I know I've been promising to make a huge post about my travels. I wanted to really do it justice, to take the time to get my photos together and really write about my experience. I just returned to Israel a week ago (just in time for Independence Day--Happy 60th Birthday Israel!).
As for what's going on these days, I'm moving to a new apartment in 2 days, shopping for apartment type things, searching for a car, starting a job as a real estate agent in a little over a week, and enjoying the amazing Spring here in Jerusalem.
warning.....very picture heavy journal!
OK. Here goes. Our trip started with a direct flight to NYC ,where we spent a few days in the area with good friends and family.
After NYC, we took a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, followed by a 2 hour flight to Bangkok!
We were only in Bangkok for a couple of days (we also saved some time at the end to buy souvenirs and all that good stuff. After leaving Bangkok we took a stuffy night train (15 or so hours) to the north! While in the north we spent around a week in Chiang Mai and another few days in Pai, which was in my top 2 places we visited during the trip. Anyone who goes to Thailand MUST go to Pai, it's a quaint little town with not much to do but eat amazing food and visit all kinds of cute little shops, but motorbikes are for rent for really cheap and there are lots of things to explore around Pai, hot springs, canyons, Temples, etc. There is also a big night market with fire dancers, street vendors, and all kinds of interesting things to eat and shop around for. Pai was also the place where we had the best banana lassi of the trip.
While in Chiang Mai we also volunteered at the Elepant Nature Park, an elephant rescue center which houses i think around 40 elephants who have been rescued from logging or tourist camps. The experience was really amazing, we went through some training sessions and were taught how to feed and bathe the elephants, then we got to put our training to work and got to interact with some seriously beautiful and amazing creatures. This was also a trip highlight, and i really recommend it. The wild elephant population in Thailand has dropped by around 90% due to logging and tourist camps. The elephants in Thailand are on the brink of extinction. It felt really good to be a part of this project. Elephants in Thailand that are used for work or for tourist camps are, under law, given the same protection that cows and chickens are. They have no protection as endangered species if they are used for work purposes. Elephants are such incredible, intelligent creatures, and it was upsetting to see how so many are treated in Thailand (babies taken on the streets for tourists to pay money to take pictures with them)... these practices are traumatizing to these elephants. The woman who runs this rescue center is doing something truly amazing, she's been featured on all kinds of TV programs and in magazines, check out the website and make a donation! You can also adopt or sponsor an elephant!
ok, i'll step down from my soapbox now. enjoy the pictures from the north...
After our time in the north we went south to start our island hopping adventure. Public transportation in Thailand is incredibly inefficient, time consuming, and complicated... we had to take a mini bus back to Chiang Mai from Pai (4 hours to the airport). We then flew to Bangkok, took a taxi to the train station from the airport after figuring out that the bus wouldn't get us there in time, then took an overnight train from Bangkok to Chumporn (yes, it's a city called Chump Porn), arrived at 5am, had to take a taxi (which was a pickup truck with no identification) to the pier, followed by a ferry to Koh Tao, our first island. PHEW, yes? We were so ready to pass out when we got to Koh Tao that we paid for a night in the first guest house we found and passed the fuck out. Koh Tao was chock full of beautiful beaches, sunshine, downpours, scuba diving, fire shows by the water, and a chilled out, very relaxed atmosphere.
After Koh Tao we moved south to the other two main islands that are on the east coast of Thailand, Koh Panghan and Koh Samui. Koh Panghan is home to the infamous full moon party, but we decided to go when there wouldn't be one. Neither one of us are big fans of blatant drunkenness and the irresponsible behavior that goes along with it, or drugs, or theft, or any of the things that go hand in hand with the full moon party. The island was cute and had a beautiful beach, the accommodations were fine after we did some searching (the searching is always necessary to find the best place -- i highly recommend searching as opposed to booking everything in advance! most of the great and cheap places aren't on the internet and don't take advanced reservations, small side note).
