#i love how much chaos i can create without actually knowing javascript

[guzsdaily]

201 Days

Day 201 - May 24th, 12.024

Yes, I didn't notice that yesterday was the day 200 of the daily blogs.

Past Promises

If you are reading this since the first months of this personal challenge, you probably are wondering what happened to the projects like Hobbiest Monologue and the Elementria comics that I presented on the comemoration for 100 days. Well, I pretty much forgot about them. It is somewhat disappointing, but I kinda learned that it is better to do things before promising them, not only because it helps with not disappointing people, but also to keep your motivation and the urge to keep doing said thing.

Will I make said projects in the future? Maybe, the YouTube channel for Hobbiest Monologue is done, and both of them also have their respective logos and brands made. However, I'm not really focused on creating more content besides these blogs. Maybe one day when I have a professional job and a good enough workflow and tools to help mitigate the time and energy that these projects need, I will go back to the ideas. I do still love video creation and art, but I have other focus now. And it isn't like I won't make anything related to these topics, but a long-term project is not a good idea for now.

Past Achievements

Besides, I was able to do some projects. The main idea of "The System" wasn't really made into reality, since the whole idea of it were somewhat broken. However, said idea made me do a lot in the process.

I have finally started to learn, and completed a project with the Rust programming language! It is a simple project, and I didn't really make everything that I have planned, but it is good to have a CLI tool to manipulate markdown, which I am actively using in scripts on my Obsidian vault, and hopefully said project will grow and stabilize to be used by other people in their files. For now, I don't know how much about Rust I will continue. The main focus for me with the language is CLI tools and AST manipulation, since it feels to be a good use of it and in general I had a better experience (compared to something like JavaScript for AST manipulation). Yes, I could learn more about async and lifetimes, but I have already wasted a lot of my years just learning stuff, so if I need to in a project, I will learn them, I just don't want to actively be just studying concepts and syntaxes.

Talking about actually doing stuff. I really learned to not step too close into the sun, and stop abstracting even my fucking NixOS configuration. Programmers do love making abstractions before they are necessary, but fucking god, having anxiety and trying to predict every outcome of the program because of it, really takes it into the next level. And that's why I'm learning Go.

Like Rust, I was influenced by ThePrimeagen to learn Go, and HTMX (with some sprinkles of AlpineJS maybe), for server-side and web development in general. And it is being a great experiment, it is also funny how I haven't even read the docs of Go, and still am able to create a working website and server, without any dependencies. It is a breath of fresh air after learning so many JavaScript frameworks, build tools, libraries, etc. Nonetheless, learning the language can also help to find a job, it feels like it's starting to have more attention and opportunities, and besides I'm not "just another JavaScript developer" at least.

And hopefully the continuous task of improving my GitHub and LinkedIn profiles, improving my portifolio, getting certificates, and just trying to be more active on my accounts, can also help. I already send more than 70 applications, without any feedback whatsoever, but I will not give up, because I want to be able to hug my girlfriend and have a house with her in the future.

Past Chaos

Besides all what I somehow achieved, these last three months were a lot harder than I expected. Actually, I couldn't even predict what happened, and it feels like time passed by without I'm even noticing. I'm surprised that I even managed to complete anything.

I do not want to give a lot of personal information on the internet, even less if it is related to family and nothing to do with creative process or work. But as you probably noticed on a past blog post, I lost my (grand) grandmother, the person who raised my dad, that my mom took care of for pretty much 16 years, someone who lived until 99 years old with an incredible health to her age. My dad's family has a lot of issues, every family has, and my parents sacrificed a lot of themselves, since others didn't do anything better to take care of her. However, said sacrifices started to hit a lot this year, and my parent's mental health were in the limit, as my grand grandmother's health as also hitting the limit. I didn't work a lot during the time, since I wanted to be with my parents, not just to give some support, but also strength to fight, so others would take some action. And they did, but it didn't last that long.

Something that I want to be clear, you do not know what really was happening these three months, even less these 16 years, it may be my anxiety kicking right now, but I do not want no one to judge, make assumptions, say what we should have done, anything like that, now or in the future. You don't know me, I don't know you. She lived a healthy and long life, and my parents now can rest and are better thankfully, and this is what I care about.

