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From Middletown to the Middle East

~ Reflections on travel and teaching

From Middletown to the Middle East

Category Archives: How to

Packing!

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by tgilheany in How to

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20130626-215905.jpg

I really love packing. It combines the anticipation of adventure with a technical challenge. I most enjoy packing for warm climates and trying to pack light; I’m much less confident when attempting (relatively) light packing for skiing, for example. For my upcoming Turkey trip, I bought some golf shirts and pants from Target; they seem to be quick dry without dressing like a British safari adventurer c. 1910. Indeed, try searching for “quick-dry button down” – it’s tough to get one that is long-sleeved but does not have zippers, flaps and the logo prominantly displayed. I’ve ordered a Patagonia shirt that looks from the photos like it will pass for a normal white button-down shirt.

One area that I have historically been heavy on is technology. I bring my 17″ laptop with me everywhere on a daily basis, so going without it on a longer trip has often seemed too risky. On this upcoming trip, however, I will be taking only my iPad and a newly purchased Zaggfolio Bluetooth keyboard. I’ve read about this solution for some time; let’s hope it works! I’m writing this post with it; so far so good, though I can’t see how to upload a photo to my blog (correction – found it!) I have also bought the iPad “camera connection kit” so I can download my photos to the iPad and then upload them to Flickr, etc. I’ll be practicing this move also before I go.

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Getting Air Sinai tickets within Israel with the minimum of travel and additional fees

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by tgilheany in How to

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Air Sinai, EgyptAir, El Al, flying, nonstop, tel aviv to cairo

Air Sinai

How do you fly from Tel Aviv to Cairo and back non-stop? Two airlines currently run this route: El Al and Air Sinai. El Al departs on Mondays at 1:10am and also returns on Mondays, arriving at 6:50am.

So Air Sinai, with convenient flights during the waking hours 5 days a week, is the practical option. Air Sinai flight 55 flies Thursday, Friday, Saturday Sunday and Mondays at 12pm from Ben Gurion Terminal 3, arriving Cairo at 12:10pm. The strange looking times are because Cairo is one hour earlier than Tel Aviv, and the flight takes one hour ten minutes. When looking at the departure board, Air Sinai is abbreviated “4D” – the way Delta is DL or American Airlines is AA. Air Sinai 54 flies Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Mondays at 9am from Cairo, arriving Ben Gurion at 11:10am.

Air Sinai only flies from Tel Aviv to Cairo and back, and is run by EgyptAir, For reasons easily found online (google “Air Sinai”) they don’t book through EgyptAir or through any of the online ticket sellers. So how do you buy tickets on Air Sinai? Various websites have talked about tracking down unsigned offices or shelling out exorbitant fees to highly specific travel agents. There is no need, however, to find hidden stores in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, or to pay more than the ticket cost. You can do much, if not all, of your Air Sinai ticket ordering directly with the company from the comfort of your easy chair. Here’s how:

Call Air Sinai at 03-510-2481. They will ask you to email them at airsinai_tlv@hotmail.com the following information: Name, Nationality, Date of Birth, Passport #, Expiration date, Your Email, Phone, Departing and returning dates. (Note: It seems to me you could just email them the above information without calling first, though I began with the call because I did not know.)

They then email you back with a reservation reference number, a price quote (currently $430 round trip), and information on how to deposit the money in their account. To pay them, you can deposit the money in the Air Sinai account at the Israel Discount Bank. Account info: Bank Branch 016. If you are depositing Israeli shekels, deposit them in account #61281158 If you are depositing U.S. dollars, deposit them in account #980013-310158. (Note: I went physically to a Discount Bank branch and deposited cash shekels, since I live in Jerusalem and there is a branch very near me. I bet, though, that you could do it online through a bank transfer, thus executing this whole process from your home.) Air Sinai then asks that you send them a copy of the receipt. (I took a picture of it and emailed it to them.)

They then will call you to say they received the ticket. (If they don’t, call them back.) They will then email you the e-tickets. Done! I have not yet flown, but will report when I do.