Koh Samui, on the other hand, i didn't enjoy all too much. McDonalds and Starbucks on every corner, prostitutes EVERYWHERE...it was like canal street on the beach. Koh Samui is actually what convinced us to not visit Phuket, probably the most famous island in Thailand, because it's reputation is worse than Koh Samui. While in Koh Samui we kept busy, however. We did end up finding some incredible accommodations, which were a bit pricey but gorgeous. We also took in an Elvis impersonator. in Thailand, yes. We attended a very high class lady boy cabaret show, got sun burned at least twice, and had to stay in for a couple of days because of rain. Picture time!
After Koh Samui we had another fun filled day of many variations of public transportation, and landed at Khao Sok National Park. We stayed there on floating rafthouses, made of bamboo, right in the middle of a massive (i really mean massive) man made lake. We hired a private guide for the two days we were there, who took us exploring with our own long tail boat and driver, to search for wildlife on some of the little islands jutting out of the lake (there are lots of species of monkeys and birds in these areas). We also went on a jungle walk and explored a cave. This place takes the cake for absolutely most beautiful place i've ever been to in my life. The pictures don't do it any type of justice. Our accommodations were basically a mattress on a bamboo floor and a mosquito net, with shared bathrooms. We could jump right off of our porch into the lake though, which was awesome! The lake underneath our accommodations was 80 meters deep.
Khao Sok was definitely complicated to get to and a bit pricey for the guide, but i HIGHLY recommend it to anyone going to Thailand. It's breathtakingly beautiful and interesting, if you hire someone who can tell you about the history of the area, why the lake was made, what species of flora and fauna call it home, etc.
After Khao Sok we headed to the western islands of Thailand, and stopped in Krabi before moving on to the islands. Krabi was alright until we did some on foot exploring and found an amazing private beach. We also found monkeys! They were macaques, very adorable, and very friendly. Pictures below. Krabi got a lot better when we took a long tail boat to the tip, Railay Beach, a postcard-esque tiny little beach filled with beauty in every little corner. our accommodations were interesting, we had monkeys climbing all over the roof and on our porch in the early morning, but it was all good. railay beach is in general one of the most expensive areas to go to in Thailand, but we stayed at Ya Ya Beach Resort, which is the only budget accommodation in the area. A LOT of day trippers come to Railay (to Phra Nang beach, which is the most beautiful), so early morning and late afternoon are the best times of day. We spent every single day here at the beach, on the sand, swimming, playing frisbee, eating corn, and napping.
After Krabi and Railay Beach we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi, most well known for being in the direct path of the Tsunami. Koh Phi Phi was hit harder than any other area, and walking around the island it's damage and destruction is still very much present and acknowledged. It was hard to see how much work still has to be done and how much was destroyed, but the island was packed, which made us happy to see so many tourists coming and spending money and aiding in the development of this beautiful place. A lot of people get a bad taste in their mouth when traveling to Koh Phi Phi because of how utterly crowded it is (the most popular place to stay is a small strip of land holding the two main parts of the island together -- most of the rest of the island is uninhabitable because of the terrain). We opted to stay a little far out from the mainland -- about a half an hour hike or a 10 minute boat ride, to try to escape from the crowds. Where we stayed (about ten million stairs climbing up to the top of one side of the island), gave us access to three beaches within walking distance, two of which were nearly empty, one of which had the most amazing snorkeling we've ever done. Our cabin was wonderful, we went on some beautiful walks, hiked to the viewpoint, saw an amazing sunset, watched lots of movies at our guesthouse, and took a snorkeling and sightseeing day trip to see true, awe inspiring beauty. Koh Phi Phi, of course, is also famous for where The Beach (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) was filmed. This one one of the places visited on our day trip. We hired a long tail boat and driver to take us to the surrounding tiny islands which do not provide accommodations but are home to millions and millions of fish and sea creatures who are more than happy to allow you to visit and swim around their habitats. The day trip at Koh Phi Phi was one of the best days of the entire trip. We went snorkeling completely SURROUNDED by all kinds of fish, butterfly fish, tiger fish, angel fish, many who's names i do not know... We saw bright blue coral, orange coral, sea urchins, blow fish. For anyone who enjoys snorkeling or scuba diving, this place is indeed heaven. The water is the definition of turquoise. We actually didn't like the tiger fish too much, who are indeed plentiful but bite! Angel fish are my favorite, so I was in heaven. I wish we had brought an underwater camera! Please enjoy our Koh Phi Phi pictures .....