The only thing that I want you to take from this, is to take care of the people that you love, they can be parents, grandparents, partners, friends, I don't care, take care and be with them when they need, the same way they were when you needed it. And know, independently of what happens, you will be okay in the end, do not let chaos make you give up, I beg you. I may be just 19 at the time of writing, but I gave up on so many things for so little, that these three months really showed me how much stronger I can be, mostly because of the people that are around me. So I ask, I beg, whatever you want to make in life, do not give up easily, be strong, be there, for you, and for the people that you love.

---

Thanks for reading, hopefully the next 100 days will be better. And besides, whatever happens, I hopefully will meet you tomorrow, and every day until day 300.

- Someone who's trying to improve.

Today's artists & creative things Music: You Will Be Okay - by Caleb Hyles

© 2024 Gustavo "Guz" L. de Mello. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

[ghostplantss]

afjalsf sorry more code

it hides all posts on your dashboard that don’t contain the word(s) you’re searching for 

you do have to keep scrolling though

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/393327-search-dashboard

[notpreparedblog]

Return of the Bonemancer

So, it’s been quite a long time since publishing Path of Diablo: Part II. In that article, I was ready to dive into Hell difficulty with my good ol’ Ravens Druid. Unfortunately, interest kind of dropped off once I reached Hell. The difficulty of course spiked, it became more tiresome to play, so I decided to hang the pelts up and wait for the interest to come back to me.

Surprise, the interest came back to me. Diablo II: Remastered has been heavily rumored for a few years now, more so in recent months. I’ve started to notice that just like I want to re-watch Lord of the Rings every time I see something Lord of the Rings related, whenever I hear something new about Diablo II, I get that itch again.

I felt that Path of Diablo never really got that full shake from me, so in I dove again. This mod of the game has now reached it’s 18th patch, dubbed Flint, three patches past my last article in this series.

I feel like whenever I re-start Diablo II, the go to character is always a Sorceress to utilize Teleport and make things quite a bit easier. I ended up changing that formula with a Druid the first time with Path of Diablo, so I took the same approach this time.

In my time of playing Diablo II, I never really gave the Necromancer much attention. At various times, I did have a Poisonmancer, Summonancer and Bonemancer, but they were really just made out of boredom and they were never long lasting.

After reading the more recent patch notes, I saw something amazing.

Yes. Bone Spear shoots two additional spears every cast. I had my new character. With the increased damage from the very first patch and the additional spears in patch #18, it didn’t even feel like a debate. I always loved Bone Spear as a skill, it just never felt like a heavy hitter on its own. You always had to cast bone walls to block enemies in, then in a way, slowly damage them with Bone Spears, not the most dynamic or exciting gameplay. Here, the potential was much greater for a fun spin on an old skill.

Normal, Nightmare and Hell

This would typically be the point to where I speak on how leveling overall went as a Bonemancer…with my three Bone Spears. Honestly, that story would be incredibly boring. It was fantastic. I can’t really point out any specific moment where I had any sort of difficulty. The usual points of fear like the Chaos Sanctuary or Hell Ancients were just blips on the radar and before I knew it, I had defeated Baal and started aiming to clear maps, Path of Diablo’s new end game.

Three Bone Spears are definitely better than one.

In terms of gear, I aimed for a few basic rune words to help things along. The rune word ‘White‘ is a staple among most Bonemancers, and is easy enough to obtain for anyone only requiring two runes; Dol and Io. The great thing about White (aside from its already +3 Poison and Bone Skills and +2 Bone Spear bonuses) is that you can find an open, two-socket wand with + Bone Spear already built in, giving you more of a skill bonus to your bone spear.

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‘Spirit‘ is also a no brainer for a lot of builds at least early on before finding better gear and creating more expensive rune words. It does require a four-socket weapon or shield, but there are plenty of cases where you can actually use the socket quest from Larzuk in Act V to receive those four open sockets. In a shield, you receive +2 to All Skills, faster cast rate, faster hit recovery, resists and more.

Endgame for Path of Diablo is similar to Path of Exile in that we have maps to run. I started to delve into Tier 1 Maps on this Bonemancer (out of 4 Tiers) but haven’t gone much further than that at this time. Maybe I will detail that aspect of the game in a later addition to this series.

Loot Filters

One great aspect of Path of Diablo, is the ability to implement a loot filter, similar to Path of Exile. In Action RPG’s like your Diablo games, loot is incredibly important. It’s vital that you try to maximize your characters equipment at all times. Even more important if you’re playing online, you want to know what is valuable so that you can sell or trade those items away to increase your wealth.

