really amazing. And Jordanians are so friendly that they would always give us samples of different ones to try in the shop.

We were walking down the street one night when we saw this guy scooping what appeared to be a gelatinous white paste into a bowl and covering with a motor-oil looking sauce. In the 30 seconds that we were considering buying it, about 10 people ran up to the guy and bought some, so we thought it best to do the same. It was a coconut like jelly with some sweet sauce. Tara loved it, and I thought that it was decent.

While waiting for the bus to the Israel border, a guy was selling sweets. This one looked like a churro, one of Tara's favorites, but it turned out to be a semolina filled fried thing. A bit like a giant log of cous cous with sugar added. Not bad at all, and it was the last cheap sweets that we got before entering the land of the Chosen, who are also all apparently rich.

Our favorite falafel shop in Jordan was a place in Amman where we ate about five times over three days. They put a spicy sauce on them that made them excellent and they were very cheap. The upstairs, which is where we ate when the two downstairs tables were full, had a ceiling almost exactly the height of my head.

After arriving to Israel and getting over the shock of expensive transport and expensive hotels, it was time to deal with the expensive food. We walking around only to find that the food was even more overpriced than everything else. So, we went to a little grocery store, where we opted for a loaf of bread, a tub of hummus, and a yogurt for Tara. Total bill: $11. We did have enough hummus and bread left to eat it for breakfast the next morning, though! We had similar meals on several other evenings.

Day two in Israel: to have the same hummus dinner or something better? We opted for a liter of ice cream and a local fruit drink. The fruit drink was essentially an extra sugary nectar. After eating it, we decided that we made the right decision for dinner.

On Day 3, we were saved by the discovery of cheap knock-off candy bars at the market. At 30 cents each, these were the cheapest candy bars we had seen in a long time. We tried one and found it to be remarkably Bounty-like. Then we bought 10 more. Thanks, guy in the market who sells cheap candy!

Tara felt like we had saved so much on our candy that she could afford to shell out a couple of dollars for Reese's Cups, which are near the top of the list of things that she misses most from the US. Israel is the second place we have ever seen Reese's Cups, with the other being a random store on the Peru-Bolivia border where they cost about $10. It made her day, and the one that I got made me pretty happy, too.

Challah bread is often seen being sold in Israel, and we had to try some. We bought a whole wheat version, which I thought was okay, but Tara thought tasted bad compared to most Challah. We therefore counsel not to buy whole wheat challah.

We discovered that Israel had orange-mango Fanta, but it only ever seemed to come in giant size. Soda is only slightly more expensive than in the US, so when we were thirsty one day, we decided to buy one. The mango is largely obscured by the orange, but the fake mango is just strong enough to detract from the tasty artificial orange. So, Tara quickly declared that she hated it, but I wasn't in love with it, either. We finished it, but it required me holding Tara down and pouring it down her throat.

On our final night, we decided to go to a fancy restaurant. The most upscale place that we could afford was the corner deli, where we sprung for a pastrami sandwich to split between the two of us. Was probably about on par with a Subway sandwich. Maybe just a bit better.

So, to summarize, if you are going to Jordan, fill your suitcase with food in Egypt. If you are going to Israel, fill your suitcase with food in Jordan. If you are going directly to Israel, bring your savings!

Jewing (and Christianing, and Islaming) it Up in Israel

Israel was not on our itinerary. OK, not like we have a real itinerary, but we usually at least know what country we're heading to next, and after Jordan, the plan was to go to Syria, spending about a week there en route to Turkey.

But Syria didn't like that plan, and wouldn't grant us a visa when we showed up at its border. Technically, Americans can only get a Syria visa in their home country, but we'd heard about other lucky travelers who'd recently managed to buy one at the border (though none were American), so we came to try our luck, too.

But no amount of discussing, explaining, begging, or offering to pay "extra fees" was budging these border guards. Americans, take note: Syria is strict on its buy-your-visa-in-the-USA-or-else policy.

So, it was back in the taxi and back to Jordan, which, I must say, has the kindest border guards on earth. They canceled our exit stamp no problem, offered us coffee and handfuls of nuts, and told us that we were most welcome back into their country. Which we then only stayed in for a few more hours, en route to another border post...the bridge over the Jordan River to Israel.

Knowing that there was a chance we wouldn't get into Syria, Andy and I had formulated a very hypothetical backup plan a few days earlier: If we got rejected, we'd go to Israel instead, travel south back to Egypt, and fly from Cairo to Istanbul (the cheapest Istanbul-bound flight in the region). But we'd really hoped Syria was going to let us in, and had not planned one bit for an Israel trip. When we got across the border, night was falling...we had no guidebook, no idea what city we wanted to head to first, and no idea how much things cost in Israel.

Well, we got schooled fast in that last one. Israel is EXPENSIVE! I actually spent two weeks there in 1999, but that was on an all-expenses-paid tour for college students (thanks, Birthright Israel!) and I'd barely had to shell out for more than the occasional ice cream. So, I had no memory of whether the country was pricey or not.