After we left Koh Phi Phi we headed to our final destination, Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta was something we added on, we didn't plan on going there but after hearing some suggestions and reading a bit, we decided it would be a nice place to visit. Koh Lanta was definitely much less crowded, less spread out and cheaper than any other island we visited. We found some good accommodation after searching, and laid out by the pool for about a week..... we also rented a motorbike one day and explored the island, going to the viewpoint and a couple of other secluded beaches. Koh Lanta definitely gets a thumbs up from us, we really enjoyed it and it's a nice place to go to get away from the touristy areas. We stayed pretty far south from the main beach, we took a motorbike into town and it was much of the same so we definitely recommend staying either on Long Beach or even further south than that, which is where the really cheap and nice accommodations are, the cute beach front restaurants and the beautiful viewpoints. Lanta was also where we saw the most amazing sunsets!
Alas, after Lanta, our time in Thailand was almost over. We returned to Bangkok after an overnight bus that dropped us off at around 5am (fun). We went back to Green House, our home away from home in Bangkok, rested, spent time buying souvenirs for the family, did a bit of shopping for ourselves, ate sushi, went to the mall, saw a REALLY bad japanese style horror movie (called Shutter or something? BAD), packed all of our stuff together and headed to the airport for another 16 hour flight back to New York. By the end of the trip, we were fucking tan.
After arriving back to the good ol' USA we completed a 3 week whirlwind tour of the east coast and midwest. We road tripped from Connecticut to Indiana to St. Louis and back again, took the Chinatown Bus to D.C. to visit my brother (who's at Georgetown) and to sightsee, spent some time in NYC with friends and of course some more sightseeing, and then back to Connecticut to spend more family time. Our US tour included a family Passover Seder, seeing all of my loved ones from school in Indiana, visiting my cousins and their newborn, visiting family in St. Louis and seeing the arch, a Cardinals game, and the zoo, bowling, seeing all of the sights that the mall in D.C. has to offer, Smithsonian Museums galore, the house where The Exorcist was filmed, Georgetown (the most beautiful neighborhood there is, in my opinion), The Empire State Building, Central Park, more Soho and more cafe habana, and good times with good friends. Enjoy the photos!
For those of you who don't know, I went to school in Bloomington, IN, so we were there for the majority of the time spent in the US. I still have a lot of friends in the area who are either still studying or have settled down there. Bloomington is such an amazing place with such incredible and talented people, I loved going back and showing my man around. We also went to Nashville, IN, which i ADORE, and I got tattooed (by the ever so talented Colin McClain), which I unfortunately don't have photographic evidence of yet. The first photos are from Bloomington, move on to St. Louis, D.C., and finally New York, where we ended our adventure.
That took me entirely too long to post.
As I said before, in terms of the news lately, I'm starting this new job and doing some major apartment shopping. I'm also continuing to work on my Pinups for Soldiers project, we are going to have some new banners and ads soon so you can all be awesome and add them to your myspace pages and SG pages. Please spread the word to friends and family that we at suicidegirls send care packages full of merch, photos and letters to soldiers currently stationed overseas with an APO address.
For those of you who have any experience or advice for my upcoming real estate adventures, please post below! I hope everyone has a great weekend!
I appreciate the little blurb you had about elephants. They are so intelligent and it's just upsetting the way they are treated.