There are a variety of loot filters that are available to the player and they can be found here. Each filter is incredibly simple to implement with following the directions on the previously linked page. I’m using the Pure Karma filter myself, but each has their benefits.

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Quality of life is also increased with this loot filter. Instead of ‘Greater Healing Potion,’ popping up and filling your screen as a common drop, you have a red symbol (and blue for mana and so on). Higher ranked runes are now blasted with symbols on your screen to make it as unlikely as possible to miss them. Since ‘Spirit‘ is a ridiculously good rune word, things like your typical white Crystal Swords will now say ‘Spirit Base’ beforehand so the player knows that they can just throw that weapon into Larzuk’s socket quest and create a Spirit rune word.

Extra Bowazon Action

Outside of plowing through Hell with the Necromancer, I decided to start a Bowazon. Why? Two different items; Arctic Bow and Hailstorm, unique arrows. With both of these items equipped, and both having a very low level requirement, I’m flying through normal difficulty while shooting five cold arrows per shot. It effectively gives you a cold infused multi-shot.

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Is this something that’s long lasting? No, of course not. Arctic Horn has a level 2 requirement to use and only has a damage range of 9 – 21. I’ll soon be shifting to Kuko Shakaku and some sort of fire arrow build, but this is an example of new things that Path of Diablo offers, especially for older players.

Just the idea of having a new experience with a Bowazon in normal difficulty was enough for me to roll the character and give it a shot. A similar thing happened with the Necromancer. Just the idea that I can shoot three Bone Spears instead of one every cast made me want to create that character so that I could have a new experience within Diablo II.

The result of having both Arctic Horn and Hailstorm equipped; five cold arrows per shot.

Path of Diablo isn’t flashy like your Median XL‘s or Eastern Sun’s, but it does a very good job of many changes to the base game without making Diablo II not feel like Diablo II.

I’m sure that I’ll keep adding to this series over time as I get that renewed Diablo II feeling that always seems to swell over me. For now, I’m content progressing with my triple Bone Spear Necromancer.

As always, check out the following links for previous articles and resources related to Diablo II and Path of Diablo;

  Path of Diablo: Part I

Path of Diablo: Part II

First Thoughts – Diablo II: Median XL Sigma

Diablo Immortal

  Official Path of Diablo Subreddit

Official Path of Diablo Wiki

How to Install Path of Diablo

  Path of Diablo: Part III Returning to #pathofdiablo to check out some Bonemancer action! #diablo #diablo2 #pathofexile Return of the Bonemancer So, it's been quite a long time since publishing Path of Diablo: Part II…

[operationrainfall]

Title New Super Lucky’s Tale Developer Playful Publisher Playful Release Date November 8th, 2019 Genre Platformer Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Cartoon Violence Official Website

I’ve been looking forward to delving into New Super Lucky’s Tale since it was just called Super Lucky’s Tale and was an Xbox console exclusive. As a gamer that really loves platformers of every stripe, I pride myself on being able to immediately identify when a platformer has the right stuff. And even though I demoed both versions of the game a few years apart, one thing immediately stuck out to me – New Super Lucky’s Tale is a platformer made for platformer fans. It has precise mechanics, colorful graphics and is simply a joy to play. But even with all of those boxes checked, the question remains – does this game do enough to differentiate itself from the huge field of other retro styled platformers? Or does Lucky the fox disappoint?

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New Super Lucky’s Tale starts with a dramatic introduction that set the tone of the game respectably. The Guardian Order was created to protect many far flung worlds from chaos when the unthinkable suddenly happens. One of their members, Jinx the sorcerer, apparently goes mad, and wages war on his fellow Guardians. His goal is possession of the Book of Ages. With it, Jinx will have the power to rewrite reality and essentially be unstoppable. A war follows, and the Guardians are defeated and banished from their home, the Sky Castle. Jinx has his minions the Kitty Litter hound them, and eventually the Guardians are found. Just when it seems all is lost, the Book of Ages reacts to the sorcerer’s fell magic, and it erupts in a supernatural explosion. Many pages of the book are scattered to the winds, and fly to various worlds. In the chaos, a portal opens and drags into it the young and impressionable brother of the head of the Guardian Order, Lyta’s little brother Lucky. You will play this young and untested fox as he sets out to right the wrongs caused by Jinx’ madness.

