Diving in Eilat
Sharon arranged the trip for me (which I was very grateful for, since I knew nothing of Eilat, how to get there, or where to stay). Boaz arranged the scuba expedition with a company there that does guided tours. I had my own equipment (I hate renting gear, mine fits so well and it痴 so much more streamlined than the things these companies are willing to let you use for a day and return).
The exact details of my itinerary: Show up at the airport (the smaller of the two in Tel Aviv � used only for domestic flights) at 6pm. The flight leaves at 8pm. When I land in Eilat, have a taxi take me to Paradise Gardens. The address? 典he North Shore�. I checked out of my hotel and left everything except what I needed for the weekend at the office.
Airport security in Israel is enough to make any foreigner not want to travel. This being my third trip to Israel, I had grown used to being hassled by people with machine guns. The usual line of questioning started. What follows is my best attempt to re-create the 妬nterrogation process� they apparently put everyone through when they find out you are 1> traveling alone, 2> you don稚 speak a word of Hebrew (nearly all Jews speak at least some Hebrew), and 3> you are traveling on a foreign passport. These three things are, apparently, the warning sign that you probably have no business in Israel.
展hy are you in Israel?� is always the first question.
的知 here on business�
添ou have business in Eilat?�
哲o, I知 traveling there on pleasure. I致e been in Israel for a week, I知 taking the weekend to do some scuba diving.�
泥o you speak Hebrew?�
哲ot a word.�
展hat time is your flight?� (they always ask this so they know how much time they have to harass me).
的t痴 at 8:05�
滴ow long will you be in Eilat?�
笛ust the weekend. I return on Saturday night. I have to be back in the office Sunday morning.�
展ho are you meeting?�
哲obody. I知 traveling by myself.�
添ou are diving by yourself?�
哲o, I am meeting with a tour group.�
展hat痴 the name of the tour group?�
的 don稚 remember. I致e got the name in my bag. Would you like me to find it?�
添es, please.�
.. I致e grown used to them wanting proof of everything I do, so I keep a folder handy with all of my notes, itineraries, and receipts.
滴ere we go. Marine Divers. Their address in on this piece of paper�
典hank you.�, she says as she examines the document I致e produced. 展hy are you in Israel?�
鏑ike I said, I知 here on business.�
展hat is it that you do?�
的 work for a software company.�
添es, but what do you do?�
的知 in product management.�
展hat does that mean?�
的t means I help make the decisions about what features should be in our software. We have a series of meetings this week.�
展hy did you have to come to Israel?�
展e池e more productive when I知 here. It痴 easier to get things done.�
的t痴 a long flight just to get things done.�
鉄ure, but sometimes it痴 the easiest way.�
展ho did you meet while you were here?�
鉄everal people.. � (I give them names). They ask if I have any of the work I did while I was here. I致e gotten used to this as well, and I produce my laptop, and open my email, which includes a list of Israeli names in the 擢rom� list. She scans them, pretending to be interested in the content (there痴 no way she壇 understand a word of it). Eventually, she points to a name on my screen and asks 展ho痴 that?�
典hat痴 one of my coworkers.�
鼎an I call them?�
鉄ure.�. I produce a business card with their contact info and I receive instructions to wait. She leaves.
About 15 minutes later she returns. Apparently, it went well because I haven稚 been shot yet. The conversation continues.
展hy are you going to Eilat?�
鏑ike I said before.. I知 going scuba diving.�
展hy do you need so many bags?�
典his one has my scuba gear in it.�
鼎an I see?�
I open the bag showing my regulators, BCD, mask, fins, snorkel, etc. She seems satisfied.
泥o you have your diver card?�
I produce my PADI certification. Once again, she seems satisfied.
展here are you staying in Eilat?�
撤aradise gardens�
展here is that?�
哲orth shore, apparently.�
鄭pparently? You池e going to Eilat and you don稚 know where your hotel is?�
的致e never been there. I assume the cab driver is smarter than I am.�
This line of questioning continues for another 45 minutes. Most of the questions are repeats, in some fashion, of previous questions. Eventually, my entire suitcase has been unpacked and she asks questions about each item. She seemed especially interested that I might have a digital camera with me on a business trip. I explain that I don稚 go anywhere without it.
