A Big Mail. From Little Israel.

My first experience of traveling abroad. The post was written on 21 June 2005, just one day after I landed in Israel.

I am mailing you from Israel, Haifa. :-)

When I left Pune for Mumbai, on 18th June evening, I felt Pune is going to miss me a lot. Yes, that is because, when I was ready to leave Pune, it started pouring. The entire Pune was crying... I was leaving for Israel, for a short training at the Haifa development center of Amdocs, followed by some assignment at Haifa. There were 8 others on the same flight with me to Tel Aviv, the working capital of Israel. 6 of them were going stay at Tel Aviv, and 3 of us were going to Haifa.

We left Mumbai at 2:40am by the “Royal Jordanian” flight. It was a 5.5 hrs flight to Amman, the capital of Jordan. We arrived Amman at 5.30am (Amman Time) and were taken to a hotel “Alia”. Jordan is an Arabic country. We saw a number of Arabs wearing their traditional dresses. The females were covered from head to toe. Many men too had their heads covered by those typical caps or that scarf tied with a rope-like cloth on their foreheads. In general, all the men were smart. Even the people like the door keepers or the security guys, had a dashing personality. There was something in the way they carried themselves. We felt, it was because of the compulsory military training that all undergo. And the females were fair and good looking too. However, the people were somewhat rude. The place was very conservative.

After a 12-hr halt at Amman we took a 45min flight to Tel Aviv. This flight flew quite low & we could see the land below change from a desert & a less inhabited ground at Jordan to a greener, more developed land, as we reached Israel.

Our first glance of Israel was the top-view, from the aeroplane which flew from the north of Israel towards Tel Aviv. We could see from above that the country was very well developed and it looked like a planned country. And when we reached the Tel Aviv airport, we were amazed at its size, grandeur and the architecture.

We took a cab from Tel Aviv to Haifa. It was for the first time that I saw a Mercedes Benz taxi, sat in one for the first time! The driver drove at a speed of 120km/hr, and we did not feel it. We were looking outside at the lovely buildings, some very well-known & big companies, the lovely roads, and the beautiful scenery around. It was 8pm, and yet there was a lot of natural light outside. I felt myself falling in love with the country! :-)

Haifa is located at the north of Israel, along the coast. It is located along the slopes of Mount Carmel; and on its west is the Mediterranean sea.
Our rooms were booked at one of the best hotels in Israel- Dan Panorama Haifa. It is a 5-star hotel. At the reception, we were given “cards” to our rooms. Yes, the hotel does not have keys. We get something that looks like a credit card. We have to swipe in, to open the room. When I entered the room, and opened the curtains, I was spell bound by what I saw outside. My room overlooked the Haifa city, that was lit with different colors of light, and there outside, I could see the Haifa bay. I saw little boats in the water, they too were lit with lights. I was mesmerized by the beautiful picture that I saw outside!

But as I was exploring the extravagant hotel room, a wave of sadness took over me. I felt lonely for some time. Santosh, Praveen & myself talked for sometime, and we all were feeling this. We felt that everything around was so beautiful, but there was no one close to share it with... I thought, something as simple as a sweet dish can be so beautiful when you have someone to share it with. And something as wonderful as what is happening to me can still be painful!!

Our breakfast at the hotel again, was grand. We took a cab for Amdocs office. It is 20mins drive from our hotel. We noticed that there were only cars on the road. No bikes. And not many people walked.

Amdocs office at Haifa is a small sweet place. Here, you will not see cubicles. You will see little rooms- and inside each, there are 1-3 people, depending upon your seniority. The office is a triangular maze, and there are about 40 such rooms. The people are very friendly. We at once were made so comfortable, that we forgot yesterday’s depression! We also met 3 other Indian guys from DVCI. From tomorrow we would be commuting to office with them in the same cab.

Lunch was good. There was a lot of variety in salads. A lot of variety in meat (which I did not eat). All the non veggies, however complained that the meat was not properly cooked- it tasted raw. There were a number of sweets. Varieties of bread. Soups. And so much to choose from! Our afternoon walk was circling around a mall opposite Amdocs, named “Cosmos”.

Today we have not been given much work. But we can see loads of it coming our way! :-( Overall, Israel is a beautiful, technically very developed & clean country. And the people here are very good & friendly!