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Pretty great start, right? I admit I loved the comic cutscenes and the scope of the introduction. Unfortunately, the drama and tension are lost rather quickly once the game actually starts. One reason is that you never get to meet with the far flung Guardian Order as you play the main story. At best you see them huddled around a campfire during load screens. Another reason is that once Lucky takes charge, the story is decidedly childish. I don’t mean that in a mean way, since this game is obviously meant to appeal to gamers of various ages, but the fact remains there’s a distinct change in tone. Thankfully, none of this stops the game from being fun, and I can say with confidence New Super Lucky’s Tale is a very entertaining adventure.

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Lucky’s goal is to find the missing pages from the Book of Ages. Finding enough in each world will unlock the gate to that world’s boss fight. While there’s only 5 main worlds in the game, each one is totally distinct thematically and serves as a HUB to the stages. You start out at the lofty Sky Castle, then tackle an agricultural world full of hillbilly worm creatures, or take my favorite, a theme park full of ghosts and goblins. Each world is delightfully strange and animated, and none of them was a bore. There’s a handful of stages in each, including both 3D and 2.5D levels, as well as optional challenge stages. Challenges can range from statue ice puzzles to rolling around in a giant pinball machine. My only complaint with regard to this structure was that I assumed each world would get progressively larger, but in truth almost every world has the same amount of stages. The key difference is that in general it will cost a bit more pages to unlock each subsequent boss fight, but even then it’s a small difference. I only complain about these details because I was so enjoying myself in the game, and wanted an excuse to spend more time there.

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But just because I want more game doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the gameplay in New Super Lucky’s Tale. I haven’t played a platformer this precise and fun in a long time. It’s both simple and finely tuned. You can jump with B or double jump with a second press, attack with a tail swipe using Y, burrow into the dirt with ZR (or slide on hard surfaces), move with the left stick and control the camera with the right stick. That’s it, and that’s all the game needs. I never had any issues getting the controls to work, and found the camera to be very intuitive and easy to use. I also really enjoyed the burrowing mechanic, not least since it helped differentiate Lucky from other platformer protagonists. Once you start, you’ll keep burrowing until you release ZR, but other than that you have complete freedom to move around and collect hidden coins. It’s also fun watching Lucky burst out of the dirt like some landlocked dolphin when you stop burrowing. Most enemies in the game aren’t much of a threat, consisting of angry insects, cranky crustaceans, bothersome bats and other assorted nuisances. Instead, most of the danger comes from stage hazards, such as fireballs, dangerous spikes, or simply falling to your death. Luckily, the game is pretty generous with hearts that restore your health.

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Since the enemies in the game aren’t much of a threat, that means most of the gameplay instead revolves around platforming your way through stages. The 3D stages have goals you’ll need to achieve to escape, such as awakening a giant Golem or wrangling lost animals, while the 2.5D stages are split between basic ones and endless runners. I tended to prefer the purity of the 2.5D stages, though the scale of the 3D stages was nice, but thankfully their large size is ameliorated by lots of checkpoints. I made great use of the camera in those large areas. Each stage, regardless of format, is full of optional goodies that will reward you with an additional page from the Book of Ages. You can acquire one by collecting 300 or more coins, finding all the hidden LUCKY letters and finding a well-hidden page, which is usually gated behind a timed gauntlet. So the maximum number of pages in each stage is 4, and nabbing all of them results in a perfect score. Not to gloat, but I found it incredibly easy to get perfect scores in most stages, though to be fair, there were a handful that required a second or third playthrough. One good example was in Veggie Village, in a stage where I had to find lost Wormal musicians to put on a concert. Two of the letters in that stage were so well-hidden I almost looked online for FAQs to guide me in the right direction. Thankfully, that sort of confusion was far form the norm, and I raced through New Super Lucky’s Tale at a brisk clip, usually spending less than an hour per world.

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For my fellow platformer completionists, I wish I could affirm there’s some big reward for finding everything, but I have yet to confirm that from the developer. All I know is that by finding more and more pages, you’ll unlock more and more outfits for Lucky at Geovanni’s boutique. There’s a ton of ridiculous outfits, and they all make Lucky look even more silly. Most of the game really comes down to how much you like playing New Super Lucky’s Tale, and if you’re eager to 100% it without the prestige of some giant reward. That said, I did enjoy it quite a lot, so I will probably slowly chip away at those hidden challenge stages and try to fully beat every main stage. If nothing else, once you beat the game you’ll unlock another world full of super hard levels, just in case the rest of the game was a bit too easy.

