On our right side is the Palestinian bazaar whereas on our left side is the settlement. Navigation is actually taking me through the roads that I should not have taken. Is it closed ahead? What's the matter? I don't think we can sneak down the barricade. Assalam Alekum Everyone and Welcome Back to the Channel from Al Khalil. Also known as Hebron.
It's my last day in Palestine. Today, I'll try to cross the border into Jordan. I think I have spent enough time here. I think I have shared enough of what I wanted to share with you. Today's ride is gonna be 270 - 280 km ... from here to Aqabah. It can even go up to 300 km.
But I'm not sure how long it's gonna take because there's a border to cross. Both of today's border crossings have a history of being time consuming. Especially when you are on a motorcycle.
It's 8 in the morning and we should get going. Our motorcycle is ready as all the luggage has been setup. Standing with the motorcycle is Ibrahim who was quite late today. I wanted to leave at 7 but it's almost 8 now. The shops that you are seeing behind me have nothing left in them.
They are being used as garages to park their cars. I also parked my motorcycle in one of them. The motorcycle is now ready to leave. Good bye. That's the wall right in front of us.
And now... Actually we need to travel to this side. Using the road that's on the other side of this wall. But we can't.
I guess the navigation doesn't know that a wall has been erected on the road. That's why it got me all confused the other day. We are not gonna ride through the old town of Hebron. Once again. I don't know if I have already mentioned one thing to you.
There is no police control in this whole town. I mean this old town area near the settlements. Because this is a transition sort of area. Palestinians can't have any police in the areas near settlements. I think there's enough space for the car. Salam On our right side is the Palestinian bazaar whereas on our left side is the settlement.
We can't even look to that side continuously. Don't want the army officers there to think that we are making their videos. I noticed it last evening that people close their shops and go to their homes quite early.
This bazaar looked really deserted last evening. It's rather unusual. I mean, any other Palestinian or Arab city... They get more lively at night. People here like to hang out with friends at night, engaging in sheesha and conversations. But that's just not the case here.
One reason for that could be the total absence of police here. So in case of any mishap, they have nowhere to go. I don't think, to this date I have ever visited a place without any police. You won't see any police cars here. Let's see when we can see the first police car. This is the newer part of the town.
Where people have relocated back. Because previously, most of the people lived in the other part of the city; where I stayed. They can't go any further. Most of this part is still not awake as it's quite early in the day. They start around 9 mostly.
But the thing is that there isn't much business here. So many people are out of business. This is the only city I've ever visited where... You can actually feel what it's like to live next door to settlers. And the environment is so tense with all the check posts and army presence.
It gives you a horrible feeling. This is the only city other than Jerusalem which is divided. Some parts of them I mean. Other than that I've been to Nablus and Jericho. Where else I've been.... Ramallah yes. All these cities have total Palestinian control.
Within the city I mean. Not outside the city. Well, to be honest, they have nothing in their control.
The Israelis can come to the cities whenever they want. Just a couple of days back I got to know that ... Two boys were killed in Nablus by the Israeli army ... in their own city. And I also stayed in that area. You can never predict when things go haywire over here.
Just keep praying that thing gets stable here. For instance, here we have a settlement on our right side. And there's a Palestinian village on the left side. Separated only by this road.
And an army check post. We have to go through the Palestinian village anyway. We are passing through Tahiriya. They are taking pictures at the entrance. Cameras have been installed everywhere.
They just took a picture of my motorcycle. Navigation is definitely taking me through the roads that I should not have taken. Because it's taking too long. I might have to stop somewhere soon to fix it. Because it's making me go ride on such wretched roads. It might have considered it to be a short cut.
There's high risk of a punctured tire on such a track. I saw some glass splinters on the road. Secondly, I can go much faster on a better road; even up to 90 km/h. As you can see, I can barely touch 40 here. Google didn't suggest me any route from Hebron. That's why I am using offline maps.
Let's try our luck with Google once again. Google always works better than offline maps. Well, I think this road is closed. What's that? I have never seen such a road.
Out of all the roads I have traveled on here, this is the worst one. O ... is it closed ahead? What is this now? I think Palestinians are not allowed to be on this road.
I don't think we can sneak our way from beneath that barricade. Can we? Nope I can try that with the motorcycle laid down. This is the risk with navigations. Pedestrians can simply go from the sides. I think I can go through this point if I remove the luggage. So I'll have to unload the luggage.
Reloading the luggage is still a better idea than going all the way back. I have made it to the other side. And I didn't realize when the battery of GoPro died.
We needed to cross that barricade. So I tried from this side. The car was blocking the way.
