yeah I've been to lazehh to post. face it, me and blogs never worked out anyway.

so from the 7-18 dec, I went to Egypt, Israel, Jordan. it's some BRMC holyland trip thing, with like 45 people going.

first couple of days we went to cairo. saw the pyramids of giza, and the Sphinx. ohmygoodness it was so cool. the sphinx is actually really huge. and we went inside a small pyramid, was a bit claustrophobic. the tunnel is really small and it's like an angled ladder going down. went to see the coptic churches of old cairo. you would think that the weather is really nice, but in fact the city's incredibly polluted. and since it's winter, I was literally wearing my jacket for the whole trip. the wind chill factor's really strong.

then we took a bus to St. Catherine, which is this town in the middle of the desert.
spent the whole day travelling there, and only arrived in the evening, and everyone was too cold and tired to joke around.
it was freezing cold.
lucky the heater in the hotel room was working.
woke up at 1am, to go up Mt. Sinai. haha we took a camel ride 3/4 of the way up, and walked the rest of the way up to the summit, cause it was too steep for camels, plus some monk from centuries ago went to build a series of irregular stone steps up to the summit.
I was practically frozen to the camel, couldnt feel my fingers and toes. not to mention that we were wearing woollen scarves, gloves and ski hats, and 4-5 layers of clothing. plus holding flashlights.
the night sky was amazing. the stars were so clear. and the surrounding mountain ranges were really beautiful. wish I could've gotten photos of that but really, I was wayy too cold to take out my camera.
it's one of those times where you would pay US$2 for a small plastic cup of hot coffee/tea. and a time when bunsen burners dont work. and a time where you'd appreciate hotel toilets, cause there's no proper toilet at the rest stops.
so anyway, when we reached the summit, we didnt get to see a proper sunrise, reason being that it was cloudy that morning. but the colours were really beautiful against the backdrop of desert mountains. there were a lot of people on the summit. and it's just really heartening to see all these people, of different christian denominations, just standing there seeing the sunrise on Mt. Sinai.
oh and on the way down, we didnt need flashlights. haha. cause it was already light. the sun rises really fast. and one wrong step means that you can break your ankle on the uneven stone steps.
we took about 3hrs to walk down to the bottom. 3hrs to get back to St. Catherine's monastery. 3hrs to get back to the hotel. plus there was donkey poop all over the path.
so there's probably some unique organic stuff at the bottom of claire's boots.
xDDD
spent the rest of the day travelling, crossed the suez canal, had lunch by the red sea, crossed the border into israel.
it was pretty cool, cause first we had an overnight stay at a hotel by the dead sea.
next morning, we went to swim in the dead sea. ohmygoodness it really is the lowest point on earth, and we're pretty lucky to visit the place before the dead sea dries up. really, the sea is so salty till it's damn bitter. and you can really float! went to visit Masada, this old ruined fortress, where several hundred zealots committed mass suicide cause they wouldnt surrender to the romans. went to qumran, where the dead sea scrolls were discovered.

went up to jerusalem and spent 3 nights there. visited a series of old churches. walked the via dolorosa. visited the wailing wall. visited museums. went to see various places where Jesus had his ministry. went to see the church of the holy sepulchre and also the garden tomb.

visited caesarea maritima, this old ruined city by the mediterranean sea. ohmygoodness the sea is beautiful. it's completely blue, and the waves are higher than s'pore's. it's really really nice. we went at about 5pm, so it was sunset. and it was amazing. yeah and I got scolded for taking so many photos of it. xPPP

went to nazareth, stayed there two nights.
oh yeah, cheryl got baptized at the jordan river. because the water was too cold and obviously the people didnt want to get wet, so she got baptized by sprinkling.
we took a boat ride on the sea of galilee, and it was so fun. the wind was super cooling, and then the boat people raised the israel flag and the singapore flag, and played the singapore national anthem.

next day, visited caesarea philippi, another old ruined city. and then in the afternoon crossed the border into jordan. lol before dinner at the hotel, some of the group went out to buy jordanian sweets, including mummy cher and me. sheesh. the guide told us that the shop was 5mins walk from the hotel, but we took 20mins to reach the shop. it was right at the end of the road luh. but it was worth it. the sweets are really good, and they have these huge platters of various kinds of sweets. ohmygoodness the sugar content is super high luh.

and the last day, we literally walked in the judean wilderness. of course they had paths for people to follow, but that didnt prevent the huge flies from clinging to people. and it didnt prevent all the dead branches of trees from falling onto the path. then we visited this ruin of a church that was rebuilt 8 times.

the mosaic floors in most of the byzantine churches are really beautiful. after how many hundred years, they still retain the colours and some patterns. the oldest map in the world was done in mosaic on the floor of one of the churches. sometimes you wonder how the olden day people managed to do such beautiful pieces of art.

and coming back to singapore, we got a send-off after lunch by the rest of the group who were continuing to petra, while some of us got a smaller separate bus going to the amman airport. from amman to dubai, and then got a 5hr wait at the dubai airport for connecting flight. however, the plane was delayed by 1hr, so by the time we left it was like 4am. dubai to singapore, arrived at about 4pm.

then went for cell.
next day went for full-day carolling with church people. (some of the old people were very fun and animated)
then next day went for church, and aikido.
plus a 6hr jetlag.

and I havent uploaded the pictures to my com.

excellent.

but all in all, it was a fun trip. but the trip wasnt just for fun, I guess you could call it some sort of pilgrimage thing. it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but really there's a lot to see, a lot to learn. and for me at least, it helped me to understand some of the events that happened in the bible, and to understand the impact of the stories told.

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merry christmas to all!

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and I ask myself
who do I wanna be?
do I wanna throw away the key
and invent a whole new me
and I tell myself
No one
No one
Dont wanna be
No one but me

eternal-flame blogged at 2:48 PM