Turns out that just about everything here costs way more than in the neighboring countries--hotels, transport, and especially, food. A falafel sandwich in Egypt or Jordan costs around 30 cents US. In Israel, you can't find one for less than $4. Eep!

But I'll try to keep my complaining to a minimum (or at least save it for the next finances post). I'll just say that for us, Israel has been the French Guyana of the Middle East, meaning that we shell out over $50 a night for cheapest hotel room in town, live on grocery store white bread and hummus (which still costs us $10 a meal), and grumble a lot.

All that said, a lot of the religious sites and tourist attractions in Israel are free to visit, so that helps ease the pain a bit. Here's a taste of what we did during our six days in the country.

At the end of a day that saw us take 12 different buses or taxis in three countries, we arrived in Tiberias, Israel, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus supposedly walked on water. The next day, we attempted to duplicate his feat, but we fell in. Luckily, we had thought ahead and were wearing our bathing suits.
Two of those claw machines at the local mall, where you put in money and can pluck out a toy, also had cigarettes as a possible prize. What the ?@#$%! Words fail me.
Next it was on to Tel Aviv, Israel's glitzy, modern, second-biggest city. It has some impressive skyscrapers.
Less than a week left until Harry Potter 7!!! The caption says "Harry Potter" in Hebrew, by the way.
Tel Aviv's beachfront boulevard looks like a cross between Rio de Janeiro and Miami. There are no pink buildings in this shot, but trust me, they exist.
As you may have gathered from the pictures, we didn't really do much in Tel Aviv other than wander around. It's a very pleasant city with lots of plants, bike lanes, and stylish cafes that would probably be to eat and drink at if they weren't twice as expensive as such places in New York. At the big Carmel Market, we finally found a few good food deals and stocked up on cheap candy bars and cereal, which kept us nourished for a couple of days. If I had to live in a city in Israel, I would definitely pick Tel Aviv. Part of its appeal to me is also that it's very secular--if it weren't for all the signs in Hebrew, you'd probably hardly know you were in Israel at all.

Quite a different vibe is found in Jerusalem. It's only an hour from Tel Aviv, but has a totally different fashion sense.
Jerusalem also has many more important religious and historical sites. Many are found in the "Old City" part of town, which is surrounded by stone walls like this one and entered only by various gates.
Inside the old city, here's a night shot of the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. It's the only remaining structure from the great (but long-destroyed) second temple on this site, and pretty much the holiest spot in the world for Jews.
The first time I visited, it really annoyed me that about 4/5ths of the wall is reserved for men, and women have to crowd three people deep into the tiny section off to the side that's set aside for them. Ten years on, the situation is the same, and it still annoys me.

Many people who come to pray at the wall write a note to God that they then stick in a crack in the wall. The wall is now jammed with these notes in every crevasse, and the ones that have fallen out are all over the ground near the wall, too.
In the "New City," Andy and I visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. I went to a Holocaust Museum when I first visited Israel, but apparently this one is new since 2005. Here's a shot of the main hall--very modern architecture on the outside, to match the very multimedia experience on the inside, I guess. It's still a moving and educational experience, but I found all the video and different-colored and -fonted posters and such a bit overwhelming at times.
Overlooking the old city is the Mount of Olives, a significant area for both Christians and Jews. There are several churches, but the Basilica of the Agony pictured here probably has the best name.
The inside of this church does have cool windows made out of purple-stained alabaster stone, which filters the light a lot and keeps things appropriately gloomy.

I really like the golden domes on top of the Russian Orthodox church in this area.
And speaking of golden domes, let's not forget the Dome of the Rock, the huge mosque built in the 600s on the Temple Mount (site of the destroyed Jewish temple, and a bone of contention between the two religions ever since).

The Mount of Olives has a huge Jewish Cemetary. My great-grandfather is buried somewhere in here, but I had no idea where to even begin to look...and it was Shabbat when we visited, so the info center was closed. Maybe next time...
Nearby is a church built on the site of the assumption of the Virgin Mary. Andy was really impressed not only with the number of chandeliers hanging in this church, but with the fact that their candleholders have all been replaced with CFL bulbs! Who knew Mary was so green?
Back in the Old City, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on the site where many branches of Christianity believe Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. The centerpiece of the church is this shrine...which to me, looks like a cardboard cutout wrapped in tin foil, but it seemed to impress a lot of other visitors.
I liked the painted dome with the skylight within the church much better.
And that pretty much wraps it up for Israel. We haven't had a bad time, but it probably would have helped if we'd done a bit more advance planning. Budget travelers will definitely want to try to couch-surf in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where cheap lodging is pretty much impossible to find. There are plenty of free sites, museums, and beaches to visit, though!

In closing, I realize that there is not a single picture including Andy in this post! I promise, he really did get into the country, even though he is not a Jew. Though the border guards did pull him into a little room and practically strip-search him when we came across the border from Jordan, while I sailed through security with no problems... Hm. Maybe he just looked a little crazier than I did.