So I went all the way back and brought the motorcycle from this side. Thank God we have crossed this barrier. Let's consult now before facing a similar situation again.
Better put the battery on charge. Indeed we took a very wrong route. With all these security cameras here, they must be watching me.
Monitoring my entire act. I hope they won't bother us because of that. Actually I wanted to take the road by Dead sea.
That way, we could have gone much faster. But here we are in the middle. The offline navigation has wronged me here.
After traveling for 40 - 50 km from Be'er Sheva, you reach Gaza. And you can't go to Gaza. You can pass by the city but you can't enter the city. Because it has its own borders. Only those with permission can go. And tourists don't get that permission.
Only those who live in Gaza can get the permission. Even they don't get it too easily. But most likely we will get it. The journey was 270 km long when I left in the morning. In this one hour... we must have covered at least 60-70 km.
But it's still showing another 255 km to the border. I don't know where we have been going. God knows which area we have reached now.
Which wall are we looking at? Which place is this? I can see lots and lots of cars here. And there's a wall on the other side. Google maps are not showing any information about this area. We are entering Be'er Sheva.
O that's why they built a wall. It almost took 45 minutes here. Since we are going to an Israeli city and coming from a Palestinian territory, they have a check post here. Where every Palestinian ...
Or if someone feels like it, anyone can be stopped. And then a thorough checking takes place ... even of the vehicle. So I was destined to be checked here. They checked all my luggage.
And we were cleared to go. Actually, the border closes at 3. Right now, it's 9:45 am.
I must get there before 1 pm. And I still need to cover another 250 km. Let's see. Looks like we can only have very short breaks.
So that we can reach the border timely. Be'er Sheva is a big city. It's very close to Gaza.
Here we'll just get on the highway instead of going to the city. And that's good because it will save us time. A petrol station has just arrived. And we really need some refueling.
We can still go for 80 km... But it's better to get it full now. We have got the petrol.
And I thought since we have already taken a break, we should have our breakfast as well. I didn't have any breakfast today because I wanted to leave early. I have got myself an Ice Latte. Because I wanted to save the time needed to have a cup of coffee.
I've also got these two packs of yogurts. Proteins something is written on the label. And one bakery item as well.
Let's finish this breakfast and get going. If you look at the map, you'll see the Be'er Sheva is quite far from Hebron. But we traveled in the wrong direction and now we have to travel southwards. Almost another 210 km to go.
I paid 10 dollars here which is a substantial amount. But we already know it's expensive. There's no other option.
We'll now make sure... That our next short break must be after 150 km. A road from here leads to Masada. That's another historical place. Especially for Jews. But we are not going there.
Because it's in a desert and it's really hot there. There are many Palestinian villages in this area. But this looks like an Israeli controlled area. These people may have nationality. Some of them may not have opted for it but they won't have any. Because Israeli nationality is the only available option.
The desert we are riding through is known as Negev Desert. A lot of Bedouins live here. Haven't seen one though. We may meet some soon. Bedouins in this area are mainly Muslim. There are many villages here as well.
One more thing... Remember I showed Petra and Al Ula in my previous vlogs... Those same Nabateans had 3 holy cities in this desert.
I don't know their exact location though. Let's experience the landscape of this desert together. We are gradually coming down to the sea level. Therefore, it's continuously getting warmer. Only those who want to get roasted in this heat can consider stopping here. We are gradually descending towards Dead sea area.
We can now see the mountains of Jordan from here. What an amazing area this is. The desert is manifesting such amazing colors. There's a board here telling us that we are now at sea level. So we are 0 meter elevation and still going. I think we will go around 200 meters below sea level.
You call this expanse a desert... But there are just too many farms here. These are dates but further ahead they have covered the whole land. They have covered their vegetation with a sheet of plastic. I don't know what's being grown here. But you will see many other similar farms all along this way.
It's really amazing. They have these amazing farms in such a hot climate in this desert. They also have many technology parks in this area. Institutes and Research Centers. I have been seeing boards along the way.
It's rather interesting to ride through this area and see all these things. You can see the Eilat Airport on our left side. It's such a huge airport. I think it's an international one. Although it appears smaller.
Yeah it was written there. It's an international airport. It's mainly for low budget flights. I mean this entire Palestine and Israel region is not a very large one. It's quite possible that there are flights from this airport not only to Tel Aviv but to European cities as well. We are now riding along the Jordanian border.
It's hardly 300 - 400 meters away. The border line is just next to this farm that you can see. We are now 5 or 6 km from the border. Let's see if we are stopped by the police here. But we must slow down anyway.
We are at this petrol station. Not to get petrol because I still have enough to reach Jordan. Just got some water. But I want to show you something interesting. Here they are selling a bottle of water for 2 dollars. But a full pack of 6 bottles is for 4 dollars.
