A look at Ramallah and its young tech scene (pictures)

During my Road Trip visit to Israel, I spent a day in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to learn about the small but growing tech scene there.

An entrance to the territory -- the Qalandia checkpoint, north of Jerusalem -- includes a series of these red signs warning Israelis to stay out.

After going through the checkpoint, the scene is busy, dusty and filled with concrete walls Israel built for security.

Israel constructed a concrete barrier more than a decade ago to prevent terrorism from the West Bank. Palestinians have since drawn graffiti on many parts of the wall.

Down the road, I found Ramallah, a modern city filled with towers of glass and limestone.

Khaled Abu Al Kheir is co-founder and CEO of PinchPoint, a Palestinian mobile gaming company. His firm got a lot of notice last year with the debut of its first title, Spermania, a racing game about a cartoon sperm.

Mousa Hamad, an intern at PinchPoint.

Yasmin Eid, a PinchPoint artist, is busy drawing a cartoon chicken.

My guide in Ramallah, Nuha Musleh, serves up lunch at her art gallery on the outskirts of the central district.

Faris Zaher, CEO of hotel-booking startup Yamsafer, says his company outlasted many competitors from Jordan and Dubai because "We're hungrier."

Inside the company's call center, where Yamsafer employees field travelers' requests and questions.

Here, a handful of Yamsafer workers take a break while looking out at Ramallah from their company's 11th-floor offices.

The leaders of Mashvisor, a real-estate analytics company founded late last year, want to help build up the Palestinian tech scene.

"It's still a young ecosystem, it's small," CEO Peter Abualzolof said, "but companies like Yamsafer are definitely leading the way."

Ramallah's central market is hectic, filled with people, storefronts and noise.

Here, a man on a megaphone calls for people to attend a protest that night.

A handful of men wearing bright-red outfits sell sweet drinks to drivers.

Here's one of a handful of fruit stands lining the sideways in the market.