So I arrived in Tel Aviv after a long ass flight from Bangkok to somewhere in the middle east for fuel to Amman, and then on to tel aviv. jack and I hit the streets hard - we stopped in and met his aunt, uncle and cousins before hitting up the local market (surprise, surprise). We went back to his family's place in Bet-Yam for dinner.
The next day we loaded up the car and headed to Jerusalem to see the old city and all that jazz. we got in late and met up with our CS host, Adi, and hung out with her and her friends "singing" old Zionist Hebrew songs - hahaha - crazy. The next morning we headed into the old city. We were meeting some other surfers in the city. Despite the relatively crappy weather (rainy and cold) it was still amazing.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The North
Sorry for kind of disappearing off the map for a little while, internet connectivity isn't exactly abundant in the Northern part of the country. I'm actually in Tel Aviv right now, but I'll use this post to catch you up on the lat week or so.
Basically we arrived in Chiang Mai on the 5th I think. We rented our bikes and got ready to hit the road early the following morning. We went to the night market in Chiang Mai which was absolutely crazy - so many stands hawking food and handicrafts. There is even an inside portion that is kind of like a mall for local craftsmen - very cool. Everyone picked up a few gifts for home and themselves before heading back to the guesthouse.
Here is our trip in its entirety, we easily did more than 1000K with all the stops and loops we did that I didn't do on the map. enjoy
LINK
Basically we arrived in Chiang Mai on the 5th I think. We rented our bikes and got ready to hit the road early the following morning. We went to the night market in Chiang Mai which was absolutely crazy - so many stands hawking food and handicrafts. There is even an inside portion that is kind of like a mall for local craftsmen - very cool. Everyone picked up a few gifts for home and themselves before heading back to the guesthouse.
Here is our trip in its entirety, we easily did more than 1000K with all the stops and loops we did that I didn't do on the map. enjoy
LINK
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Give me your tears gypsie or else I will TAKE them
well well well, an interesting couple days indeed. I don't know when my last update was, but our plans nearly changed drastically overnight. My birthday was bangarang - the day was quite relaxing, we went to the German place for dinner and had some "frownies" (thats how the waiter pronounced brownies)
we went to this bar right down the street, so we could stumble home if need be. Meet these two German divers, phil and mike and pal'ed around with them for the night. They showed us to this awesome awesome bar. we can only reach it from the beach and we had to pass all these cool bars on the way, then you see this dimly lit walkway over the water. Then you get to a bar that is closed and you have to feel your way through the unlit building. as you continue around the walkway you get to a beach and there it is. its a really chill atmosphere with beanbag type seats on the beach, its pretty inexpensive and its a not a crowd of "tourists" but more travelers and locals really.
anyway - Nate got here on the first and immediately decided that Koh Tao was too populated, so we temporarily ditched our plans to go north and concentrated on getting into Myanmar (Burma). There is this group of 800 island called the mergui archipelago that is completely uninhabited except for sea Gypsies - yes i said sea Gypsies. OK so once we get over the fact that the US doesn't exactly have an outstanding relationship with Myanmar and the fact that we are completely unprepared equipment wise to spend a couple days on a REALLY deserted island. we were for the most part completely on board. unfortunately after spending some time online we found that getting into Myanmar isn't really the problem, getting a bus or train from Rangoon down south isn't hard, but getting onto the islands is the real issue - you have to have some random permit or something. Anyway this kind of killed our dream. I must say, for a bit I was legitimately worried about this adventure, but it felt so good to actually be that afraid of something.
Luckily we are still able to get to Cheng Mai and do some trekking.
We met with these two Canadian chicks (Marta and Kashka) who are teaching english in South Korea and are on holiday now. Nate actually went with them to Koh Phan Nagn for the Half Moon Party - Jack and I opted out and went back to Koh Samui were we will all (hopefully) catch our flight in the morning to bangkok than on to cheng mai.
100% random - here are some pics I found online of our place in Koh Tao - first is the view from our restaurant, the second is the view from the beach looking towards our place and the last is a good shot of the whole bay
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6207032
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1442644
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2009424
nexttime I check in ill no longer be in the islands :(
but I am wicked excited to go treking in the north, maybe take a cooking class, who knows!
we went to this bar right down the street, so we could stumble home if need be. Meet these two German divers, phil and mike and pal'ed around with them for the night. They showed us to this awesome awesome bar. we can only reach it from the beach and we had to pass all these cool bars on the way, then you see this dimly lit walkway over the water. Then you get to a bar that is closed and you have to feel your way through the unlit building. as you continue around the walkway you get to a beach and there it is. its a really chill atmosphere with beanbag type seats on the beach, its pretty inexpensive and its a not a crowd of "tourists" but more travelers and locals really.
anyway - Nate got here on the first and immediately decided that Koh Tao was too populated, so we temporarily ditched our plans to go north and concentrated on getting into Myanmar (Burma). There is this group of 800 island called the mergui archipelago that is completely uninhabited except for sea Gypsies - yes i said sea Gypsies. OK so once we get over the fact that the US doesn't exactly have an outstanding relationship with Myanmar and the fact that we are completely unprepared equipment wise to spend a couple days on a REALLY deserted island. we were for the most part completely on board. unfortunately after spending some time online we found that getting into Myanmar isn't really the problem, getting a bus or train from Rangoon down south isn't hard, but getting onto the islands is the real issue - you have to have some random permit or something. Anyway this kind of killed our dream. I must say, for a bit I was legitimately worried about this adventure, but it felt so good to actually be that afraid of something.
Luckily we are still able to get to Cheng Mai and do some trekking.
We met with these two Canadian chicks (Marta and Kashka) who are teaching english in South Korea and are on holiday now. Nate actually went with them to Koh Phan Nagn for the Half Moon Party - Jack and I opted out and went back to Koh Samui were we will all (hopefully) catch our flight in the morning to bangkok than on to cheng mai.
100% random - here are some pics I found online of our place in Koh Tao - first is the view from our restaurant, the second is the view from the beach looking towards our place and the last is a good shot of the whole bay
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6207032
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1442644
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2009424
nexttime I check in ill no longer be in the islands :(
but I am wicked excited to go treking in the north, maybe take a cooking class, who knows!
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