Tel Aviv Travel

I walk out of the Ben Gurion airport (named after the first Prime Minister), through the customs area, where I had little trouble as long as I showed my documentation and answered their questions. I walk to the information kiosk to check on my options to get to my hotel in Tel-Aviv city. The only option I have is Taxi since it is a  Saturday, the day of Shabat, a day where all business are closed and people stay at home. Since Airport is functional and Taxi's are available, I guess there are people who look at it more from an economic perspective. As I get to Taxi stand, what catches my eye is the car brand - Benz. Most of the Taxis I see in the stands are Benz including a Mini-bus, which tells me the people in the country are affluent. I have the privilege of riding in a Benz to my hotel, Hotel Maxim on Hayarkon St..

The room was a little dingy, more suited for military people I guess - a bed, a table beside it and a restroom and hardly any space to walk around the room. After freshening up, I walk out of the hotel and realize why the price of the room is so costly. The hotel is located just across the beach of Mediterranean Sea. The beach is filled with people bustling with activity although it is the day of Shabat. Obviously this city by the beach seems to have its own rules. The sunset was truly beautiful and have few pictures posted on my Google+. Hotel offered free Wi-Fi, although this day, whole of area was without internet. Since it was a Saturday, it was difficult to get hold of people who could fix it, leaving me with no internet for the day. I finished the day with my dinner at Israeli Grill, by the La Mer beach, with a Baladi eggplant - eggplant split with hummus filled in between, along with a pretty huge bread. 

Recanati Building

The purpose of my trip to Tel Aviv was part of the MBA International exchange program at UCLA Anderson School with Recanati Executive MBA program, Tel Aviv University. My classes at Recanati, started on a Sunday since Friday & Saturday make the week end at Israel with Saturday being the holy day. Hence, week starts on a Sunday. Professor from Kellogg, Northwestern University, Gad Allon made the class very interesting, all through the week, although the number of strategy models cramped within the week were quite a bit to digest. I am sure the final project which is still pending will help us bring everything together. It was a wonderful class and the experience memorable. The folks were great hosts. One obvious way to increase the camaraderie is sports and the hosts planned Surfing lessons for us in the Mediterranean sea. The water was perfect for the early morning  6 AM session. It was obvious fun although I did not get far in terms of surfing.

After the class, on most of the days, I got back to the hotel to explore the place. One part of it was shopping. What I realized over time was most of the merchandise in this country is imported, resulting in not only higher prices but also less unique to the place. One eg: was in a Toy store I visited, the store was filled with wooden toys, which I was happy about given the uniqueness. But soon I realized most of the goods were imported from USA with many of them being Melissa & Doug toys, a brand I had purchased toys from on Amazon. Finally, to find something unique, I had to visit a museum within the school which did have a larger variety, but the prices were above my budgeted amount and had to compromise somewhere in between what I wanted, the price and the uniqueness.

When booking the hotel, I did not realize the cost of transportation from Hotel to the school, which ended by being USD 15 each way. I guess this is the cost I pay to be on the beach front and the flexibility to enjoy the beach and the city. I think, it was worth it, given the time and accessibility to nearby shopping mall, walkable distance to the old city of Jaffa, the beach and the option to try different food. Although public transportation is available, I just did not take the effort to experiment it and hence did not gain insight into it. Apart from Taxi's some of the other transportation modes include - bicycles, renting a car, renting scooters / bikes. For bicycles, there are places outside that rent bicycles as well as bicycle kiosks around the city. The problem with the kiosk was it did not accept credit cards yet and the process was unknown to the people in the hotel with whom I checked with. Some of the hotels such as Park Plaza, offered their customers complimentary bicycles, although I was not that fortunate. Rental cars, dominated by the US rental companies - Hertz, Avis, Budget etc., offered a daily rate of ~145, which was not economical for my needs. W.r.t renting motorbikes, I was just unsuccessful in finding one, although people told me I should be able to. I ended up walking quite some distance everyday, exploring the place which was totally worth the experience and the exercise I badly required.

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The folks from Recanati school had left a packet for me to be delivered when I check into the hotel. The packet gave me a brief intro to the place and the country. What caught my eye in this booklet was a statement about food - the most popular food in Israel is Hummus and Coca-Cola, which in summary lowered my expectations of enjoying any Israeli authentic cuisine outside of the Arabic and Mediterranean food. Some of my experiments with food included Samoosha - bread with stuffind sandwiched in between. I tried two types - one parabola shaped (similar to Emapanda from Argentinian cuisine) stuffed with eggplant and mozerella cheese. The other was like a Pita bread stuffed with mushrooms and variety of salad that are pre-chopped and displayed at most of the places, and well toasted.