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I always enjoy a good boss fight, and I enjoyed them in New Super Lucky’s Tale. Each fight is against a member of the Kitty Litter, and they’re a ragtag bunch of deranged kittens. The first one you meet is ninja master Mittens, or there’s Tess the cantankerous mechanic. Then you have the sultry Lady Meowmalade and the dynamic duo of Buttons and Fluffy. And of course, the final boss fight is against Jinx, who to my surprise is also supposed to be a cat. Each and every boss has a lot of personality, and while they all fight somewhat differently, most of the boss battles are a bit too samey. They always involve Lucky evading attacks on the field of battle, then flinging something at the distant boss to hurt them, rinse and repeat. Some battles get really hectic, and a couple even go full bullet hell, but most of them left me wanting more. The primary exception to this format was the fight against Lady Meowmalade, which was both incredibly creative and utterly silly. Anytime I get to fight on a dance floor and avoid disco lasers, I’ll have a big smile plastered on my face. And the fight against Jinx was sufficiently difficult that I wasn’t able to beat him the first attempt. Ultimately, the boss fights weren’t bad, I just hoped for more of the same creativity in them that’s everywhere else in the game.

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Visually, New Super Lucky’s Tale is exploding at the seams with inventive ideas. Some great examples are country Wormals, wrestling Yetis, mechanical horrors, mind control speakers, ghostly freedom fighters and so much more. The whole game is tied together with colorful art and lots of cartoony enthusiasm. It’s bright, funny and very silly, and I love that. It’s also full of characters with lots of personality, from Greg the somewhat stalkery Mailgolem to the aforementioned Kitty Litter. Musically, the game is pretty different depending on the world. None of the tracks were particularly memorable, but they also didn’t hurt the pace of the game.

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I don’t have many substantive complaints to make about New Super Lucky’s Tale, more a collection of minor irritations. Though I can’t hold this against the game, it was a bit too easy for more than half of my playthrough. I would usually unlock the boss fight after playing two stages, and had to weigh whether to check out the other stages or just race to the next world. The plot, while interesting initially, quickly peters out. Worse yet, in loading screens Greg the Mailgolem seems to hint that there’s some mystery behind Jinx turning evil, but nothing like that is ever explained or delved into during the main game. And while I did enjoy every minute playing the game, I can’t help but wish there was a lot more game to get lost in. I suppose my best hope is that the folks at Playful are working on a sequel to address many of these issues, but in the meantime these issues kept New Super Lucky’s Tale from getting a perfect score.

Ultimately, as a fan of platformers, I really enjoyed New Super Lucky’s Tale. But since I enjoyed the game so much, I was also hoping for more longevity and more challenge. That said, this is a game that’s easy to recommend for pretty much everyone, even if they don’t think they’re good at platformers. For $39.99, there’s a very enjoyable experience here, albeit a brief one, taking me about 6-7 hours. I think New Super Lucky’s Tale is worth every penny, though if you want more content for your money, you might want to wait for a small sale. That said, I still am very glad I got to play this love letter to the platformer genre, and hope to see more in the future from Playful.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: New Super Lucky’s Tale Title New Super Lucky's Tale

[travelure]

  The Tower of David at Blue Hour

During the recently concluded TBEX International in Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post interviewed me (See the article HERE). Just before wrapping up the interview, the senior correspondent asked me about my feelings about Jerusalem. I had just smiled and shared my feeling – ‘Do not die without going to Jerusalem.’ My statement was not PR-driven but came from deep within.

The Strongest Flavour

I returned from Israel yesterday after a 10-day whirlwind tour that took me around Northern and Central Israel to Haifa, Caesarea, Nazareth, Bet Guvrin, Akko (Acre), and Nahariya, besides my 6-day stay in Jerusalem. While each of the places mentioned accorded their own unique flavour, the most overwhelming flavour that still remains with me is Jerusalem.

Old Town Jerusalem – A panoramic view

As a city, nay, as a cauldron of cultures, Jerusalem has it all. From Craft Beers to Cinema City, from holy to happening places, from pre-historic to progressive, Jerusalem negates your belief that you are in the Middle East. It sounds, smells, tastes, and feels just like any other global cosmopolitan hub of hubbub!

Jerusalem – a Multi-tiered Cake of History

Though this was my second visit there, at every cobblestoned step I was discovering something new. My walk through the old town Jerusalem brought me face to face with an unbelievable number of layers of mankind’s history. Israel’s most hated king – King Herod – has left his indelible mark on this multi-tiered cake of a city.

For an account of my earlier visit to Israel, click HERE.

