trekking

first day:

• water hike
• lunch (rice and eggy stuff)
• walk over rice paddies, learn to count in thai (lung, saung, saam, si, haa, ho, jet, pad, cow, sip, sip-et) (yes, we count to eleven)
• hike straight up a mountain
• stop at tribal village
• eat large amounts of bananas
• eat dinner, play cards, sit by campfire
• eat second dinner
• sleep (but not really. i don't know how to express the miscomfort that we all suffered in the name of authenticity. we slept on wood mats in the freezing cold, with pigs sniffing us from underneath the floor and roosters crowing for just way too long, waking more sore, more tired, and feeling worse than when we went to sleep.)

second day:

• breakfast (take extra toast along to feed gnawing hunger)
• walked through bamboo forrest, jungle, banana trees, beautiful scenery...
• lunch in tribal village (top ramen? they eat top ramen here??? play more card games, watch small child play with a tire, play the ten bhat game--"what can you get with ten bhats?". i am very proud of this game as i thought of it all by myself. perhaps a list will appear later on of the ten bhat and 100 bhat items (yes, we expanded on the theme))
• walk to remote waterfall, sit and talk at waterfall, look at only hot guy we have seen in thailand dance around under waterfall, eat dinner next to waterfall, set up sleeping bags in cute little bungalows next to waterfall, drink tea with lots and lots of coffee creamer while playing cards next to waterfall, stargaze next to waterfall making up constellations and seeing shooting starts.
• go to bed.

day three

• walk some more
• raft down the river in a bamboo raft!!! (many catcalls from thai boys on holiday, break raft halfway down the river)
• ride elephants (really not as much fun as you think since they walk so excruciatingly slow)
• eat lunch and freezerburned ice cream
• return to society
• shower, get dolled up, put on make-up (!!!) (our showers work!!!!!)
• go to mexican resturaunt (really, thai was getting to us. funny, though, that we had to go all the way to thailand to get mexican food.)
• visit the night bazaar (not as cool as we thought it would be)

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trekking quotes:
"I could use some opium right now." (miriam after 8km hike)

"This is better than the planetarium!!" (rachelle upon seeing the night sky without a speck of electricity)

"This is the life . . . my head in adina's pachotch...and Linda's head in mine." (rachelle)

"One slight problem . . . it didn't go down." (rachelle after using the squat toilets)

"with the squat toilets, you really feel like you are accomplishing something." (miriam)

"wait, he can fold up the bus station and put it under his bed." (rachelle and adina still obsessed with the ridiculous (non) bus station they had seen 2 days before.)

"what do you think is for lunch, noodles and vegetables again...?" (group concensus)

"my armpit hair is rather long." (miriam)

"guys, we have running water here in this tribal village but not at our hotel." (adina, pointing out the sad but true fact that the remote village tribe that does not have electricity or cement had running water, yet our 200 bhat a night hotel did not.)

"well, i guess i'll go to bed with hunger pains . . . cry myself to sleep . . ." (rachelle to adina because they were both STARVING one hour after dinner.)

"rachelle, you're not going to eat your dinner? they went and plowed a feild just to make this for us." (adina, when offered a midnight snack by the hill tribe people)

"this is going to be expensive. god forbid, one bhat." (rachelle about our taxi ride)

"asian food, like rice and noodles, doesn't sit in you very long." (linda)

"after thai, you always have that 'hmmmm, i could keep going' feeling." (rachelle, explaining why the two of us are always hungry.)

"and damn, we look good." (adina, though we were only wearing jeans and clean shirts, but it was such a contrast to our nasty hiking clothes)

day four

despite getting pretty much nothing done, this was a very jampacked day. were greeted at the train station by someone from the house we were staying at. driven to the house (nice!!!) and got our room. found that though we had a room with a private bath and hot water showers, the water wasn't working. haha, the water wasn't working on the entire 3rd floor, where we were staying. the morning got off to a fantastic start when linda had eggs for breakfast and tried to open a bottle of ketchup and all of the contents exploded all over her!! we took pictures.

