The Dead Sea – Enemy of Toes
Our stay in Jerusalem had ended, and the scariest part of our trip had begun. We were to rent a car in Israel and I was to drive it. There are places in the world where drivers are nice and orderly – Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Boston. Israel is not one of those places. Driving is aggressive and little compassion is given to poor Americans with no GPS. Nevertheless, we rented the car, rented two car seats for Eitan and Nathan (I figured at least they would survive), and headed out of the Jerusalem traffic towards Ein Gedi – our destination on the Dead Sea.
Amazingly, once we got out of Jerusalem driving wasn’t too bad. There weren’t that many people on the road (and there weren’t that many people in general). In not too much time we approached the Dead Sea and stopped at an Ahava Dead Sea products “factory outlet”. We were warned by our relatives in Tel Aviv not to buy here – supposedly things were too expensive there. In reality, they were cheaper by the Dead Sea than in Tel Aviv, but neither place had a great deal. For about 30% more you can buy the products in the US.
After that, we stopped in the amazing site of Qumran.
In these caves (actually the one pictured here), several small jars containing the Dead Sea scrolls were found. A simple museum shows how the people lived there, who essentially were very strict and took a lot of ritual baths. Here’s one of the ritual baths – a marvel concerning how little water there is here.
The ruins at Qumran are in quite good condition and you can get a decent picture of how people lived there so long ago.
Here’s an ancient water channel used to bring water to the settlement – a precious commodity in any age around here.
From Qumran, we headed to the Dead Sea. There are three basic places where you can spend a night at the Dead Sea.
1) Ein Gedi
2) Ein Bokek
3) The Jordanian side
Unfortunately, I chose the worst of the three choices – Ein Gedi. We stayed at a kibbutz there that has been modified as a sort of resort for tourists. The rooms were small but otherwise decently appointed. On the site was a poor zoo that the kids still enjoyed and some rather pretty gardens that I never had the chance to photograph. Nelya was rather upset that I didn’t pick the more glitzy Ein Bokek – but from reviews every hotel there was horrible. After getting settled in, we drove down to the beach to check out the Dead Sea.
First, you really can float there – the water is incredibly buoyant. However, it also burns any tiny wound in your body, including some non wounded parts but parts I nevertheless would have strongly preferred not burn. While wading in the water, I slipped off an edge and my sandal popped off my foot. The splash of water got into my eyes and temporarily blinded me. Nelya came after me to get the sandal and slipped down the same slope.
crack!
Nelya hobbled back onto the beach, sandal rescued, but now sporting a new broken toe. We grabbed up our gear and brought everyone back to the car, then headed back to the hotel for hotel staff to examine her. Luckily, they have an on site doctor and we arrived during standard office hours. Unfortunately for us, the doctor did not feel like coming in that day and we could not find anyone to look at Nelya’s toe. They had no medical facilities at the hotel and no one wanted to bother. The nearest hospital we were told was back in Jerusalem – however making a night trip on those roads with no lights didn’t appeal to us very well.
We then made the decision to skip the extra day we planned to spend by the Dead Sea and head straight for Eilat, where there also was a hospital. It also happened to be the same location where we needed to drop off our rental car. To help improve things, I bought some popsicles, which once removed of the popsicle part (Eitan and Nathan were more than happy to oblige), gave me two sticks that I sanded down to make a splint with some gauze I found. This improved her foot somewhat, but was still painful.
In another example of our first encounter with Israeli hospitality, someone stole our table during dinner as Nelya was hobbling towards it with the two kids and I was taking care of the strollers. The guy complained vigorously when the hostess tried to explain that we had waited for that table, then left with a huff.
The main problem with Ein Gedi, is the beach was horrible. The Dead Sea had receded so far that there was no longer a sand beach – just rocks. This made it very difficult to find a good spot to get into the water. Ein Bokek had much nicer entrances to the water – complete with actual beaches. However, after our experiences in Eilat, I believe the reviews of these hotels and the fact that all of them likely are horrible places to stay with poor customer service. The next time we visit the Dead Sea (and we do intend to visit again after this debacle), we will stay at the much nicer hotels on the Jordanian side.
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Tags: dead sea, israel, photography, qumran, Travel
Wow, what an experience with the Dead Sea! Although, your photos make it look beautiful! Those caves are very interesting places! Thanks for sharing!