Pai routine....

I was too lazy to write in the last couple of days. I am still in Pai, it is Me, Marina and Maxim stayed from the "old" team. Marina and Maxim stay in one place while I stay in another not far away from them. Maxim originally stayed with me but couple of days ago he moved to a different guest house (the one that Marina stays in). This is his first apartment ever, as he calls it and it is so exiting! We now spend our days in visiting one another.
I stay in a beautiful bungalow by the river, you already saw the pictures of the place. It is a bit expensive for Thailand, but I need my luxuries. I started Yoga course four days ago, the first day is introductory, it means Yoga ALL day, and following it is 10:00-12:00 every morning. Imagine:
1) I AM DOING YOGA!
2) In the MORNINGS!!!!
Yes! I think the main reason I got into it is so I can stay in Pai for as long as possible and I will have a good excuse. And of course I was too guilty just do NOTHING the all day, so now I do Yoga in the mornings and do nothing the rest of the day. Don't get me wrong Yoga is good, that what they say at least :-), I mean I do not really into body exercise so it is very hard for me, every part in my body aches.
Doing nothing daily time table:
- Come back from Yoga, shower and a rifer
- Where should I have breakfast?
- Breakfast
- Chill out time
- Brain exercise time: reading
- Where should I have late lunch/ dinner
- Lunch / Dinner
- Chill out time
- Go out time, options:
1. Rege place for a smoke in a dark place with very stoned people around
2. Drink somewhere and then move on for party at Beep Pop
3. Get some munchies and just stay on the porch, more chill out time
4. Start going, meet people on your way and just end up somewhere
Max for example is sticking with Option 3 for the last couple of nights, and I like it myself as well.
Anyway those days will be over soon, eventually I will have to leave Pai, I have to renew my permission to stay in Thailand by 07/09 I think, it means to cross border, so I will have to move to Lao probably.

Today we had a busy day thought, after the Yoga class, me, Maxim, Ken (32, Japan) and Luis (36, New Zealand), had a breakfast together, then rented bicycles and went to see Ken's place. He is staying about 1KM from Pai in a village. You will not believe this place, I won't even try to describe it. Let say Ken lives in Pai the last four months and not planning to leave soon. We rested (again) in Ken's place, you can just stay there forever, on the hammock in the living room which has no doors, nor windows, only a roof to protect from rain. So instead of pictures on the walls, you are surrounded by green mountains, blue sky and beautifully shaped clouds.
We got back around 17:00, as I arrived Marina came to draw me (I don't know whether I already told you, Marina is an artists, she is school art teachers and she is a painter). We set on my porch had a beer, Marina sketched me and we had a nice conversation. Following we picked up Maxim and went for a dinner. Now I am using the time to catch up with you guys, and might hit to the Beep Pop later tonight.

You know I always believed that I cannot live like this, nowhere to be, nothing to do. I know now that I can indeed. This is the real freedom! I love it!

Be well!

Ugly Israelis!

I read an article two years ago in Mumbai, it called "Ugly Indians" or something like this. IT was a self humorist article about the bad manners the local people have, for example even the richest people in India still cannot adopt the habit of not throwing garbage on the streets.
Anyway when we talk about bad manners, here in Thailand we definitely take the prize for being the ugliest travelers. Our reputation is ahead of us, and unfortunately my personal experiences till now also prove it. WE ARE THE WORST!

The Israeli man is for SURE an ultimate dream of every woman, definitely an European one. And the woman maybe still doesn't know it, but she really want!
Marina and Katy (two nice & blond English ladies), got back from a waterfall one of the days and shared a non pleasant experience they had with some Israeli guys. Marina, was really surprised in the fact that they just approached them in very rood manner suggested the girls to join them on a bike. "Alo, Buba" style (for those who understand). Anyway later on that day, me and Marina went to Beep Bop, and on our way back a guy bypassed us on the bike "It's him" - said Marina, and unfortunately the guy recognized her as well. He actually did a u-turn, and approached us "A, it's you!" - he said to Marina, (this time I was there, it was "Alo buba" style). Before he continued I kindly, in a very NOT polite Hebrew asked him to FUCK OFF. This is the first time since I started my trip I felt the bad vibe and actually got angry.
Of course, Marina already familiar with all the different sounds an Israeli man does to pick up a girl.
YES! THE REAL MAN! I was joking with Marina, suggested to hock her up with Israeli guy: "Never try, never know!" - I said. She, politely as a real English girl preferred not to know!