展ho packed your bags?�
I知 relieved. She痴 finally getting to the last part.
的 did.�
滴ave they been with you the whole time?�
添es�, I lied. They had been sitting in my office while I had lunch.
展as anyone especially friendly to you while you were here?�
哲obody is ever friendly to me.�, I wink.
She痴 unamused. 滴ow did you get to the airport?�
的 took a taxi�
展as the taxi driver nice to you?�
的 made it alive, so I壇 say yes.�
Once again, she痴 not amused. �
的知 trying to make sure nobody has given you a bomb to take on the plane without you knowing it.� She explains. I壇 heard the explanation before and thought of at least a hundred clever responses to this one, such as 典he only thing anybody痴 ever given me was a bowling-ball candle� or 鍍he only thing I致e received the whole time I致e been here is a hard time from airport security� I resist.
哲obody has given me anything except more work to do when I get home�, I reply.
It痴 nearly time for my flight. She asks a few more questions about why I知 going to Eilat, when I知 going home, who I知 meeting in Eilat, why I didn稚 just take a bus, why I had to buy my own airline ticket to Eilat (she seemed concerned that my company wasn稚 paying for my recreational activities. I told her I would love it if she壇 call them about that one).
She helped me re-pack my begs, put yellow stickers on everything and pointed me towards the metal detectors and the guys with the wands. This process takes about 20 minutes. They inspect everything again and ask their own (similar) questions.
While all of this is happening, other Israeli痴, Americans, and tourists are breezing right though. Apparently, they didn稚 meet 鍍he magic 3� as I call them.
I land in Eilat in the dark. My first impression is that it reminds me of Cancun. Vegas-style lights, lots of highly Americanized shopping, restaurants, and hotels.. I check into the hotel. There痴 a play or a musical or something going on just to the side of the lobby on s amall stage. The group is very talented. There痴 about 4 people watching.
My room is small and relatively clean. No beach view, but a nice look at the pool. It痴 too late for dinner, all the restaurants are closed. I go to bed.
I arrive at the dive company about 7:30am. The sky is blue and the outside temperature is about 70 degrees. It痴 an absolutely gorgeous day.
Since I hadn稚 done a dive in more than 6 months, they required that I take a refresher course. This effectively lets me sneak in an extra dive. The instructor and myself strap on our gear (after seeing what they had for rent, I was very glad I had brought my own). They hand me 20lbs, a tank, and a wet-suit (the only things I didn稚 bring with me). I assemble my gear and we enter the water, right from the beach.
The visibility is amazing � at least 40 feet. The water temperature, according to the dive computer on my wrist, is 77 degrees. I have no idea why everyone is using 7mm wetsuits. I mention the water is nice and warm. The instructor scoffs politely. 的t痴 COLD�, he laughs.
We descend to about 15 feet and run through the basic drills. Remove the mask, put it back on. Remove the weights, put them back on. We were done within 5 minutes. I expected we would ascend. He took me on a brief tour of the beach area instead. I was astounded. Clearly, this was not the ideal dive site because there were few divers here (mostly trainees), but there was coral, fish, and a huge assortment of sea life. It reminded me of the dives I壇 done in Cancun. Similar visibility, similar temperature, but far more to see..
We ascended after 30 minutes. I still had 1200lbs of air. I was excited for the rest of the day.
About an hour later, a dive boat shows up and they tell me to board. We池e headed to a place called Coral Island. We値l do two dives, then lunch, and then we値l return. Coral Island is, apparently, about an hour away. This is all the information I had when I boarded the boat, gear in hand.
We壇 been cruising parallel to the coast for about 20 minutes when people are suddenly very interested in something on the shore. Someone nudges me and says 典hat痴 the hotel that got bombed 2 weeks ago.�
I知 floored. This was the place I wanted to avoid. We were in Sinai. Egypt.
