gratuitous LP joke

Ok, I've been saving this one, because the people in Thailand don't look much like LP at all. But now that I'm in Laos... all bets are off.

Just kidding, LP. I promise, no more jokes about your sister until I get home. Maybe.

down by the river

"Now from what I hear, you're using your paper not for writing but for rollin' doobies! You're gonna be doing alot of doobie rolling when you're living in a van down by the river!"

[Leor this ones for you]: Crane your neck a little to watch the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JRpd9mYzgA

Well, Laos style, its a little different. Theres plenty of doobie rolling, but you do it drinking at a bar down by the river, where they have these platforms with swings and ziplines and tarzan style ropes where you can go kamikazi-ing into the river.

Thats all for now. I'm kinda beat. To be continued!

chang mai ------> jeep trek

Mmmmm.... Cobra Whisky

After the Full Moon, I staggered my way up from the islands, taking a brief shopping break in Bangkok with some new friends to prepare for the mosquitos and the cold in the north of Thailand. I randomly saw Yair again right before he bounced back to Israel and then hopped on a quick little 12 hour bus trip to Chang Mai, an ancient walled city surrounded by a moat in the north of Thailand which serves as their unofficial second capitol. Its definitely a LOT nicer than Bangkok -- no fumes, not as dirty, not as busy and a lot cheaper.

On the bus ride up I ran into Shilo and Maly, an Israeli couple that I had met at Shabbat dinner in Ko Phan gan. We ended ransacking the ridiculous night market, which is unfortunate for me because like a dummy, I packed too much stuff and now I'm lugging around a full backpack and a duffel wherever I go. The Jew Crew will know the sight of overloaded Amess well.

Unfortunately, I switched memory cards, so I don't have any pictures from Chang Mai itself -- just from the jeep tour at the end -- which is unfortunate, because I have pictures of some ridiculous temples, a video of a buddhist ceremony and a video of a monk blessing me.

What I DO have (and this is getting ahead of myself a little bit, but what can you do) is a pretty tight video of me offroading through a river crossing and starting an offroad trail http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWtQ_oagF2c -- I actually had meant to upload a different one, which actually showed the offroading and the ridiculous hills and rocks and whatever that we tore through, but I goofed... and anyways, beggars can't be choosers. The dude sitting next to me in the front seat is Menachem -- he owns a dive school in Eilat, real chill guy and an ANIMAL on the offroads -- no respect or regard for any object in his way. Awesome. The girl making scary faces is Maly, and the Academy Award nominated cameraman is none other than Shilo himself.

I also took a class in Thai style cooking --- we made 6 different dishes in one day, and you know me: I ate every single one of them, to the last drop. Mmmm. Sticky rice with Mango, Sweet and Sour Vegetables, Curry Chicken, Coconut Milk Soup, Chicken with Cashew nuts... some other stuff, I can't even think right now, its making me too hungry.

I spent Shabbat evening at the Chabad center -- theres nothing nicer than chilling with 300+ Jews in the middle of nowhere (Jewishly speaking) and then went out on the jeep trek with Maly and Shilo. The first day was siiiiiick -- first we went to a snake show, where this dude (who clearly was born without a self-preservation instinct, and was missing two fingers to prove it) spent a good hour teasing, prodding, wrestling and, truth being stranger than fiction, kissing snakes ranging from cobras to pythons to watersnakes.

Serious chokehold-- he's got my neck, I've got his head. I asked for a truce, we called it a draw and then I made him into a belt. Seriously.

Then we hustled off to an elephant show where elephants showed off their dance moves, painting abilities, basketball/soccer abilities and other talents, all pretty impressive. I didn't enjoy this as much as the snake show, but only because while I have no sympathy for snakes, I love elephants, and while they seemed well-treated, it seemed a little sad that they had to perform tricks for us. A ridiculous offroad session ended the first day quite nicely.

The second day started with some river rafting (we "won" starting last but finishing first) we checked out some indigenous tribespeople and then went to a monkey temple.


My Ruthie Substitute -- a member of the long necked Karen tribe. No, I don't know if they give neck or whatever they call it. I didn't ask.


Greedy monkey

I mean, not that theres really any other kind, but this monkey was one of the greediest. Hence, my one of my favorites. But not THE favorite. Not fat enough. The monkeys at this Wat (Buddhist temple) were some of the fattest and greediest on this side of the Atlantic. They would circle around behind you and try to steal shit out of your pockets (food or anything else they could greedy) and they'd beat and smack each other around to get at food. Needless to say, I approved.

Unfortunately, the monkeys got overgreedy and bit this girl (on her birthday, which stank) so we just chilled while she went to the hospital and the second day wasn't as exciting as the first. That night though, after checking out the night market...


