Ko Samed

Through a friend I met in Vientiane I met two more Israelis, Shani and Inbal and headed to Ko Samed with them.  It is an Island 4 hours form Bangkok and many Thai tourists head there over new years.  It was very interesting!  At night the restaurants put out tables on the beach with beautiful lights... But this is a dangerous area!  There are many fireworkes and people don't seem to think about where they set them off!  It gets quite scary!

The freakiest firework experience was a group of Thai guys who had 1 meter long thin ones.  They would shoot out around 20 colorful flares each.  They decided to use them as laser guns!  What they didnt realize was that if they didnt hit their target the shot would keep going towards all the other people! It was frightening but hilarious!

After 2 nights Shani had to return to work and Inabl and I headed to the tip of the island to put up my tent for the very first time!  The tip is a peninsula and it was almost deserted...We paid about a dollar each per night to stay in paradise....

You could see sunrise and sunset form the same point!

Hammock time!

Tea time!

Goodbye sun!

There was snorkellig right where we were camping and we also walked up the road a few tiomes to some resorts for a change of pace and menu... The park had cheap food and it was tasty but it was the exact same rice and mixed vegetables at every meal!  Yet somehow it went down quite well each time!

Snorkelling was almost scary as the visibility was not greatbut there were still many big fish...so you would only see thewm when they were very close...the colors were great and I saw many things I had never seen before!

Bangkok yet again!

After not liking Bangkok so much the first time I was back.  I was also on a holy mission to get a tent.  On my way I passed a railroad crossing... The man with the flag waves down the carts and rolls the white barrier across the street....  And this is at a major thoroughfare...

I found my tent... and went to the weekend market with another Israli friend a a Canadian too.

The Sith are the lords of the dark side of the force.  If you didnt knwo this please take a moment and watch Star Wars, Episodes 1-6.

In the same market in a corner I came across this!

After one visit to the empirail palace which I felt was a waste of time I decided to return with a small group of friends.  This time I enjoyed it much more...  maybe it was the weather...

So on the way to the palace we met a guy who said it was Sunday and the  palace is closed until afternoon.  I got upset with him and told my freinds we should just go... eventually we did, but I got some looks for being rude.  At the corner of the palace it happened again with a stranger walking up to us being helpful and telling us the palace was closed cause its Sunday.  I was mad again and we left.  Two minutes later we arrived at the palace to find it closed...Just kidding it was open!  These people tell you with a straight face that it is closed and eventually will try to sell you some other tour under the guise of being helpfull. So my rudeness was vindicated!  I don't usuallythink it is ever good to be rude but when someone is obviously lying to your face and trying to take advantage of you it is hard to be too friendly. 

The next place we went was Wat Arun. I had been wanting to go since my first visit to Bangkok but every time it was feasible to go it was too late in the day and it was closed.  Its an old wat and on the side of the river...I found it very beautilful.

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Here is one example of some Bangkok archetecture...

We went to eat in a crazy foodcourt with aquariums in the center of the tables!

Freaky xmas deco!

Vang Vieng and Vientiane

Vang Vieng is spring break with no rules.  It is anarchy gone mad, it is another world.  It is a small town along a river with beautiful muontains.  As you walk through the town all you hear is family guy and friends playing at every bar and restaurant. Sometimes you can catch the simpsons or a movie.  The reason for this is that by the time people get to the restaurants they are smashed, high, drunk, tripping, pie eyed, messed up or coming down. 

The main attration of the town is floating down the river for a few hours in a tube.  The river is lined with bars.  Each bar has a giant slide or zipline to catapolt you into the water and they serve lots of drinks and shots and the famous bathtub made drink Lao lao.  This is along with 'happy pizza' that will make you see god and the devil or both and the same.  My first zipline... you hold a bar then let go over the river was fun until my feet hit the ground in the river... I didnt break any bones but I realized safety might be an issue hear, and as the river was running low at the time I didnt go for any more of the 'attractions'.   As you walk through town there are drunk and screaming tourists googlyeyed and unable to deal with the feeling that the laws of gravity seem to be on holiday too. What could be better than to plop down for 4 hours of family guy!  At the bars you can get the 'happy pizza' either green or fungus,  you can buy spliffs or go for the happy 'O' tea.  I didnt go for this but I did enjoy the fact that happy hour at the bars mean a spliff with every order.  So why was I here you might ask?  One reason is that Sam (remmeber Sam? form the last post) well he was there and we hgappened to be destined to run into each other everywhere...  As well there is stuning scenery and some good hiking...Aparently caves too but it was closed when I went.  Here is the way up this knob...  There was a sign saying this way to go up the ountain, I had thought it was a day hike, but it was only 15 minutes, but well worth it...

On top I founs this neat nest/hive that I watched for al ong time...so cool to see the wasps goingin and out, crawling all over each other...I pointed it out to some other peole and except for one man eveyone freaked out!

The view of Vang Vieng

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The mountains the river runs through...

This is the Knob

I headed next to Vinetiane the capital of Laos to get a Visa for Thailand...Here is my one picture of the city...  I was happy not to have to spend too much time there...  On the street the dy I arrived I once again bumped into Sam who was on his way to a nature reserve for a night....