after we ate we decided to walk around the town and find a post office to mail our postcards and see about the bus schedule to chang rai, a city further north. we found this bus station that was so not a bus station. the lonely planet book called it a bus station but in reality it was a man sitting at a folding card table giving out tickets. the post office turned out to be closed. so that was a bust, but then we ran into the randomest person, this guy i know from UCSD named Edan who is studying in Tel Aviv for the year and is also in Thailand for break. we had no idea the other was in this country. seriously, what are the odds.

when we returned back, we had more shower issues. in that the shower did not work. black stuff came out of the pipes. so we got the manager type person, who went and fetched 4 other people, who all walked in unannounced into our bathroom. they stood there awhile fixing the shower (or so we thought) while we played cards. then they left without saying anything. so we sat there playing for another 20 minutes or so until we realized that they weren't coming back! it was especially weird b/c they had left the bathroom without saying anything to us, ie, your shower is not working.

the night got even better. we ended up showering in some other room on the first floor. got all dolled up to go out on the town when it started raining. not just raining, but POURING. almost monsooning. we pretended. so we played cards some more. funny how our shower was leaking buckets. we were starving but couldn't leave the house so we ate all the crap food that we had-- chocolate chip cookies, oreos, cheese crackers, bread and jelly, peanuts, oriental snack mix. finally the rain let up and we went and had pad thai (again) and used the internet. bytheway, thais lie all the time.

quote of the day: "no shower? oh! its a holiday today!!" (racha house keeper, where we were staying, on why NOTHING worked.)

"so we both don't have a shower but at least you have a trash can." (adina, upon seeing miriam and linda's room)

"it's not monsooning anymore. thats just your leaky shower and the fan." (miriam, pointing out the not-so obvious to rachelle and I.

day three

we got another early start today and had breakfast on the go (fruit smoothies, mango, cheese sandwiches that i found at a falafel stand. i just can't stay away, i guess. took a tuk-tuk to the Duset Throne Hall and Vanmek Teak Mansion. people watched there, saw the two exhibits (meuseumy like mansion and nice crafts), ate popsicles.

this place was so nice!! first of all, we were like the only white people there which was nice even though (and i am not exaggerating one bit) people were POINTING at us. one dad even whipped out his camera to take a picture of us with his son. it was really weird. but we just smiled back, b/c hey, we just also wanted to take pictures of their cute kids. The whole place was like this complex-- several huge beautiful buildings and all connected by vast lawns. kinda reminded me of grifiths park. food venders everywhere. all these thais do is eat. it was so peaceful, with thai loudspeaker in the background, kids walking and running around with their parents, families eating on the grass. it was really nice to get out of the city. i think we are going to really enjoy being in the north, out of bangkok. bangkok is cool, but it is too city-ish to vacation here for that long.

then we had our first meal in a resturaunt!!!!!!! sweet and sour vedgetables with tofu, rice, spicy stir fry noodles, not spicy stir fry vedgies, bottled water, fruit smoothies after. the whole thing only cost each of us 50Baht which is 5 shekels, $1.20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love this food=cheap thing. now we are just chilling about an hour until we have to leave to catch our train up north!!! we are going trekking the 2-5 days we are there, so you may not hear from me for a while.

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night train was actually quite fun. rachelle taught us Canadian Asshole (a card game) and we played that for an hour, talked, ate a whole bunch of stuff we found at the Thai grocery store ("tasty bean snacks!" and corn flavored yogurt).

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quote of the day: "you know that cereal, the golden hexagons?" (Adina, talking about Honeycombs)

"do you think she's going to bring us a bill?" (rachelle) "no, probably just a total." (miriam at the noodle shop)

day two

breakfast at the hotel. normal breakfast-- toast, eggs, etc. need some normal food to regulate all the greasy thai food we eat. we walked to the Grand Palace and did that for a few hours. there a a bazillion georgeous buidings, each decorated more intercately and with more colors than the next. it was really amazing the attention payed to detail and color. we took about 2 rolls of film each. then we walked to Wat Pho, which had about 700 Buddha images. they get old after a while. "this is a wat. a what? a wat. a what? a wat. oh!! a wat!!" walked around a fish market river area, saw all manner of dried saefood. bought postcards to send to y'all. eat leechis, some other little brown fruit, jacfruit (which tastes like ass), coconut-pistachio icecream (sooooooooooooo goooood).

