Israel

Riding a Camel in Jerusalem!

 Dead Sea

Do you know how the Dead sea got its name? Its called the Dead Sea because there are no living animals in it. It is 35% salt, which is very salty.  The ocean is only 3.5% salt!  Rivers flow into it and, because it's the lowest point on earth, nothing flows out of it. Also, a lot of the water evaporates and leaves the salt behind.  That's why you can float in it so easily.  It is like sitting on a chair.  I was very surprised because I didn't think I was going to float.  We also did a mud treatment, where you put mud all over yourself, wait 10 minutes in the sun so that the mud gets all dry and crackly on your skin, and then you dry it off.  After that our skin felt very smooth and soft.

We also saw where a lot of events happened about 2,000 years ago. These events were special to Christians, Muslims and Jews, which is why they call Isreal the Holy Land.  We saw Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilea and the Jordan River.  

India

India is colorful, different and exotic.  We went to 4 big cities: Delhi, Agra, Ranthombre and Jaipur.

There were women working in colorful saris.  Saris are pieces of cloth that you can wrap around in lots of different ways.  There were buses overloaded with people, me staring, school kids waving and lots of people begging.  There are also lots of cows, camels, horses and goats wandering the cities.

There were buses overloaded with people, men staring, school kids waving and lots of people begging.  There are also lots of cows, camels, horses, monkeys and goats wandering the cities.

 Delhi

To see lots of things we started out on a rickshaw ride (cyclo tour) through narrow streets filled with tons of people.  There were monkeys in what looked like million year old houses and people selling things.  It was so different abut very neat to see. 

 Agra

We got up very early to see the Taj Mahal, which is a magnificent building.  A king built it for his wife, all out of marble, with fountains in front.  She was the only one who was buried in there besides the king.  He wanted to build a black Taj for himself, but he couldn't start it because he got imprisoned by his own son.  the Taj Mahal was very amazing. 

Ranthambore

This is a national park.  We went on a safari and saw both a tiger!!!! and a leopard!!!! We were very lucky!!!

 

Jaipur

We went on an elephant ride up to a fort.  It felt like we were kings and queens.  We also saw a carpet factory where they showed us how to make a carpet.  It looked very hard and tiring. 

 

India is very colorful with all the hardworking women in saris.  India is also very different because there are lots of people with different lives. India is also very exotic.  I really liked visiting India, and it made me feel how lucky I am to have food, clean water and a shelter.

Our driver for the week