Las Vegas

I am going to Las Vegas!!! It is work related, but still, it's Vegas...

I've reserved air and hotel.

The airfare was pretty strange: direct flight both ways was about over $1600, but if I have layover, the price dropped down to under $700!!! So, layover in Phoenix :( I will be home late.

With hotel, I have to follow the company policy even if it costs more. I had to make reservation in a hotel that does not have a casino and it's not on the Strip. But it's 5 star with the cost of $250 per night!!! I probably could have gotten suite in PH for half the price. Oh, well. I did not make the policy, I just have to follow it.

Stay tune for when I come back.

Back from Israel, Part 3

This is the last part of our trip to Israel. One thing I should mention about our being in Golan Heights is our visit to Golan Heights winery. It seems that there was no physical labor at the place. Everything was computerized! We had a chance to try their wine as well. It was good! So, when we came back, we checked around and found out that the wine is available in US! We have tried YARDEN brand. The other brands are Golan and Gamla. Enjoy!

From Golan Heights, we drove to Tel Aviv with the half a day stop in Haifa. Haifa is a port city. We saw few interesting ships. Apparently, it's also a home to the Baha'i religion. For those of you from Chicago area, you might of heard of Baha'i religion because of the Baha'i temple in Wilmette.

The last few days we've spent in Tel Aviv/Jafa area. We stayed in a very nice hotel. It was the closest hotel to Jafa, so we ended up going there every evening. And this is where I got some desert! It wasn't pure chocolate, it was halva, but they had variety of different flavors, including chocolate, chocolate chips, coffee, etc, you name it! 

Market in Tel Aviv was interesting. We arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday and our tour guide suggested that we should visit the local market. So, we did. Unless you want free perishables (mostly fruits and vegetables), you don't want to go to the market on Friday before start of the Shabbat. The vendors were throwing fruits and vegetables and anything that can spoil over the weekend to the ground and washing it off, right in the middle of the walk way. So, we saw that and decided to come back on Monday. Smart decision! On Monday, it was clean and back to normal.

One day we spent on the beach. The beach was great! Water in the Mediterranean Sea was great! Not too cold, not too warm. Felt like we were in Miami!

The flight back was long. We had a 12 hours flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto. It's very strange system for customs and security checks there. We had to pick up our luggage and carry it to the US customs. They just took it and put it on the belt to who knows were. Why did we have to take it? They could have done that automatically.

This was the end. The trip was very emotional, informational, interesting, tiring and relaxing at the same time. We definitely enjoyed it! I would recommend it to everybody. I would also recommend starting the trip in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv, like most of the tours do. The reason is that you would start the trip from where it all began. You get a lot of information at the beginning of the trip, not at the end when you are already tired and overloaded with all the information from the trip. I would also recommend the travel company: Gate1. They were very well organized, everything was on time. They even had an ear piece for people so they can better hear the tour guide. So, mention my name or talk to me before making your reservations to the Israel. I am sure I have missed few details in my postings. But I am also sure I will be able to recall few things if you ask me.

I can't wait until our next trip!

Boris D.

   

Back from Israel, Part 2

Sorry for a long delay, but here it is...

First half of the trip:

It was great! We have achieved everything we wanted! We spent 3 days in Jerusalem (including on Shabat), walked around Old City for couple of days, visited Scroll museum and military cemetery. This was very emotional. We got to see and experience all the things that we've read and heard about! Since we had an afternoon for ourselves, we ended up walking around looking for knitting store. We found one so Lana was pretty happy. :)

There was some event in Jerusalem, so we had to go to Dead Sea night earlier. That actually worked for us because we arranged a taxi to drive us early next morning to Masada. He waited for us and got us back to the hotel before breakfast! We had to get up at around 4am, started walking up to Masada at around 4:50am. Took us an hour, but we made it with few minutes to spare. Sunrise was gorgeous! You can see pictures for yourself. The rest of the morning and early afternoon we were back on top of Masada, this time via gondola with our tour group.

When we got back to our hotel, we had to go for swim in the Dead Sea. The water was warm and they tell me it was over 30% salt. I don't know, I did not tasted it :) But when I went in no matter what I tried (I did not try diving) I could not get under the water, so it must be true :) The pool at the hotel was great too!

