I nearly got a full body cavity search by two Israelis

Thought I’d post this as a separate post purely for the comedic value of me, sat in an interrogation booth at an Israeli airport, highly unsettled about the prospect of being cavity searched by two surly Israeli border guards wielding semi-automatic guns…

I S R A E L (part 2 – West Bank & Tel Aviv)

No journey to Israel would be complete without going to the places responsible for causing a significant portion of the religious tension in the Middle East – Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We had already explored the religious cornucopia of Jerusalem, so the next logical step was to board a bus and head over the 1948 UN Armistice Line and into the Palestinian territories. This trip was to contain one of the most surreal experiences of my life,  as well as one of the most humbling.

I S R A E L (part 1 – Jerusalem)

Israel was to be our 5th and final country – and a logical place to end the trip, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, budget airlines such as EasyJet and Jet2 provide regular services to the UK from Tel Aviv, reducing the cost of getting home and secondly, whilst you cannot enter Syria or Lebanon with an Israeli stamp in your passport, you are able to enter Israel with a Syria/Lebanon stamp. This sounds straightforward in principle, yet ended up involving interviews with the Israeli Defence Force and almost being strip searched.

L E B A N O N (part 2 – Tripoli & Baalbek)

I have directly funded political terrorism (but we’ll get to that later). Our first adventure in Lebanon outside Beirut was the ruins of Baalbek, in the Bekka valley of Eastern Lebanon. The diminutive size of Lebanon means that whilst nothing is particularly far away from anything else, even the smallest difference can offer a dramatic change in both environment, scenery and culture. Apparently in Lebanon you can wake up in the east and go skiing, then have your afternoon nap by the pool overlooking the sea in 30 degree heat, the same day.