The Israeli traveller is also the best guest house neighbor! There is kind of agreement between travellers, they always smile to each other and usually exchange warm greetings (good morning, etc'), defiantly your guest house neighbors This friendly atmosphere is one of the best things when you travel. Well, having all this said, this rule doesn't apply the Israeli travellers. Marina was complaining about the fact that here neighbors never smile, no "hello", no "goodbyes"... I know, mine as well, I said. And I said Hello in Hebrew and never got a reply.

And of course, in the Yoga class, every time the teacher has something to say about Israelis: "You people usually are very loud, you know?", etc'...
And nobody can bit us when it comes to bargain, sometimes in a very aggressive way!

No doubt, we are the WORST!

I always believed that since the population that goes to Thailand is relatively young and open minded I will see a different type of Israelis, BUT NO. We stay the same, always and everywhere. We have our own rules and we do not care about manners.

This was my rage wave from Pai, it really makes me mad!

Be well!

Danger in Pai!

Alice,Graham and Ahmed left today in the morning. Maxim & me walk up quiet early to say goodbye to our new friends. It was very sad moment, we spent almost two weeks together, and it was wild two weeks. Anyway each goes to his direction, and in this point I am gladly staying in Pai!




This is an amazing village, I already wrote it before, but this requires more elaboration. You see, it is the most peaceful and easygoing place I have ever been in, surrounded by green mountains all around and river crossing in the middle. Streets are full with people, mostly tourists; small shops, bars and restaurants, and of course munches (street food) stops in every corner (tasty food! Ooooooo, I discovered Banana Roti with chocolate, I am addicted to this one!).
Yesterday, Mark (a new friend I meet through Alice & Graham, here in Pai, English gentlemen) talked with some guy in a restaurant, and the man was telling his story: “Pai is a dangerous place!” he said. “I got here for three, four days, FOUR years ago!” This sentence indeed is the best to describe Pai. Pai is outside of the time dimension, you will not find a lot of people who will know the day of the week, or the date, or the time.
You can spend days, doing nothing, just wonder the streets, meet and talk to different people, run into very nice place. Yesterday we found a great coffee shop; it is one of the most famous in Thailand. It is an art gallery and a coffee place; they have the BEST coffee and a French toast to die for. Really cool place, you can just sit there forever.
Anyway my routine in Pai looks very good, some days, like today, I do a lot of nothing. Just roam around, or just sit on the porch, listening to music with Maxim, or just read. In the evenings, we usually go out, there is a cool reggae place parties all the days. There is also the Beep pop, happing place with live music, we went there yesterday night to celebrate Graham’s and Alice departure. And if this is not enough, yesterday, before going out, we decided that it would be cool to see a movie, all together. So around 07:00 PM, we went to Cinema Paradiso, place in which you can have private watching room, on comfortable sofa, big screen and good acoustic. So the five of us, Graham, Alice, Mark, Maxim, & me took some beers and opened the evening with a great comedy (of course I cannot remember the name L).

There are other days, adventure days, sites seeing days. Like last Tuesday, for example. On Monday evening we talked about renting motorbikes and go for a ride around Pai to enjoy the wild ride in the mountains and see great views. Mark suggested going to Moe Hong Song, 107 KM from Pai. Maxim & me of course said YES. We agreed to meet up, Tuesday morning, at 10:00, all ready to go. At 09:30 AM, Marked had to wake us up. Eventually by around 11:00, the three of us (brave hearts) started our way to Moe Hong Song, we were sure that 107 KM, is about one hour drive, so we just drive, roam around and come back till the evening.
Well NO, NO, NO! How long do you think it took us? Around four hours! It is a crazy road, Bundy jump looked like a piece of cake now. O, MY BUDHA, in some point I really couldn’t even look down.


Maxim WAS GREAT! He is the best driver. In some point we were actually drive so high in the mountain, that we were inside a cloud. Imagine yourself, it’s raining, you are up in the mountain and you cannot see a thing. THIS WAS REALLY SCARRING!!!
BUT of course as always, WE DID IT! We stopped several times on our way, just to admire the landscape around, or to have a drink in some local village on the road. It was really THE BEST!


