I woke up before 8am to give myself plenty of time to catch my 12:30 flight. I left the hostel by 8:30 and caught a minibus to the bus station. I had planned to walk, but an Israeli soldier from the beach last night was also going to the train station and I saw him get on the minibus. I quickly jumped on too.
I was at the station by 8:45, way ahead of schedule. The solider told me to take platform 2, so I lined up there. All signs were in Hebrew, so I had absolutely nothing to go on. I looked around and everyone on my platform had luggage, so that was a good sign. Here are some soliders waiting with me for the train.
I boarded the train when it came and tried to look for familiar sights. I couldn't find any. The first stop came after 15 minutes. It had a Hebrew name and was not the airport. No one got off, so I figured it was a minor stop on the way to the airport. The airport was 30 minutes away from Tel Aviv by taxi, so I figured I would give the train roughly the same amount of time. A large number of people left with luggage at the second stop and I saw barbed wire, so I got off too. All annoucements are in Hebrew, but Ben Gurion is the same in both languages.
I found myself in Rehovot. Without wifi, I had no idea where this was. It turned out to be the complete wrong direction. It was now 9:30 and my flight was in three hours. It would take 30 minutes to get back to Tel Aviv Central and another 30 to get back to the airport. Plus, there could be transfer time at the station between trains. After adding in Israeli airport security, there was a good chance I would miss my flight.
After Seoul and Bangkok, I couldn't risk it, so I took a taxi to the airport. Goodbye 200 shekels. Luckily it was only 200, because I only had 208 shekels left.
The taxi dropped me off at 10:10, giving me almost 2 and half hours. That was good because security in Israel is pretty intense. I was interviewed for 15 minutes by four different people who asked me the exact same questions. They seemed very concerned that I had been in Malaysia and was taking a flight to Amman on Royal Jordanian. They kept asking if I had friends or family there and if I could speak Arabic. After answering the same questions in the same way for each officer, I was allowed to go get a boarding pass.
Then I was stopped at a new checkpoint and verified before being allowed to go to the departure security screening. Then my ID was checked again at the gate to security. Then I was assigned an entire lane to myself. I didn't know why, but I figured it out soon. Every single item was hand inspected. When you have two backpacks, that takes a while. My portable hard drive was suspicious apparently and so was my flashlight. After running everything through the x-ray twice, hand inspecting everything once, and hand inspecting suspicious items again, I made it through a little before 11am.
I went to the Dan lounge which I think is the only one at Ben Gurion. It looked like all Oneworld airlines used it. The lounge was pretty basic, but I was only staying an hour, so that was OK. There was nothing but crackers and raw vegetables with dip to eat. I left at noon to board my flight, but when I arrived it was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. I grabbed some hummus with my 8 shekels and had lunch. My flight finally departed at 2:45.
The flight was short and I was the only person in the business class cabin. I slept from take-off to landing. After the bus transfer from the plane, I went to the visa line to buy my Jordanian Visa. The sign said credit cards accepted, but it turns out they aren't. The exchange counter wouldn't accept my Thai Baht or anything from Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Korea. I'm very glad I saved by Yen, because it's the only currency I had that Jordan would take. Every other person in the line used a crisp $100 USD bill. Oh, the irony of being the one person in line not paying in US currency.
The visa line the second time was chaotic as a huge group of Arabs from some country were rejected one by one for some reason. I tried my confidence trick. It worked. I just walked up to the counter and handed a 20JD bill. Seconds later I had a visa. Why wait in the back of an unorganized blob of people?
With that, I entered the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
I was at the station by 8:45, way ahead of schedule. The solider told me to take platform 2, so I lined up there. All signs were in Hebrew, so I had absolutely nothing to go on. I looked around and everyone on my platform had luggage, so that was a good sign. Here are some soliders waiting with me for the train.
 |
| They are a common sight around town. |
I found myself in Rehovot. Without wifi, I had no idea where this was. It turned out to be the complete wrong direction. It was now 9:30 and my flight was in three hours. It would take 30 minutes to get back to Tel Aviv Central and another 30 to get back to the airport. Plus, there could be transfer time at the station between trains. After adding in Israeli airport security, there was a good chance I would miss my flight.
After Seoul and Bangkok, I couldn't risk it, so I took a taxi to the airport. Goodbye 200 shekels. Luckily it was only 200, because I only had 208 shekels left.
The taxi dropped me off at 10:10, giving me almost 2 and half hours. That was good because security in Israel is pretty intense. I was interviewed for 15 minutes by four different people who asked me the exact same questions. They seemed very concerned that I had been in Malaysia and was taking a flight to Amman on Royal Jordanian. They kept asking if I had friends or family there and if I could speak Arabic. After answering the same questions in the same way for each officer, I was allowed to go get a boarding pass.
Then I was stopped at a new checkpoint and verified before being allowed to go to the departure security screening. Then my ID was checked again at the gate to security. Then I was assigned an entire lane to myself. I didn't know why, but I figured it out soon. Every single item was hand inspected. When you have two backpacks, that takes a while. My portable hard drive was suspicious apparently and so was my flashlight. After running everything through the x-ray twice, hand inspecting everything once, and hand inspecting suspicious items again, I made it through a little before 11am.
I went to the Dan lounge which I think is the only one at Ben Gurion. It looked like all Oneworld airlines used it. The lounge was pretty basic, but I was only staying an hour, so that was OK. There was nothing but crackers and raw vegetables with dip to eat. I left at noon to board my flight, but when I arrived it was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. I grabbed some hummus with my 8 shekels and had lunch. My flight finally departed at 2:45.
The flight was short and I was the only person in the business class cabin. I slept from take-off to landing. After the bus transfer from the plane, I went to the visa line to buy my Jordanian Visa. The sign said credit cards accepted, but it turns out they aren't. The exchange counter wouldn't accept my Thai Baht or anything from Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Korea. I'm very glad I saved by Yen, because it's the only currency I had that Jordan would take. Every other person in the line used a crisp $100 USD bill. Oh, the irony of being the one person in line not paying in US currency.
The visa line the second time was chaotic as a huge group of Arabs from some country were rejected one by one for some reason. I tried my confidence trick. It worked. I just walked up to the counter and handed a 20JD bill. Seconds later I had a visa. Why wait in the back of an unorganized blob of people?
With that, I entered the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
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