11th to 14th of July, 2019.
Dead Sea. When in my previous pretty ordinary life I would ever imagine to be in the Dead Sea. But here I am.
I pass through the gate and do not need to pay the over 50 Scheckels to use the beach. I get quite shocked with the price at the beginning but after seeing the installations of Kalia beach, I understood. I mean, not that you should not have great service for free, that should be mandatory for all governments (laugh). Of course you can always bring all your stuff along and go for a free beach and still have a good time.
So I first meet Farouk and he looks like a nice guy. He has a great, though quite unusual, combination of skin color and eyes color: his nice brown Palestinian skin goes pretty well with his green eyes. He reminds me a lot Diogo Nogueira, Brazilian sambista.
He works at the bar and let me put my stuff behind it for now and tells me I can go to the sea and relax. He will be joying me on his break, 30 minutes from now.
I take a place just in front of the middle of the beach. A place! Who would ever though that I could just simply take some chair and an umbrella in a beach for free. Just like that. Beside me I find, very coincidentally, the same couple with whom I talked in Jerusalem the day before. We talk for a bit.
I finally go to the water. A bit scary, I admit, but of course I go anyway. It is freaky weird! Laugh. But at this time of the year, freaking hot too! It is almost 40 Celsius degrees and you would expect some refreshing water on the sea… no! Very warm water. Yucky.
The rules are basically do not splash water in your face, anywhere, mainly eyes and mouth. I accidentally touch my eye one time and it burnt a lot! Then you want to go to one of the showers quickly and wash, right? Wrong. Not quickly. With your both eyes open it is already difficult to walk in or out of the water, since it is very slippery because of the mud. Yeah, yeah, the so also famous (I had no idea before step on here) therapeutic mud, that everybody want to spread all over their bodies. They just do not know that just the black one is actually good for the skin. Tips from Farouk’s friends, the safe guard. Anyway, so with one of your eyes closed you must be double precocious. Plus is fucking hot too so you first must to manage to put your flip flops back in. A nightmare. And I even saw some people falling when they were in that dramatic situation. So sad…
Farouk finally come and offers me a beer! A good way to start a friendship! A cold beer in this freaking hot day is all you need. We talk and get along pretty well, making jokes and stuff. So he needs to go back to work and I will basically do nothing the rest of the day, just chilling on the sea and in the lowest bar in the world, taking a nap, eating some snacks. Plus, Farouk is even nicer and say I can have anything I want from the bar for free. I do not think even he was paying anyway. But of course I do not want to push, I cannot even do it, so I basically have just three slush for the three days I stay there, the best ones, of course: coffee and banana.
OK, so this first night something exceptional happened and we would not be able to camp in the beach: Jewish guys were coming after seven to enjoy the beach. I guess is something in between not to see anyone and not being seen plus something to do with the sunset. So we had to hide ourselves and not being seen. Quite funny. But before we went to this abandoned water park just in the back of the beach. Crazy! How come someone let something this huge, of this magnitude go with the wind? You must be a horrible administer. Anyway, is freaky nice be in an abandoned water park. It feels like you are in a movie. We climb to the top of one slide and have an amazing view of the Dead Sea. We have wine too! Awesome! White very nice wine!
OK, pause for a creepy moment but totally expected coming from a man: Farouk made a move on me. Yeah, he tried to kiss me. Pfff. Another person to whom I needed to turn my face. Come on people: stick to the signs! Did I give you any signs that I was into you? No! Of course not. So do not make a move!
For the three days we slept in the place where the drivers rest for the day. It is a air-conditioned room with couching branches. Not a five-star hotel but more than enough to have a good night of sleep. And air-conditioned! Remember it is fucking 30 Celsius degrees outside. At night!
For the next days Farouk it is providing us food and drinks. Nothing fancy, but delicious and enough for me. Falafel, pita bread, hummus, tomatoes and cheese. Wine and beer here and there. One lunch he ordered such a great meal with salads, falafel, eggs, pickles and something else. Amazing! And his friends, the other guys who worked in there are so amazing too! Really friendly and nice. Always offering help and ask if I need anything. I even got a demonstration of the products made by Dead Sea sources, like an skin treatment. Awesome!
We go to swim at night once. Super cool. The water is a perfect temperature. And it is great to have the whole Dead Sea just for you.
There is a possibility that Farouk will joying me to go to Jordan. He must check with his boss though, about days off. That is actually why I stay until Sunday. We were wondering together if he was coming or not. In the end I decide to leave because I cannot wait until next week for him (when he will actually might be able to come)
So Sunday morning he decides to go to Jericho. A friend of his drives us both out of Kalia beach (uhul, I love lifts to hitchhike!) and drops me on the road. Perfect!
Bye-bye floating sea! Or sea where people float… not that they cannot float in other seas… Bye-bye sea where people float naturally. There you go!