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At the Tower of David, our guide Alan pointed out those layers. From the Roman era to the Ottoman Empire, from the Crusader’s time to the more recent British period, this tower showed it all. He also mentioned that since the actual creator of this tower (King Herod) was a hated soul and David was a loved king, over the centuries the tower got attributed to David. Little wonder then that Jerusalem Development Authority spent millions of dollars to put up a projection spectacular to give the visitors a 45-minute glimpse into this complex history!

Through the mysterious old town

Old Town Jerusalem – A Potpourri

At old town Jerusalem, I also discovered some more amazing facts. Though the four quarters – the Jewish, the Christian, the Muslim and the Armenian – have people from different faiths living there, their harmonious co-existence is a remarkable fact the world could take a lesson from.

“I have been around for decades!”

Every step of the narrow, history-spewing bylanes gets cleaned and mopped every 7 minutes. Some of the shops in these bylanes are hundreds of years old. The traders have been doing their trade here for generations. And despite the area being crowded, the vehicular traffic, wherever allowed, has complete respect for the pedestrians weaving their way through this maze.

This ancient part of Jerusalem also offers a quirky mélange of cuisines – Shawarmas jostle for attention as Falafels score a victory; Lasagnas and Burgers scream loud out to attract the scores of nationalities seeking out their own favourite flavours; Pizzas and Pitas battle it out for glory at every corner.

Old Town Market

Hawkers at every step tempt you with their wares. From handicrafts to holy symbols, red Kaballah strings to the hands of God, goggles to picture postcards – everything is available for the takers. What’s more, this walled city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

Old Town Jerusalem – Points of Interest

Now, this can truly be an unending list. But here are some of the choicest ones:

Western Wall – a ceremony in progress

  The Western Wall:

The holiest site for Jews, this centuries-old wall has been created with huge stones – some of them weighing as much as 575 tonnes!

Dome of the Rock

  Temple Mount or the Dome of the Rock:

Arguably, this is the second holiest site for Muslims. Here, while the sanctum sanctorum of the mosque allows entry only for the Muslims, visitors are permitted into its precincts from 7.30 am to 10.00 am and from 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm (all days except during Ramzan or Ramadan). The queue here could be long. So, reach early to avoid disappointment.

The blue-grey domes of the Holy Sepulchre

  Holy Sepulchre:

The last five stations of Via Dolorosa are inside this massive church that houses the spot where Jesus was crucified as well as Jesus’ tomb. As this is the holiest place for all sects of Christianity, there are many chapels inside. Different sects of the religion have created these.

And then, there’s the New Jerusalem

As soon as you step out of the walled city through any of the famous gates (Jaffa Gate or Damascus Gate), a different world greets you! Spanking new buildings, wide well-tarred roads, global brands, malls, and luxury hotels, punctuated with some well-kept period buildings and structures that impart even this new town a typical Jerusalem character. This part of the town is characterised by orderly traffic, evident security, and folks from different lands.

TBEX Opening Night Party at Cinema City

During my trip, while the winter chill was in the air, the dryness in the mouth indicated a dry climate. As I stepped up to buy a bottle of water, a sudden realisation about how expensive Jerusalem is, dawned on me. This realisation stayed with me throughout my Israel trip – every time I took a cab or every time I bought some food. But I found comfort in the fact that as a traveller, I was NOT paying the 17% VAT every Israeli has to pay for most things.

New Town Jerusalem

Is Jerusalem Safe?

Being from India, I realise how media is prone to hyping up every little unfortunate incident. I guess that is how media elsewhere would also behave. And since Israel is a small country belonging to an otherwise volatile region, global media would have an even more exaggerated tendency to blow things out of any conceivable proportions. With that clarity, I approached Jerusalem and found the town safer than most cities I have visited. And my fellow TBEX-ers shared this feeling.

Do Not Die Without Going to Jerusalem

Jerusalem also called the Holy City, offers its rainbow hues to every traveller, regardless of the purpose of his visit. Here, every traveller will get what he seeks. The place is rich in history and heritage, culture and character, cuisine and chaos, sightseeing and shopping. And this is a lot more than what I can say about most cities I have visited. So, coming back to where I started, my one-line advice for every travel-lover would be – ‘Do Not Die Without Going to Jerusalem!‘

PIN IT!

Traveller Friends, here's my sincere advice - Do Not Die Without Going To Jerusalem. Want to know why? Click the link for the answer! During the recently concluded TBEX International in Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post interviewed me (See the article…