took a tuk-tuk to Chinatown. walked through, tried to find the train station, got lost, found the station with the help of a nice Thai who works there, found the tourist info office, got train tickets and booked a 3 day trek up north.

this is the best part. we went home to deoderize, walked to the CHABAD HOUSE (!!!!!) and had dinner!!!! shabbat dinner at Chabad in Bangkok!!! the whole place was full of Israelis, we spoke some Hebrew with them but then decided that we were really sick of Israel and were anti-social for the rest of dinner. we just picked out the cute guys. also they served us half a meal, israeli style. salads, challah, soup. and then that was it. we were like....and...? then we went back to Koh San road, the backpacking-shopping street. i bought red drawstring half pants, a white flowy shirt, two tiny tank tops, and coconut milk.

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quote of the day: "When it hit the back of my throat, that was the first thing that came to mind." (Rachelle upon tasting coconut milk)

day one

omigosh, i can't believe that we are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DAY ZERO
we landed at the airport and after a long decision decided to take the easy airport shuttle directly to BANGLAMPHU disrict-- all the backpackers stay there. it is really sort of touristy, but in a good way, like there are a bazillion food carts and clothing stores and booths where you can buy ANYTHING. we met some nice aussie backpackpackers on the end of their trip here, and they showed up which places to go. after finding a nice (thailand nice) room with two doubles and a private bathroom and shower and air conditioning and a TV, all for 600 B-- that is 15 shekels-- $2.50 each!!!!!!! love the exchange rate. Then we went out walking and had our first PAD THAI (fried noodles and cabbagy stuff and egg). yum yum. oh yeah, that was 15 B (1.5 shekels=30 cents). jet lag and not really sleeping for 2 weeks didn't help so we crashed early at 9pm. NIIIIIICE.
quote of the day: "I wanted to straddle an elephant!!!" (Linda when she found out that you sit on seats on the elephant)

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DAY ONE
woke up at 10 am b/c still working off jet lag, plane trip, finals week, etc. had a nice greasy breakfast of banana chocolate crepes and pineapple. we bought it all right off the street. we walked to visit some Buddha shrine and met this Thai lady who told us where were good places to go in Thailand and how much it whould cost to get there by TUK-TUK. so we got ths guy to drive us around the city for a few hours-- we saw a couple WATs (templish things), a jewel shop, a fashion make-your-suit-here shop. the guy waited outside each place for us to take our pictures and only cost 40 B total (4 shekels, 1 dollar). Then we went to our first convenience store. fun fun. we went back to our place and waited for "Linda's friend" this travel agent guy who has some connection to her dad. but he didn't have very good deals for us. Then we walked over to some park on the river and watched high school cheerleaders, then took a boat along the river and the canals and saw a bunch of cool houses built on the river. very cool, they all look totally worn down but still neat.

WE WENT TO A THAI BOXING MATCH!!!!! What were we thinking. well, we wanted to feel like the locals. So we yelled really loudly once we got inside. and ate roasted beans. It was bizarre, sort of a mix of karate and boxing, where anything goes. there was music in the background, and then we noticed that it was live!!! a clarinet type thing, drums, and a clangy thing. it was fun to watch, even though we didn't really understand the sport, ie, how do you tell who wins? came back, went shopping at our little district again. I bought a cool pair of gray comfy pants with a dragon on them. after this, me and linda are going back to buy more and miriam and rachelle may hit the hay and go to sleep. oh!!! they have these roasted crickets-- 3 inchers-- and little worms that you can buy TO EAT. and miriam and i met the chabad rabbi walking down the street. when you see a man with peyas (forelocks) and a kippah wandering around thailand, you just know. we are going to the chabad house for dinner tomorrow!!! woo hooo!! free non-thai dinner. maybe will be chicken, potatoes, and salad. oh wait, they don't have lettuce here. only bok choi.

quote of the day: "It sounds like Middle Eastern music except for the 'ching-ching'" (Miriam at Thai boxing of the live music)

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other food we have eaten: pad thai (like crazy), banana pancakes, spring rolls, coconut icee, peanut cookies, coconut eggy taco things (don't ask), caramel covered rice cakes, rice.