A Day of Tech and Travel

Today we took one last visit to the NetCafe in Jerusalem to check email and make a few web updates. (We would have put these photos up then, but the internet connection was slow at the time.) On a positive note, we finally met Janice Chaim, the owner of the NetCafe (pictured here next to the ever-helpful Niv Goldberg). She was a bit offhand at first, but she warmed up when she realized we were "the ones with the Web site." Apparently, business has been good, and the NetCafe is expanding into the space next door. Perhaps when we next visit, it will be a big chain.

Before I show you our photos, however, a bit of information for those who were wondering how much (if anything) it costs us to upload our webpages each day. No, Adam and I don't drink coffee, so in terms of food expenditures, the cafes tend not to make too much off of us (we do buy bottles of water and the occasional dessert, especially if we are here late, however). But each cafe or bar has its own fee schedule for internet use--or computer use in general (some people come here to type resumes or letters, or to send faxes, for example).

The NetCafe, where we are now, charges up to 25 shekels an hour, though its fee structure begins at 15 minutes and increases at five-minute increments after that. Alternatively, if you plan to use the cafe often within any given month, you can buy a month-long membership, which we did. It costs 25 shekels for the membership, but then hourly use is 20 shekels, and after four hours the fifth hour is free (we tend to use the cafe about 2 hours a day when we upload a page, and we've already received our first free hour).

Other cafes charge by the quarter-hour or half-hour; the InBar in Tel Aviv has a "happy hour" for net use, and PCs cost 20 shekels for a half-hour, 30 shekels for an hour, from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. (that's when I was there); at other times, it's 40 shekels per hour. The main reason, I suspect, is that InBar has less competition.

Down the street from the NetCafe here in Jerusalem, there's Strudel's, the Internet bar I mentioned in a previous posting. It claims it has the cheapest fees in Jerusalem; it's 6 shekels per 15 minutes, but it doesn't have any membership fees or the like. I guess if you are just going to use the net for 15 minutes, Strudel's is cheaper (at NetCafe it's 7 shekels for the first 15 minutes, unless you're a member).

Oh, and for those who haven't been keeping up with the exchange rate, the current exchange is about 4 shekels to the dollar. So an hour here costs $5 (or is free, if it's the fifth hour). Not a bad deal.

The photo to the left is of the desert between Jerusalem and Ein Gedi (it was taken from an Egged bus). There is oh-so-much more that I would like to write, but our first priority now is to get these pages up and the pictures accessible; we will write more (when we get home).

The photo below is of dusk; if it's too dark, you might want to adjust your screen, because it's quite pretty.

In Ein Gedi, we stayed at Beit Sefer Sadeh, the Ein Gedi Field School. It was basically a camp-style place with dorm rooms and bunk beds, but it was really close to the nature preserve.

The photo below is of a drawing of an ibex with information about the nature preserve and field school. It looked really eerie in the darkness, and even spookier when photographed with the flash.

Anyway, so ended Day 9 (March 22). To continue your cybertour, click here.

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Last updated on July 4, 1999.