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Maps of Ramallah

05 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by tgilheany in How to

≈ 1 Comment

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Ramallah map, Ramallah street signs

Walking through Ramallah, one notices that almost every street has a new-looking street sign, in both Arabic and in English, with short biographies of those honored. The names are fascinating. Many are wonderful – poets, human rights activists, community leaders. Edward Said has a street. There are socialist leaders from around the world – I noticed Salvador Allende and Patrice Lumumba streets. Some are sad – one is named for the Kfar Qasim massacre.  A quick web search discovers that, disappointingly but unsurprisingly, at least one street is named for a major terror mastermind, Yihyeh Ayyash.

On a more mundane level, the Google and Bing maps of Ramallah give no street names and few streets. There are maps of Ramallah online in English, though none seem near complete. If anyone finds an English-language map of Ramallah that is more complete than the following five, let me know.

Of course, since the street names are all new, Ramallah residents don’t use the names – they use landmarks. “Go to the right of the Fruity juice shop until the circle with the clock tower. Bear right until you pass the Grand Suites Hotel…”

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Getting around West Jerusalem by bus

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by tgilheany in How to

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Tags

Egged, Jerusalem bus map, schedule, trip planner

This is a new kind of post for me: a how to. Those of you currently following my blog are almost certainly in the U.S. and/or know Jerusalem better than I do – so feel free to skip this post. I intend this guide for new visitors to the city.

How the bleep do I get close to here from West Jerusalem?

If you want to get from point A to point B in West Jerusalem using the Egged bus system, and you read English but not Hebrew, there are two websites that help immensely. (The intricacies of the two East Jerusalem bus systems will need to wait for another post.) One website, unsurprisingly, is the Egged schedule and trip planner in English – www.egged.co.il/eng/  . The other is an impressive site developed by a private citizen – http://www.jlembusmap.com/ .

Neither site on its own on gets me all of the information I usually need to plot my course to a new destination. The Egged schedule and trip planner does not take addresses and does not think in terms of “nearby.” So unlike the New York City MTA trip planner, for example, you cannot enter your departure and destination addresses and have it tell you “walk ½ mile northwest, get on bus 13, get off at Shivtei Yisrael,” etc. This is where the bus map comes in handy. What follows is my recommended method for using the two websites together.

Begin with the bus map. By default it opens with every Egged bus line in Jerusalem shown. This can be overwhelming, but keep it like this for the moment.

  1. Zoom in on the area from which you are leaving, and remember or write down the lines that cross near to your departure point.
  2. Zoom in on the area to which you are heading, and remember or write down the lines that pass near to your destination.
  3. On the left you will see that you can select or unselect the bus lines and other information. Unselect all.
  4. Then individually select both those lines that cross near your departure point and those that pass near your destination.
  5. Zoom out. Look at the intersection of these various lines, and see what you would guess would be the most efficient combination for getting to where you are going.

Now, you might think you are done – “Great, I’ll take the #13 bus to Shivtei Yisrael, where it meets the #1bus, which I’ll to Lions Gate.” Not quite. Notice that the lines don’t tell you where the bus stops are. For that, you will need the Egged trip planner. When you go to the Egged page:

  1. Select the schedule option.
  2. Put in your first bus number.
  3. Choose either the closest stop to your departure point, if you can identify it already from the popup menu, or one that you would guess is before your departure point. (The popup list does not identify the address of every bus stop – it uses neighborhoods or famous sites – the special Egged English terms for which you’ll have to figure out!)
  4. Choose either your destination, if you can identify it already from the popup menu, or a stop after your destination.
  5. Press “daily timetable and stops” and then “stops” after the time that most closely approximates when you want to leave. Now you get a list that identifies the exact addresses of the bus stops on the route.
  6. Open a separate google maps page, and map the bus stops you think are closest to your departure point. Record the directions.
  7. Repeat with the other lines. Notice that even though two bus lines intersect, they might not share the same bus stop – you might need to walk a bit. You’ll need to google map those connections, as well as the trip from your destination bus stop to your actual destination.
  8. Finally, use the trip planner to identify the scheduled times of departure and arrival of your buses. Do not, however, take these times too seriously, and make sure to note the approximate frequency. You’ll want to know once you’ve waited for 20 minutes at your transfer stop whether this stinks or is par for the course.

Good luck, and please suggest improvements to this algorithm.

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Recent posts…

  • Jericho – my good and bad calls
  • Evidence of support – plaques but little else
  • Skirting Jerusalem
  • Ibrahimi mosque/Machpelech cave
  • Dr. Hasan

Days gone by

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