Holy Land tour Journal : Day 1

Day 1

Tiberias, Israel - 15 September 2010, 9.08pm

(16 September 2010, 2.08am WIB).

AKHIRNYA… Perjalanan ke Israel tu bukan 7 jam plus 2 jam, tapi 24 jam! Hahaha..

I took an Emirates flight from Jakarta to Dubai; enjoyed the flight, but not the sleep. Gw sadar bahwa ternyata gw masih perlu bantal buat tidur. Sebelom dipasang bantal di kepala belom bisa tidur. XD

Dubai International Airport was cool.. Maybe it's because I learned about their logo design concept so it was exciting to see the actual logo on the actual place. The shuttle bus from the airplane to the terminal building was cool as well; wide futuristic body with … no it's still with wheels, just can't really see them. Cool.

The flight to Jordan was okay as well. 2 jam ga gitu kerasa karena dipake nonton Sleeping Beauty. ^^ Approaching Jordan, all I saw was desert. Jadi intinya Jordania itu cuma a patch of town in the middle of the huge desert. That's it. PASIIIIRRRRR semua. Arrived at Jordan, and this is where all the tiring stuffs began.

Visa on Arrival kan, jadi ngantrinya tu udah kayak APA aja gitu. LUAMA banget uda gitu orang na juga super nyolot gitu… Lucu sih ngeliat mereka ngomong bahasa Arab satu sama lain, n liat uang na juga lucu, liat Arab Jordan Investment Bank juga lucu (coba kalo disingkat jadi apa namanya… Gila bahkan uda jauh2 sampe Middle East juga gw masi ketemu hal2 aneh gini), but that's about it. Bandara Queen Alia kecil n jelek kayak Gambir. Nunggu bus buat angkut ke perbatasan Amman-Israel juga super lama, n super ribet ngatur koper2na (clearly this travel agent hasn't got the experience on managing these around 700 people).

Once at the perbatasan… Hahaha all the (fun) begins. Nunggu inside the bus like nothing happened for about an hour, then supir bus na diganti orang customs/imigrations, trus bus dibawa ke perbatasan King Hussein Bridge, di kiri-kanan diapit padang pasir and padang pasir and padang pasir… Sampe di perbatasan, nyebrang jembatan, masuk ke Allenby Bridge. Again, nunggu like nothing happened inside the bus for more than an hour and a half, masuk ke dalem, koper2 dibuangin turun. Trus musti dimasukin alat ngecek gitu n ditinggal, sementara kitanya jalan masuk ke imigrasi. Nah nunggu imigrasinya itu yang kayak APA gitu lamanya. Lebih kayak APA lagi daripada yang visa Jordan. APA banget deh.. Once through, ternyata udah ada di deket Qumran n Dead Sea.

Lunch di Qumran… Lunch nya agak gajelas to be honest, but I'm too hungry to complain. Really too hungry. Jadi makan aja gajelas apaan juga. After makan, shopping for a bit… Getting back my senses for a bit, dan… harus jalan lagi. Hahaha.. Perjalanan di bus gajelas berapa lama, I feel it's around about 3 to 4 hours ke Tiberias.

Yang seru adalah, dari Qumran ke Tiberias ternyata perlu melewati TEPI BARAT. Tau Tepi Barat? Yap yang tempat perang itu… Dan bus harus sekali lagi melewati security check point… A guy with an assault rifle climbed in to the bus, dan nunjuk gw with 2 other guys to go down, randomly picking gitu, buat diperiksa luggage na. Jadi turunlah kami bertiga, bingung2 gajelas masi ngantuk2 gitu, masuk ke pos keamanan nya, dibentak2 disuru buka koper n ditanya isinya apa, ngelewatin metal detector. Finished, balik ke bus, n ngelanjutin perjalanan ke Tiberias.

DAAN.. setelah 1 hari 1 malam yang seru, sampailah sudah di Tanah Perjanjian, Israel… Tiberias seems like a beautiful city, even when she's sleeping late at night like this. I don't know, we'll see tomorrow.

Anyways, dari perjalanan penuh kegajelasan dan super capek ini, ada 1 lagu yg ada di hati gw…

Menyebrang Sungai Yordan, Halleluyaa…

Menuju ke Kanaan, Halleluyaa…

Meski banyak rintangan, Halleluyaa…

Menyebrang sampai menang, Halleluyaa…

Halleluya..