The only problem was that we got to Moe Hong Song around 04:00 PM, and we understood that we couldn’t go back to Pai this evening. It will be TOO CRAZY! We checked in to a guesthouse for one night, sent an email to the rest of the team back in Pai (Alice, Graham, Marina) and went to explorer the city.


Moe Hong Song is a nice, clean city, but there is really nothing to do in there for tourists. I think we were the only tourists in there. Anyway Maxim went to an early night in bed, and Mark & me, located in a nice Thai restaurant on the lake. Had some drinks, had dinner, and I mad some new Thai friends :-).



The next morning WASN’T much FUN at all! Mark walk us up at 06:00 AM, and suggested we will start moving. Maxim agreed, BUT I insisted that it is TOO early and it will be too cold to drive up in the mountains now. Well, who ever listen to a woman!
We started our way at around 06:30 am and I was completely frozen!!! I was angry, very, very cold, and really unhappy. I tried not to show it load, but I really could. By 09:00, we finally found a place that was open to have a hot cup of coffee or tea. IT WAS THE WORST COFFEE I ever had. We continued on our way, and finally found a shop in which we could buy some warm clothes. Now I was happy!!!

We stopped in the Lodge Cave on our way, and got back to Pai around 01:00 PM, all three very proud!



On our way back we realized that we might have missed Graham, Alice and Ahmed, they were suppose to be leaving on Wednesday. BUT just as we arrived to our guesthouse, I saw Alice & Graham it was a great joy. They decided to stay another night and take a flight back. Now I already wrote to you before about the kind of PARTY night we had yesterday!
And now they are gone! L L L But we stay, new people, new adventures are to come up. Or just some time each to his self (I mean me and Maxim). As I mentioned before these were wild couple of weeks, we partied a lot and most of the time were all together, now is a great time to relax, spend some time alone, do some reading, etc’.

Be well!
Check out for new pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/oksana-s/

O, Pai!

On Saturday (19, August 2006), after a very long night with no sleep at all, Me & Marina, checked out from Chang Mai Inn, and started our way to Pai. It is around 3.5, 4 hours north from Chang Mai, beautiful journey. I had Bob Marley on in my MP3 player and in a foggy stage (half sleep, half awake), listen to the music and stared out of the minibus window, afraid to miss even a small piece of the AMAZING landscape around.

Pai, unlike Chang Mai, is a small village on a river, surrounded by green mountains. Really beautiful, cozy and chilled out place. Maxim, Alice, Graham and Mark (new friend Alice meet on the bus) meet us on the minibus station and we went to find a place to stay. Eventually (after trying to find cheaper place) we (Me & Maxim) rented a bungalow by the river side in the same place where Alice, Graham, Marina and Mark are staying.

After settling down, we all went out for some drinks… The trek team is reunited again:


Yesterday, we rented bikes, and went to explorer Pai surroundings. Just check it out yourself.




And today we all are having a chill out day, day of doing nothing, each went to his own direction, some sleep, others read, I went for a walk, had a late breakfast, and now spent almost two hours on the internet (which is SO SLOW, to upload some more pictures).

That’s it for NOW! I am having the BEST TIME! People around are great, really nice atmosphere: LOVE, DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL!!!! :-)

Be Well!
And check out more pictures here <http://www.flickr.com/photos/oksana-s/>

One, Two, Three, BUNGY!

On Friday (18, August 2006), Maxim, Graham and Alice left to Pai. I heard about the opurtunity to do a Bungy jump not far away from Chang Mai and I decided that I cannot move untill it is done. I asked Koy (the guest house owner) on how I can get to the Bungy place and he kindly offered that one of his employees (Fu) will take me there on a motorbike.
We got to the Bungy place around 02:00 PM. The all way there Fu was asking me if I am not afraid, and of course I wasn’t :-). But when we got there and I saw it, my heartbeats went crazy!
It is a 50 meters high jump over a lake, I stood up on the edge looked around me, it all green mountains, beautiful lake down and I just got FROZEN. FEAR grabbed me in a really wrong time, Fu was screaming “come on”, the bungy guide started to count down “ONE, TWO, THREE, BUNGY! But I couldn’t, just stood up there and could let go of my hands. In some point I was sure I won’t do. The guide, counted again and I still could move. Then he advised me, to let go of my hands, and go on my own time. That’s what I did. Stood up in a bird position, and counted for myself, ONE….. AND JUST JUMPTED!!!!!!!! I DID IT!!!!


