Heading to Laos

After having a nice Shabbat dinner at Chabad house in Chaing Mai (more than 150 people) and a nice night out to the bars, Gil and I decided to hit the road once again and head to Laos. We didn't expect any special problems and thought we should find some ride the next morning. Since all the regular ways of transport were already fully-booked, we thought that taking the night bus & speed boat package does make sense. We were wrong. Badly wrong. Don't do that. Seriously.


So.. it all started in the evening. We were picked up by a nice mini-van. We then picked up some more English girls and later (much later..) some other travelers. We then drove to Chaing Kong on tha Thailand-Laos border. This was a freaking crazy drive in which we thought it is going to be our last day (or night) on earth. The driver was mental and drove so quickly in all these sharp curves that we couldn't sleep.. there goes a relaxing night bus as they told us in the travel agency. Relaxing my ass.. but we made it to the border at 4am instead of 5am.. yay!


After waiting a while in the border, we had some breakfast, payed some money to the Thai government in order to leave it, took a short boat ride across the Mekong river to the side of Laos, and then started all this visa & passport control crap . At around 10:30am we started our horrific 6 hours long speed boat ride to Luang Prabang, in the center of North Laos. It is hard to describe my face when I saw this tiny boat that was supposed to accomodate six westerners including all their bags and equipment. It wasn't nice. It was even less nice when we figured out that there is literally no room for the legs and the "captain" decided to put eight persons in the boat.. this started a crazily fast ride on the amazing Mekong river. The views were so beautiful, the people were nice (we laughed hard on our situation), the rain was annoying, the muscles were so sore... and we thanked God so much when we had it behind us.. on Sunday, 4:30pm after more than 20 hours on the road, and without sleep for about two days we made it to Laos.

More photos on facebook:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=944&l=c44ae&id=298400055

Chaing Mai

We arrived to Chaing Mai - the main city of northern Thailand - after having a long (too long) 14 hours ride on a not-so-amazing-as-promised bus. We found ourselves a nice guesthouse and got ready for about a week here.

After two days doing mostly nothing other than reading and relaxing (and Gil was also recovered from a bad stomach virus) we went on a two-days walking trek to the village of the Hill Tribe people.. this was a great (although hard) experience! Our group is great and consists of an Israeli couple and few Brits, Irish, Dutch, Canadian and Chilian people. First we visited an orchids and butterflies farm, then a snake farm where we saw a crazy show with a crazy person playing with snakes (and a funny commentator telling us jokes in Hebrew). After lunch we climbed a super muddy mountain for few hours, and just when we thought it is never going to end we made it to the village. The place is so basic and it is wonderful. No electricity, in the middle of clouds, animals are all over the place, and three crazed muddy little kids are seeing us as their entertainment for the day; they played with us, jumped on us, made us dirty and had a lot of fun with us. We all slept in the same hut and had a very nice evening - we played poker and then some silly games and Thai riddles with no meaning..

The next day was going down the mountain (again.. mud. a lot of it!) The road is very slippert due to the endless rains that pours down here lately (it is the rainy season now..) after an hour and some people crashing into the mud, we made it to a nice waterfall. Then we had another elephants ride (Gil and I passed this one), and then we had a great white water rafting followed by a bamboo rafting. All together it was a great trek and the only problem is my sour muscles.. my legs are still killing me.

Other than trekking, we enjoyed Chaing Mai famous night market where we shopped a lot and drive some Thai market people crazy. We also had few massages (about 4-6$ for an hour!) and enjoyed the great night life here - we went dancing and drinking quite a lot. In our last day, Gil did a 50 meters bungy jump (we both had our first bungy jump here.)

Tonight we are heading to Laos in what seems to be a sort of a nightmare road trip on land and river.. wish us luck!

More photos on facebook:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=943&l=eec1c&id=298400055

Kanchanaburi

After spending few days in Bangkok we decided to take a two-day trip to the city of Kanchanaburi. We drove to a very nice hotel located on the band of the river kwai, very close to the famous bridge (have you seen the movie?) We are part of a lovely group of some Israelis and few other turists. The Thai people tend to talk to all of us in Hebrew - very funny (and sometimes disturbing) to see this happening quite a lot.

So we did here some very cool stuff. We rode on elephants, and afterwards swimmed and bath them in the river. very nice! Then we visited a wild-animals farm where we carressed tigers (big ones and baby ones as well) - it was nice but too comercialized. We went to some markets, had an exciting boat ride, and had a great foot massage. The next day we visited the seven waterfalls known as Erewan Waterfalls. A really nice place where you climb a small mountain in a shady jungle. The way was spotted with many pools and waterfalls where you can swim and cool down.
Also, along the way you can see loads of monkeys jumping and playing around in the wild which is really great. As in any other place in Thailand, we ate a lot of rice and Gil doesn't like that so much.. we needs my mom's schnitzel :)











That's it for now.. next is Chaing Mai in the north.

If you are interested seeing more photos of Kanchanaburi you can visit my facebook album at:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=942&l=f32fe&id=298400055

Bangkok

Hello again,

So Bangkok is very hot, sticky and has a bad air pollution.. but it is also a very vibrant city with huge malls and endless shops and you can probably get here whatever you may want - silly tshirts, fresh fruit shakes (yummy!) and even hummos and other israeli food.


Gil and I are exploring the city in our lazy pace - walking some, eating a lot, and take it slowly. We really enjoyed the grand palace - home of the king and some amazing temples.

All together we prefer to leave here soon and get quickly to the north. Updates are soon to come. Take care until the next time.

Almost on the Road!

Hello my dear reader,

In three days i am going to leave Israel for a long while on the road... I am about to travel with Gil, my youngest brother (17) to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia for a month and a half.

Afterwards I will explore Vietnam, Australia and New-Zealand with a good friend of mine, and some other friends that might join us along the way.

I will try to keep you posted on my happenings and attach some photos so you will share with me the views I am enjoying and be envious (hee hee)

So, Bangkok here I come!