My wife and I just returned from our travels to Israel and Jordan, and I want to mention many of the remarkable people we met while my memory is still fresh. What I search for the most when I travel are people. Brilliance. Courage.
I’m looking for someone different than me. Thinks differently. Believes or lives differently. I want to understand and embrace that.
Our trip was really broken into two parts. We were in two different countries with many different companion travelers, different guides, and very diverse worlds.
In Israel, our guide Ilan was an extremely educated, cynical Philosopher. If I had to pick any type of person to introduce me to Jerusalem, Israel, and the sites of three religions, this was my perfect type. I was honored to be around this man. In Safed, he took me to a street Yemini stand to try lahouh—the best food I put in my mouth the whole trip. After visiting the Temple Mount one night, we argued over a drink about Byzantine architecture and the empire’s differences with Rome.
We traveled with Wally and his wife. He’s a retired professor and truly the kindest man I ever met. Michael, traveling with them and his wife, is a retired professor of philosophy, advisor to a former Chief of State, and a brilliant man. I was always looking for Michael to discuss writing and the publishing of his weekly newspaper columns.
I spent Sunday afternoon in the Old City of Jerusalem in the Muslim Quarter. I wondered by a barbershop full of locals, so a stepped in for a shave. I spent an hour drinking coffee and talking to all the older men of the Quarter. When I came out, an old man sitting in a chair in a store across the street—you must know these streets are very narrow, maybe ten feet, so he was really right on me—yelled at me to come over. I did and spent the next two hours talking to Johnny, a 75 year old Arab Israeli and his son Goss. We drank Turkish coffee, he invited other shopkeepers to come over, and we solved the world’s problems.
I’ll never forget those old men.
Later, in the Christian Quarter, I ran across a jewelry store scam on tourists, and watched that show. Those guys were sure I was a sucker!
In Jordan, our Guide was Hazim, a very proud patriot. He was tough and hard working, and he had a razor tongue if he thought you could take it—so I always invited it. It was interesting to watch Hazim walk through the Petra children selling little beeds or the vendors at Jarash. He was part politician, part vendor, part Godfather. Never embarrass him in front of his people!
My fellow travelers in Jordan like the Patels and Terry really challenged us because they have seen so much of the world we still haven’t. Mark sounded like he had just about rounded the world. We were such a diverse group, but the thing we had in common was our true love of travel and that so many had told us not to go.
We all believed in the education of travel, the courage to open ourselves to a new people or thought, and our refusal to let a little fear get in the way. Great people to raise a glass of wine with on the Golan Heights next to Syria!
The night before we left Amman for our return trip through Istanbul for home, a Jordanian police officer murdered two Americans and a South African before Jordanian police shot him. We were so sad for so many reasons. It was scary, but also because this is just an exception to a warm and kind people that will now suffer because of this murderer. Fewer tourists will visit now, and the Jordanians will have a harder time just paying for food and a place to live.
We were safe the entire time we were there. The people waived at us and were friendly. Jordanians are a good people and shouldn’t be branded by these horrible events anymore than we should by ours. I urge you to open your hearts to them and visit both Israel and Jordan if you can.
It will change your life, and you might meet someone interesting.