IT IS A CRAZY FEELING! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!!!
I got a bungy jumper certificate, a T shirt, and a film with photos of the jump; unfortunately it isn’t a digital one, so I will scan some later on.
I stayed really high for the rest of the day, like I have been on drugs.


From the Bungy jump I asked Fu if we could hang around in the surroundings, he kindly agreed and we drove to a near by waterfall.

In the evening of the same day, me & Marina (from the trek group, she stayed in Chang Mai as well), went for a nice diner and then to Spicy for a girls party (if you know what I mean). It was so funny, we got there and people actually recognized me, “Or, it’s you the crazy girl from couple of night ago…” it was really embarrassing. Anyway I danced non stop and the evening for me ended next morning… All I can say is “VIVA La Itali”!!!! :-)

14/15/16 August 2006 – Trek to the Doi Inthanon Mountain, Chang Mai province

Yesterday I came back from my first trek in Thailand! It was really great! For all of you who sit on the sofa, look at this, just get out there! It is wonderful world out! Breath taking nature, GREAT PEOPLE!

Meet Sun, the BEST guide ever!


Meet the trek team:
Sun – our guide, him you already know.
Fu – kind of guide assistant for the first day.
Mai - guide assistant for the second and a third day. My personal hero, when I thought I couldn’t hike anymore, he was the one to keep me going, in some point even carried my bag.
Me
Maxim
Marina (26) - England (we still hang on together, very bad of me to forget her the first time!!)Marina rocks!!!!!!
Alice (22) – England
Graham (25) – England
Ali (18) – England
Alex (18) – England
Tessa (18) – England
Ahmend – France
Armin (25) – Austria
Kim – Korea (spent with us only the first day & night)
Hee Young – Korea (spent with us only the first day & night)
Hara – Korea (spent with us only the first day & night)

Our trek lexicon (most commonly used phrases):
Thai- English Sleng:
- Same, same, but different
- Small, small, but spicy
- Never try, never know
- Oh, My Budha!
- Lovely, Jobly!
- I don’t drink everyday, but every night.
- Jungle man
- No joke > no fun, no fun > no baby, no baby > no problem :-)
- Crazy Israeli woman – this one is for me invented by Graham, nice English gentleman who never farts (private joke :-)).
- Ola-la, Sebo! – This one brought by Ahmed, a French guy.

Day 1
We started our day with elephant trek, about 1.5 hours drive from Chang Mai. Had lunch and continued walking in the jungle toward our camp. It was nice and easy day, AMAZING views!


We reached the camp, had a nice cold shower.


Had a great dinner cooked by Sun and lots of beers of course!

Day 2
This was the toughest day! We did around 10 KM, half was hiking up a mountain. No taxi, no tuktut :-(. I really thought I won’t make it. I was the last one in the group, and with every step felt every cigarette I ever smoked. I really should quit smoking and start getting in shape. Dispite all I DID IT! When we finally reached the village I felt so good about myself, and was so happy it is over.


In the evening, Ali was playing a guitar; we did some singing, and told some dirty jokes, here is the winner (By Ahmed):
How many positions there are in sex? 68! 69 is for cleaning the tools! – This one told with French accent after several beers made me laugh non stop.

Day 3
Another about 10 Km walking, but it was much easier. Did a bamboo rafting for the perfect end! It was awesome!!! (That how England people say Sababa).


We got back to Chang Mai around 05:00 pm. On the way I was sure once we reach the guest house I will just go to sleep. BUT NO! We all had very quick showers, went down to have a drink. Eventually had 3 bottles of whisky in the guest house, then went to a Rege bar to have another drink and then to Spicy to do some buggy!!! It was a great night; I don’t really know where I had the straights from but I danced like crazy (crazy Israeli woman, a?).


It was one of the BEST experinces I had for long time!

To be continued...

