Figjam's Epic Adventure 'The Second Coming': Made It To Israel... Eilat First Stop!

20/8/11

Eilat, Israel

2033 (local time)

Well I finally made it to Eilat, Israel, and I’m not going to lie, the locals are fairly tense, and honestly I don’t blame them. From all the locals that I have spoken to always bring the conversation to being about Palestine and Egypt.

This is all due to the recent attacks that have occurred just outside of Eilat. (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14587101)

I don’t want to go into any detail about what actually occurred, so I have posted a link (see above) that gives you an in depth sight of what happened.

Anyway, my trip. I left Dahab on the 19^th of August and caught a bus at 10.30, it was just over a 2 hour bus ride until we made it too the Taba border. I knew that I had overstayed my visa, but I thought with some chat I might be able to worm my way out of the 150 Egyptian Pound fine (30AUD). Unfortunately I couldn’t so I had the pay. No dramas!

The thing that had me slightly worried was trying to getting into Israel because I had some stamps on my passport that are well known enemies of Israel, those countries being Syria and Lebanon which I visited in 2009.

So when I got to customs where they stamp your passport, I was told by the lady at the desk that ‘she had to speak to her manager’. I remained polite and just did as they say.

So after a good 1.5 hours a lady called me into her office where I had to answer a whole bunch of questions such as:

Lady: “What is your father and grandfather’s name?”

Lady: “Tell me where you have travelled, and for how long?”

Lady: “Do you remain in contact with anyone from Syria or Lebanon?”

After I answer all these questions, she wanted to know what I was doing in Israel, and do I know anyone. Fortunately I do, I have a very good family friend that lives in Jerusalem.

After another 30 or so minutes, my passport was handed to me, with an Israeli stamp. Great, I had made it!

I was picked up by a older guy from the UK that gave me a lift into town, which was awesome, I checked into a hostel, and instantly met a German guy called Chris who I hung out with for the rest of his time in Eilat.

We had dinner on the beach, and then consumed beers and went out to a club for a bit of a party to experience the Eilat lifestyle. It was a good night, but the both of us had sore heads for the next day.

So the next day, we slept on a sun lounge being woken up every 30 minutes by a guys that want us to pay for using their sun lounges. Obviously we didn’t pay, because no one owns a beach in my mind!

We had some lunch, and I said Good bye to Chris, I decided to meet up with an Israeli friend of mine Yarden Meir who windsurfs in the Professional Windsurf Tour. I met him at his local beach where I spent the remainder of the afternoon just watching the dozens of windsurfers and chatting to all of Yarden’s mates. They were absolute legends!

It was getting late, and I didn’t want to miss the last bus back to the main city centre, so I caught it back to the Hostel and now I’m waiting for time to pass by, so I can get a famous Schawarma can’t wait!

Chat soon! And enjoy the photos! More updates coming…