Rastaman Vibrations in Chang Rai

we met this guy and his crew as we were randomly strolling through the city at night. Him and his crew were drinking and playing Thai reggae music, which is not half bad. One thing led to another and we ended up chilling with them at their local bar -- Rasta Bar. Go figure. I mean really, what are the chances?

The last day was relaxed and chill -- we started out at some waterfalls before driving to the Golden Triangle juncture of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

Giant gold Buddha at the Golden Triangle

We checked out a Laos village (its pronounced without the "s" by the way) before cruising down the Mekong river and finally heading home/


Sunset over the Mekong River, looking at Thailand from Laos

Valentines Day

Old picture, same idea. Happy Vday baby. I love you.

errata

So I went back and added some pictures, posted some, um, posts that I had been lazy about and cleaned up some confusion... so its worth it, if you're bored at work to go back and see if theres anything you missed. See below "Fire Starter." Full Moon and Chang Mai posts coming soon

can i hit it in the morning without giving you half of my dough....

Short answer: No. You can't. But for 1000 or so baht, it won't cost you half your dough. Only about 27 bucks.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. "I'd hit that."

On the other hand, it'll cost you your dignity. That chica bonita up there? Yeah. She's a ladyboy. Check out the shoulders. And her soldier. I saw some dude take him/her home. Did he know? Who knows. The moral of this story? Um...

full moon

So I don't know if you've heard about the Full Moon party but its, for lack of a better word, a balagan. For about, say, two weeks before, people warm up. That is, they practice getting retarded in anticipation of the real thing.

You have crazy animals running around, downing buckets that are filled with a pint of alcohol (from cheap thai rum, Sangsom all the way up to the classier liquors) and dancing and raving like madmen. You have people wasted on the beach, dancing, like this fool. Notice the time of day. This is 11am in the morning. Even the bucket people have bounced. But theres still music, and though theres barely anyone to dance with, my man is still going strong.



I wish I had taken a video of him. Anyways, like I mentioned (or maybe not), Ko Phan gan is like Israel away from Israel. The beach below, called Coco Hut is like a haven for Israelis. The next two pictures are of my Israeli crew -- I met Chen (below) and Shani (striped bathing suit) on Ko Phi Phi. We were all chillin at this place called Hippie Bar -- nice and they were sitting behind me. I turned around and said in Hebrew, "For sure you're Israeli" (at that point, still a novelty to me). I spent the night practicing my Hebrew (who would have thought I'd get more practice here than in Israel? Weird.), met their crew and went our separate ways. Imagine my surprise when we ended up randomly meeting on Ko Phan Gan. Basically we'd spend our days chillin on the beach, playing backgammon (SHESH BESH!), learning to play Taka (I think that's what its called) and just lounging and trying (in my case mostly unsuccessfully) to get tan.


Chen


From left to right: Shani, ? , Casper the friendly Ghost, Tal and Asaf.

I'm passing out right now, but since I'm going on a three/four day jungle trek tomorrow, I wanted to give you all something to look at. Enjoy, text to follow in a couple of days.


Gus, Kirk, Sven

I met Kirk on the boat from Ko Tao to Ko phan gan. There we were, squeezed in sardine-style, legs dangling off the sides of the boat -- we were either going to love or hate each other. Luckily, it worked out nicely. I met Gus and Sven through Kirk -- real chill Swedish guys that he had chilled with in Cambodia. Needless to say, buckets + beer + beach = silliness.


Random half-naked Swedish Hotties

So one night leading up to the full moon, I run across these girls dancing, skirts barely covering barely there thongs. So obviously, in the interests of accurately recording the matters of acute historical significance... yeah, I took a picture. Sorry boys, didnt manage to capture any of the (lack of) thong. My bad.



Full Moon pregame/crew. From left to right: Me, ?, Charlotta (Charlotte in Swedish), Booki, Hajdin, Tina, Mattias, Tina, Mike, Tobias

Though I was staying in a ridiculous bungalow overlooking the water, it was a little far away from all the action, and I definitely wasn't loving the whole motorbiking to party and then walking back at night and then struggling to find the bike the next day thing. So I went to snag a room at Kirk, Gus and Sven's place, only to find that they had just filled up. At the same time, hajdin and Lars (pronounced Losh) rolled through. We ended up following this woman to the same spot, snagged two of the last bungalows and started a reign of terror.


Full Moon Munchies: Mike, Heiden, Myself, Tobias

So fuck what anyone says -- the highlight of ko phan gan is not the full moon, not the daily parties, not the shroom shakes -- its Mama Schnitzel's homecooked goodness. Fried to artery-clogging goodness in front of your eyes, this 50 baht snack is worth the price of airfare alone. Especially if perchance, for some reason or another, you have the munchies.