Jalebi

Rich Creamy milk sweet with Vermicelli

Sweets I tried were, normal puffs in various shapes stuffed with cream, chocolate etc.; Jalebi - similar to the one got in India but this had a stronger oil smell; and one other rich and white cream made from milk covering thin fried noodles like (in India, I guess it is called Vermicelli). Among all the food, one that really impressed me was the fruit juice. You get fresh pure (no ice or other protein powders) fruit juice and you have the option of picking the fruits you want from Oranges, bananas, dates, mango etc.. The ease of accessibility to these was the most impressive part. These fruit stalls used to be available in India but are surely dwindling in numbers. One other noticable food culture was how restaurants serve you. When you sit at a table and place an order in a group, the first thing you are served is small plates of various salads - raddish, beet root, tomato salad, capsicum; hummus and paste made from sesame seeds (do not recollect the name) along with Pita bread. By the time your actual order comes you are probably full. So, just got to plan you meal intake accordingly.

One of the evening, I took a walk to the old city of Jaffa which was the gateway to Jerusalem before Tel Aviv was built 100 years ago. The city was through the Greeks, Romans, Ottoman empire and British rulers. Today's remnants were built by a chieftain of the ottoman empire. The remnants lead you into the old city

On Friday, we go on a trip to Jerusalem and gosh this place has a long history and with it comes the unbelievable complexity. The city is Israel's capital and borders the West Bank. The area was annexed by Israel, from Jordon, in the 1967 war. The city encompasses a range of religion practitioners with each of them having their own stakes in terms of sacredness of this holy land. For Jews, the West wall, for Christians this is where Chris was prosecuted by the Romans, for Muslims the place where Allah merged into God. All these incredible sites - mosque, great wall and church, lie within few blocks of each other.  Christians are further sub-divided into Orthodox, Catholic, Greek, Ethiopian..... . The interesting fact here is the division amongst the Christians themselves is such, two Muslim families are the keepers of the church. They open the doors and close the doors. Any work on the church requires the approval of all the groups. One visible impact of this, as per our guide, is a ladder that sits on top of the entrance to the church, awaiting for the parties to decide on its fate. For the Jews and Muslims, the west wall is what separates them with Jews praying on one side and Muslims on the other side. Jews have a small ultra orthodox sect who do not believe in the state of Israel for reasons I do not exactly recollect. At the end, to me, it meant a solution to the current problem in Mid-east is just not difficult but is virtually impossible in near future. Only time can heal the differences or as one of my Recanati classmate put it, a crisis alone can solve this crisis. 

On the way to Jerusalem, our tour guide, made an interesting comment. Whole of Israel is a desert virtually and in order to green field the country, an organization within the country took on the responsibility and planted 300 million trees. The border with Jordan, pre-1967 war, was called the Green line since the Israel side was green while on Jordan side it was completely a desert. What amazes me is the amount of effort that went into this project - identification of trees for the soil, plantation, allocation of water as well as watering the plants. At the end they have been successful in converting desert into forest.

On the day before I was to start my journey back to the US, I walked through the streets in search of food, since it was Friday evening which is when Shabat actually begins. As I walked through Ben-Yehuda street, not far from my hotel, I heard the sound of Indian music on the road. Curious at what it is and who these people are singing and playing the drums on the street, I walk towards them, only to realize it is the Hare Rama Hare Krishna group in Israel. Interesting since we now add another religion's presense to the holy land.

Since my travel was in September second week, which is summer in Israel, the weather was sunny and humid but was pleasant every time there was a breeze. For the whole of the week, the weather was the same. But, most of the time I stepped out in the evenings and being beside the beach, really did not feel much.

In general, I found the people are helpful although tend to smile less. A large population of the people are lean and in shape (in comparison to the proportion in US). I later did learn from my classmate that most of the US food retailers have not been successful in Israel - including Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts. This is inspite of the country being influenced heavily by US. People prefer Italian style espresso than American coffee brands although personally I do not know the difference.

Few other things about Israel - You can expect security check at various points and if you happen to be from Muslim countries, tough luck. You can pretty much consider it granted that if you travel to Israel, getting a visa to an Arab nation can be extremely difficult as well as the vice-versa, as my Israel friends tell me. About 87% of the people are Jews while 12% are Muslims and remaining others. Crime is Tel Aviv is considered to be zero and you can see fair sex moving around the city late into the nights. Cost of living is pretty high in the country and its continued rise has resulted in peaceful protests across the country in the past month. Defense and Agriculture are the two major drivers of the country's economy. When traveling back from Israel, give ample time (minimum 3 hours) at the airport security. Lucky for me it was a Saturday - a day of minimal activity in the country, as well as my school ensured I had a security clearance letter from Israel Airport Authorities before hand. 

Overall, my first trip to a mid-east country was fun, interesting and most of all educative in many ways. Anyways, I wish Israel and its neighbours peaceful times ahead. Shalom.....

P.S : The document is not formated or proof read since I put this more as a notes. So, forgive for any typos or erros.