The girl at the counter suggested me to take 6 instead of 2. Take a look at this. I have taken the full pack of 6 bottles. Meet Isaac.
Ola Isaac. He's from Peru. I'd like to practice my Spanish with him and have a conversation. While we drink some of this water.
We can give some to Isaac and carry a couple of them with us. Rather than paying for each individual bottle. So... Bismillah... In the name of Allah...
Our border anxiety has just kicked in. We are almost there; just 3 km away. Let's hope that everything will go smoothly.
This is the most I'm scared of any border crossing in this whole region. All the remaining crossings should not be a problem. Especially the Saudi Arabia one. I think things will be easier in other parts of Middle East. Saudi Arabia. Oman. Qatar. Bahrain.... All of them have well placed systems and they don't take too much time.
And you can cross the border in no time. The Jordanian border people always make some trouble. Not to forget the ones on this side of the border.
So I'll simply dismount my GoPro and keep it in my bag as soon as we reach the border. Don't want them to ask for my footage after they see my camera. Don't wanna lose my data. I don't want to take any chances.
So I'll just remove my camera and try not to look like someone who makes videos. Don't want them to do my thorough checking. Navigation says that we need to turn left now. Eilat city is almost 4 km from here. But the border crossing is right here.
It appears that the other city is much closer. The city that you can see behind these date trees... That's Aqabah. This reminds me of the old Arabic name of Eilat... Umm Al-Rashrash. You can see people going on foot.
Many tourists cross this border from here to get to Jordan. The Egyptian border is not too far from here as well. A lot of people cross these three borders.
So, I'm stopping here. There may be army people up ahead. They can make an issue about this.
Dismounting my GoPro. Border crossing is right in front of us. Welcome to Jordan. I can say that it was the worst border crossing of all.
Not because of difficult process or the need for extra documentation. Only if they'd let me record the whole thing. I showed you how crowded it was, when I was entering. That's because a group of 500 Israelis was going to Petra.
They got there almost at the same time as myself. And the whole place was crowded. They had food items in their luggage and what not. Even religious symbols and similar stuff. The security told them that they can't carry the food items with them any way. Because there are always some restrictions like that.
Similarly, many countries don't let you take dairy products with you. And God knows what. They did not agree to that and said that they were carrying kosher food which they might not get in Jordan.
Look.. It's them going. So they were denied entry in Jordan. This whole scene lasted for 2 to 2.5 hours. Then they said that they will close at 3 pm. I had to beg them because I was on a motorcycle and needed to cross the border. And then everything was taken care of.
The Israeli side of the border just took 45 minutes to clear me. They were indeed happy that I was leaving. I mean they don't create any problems after they have checked all your documents.
Jordan I'm from Germany. Passport? Okay. Thanks So I was saying... The Israeli guys took the exit fee from me which was around 35 dollars. And then they let me through in just 45 minutes. However, on the Jordanian side, this security issue came up.
It was quite a scene. The whole security force gathered there. The Israelis were not going back. I think about 300 did manage to get through.
The rest of them were still there. After that, I purchased insurance from here. I got my motorcycle documents cleared and they gave me a one month visa. They didn't charge me any visa fee. But they did take almost 80 dollars in total.
So when I was about to leave, I found out that my motorcycle had a flat tire. I fixed the puncture and also managed to get some recording. But... There were no army or border officials in the footage. I was just recording myself and the motorcycle with a very close angle.
Because I had seen that the security was really alert today. They would get very angry if someone had a camera. I just wanted to stay away from a problem. but some officer came and made me delete that footage. And he told me that it was forbidden to make any kind of video there.
The good thing is that the puncture in the tire was fixed right at the border crossing. Otherwise, it could have been really embarrassing. It was such a big nail that punctured the tire. I'm so glad it didn't happen in the desert before, with no water or resource around. I plan to spend as little time in Jordan as possible.
I'll try to gather my stuff and head towards the Saudi border. We'll try to cross it right now if it's open. Nevertheless, we are ending this video right here. I'm sure that you will like it. I'm a little sad though at not being able to record anything from our border crossing. But if I had tried to, it could have caused a lot of problems for me.
I mean I saw how the situation was at the airport. I'm lucky that I was able to cross the border safely. Although it does make me think why I'm here in this region. Better get out of here. I feel it's time now to visit countries in better situations and less restrictions.
So that we can enjoy while we travel. Now let's clear this portion as quickly as we can. It's very hot here. So lets load our luggage. See you in the next one. Remember me in your prayers. Like. Subscribe. Share. Allah Hafiz
2022-11-20