Next two nights we spent in Kibbutz Levi in Galilee. It's Orthodox kibbutz. It was interesting experience. The food was kosher and very good. We had a question/answer session with one of the residents of the kibbutz. It's interesting that the number of kibbutzes in Israel is shrinking. There are about only 20 left in the whole Israel. Since the idea of Kibbutz was based on the Socialism, it's obvious to me what is happening. Socialism does not work on global nor local scale.

During these 2 days we have visited Galilee and Golan Heights. It's amazing to see all the green gardens in the middle of the desert. The Jordan river that is used for irrigation is just a little river. In some places you can probably walk across, it's no more then 20-30 feet and yet that area feeds the Europe in the winter (I am sure it's done all year around). The harvest 3 times a year! Just amazing!

Part 3 to follow...

Back from Israel. Part 1

We are back from Israel. I am finally over the jetleg, so here is a post-mortem of the trip.

First of all it was a great trip. It was exausting, but it was worth it. We have achieved everything we wanted to achieve and more! The pictures are posted. If, for some reason, you can't access them, let me know. It's probably more fun to watch them with my commentaries. :)

Any way...

- Communication: the unclocked phone worked. There was a need to buy a SIM card AND minutes. SIM card came without any minutes. Also, for those of you who have microSim, I could not find one. I am glad I brought a phone that had a regular SIM card. Somehow, I burned all the credits that I bought pretty fast. At least I was able to communicate my number to US and then people were able to call me, since incoming calls are free on that SIM card. If someone is going to Israel during next 11 months, let me know and we can make a deal on the SIM card :)

- About flying. In Zurich, we had a layover of 3 hours. It is a safe bet, but 1.5 to 2 hours is enough. Passengers had to go thru security check, but did not have to take the bags. Since we lended pretty early (about 6am local time) there was no lines other then people from the same plane. On the way back, in Toronto, we had 2 hours. I would recommend to make sure you have at least that much. The problem is that first, you need to pick up your luggage and second, there are a lot of passengers going to US via Toronto. We had to wait for the luggage and security check.

Stand by for Part II.

Interesting traveling information

This is an interesting article I found: http://gizmodo.com/5928930/make-an-emergency-flash-drive-and-take-it-with-you-whenever-you-travel?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

This is a really good advice!

Communications

Another thing to consider: communication in Israel. My or my wife's phone usage is extremely expensive to use outside of US. Roaming charges in Israel for Verizon or AT&T are about the same: between $1.99 and $2.49 per minute based on the type of account. I can't believe there are customers that pay that much! Any way... I found out that there are at least 3 service providers in Israel. The best way is to purchase a pre-paid sim card. The call to US using the the pre-paid card is about $.25 or about 1NIS. The cost of the card needs to be considered as well, since it costs about $25 with no minutes. These sim cards have a Israel local number and all incoming calls and text messages are free. For short period, it's probably not worth it, but the card is good for at least 1 year if there is no activity.

It is possible to buy a sim card for Israel in US, but I am not sure what happens if the card is back or not working for any reason. So, since my daugter is going to Israel few weeks before us, her assignment is to buy a sim card there (she will have local friends that will help her, I am sure), use it and bring it back. The card is good for one year without any activity. We will re-fill it and use it when we get there. After that, if someone is going to Isreal, I am willing to part with the card.

Parents never have bad advice!

After my dad read my last post about ATMs, my dad told me I should look for a credit card that does not have international fees and use credit card as much as I can instead of cash. At least someone is reading my blog! :)

First thing I did was check with my current credit card. They told me that every international transaction will have an additional 3% fee!

Google to the rescue! Using Google, I found out that most of the credit cards do have international fees ranging from 1 to 3%!!! A little more searching revealed that there are few, not that many, that do not charge international fees. A little more digging and I found out that there are only 2 or 3 that in addition to not charging international fees, they do not charge monthly fees either! One was designed for the travelers. They were giving points that are good on travel related stuff (air fare, hotel stays, etc) and one was giving cash back. It could be that since our kids are old enough to stay home on their own, we may be doing more travel, but I think cash rules! So, the winner is Capital One Cash Credit Card. They have no fees (international, nor monthly) and they give 1% cash back with additional 50% of the bonus at the end of the year. I applied and should get the result at the most withing 15 days.