No sooner had I made the realization we were in Egypt than a small boat pulled up next to us. They were moving very quickly. Mounted on top of the boat was a red and a blue light next to a prominently displayed Egyptian flag. The word 撤olice� was inscribed in English along the side. There were three occupants, each carrying a machine gun. Unlike the Israeli痴 who walk around with M-16痴, the Egyptian police apparently keep them loaded.
Our captain quickly cut our engine. They boarded our boat.
I had no idea we were going to Egypt. I had no idea why these men were interested in our boat, and most especially, I didn稚 like the urgency with which they came on board. The other passengers weren稚 saying anything. I assumed their reaction must have been similar to mine.
We were all asked to give them our passports. I致e never been one to argue with a guy who has a machine gun, so I turned mine over. They examined each one quickly, handed them back, got back on their boat, and left.
They had just wanted to check our passports. Apparently, as I learned later, they do it to every boat that crosses the boarder. I was relieved, to say the least.
We reached the dive site about 40 minutes later. I took lots of pictures (posted here). It was amazing. Truly, the experts are correct when they say the Red Sea is among the best diving in the world. I had been told you had to go to Egypt for 奏he best of the best�. I was satisfied with staying on the Israeli side, but due to somewhat of an accident, I ended up in Egypt anyway. I知 glad I did.
I rented an underwater digital camera. These are a few of the pictures I took.
The next day, I headed to a touristy place on the shore called Dolphin Reef. I値l spare you the details. You can read about it here. I got to dive with real dolphins. There were 5 in the area that day (there are 9.. but they come and go as they please). It was truly amazing to hear them make their sounds under water. They swim right up to you, within inches � making it clear that they are aware of your presence and they are interested in what you池e doing. It was a 30 minute dive, and it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I spent the rest of the morning on the docks of Dolphin Reef watching and taking pictures of the dolphins. 
I had lunch at a beach restaurant. I was exhausted at this point, having done 4 dives in 2 days. I went back to the hotel, but since I didn稚 have a room anymore (I had checked out that morning, they were holding my bags) I hung out in the lounge area and fell asleep. I woke up about 2 hours later and decided to walk around the pier for a while. (I would have loved nothing more than to dive again, but it痴 unsafe to dive at any real depth within 12 hours of a flight). This time I decided I wasn稚 going to arrive at the airport 2 hours early, as they request. I didn稚 feel like going through the interrogation process for that length of time again.
Sure enough, when I arrived at the airport 45 minutes before my flight, the usual process was shortened to about 20 minutes. The moral of the story is: 哲ever arrive too early for your flight.�
This got me in trouble in Ben Gurion on my return flight home, when I arrived 2 and a half hours early for my flight on El Al to JFK. It should be well understood by anyone wishing to travel to Israel: El Al has NO CONCEPT of customer service. Passengers are herded (and treated) like sheep, but on the ground in the ticketing lines, the security lines, and on the airplanes where they have substantially less room than the American airplanes (which is already very small � now imagine they致e made it even less).
I was unimpressed. I will go out of my way to make sure I don稚 fly them again in the future. The security drill was the same, but after we were done, they made no effort to make sure I made my flight in time. I stood in the ticketing line for over an hour, barely reaching the halfway point, before I finally flagged someone down and indicated that I was going to miss my flight if I didn稚 get to the front quickly. He shrugged and moved on.
I flagged someone else down. They seemed slightly more concerned and moved me up. I ended up making my flight by about 5 minutes. Just in time to snuggle in next to my new friend, the Rabbi from Jerusalem, I got to ride back next to for our 11 hour flight.
I couldn稚 possibly describe the feeling, and the difference in atmosphere when you land in the U.S. Everything is cleaner and newer, people are nicer, and there痴 a certain sense of freedom and safety that comes with not seeing people with machine guns.
While I love Israel, I will never again take for granted my citizenship in the United States. While recent events have made me embarrassed to be an American, I don稚 think I would trade the freedoms that come with that privilege for anything.
While I don稚 get to go straight back to my house (I have meetings in Atlanta, Chicago, and Connecticut from here), I can say with a strong degree of assurance�.
It痴 good to be home.