Be well!

P.S I am still in Chang Mai, I think I stay here for some time...

First sense of Thailand

This is only my 4th day in Thailand and it feels like I been here for months! It is amazing the amount of the experiences one can have in one day.
I will try to shortly share some with you…

We have landed in Bangkok on Wednesday (09/08) at around 20:00 local time. Already on the plane we meet Hadas and Ido. Hadas (22) travels alone to the beaches for 3 weeks before she starts the studies. Ido (24) plans to go north for a short trek and move on to the beaches, also before he starts to study.
We all took a taxi together and asked to be taken to the Israeli connection in Kava Son in Bangkok. According to Hadas, this is a place which can guide us and help to get around and they have a guest house as well, we all agreed and went there. If I would travel alone, the chances I would get to a place like this were very small. First I read about the Kava Son, how it is a big dirty and messy place, second Israeli connection, necessarily means Israelis, which I usually try to avoid. Anyway it was a nice experience.
We got there, rented two rooms. We (Me & Hadas) like real GIRLS, decided to rent a room together, room with a shower and toilet inside, which was relatively expensive. The boys took a simple room with no bedroom in it.
We all went to have a dinner, in this NOT nice neighborhood, which looked like a market with horrible smells, crowded with Tourists. And for the perfect end I & Ido had a one hour foot massage, imagine, getting a foot massage at 01:00 AM after almost 24 hours of traveling, this was great!!! We continued to the guest house, feeling fresh and really happy, opened a bottle of Jack Daniels which me & Maxim bought in the Duty free and set there to drink a glass for happy vacation. It was really nice, we got drunk, talked, even played pool. In some point Hadas, Ido and Maxim retired, and I stayed in the Lobi, this time having conversation with Yakov and Golan, who just got in from some party they been. Eventually when the sun was already up, I went to sleep (I think it was around 06:30 or so).

We walk up the next morning Thursday (10/08), Hadas was already gone, she had a morning flight to the beaches and me, Ido and Maxim went to the Israeli connection bought a night ticket to Chang Mai. We had several hours to spend in Bangkok, Ido and Maxim decided to stay around, meet and talk to travelers, while I went for a walk around.
To shortly sum the day in Bangkok I would say, it’s hectic, smelly, and too western, I am really glad we are moving north.



We arrived in Chang Mai on Friday (11/08), at 06:30 am. Already in the bus I and Maxim decided that we will go for a NON Israeli guest house to have a different kind of experience, hear different stories.
We were dropped in Chang Mai Inn, a guest house full with people from Europe. Ido went for a three day trek, and we rented a room, took a shower, rented a motorbike and just went to roam around the city.
Chang Mai is nice, but again a CITY, with all what accompanied with this. There are several nice temples to see around, and most important nice nature treks to do around.
In the evening we went to Beit Habat. This was a really great experience, a lot of Jewish come to owner the Shabat, most are no religious, and they just come to be together, have Friday evening dinner like at home. Unfortunately for me in Beit Habad was the first time I actually attended in a real Shabat ceremony, and it was really great. We didn’t stay for the dinner, but we left the place very emotionally high. From there we continued to have a beer, in a very authentic place. There is a story behind how we got there, but I shouldn’t write it :-). After the beer we went back to the guest house and meet Alice and Graham from England and Wilfried from Germany, we stayed down talking over a beer and whisky (again I know :-)). It was a really very nice evening.


Today we finally had a good night sleep, walk up quiet late. We went outside of the city with the bike, to a mountain next to Chang Mai, Doi Suthep Mountain to see a temple.
Finally, NATURE!!!! And a breath taking one! Today was the first time I went WOW!
Really, it is so beautiful!
We came back from a beautiful day out, went down to the lobby, initially planned to go out, but it is 01:37 am now and we still in the Lobby communicating with other Tourist, having drinks (again). I mean Maxim does, and I am sitting on the computer. Some of the tourist went to sleep, then others come, Maxim is really drunk already I can see and hear him from where I sit and it is so funny.

Okay, that’s it, I will join them now.....



BE WELL!

Hit the road

Well, this is my last night in Israel. All my life is stored in boxes, and tomorrow I am hitting the roads! Me & my big bag...

Thailand, here I come!!!