Another early start saw us travelling a little south west to visit Nazareth, now a majority Muslim town of about 80,000. In Jesus’ time there may have been about 200 people. Walking up a fairly steep hill, we visited a site traditionally thought of as the house where Mary grew up and was visited by the angel Gabriel telling her she would give birth to the Messiah. It was wonderful to hear again Luke 1:26-38, that very familiar story read every Christmas. Continue reading NAZARETH – Saturday August 9 →

Leaving the hotel by 7:50am we travelled a short distance to board a boat for an hour on the Sea of Galilee. It was a magnificent morning with beautiful breezes off the lake which made the already hot day quite bearable. We all revelled in being on this sea which we have read so much about in the Gospels. The crew was fantastic, and even hoisted an Aussie flag and played the national anthem over the speakers. Erez shared with us some of the geography of the lake and pointed out the various towns we would visit during the day, all of which are very close to each other. The only big town on the lake these days is Tiberius, and all the other ancient towns are now only memorial sites where visitors and tourists gather. Continue reading EXPLORING THE SEA OF GALILEE →

As we left the southern end of the Dead Sea this morning it was only a short drive to Ein Gedi, a magnificent spring in the desert where David hid from King Saul when he was being pursued by him. The story of King Saul and his 3,000 men searching for David is well worth the read – check it out in 1 Samuel 24. There are some quite comical moments as David sneaks up on King Saul relieving himself in a cave. We walked a beautiful pathway to the first waterfall, passing hyrex [rock badgers] and ibex.  Continue reading DEAD SEA to SEA of GALILEE →

This morning we woke to a significantly warm day [read VERY hot]!! We began in the bus at 8:30am to take the short trip to Masada, an ancient mountain fortress where the Jews held out for the battle against the Romans in a siege which didn’t end well. The Jews rebelled against Roman rule and the siege lasted for about 3 years, from 73-75 AD. In the end, there were the final ten chosen by lot, and if the worst came, which it did, they were to kill each other and the last one standing would then kill himself, rather than submit to Roman rule and slavery. It was an amazing story of courage and faithfulness to Yahweh. Continue reading MASADA and FLOATING in the DEAD SEA – Wednesday August 6 →

We reluctantly left our beautiful nabataean village hotel, Taybet Zaman, this morning and were pleased to find a spot on the road to get a bird’s eye view of how it is laid out. We all found it a wonderful place to stay and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Petra.

Driving south we stopped at another place with a magnificent view of the rugged mountainous landscape of southern Jordan, and Rabi told us that there were many more siqs winding their way through them, apart from the one we had walked the previous day. Continue reading JORDAN INTO ISRAEL →

Expectations were high as we woke this morning. After a delicious breakfast we got back on the bus for our short drive to the Petra Visitor’s Centre and Rabi gave us the options – walking all the way; a horse ride to the Siq or a buggy ride through the Siq. Different people chose different options, but for us, we had to do the horse ride to the Siq and then walk through it to see the Treasury at the other end. What an amazing experience. Geological awesomeness is probably the only words that would do. Continue reading PETRA – Monday August 4 →

Amman is an amazing city. Often called the white city because all the buildings are made out of limestone which is so readily available. The main export industries of Jordan are phosphorus and potash, and the other big focus is education.

We were checking out of Cham Palace Amman this morning by 8am and Rabi took us on a city tour, particularly to see some of the very well heeled suburbs. Continue reading AMMAN TO PETRA – Sunday August 3 →

All went well as we left Kathmandu this morning. Again the traffic was as chaotic as expected, but our transport to the airport skilfully negotiated every intersection and road. We eventually found which departure door we were to enter and went through the necessary processes. Unfortunately our check-in took considerably longer than hoped as the staff were working with new computer processes and our request for the bags to be booked to Amman with our next carrier Royal Jordanian, proved a little challenging for the Nepali Thai Airways staff. Continue reading FRIDAY AUGUST 1 – Day & Night of travel – Kathmandu/Bangkok/Amman →

Today was a free morning for each of us to explore the local Thamel area bazaar, do some souvenir shopping, or just relax. We had a Nepali experience where a local assisted us to locate a mobile phone handset store to buy a cheap handset for Chris to have for the rest of our travels, as his phone [for some weird reason] won’t accept our TravelSim or the Nepali Sim we bought on arrival here. We have no idea what brand it is, except that it was made in India. At least it recognises the SIM card, and that’s all we need. The experience however was that this guy led us through lane after lane, turning corner after corner to take us to the Nepali shopping area rather than just being in the mainly tourist bazaar. We knew he would expect some sort of payment, and we were prepared to give him Rs200 however he assured us he didn’t want money, but would we help out by buying some food for him and his family. Continue reading MORE OF KATHMANDU – Thursday July 31 →