My hotel had a strict policy w\hcih helped explain my sudden popularity...

It is not every night I walk home and have 5 or 6 beautiful girls (atleast they all looked like girls) try to pic me up... Then I realized they were more interested in my wallet than me... but i felt like a star for a while... It takes on night to get a visa which gave me a day to walk around some which I did with a girl I met at the Thai embassy.  We happened to be eating at the smae indian restaurant a 30 minute walk form the embassy so that was to large a coincidence not to talk about.    At night I was half spectating and half participating in a conversation about Israle between to very opposite ends of the spectrum.  On side was a right wing Israeli... and the other a left... while I am usually left sided they both had great arguments, many dates and facts and truly elieved with their hearts whatthey were saying.  It was very interesting... 

The next day I received my visa and headed to the night train to Bangkok....  Guess who was in my car??  Thats right, SAM!  The last Sam sighting was in the morning at the Bangkok train station but who knows...maybe he is right next door... and maybe he is looking over your shoulder..if he is say Hi for me!

Whe I crossed the border to thailand...you take a short train to the border, wlak across and get on the sleepr train to Bangkok, this army officer was taking pictures of the people coming through.  So I smiled and took out my camera and took a pic of him.  Luckily he smiled and thought it was funny... It is generally not good to joke at borders....

The night train was great, it is very comfy and I slept most of the way...It was also christmas eve and when I woke I found to my dismay that Santa had not found me!  (Last year I got a pair of socks)

Luang Prabang!

I arrived in Luang Prabang...yes that is the name of the city with nowhere to go...  It was night and time to find a bed...  While walking around someone called out a hello to me... I found this amusing as I knew no one there but it turned out to be a guy I met on the second boat ride.  He had just got into a room with two beds and was wondering if I wanted to split it.  Perfect...


First we went out on the town to eat... and ended up at a veggie buffet at a night market... you get to fill u p your plate as much as possible with food for less than a dollar....  Across from us was a girl on her own so after dinner she joined us to walk around the night market...

In the pic is Sam (roomate) and the girl... She had an urge to try some special food....  Cow Brain!  And she bit into it with no hesitation...  A true champion of bravery!



To be accommodating we just left the key at the reception of the hotel so we could both go in and out...  From that point we barely saw each other anymore for 2 days but kept doing the same things a few hours apart!  I woke up early the next morning to see the monks doing their rounds receiving food...

That day I was off to waterfalls... after seeing the monks Sam was gone so I left him a note about the waterfalls... when I went to check later he was not there...  After a great day at some beautiful falls (lost the pics)  I got a message at the room that Sam went to the same place...  And like that for 2 days we kept following each other without touching base...
Luang Prabang is apparently a beautiful French colonial city with great architecture... I must have missed it... I found it alright but nothing to make it a world heritage site as it is...  One funny  moment was when someone tried to sell me drugs directly in front of the police anti drug squad building!     You hear rumors of people selling stuff to tourists and then making more money turning them in to the cops but this was too much!

After 2 days it was off to Vang Vieng...where you will never find the more wretched hive of scum and villany....

Jesus... Alive and well In New Zealand!

This day is a travel day.  A day of travel by boat.  The first boat trip is a 1 hour trip back down the river to the town I started in...Then a roughly 5 hour journey further down the Nam Ou river until it joins the Mekong, just before Luang Prabang, my destination.

There had been a group of New Zealanders at the hostel we were at, and they were all part of the same family.  I happened to be sitting next to them on the hour long boat trip down the river.  After just finishing an article discussing archeology in Israel I was ripe with ideas of historical inaccuracies in the bible.

I mentioned some of these to my seat mates and we kept talking.  Then it came up that they were pretty hardcore Christians (my term...meaning biblical literalists)...  I don't know how to handle such a situation.  One wants to respect everyone for their beliefs, but it is hard when someone is believing that the earth is no more than 10 000 years old.  As well as the belief that if they had not been indoctrinated (my term) at a young age they would surely have chosen to believe in a 2000 yr old reform rabbi as the son of God.  It goes even deeper as since I do not choose to accept Jesus I will not be continuing on to the kingdom of heaven with the rest of them.  This is no metaphor, it is real.  I want to accept everyone but this seems to be based on not wanting to know truth and facts and just choosing to believe in things.  Is it harmless?  Or not?  Choosing to disregard facts... Carbon dating for one... is deluding yourself... but as they are praying for me I should be happy with them... but the craziest thing is that they probably don't even believe in Yoda!

So the boat ride was interesting, we had a good discussion and I am as hard headed in my beliefs as they are in theirs... But the reason of if you accept Jesus you have nothing to lose and if you don't then you might be making a huge mistake doesn't seem to convince me!


The next part of the ride had some of the nicest scenery I have ever experienced.  It was around 5 hours, but much more comfortable.  The first boat was very squishy, everyone sitting on low benches on the floor, but this time there were individual seats, and even a place to stand up and take in the whole view!

 I walked up to the front of the boat (luckily the boat had a roof on it) and there is a gap in the roof were you can stand and enjoy the view...  This next pic looks to the front...

 

And this one is looking towards the back at a fellow taking advantage of the view...

 mmm....Mountains!

 

Here you can see mans impact on the land...

And a great sunset on the water!