Frugal is as frugal does...

It was back to our new reality today -- after a much needed detour to Masada and the Dead Sea.

We were up and about early, trying to dry the clothes we'd decided MUST be washed the night before. Picture this: Nur spending all night fretting over her clothes and giving them a going over with a hairdryer while watching a Bollywood movie. There was much muttering and complaining from her adjoining room.

At 7:45, with still-wet clothes packed in our suitcases, we hit the road with our new tour group. Hmmm. Things didn't start out well since there were only four of us. Four soon became 16, and tomorrow it will double in size.

The 16 of us today drove through the Negev Desert to Masada, where it was stiflingly hot and they had closed the snake path to the top. We didn't have to worry about that. Despite our stair climbing expertise, the tour guide insisted we MUST take the cable car.

Once at the top, we stepped out into what felt like a furnace! There were a few older members of our group who had trouble keeping up, and we were concerned that one of them might keel over in the desert, falling down a cliff never to be seen again! A fitting end considering the location.

Finally even the tour guide seemed to have had enough of the weather, and told us it was time to get back to the bus. She didn't seem too thrilled when a select few decided they had to go through the gift shop. Those of us not inclined to pick up souvenirs at special tourist rates waited with the guide, Leah, while the rest shopped 'til their last shekel dropped.

Lunch. There's a really interesting contrast here. Our lunch was at one of those typical tourist bus stops. Nur's lunch (chicken, rice and beans that had been boiled within an inch of their lives) was 47 shekels. My vegetarian spaghetti was 23 shekels.

This is much, much more than we spent between us in the entire four days we were in Jerusalem!

Nur was so shocked it's lucky lunch-man didn't have the tasty morsels thrown back in his face!

Lunch over, we all piled back on the bus (the two of us enchanting the English/Canadian couple behind us with tales of our thriftiness and magical 5 shekel 1.25 litre bottles of water), for the trip to the Dead Sea.

We love the Dead Sea! Actually, we love what it did to our skin. Baby's butts, anyone? Smooth. Seriously smooth. Salt + mud = heaven. Though at one point, baking in the sun while covered in mud and salt, Nur felt distinctly like a well seasoned pot roast!

The water wasn't as thick and salty as we expected, and yet Nur still had issues with finding her feet. She knew they were there somewhere, they just wouldn't get with the program and hit the ground when she wanted to quit floating! On the upside, we're convinced that being covered in black mud made us look slimmer (or maybe the mirror beside the mud buckets was a little deceiving..)

An attempt was made to have us spend a fortune on Dead Sea products. Um.. yeah. No. There were two people who were sucked in, but we figured we were either too clever or too cheap. Probably the latter.

Anyway, after that -- back home! Well to our temporary home, Jerusalem. We know this city. We like this city.

We're staying in a much flashier place this time around. Three nights in a hotel with a pianist in the lobby. Ooooh La La. This is how the other half lives.`And yet we still insisted on walking all the way Old City, and our local shopping haunt to schlep back up the hill with 10 litres of water, two kilos of grapes, bananas and biscuits.  All for the bargain price of 42 shekels. We outdid ourselves with the water purchase. Our previous record was 6 bottles for 30 shekels. Tonight? Our favourite water man handed over 8 1.25 litre bottles for just 20 shekels. He then told us to make sure our bags were zipped up before we wandered back into the rest of the market.

We also outdid ourselves with the latest falafel purchase. 40 shekels per falafel in the hotel. Are you serious? We can do better than that. We took it as a personal challenge and managed to find the most delicious falafels for just 6 shekels each! Where? In the old city of course!

On another note, it seems kids will be kids no matter what their lot in life.

We noticed that the children in Tel Aviv seem like children, while so many of the young children we met in Jerusalem's markets were like mini adults.

Not so tonight!

One youngster, who was maybe 11 or so, took exception to a man (who was rather under the weather) standing by his fruit stall. He yelled at him to move away, told him he'd give him a couple of slaps if he didn't move, and then started throwing apricots at him.

Boy has a business to run! Can't have unsavoury sorts (and he was unsavoury!) scaring off his customers!

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, and we're off to Bethlehem, Mt Scopus and the Mt of Olives.

Hopefully there will be more walking involved! This bus travel is tiring!