This is the last and final entry for the blog, as I consider my traveling concluded upon arrival to Israel!
Not much has been going on today. I met up David (my distant relative) and checked out where he works. I then got myself some sort of grill thing and headed back home to pack. Left at 17:00 towards the airport and took off at 20:50. Arrived in Israel at around 22:30 local time. I had two bags: One a massive 25kg bag and the other a smaller one, which was probably around 8kg or so I'd say.
Driving to parents' place ("home") was interesting as I got to see some new buildings along the way, and a whole bunch of new stuff that has been done in the last year and a half that I've been gone.
This is it!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Thursday, 4 Oct - Monday, 8 Oct: Bucharest
Thursday, 4 Oct: The bulk of the day was spent doing nothing. My parents were getting ready to leave back to Israel. I took care of their packing (it’s like Tetris – quite a bit of fun). They took off at 17:00 to the airport. I met up with Catalin (we met during my Fagarasi hiking and hiked one day together) at 18:00 to discuss a possible hike in the Bucegi mountains. There’s a 2509m peak there which peaked my interest…
Friday, 5: Oct: I went to hang out at Bucharest Mall to see a movie or something. However, upon arrival I realized I wasn’t feeling to well, so I tucked my tail between my legs and headed back home for a good nap… (On the way I bought a topographic map of Bucegi mountains for tomorrow’s possible hike.) In the evening I met up with some David guy who is some very distant relative of mine that happens to be in Bucharest although he is in fact Israeli. He had an extra ticket for a Muse rock concert for the next day, and since it seemed I wasn’t feeling too well for the hike, I figured I’d go with him and postpone the hike by one day.
Saturday, 6 Oct: Like yesterday, I went to a mall again in the hopes of catching a movie, and like yesterday, upon arrival I just headed back for a nap. My cold is acting up and my nose is running like the Niagara falls. At 18:45 I met David at Aviatorilor and we headed a few hundred meters to some stadium next to the “Arcul de Triumf” (a rather popular construct in Europe…). The concert was fine, and I’m sure would have been far more enjoyable had I actually known the band. I left at 22:00 (before the end) so as to get sufficient amount of sleep in order to leave on the hike the next day. Going with Catalin was no longer an option as he planned on leaving today. I figured I’d just go alone – no big deal.
Sunday, 7 Oct: I woke up a little after 7:00 and realized I was feeling way to crappy for a hike. So unfortunately I went back to bed and aborted the hike. Later the day I stopped by, again, Bucharest Mall and finally got to watch some movies. A “double feature” to be precise… Nothing was going on in the evening. I was feeling a little better and was contemplating to salvage my hike, but there was not enough time left now, and the weather has been getting worse. In fact, it’s been pretty bad since Saturday – the original departure day.
Monday, 8 Oct: I called Catalin to hear about how his hike went. It turns out he ended up not going due to bad weather. I suppose it was not meant to happen one way or another… Today was another day at the mall (this Bucharest segment has become more of a mall tour – but the weather is just too bad to walk outside especially in light of my cold ), and an important one. For the first time I was caught doing a double feature :( It was a bit embarrassing but had no consequences. I was simply made to leave. Nothing to spectacular during the evening other than a bit of a walk.
Friday, 5: Oct: I went to hang out at Bucharest Mall to see a movie or something. However, upon arrival I realized I wasn’t feeling to well, so I tucked my tail between my legs and headed back home for a good nap… (On the way I bought a topographic map of Bucegi mountains for tomorrow’s possible hike.) In the evening I met up with some David guy who is some very distant relative of mine that happens to be in Bucharest although he is in fact Israeli. He had an extra ticket for a Muse rock concert for the next day, and since it seemed I wasn’t feeling too well for the hike, I figured I’d go with him and postpone the hike by one day.
Saturday, 6 Oct: Like yesterday, I went to a mall again in the hopes of catching a movie, and like yesterday, upon arrival I just headed back for a nap. My cold is acting up and my nose is running like the Niagara falls. At 18:45 I met David at Aviatorilor and we headed a few hundred meters to some stadium next to the “Arcul de Triumf” (a rather popular construct in Europe…). The concert was fine, and I’m sure would have been far more enjoyable had I actually known the band. I left at 22:00 (before the end) so as to get sufficient amount of sleep in order to leave on the hike the next day. Going with Catalin was no longer an option as he planned on leaving today. I figured I’d just go alone – no big deal.
Sunday, 7 Oct: I woke up a little after 7:00 and realized I was feeling way to crappy for a hike. So unfortunately I went back to bed and aborted the hike. Later the day I stopped by, again, Bucharest Mall and finally got to watch some movies. A “double feature” to be precise… Nothing was going on in the evening. I was feeling a little better and was contemplating to salvage my hike, but there was not enough time left now, and the weather has been getting worse. In fact, it’s been pretty bad since Saturday – the original departure day.
Monday, 8 Oct: I called Catalin to hear about how his hike went. It turns out he ended up not going due to bad weather. I suppose it was not meant to happen one way or another… Today was another day at the mall (this Bucharest segment has become more of a mall tour – but the weather is just too bad to walk outside especially in light of my cold ), and an important one. For the first time I was caught doing a double feature :( It was a bit embarrassing but had no consequences. I was simply made to leave. Nothing to spectacular during the evening other than a bit of a walk.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Wednesday, 3 Oct: Craivoa - Bucharest
We spent a little time in the morning hanging out the center of town in Craiova. After that we headed northeast 125km to Pitesti. Before Pitesti (33km) we stopped at a place called Scornicesti, which is the birthplace of Ceaucescu and where he spent his first few years of childhood until apparently running away from home. It's a small 2-room house..
From Pitesti we got on one of the two real highways in the country and headed to Bucharest. The drive was brilliant. The road was great with few cars and effectively no speed limit (a sign of a truly advanced country). So we cruised at 150kph mostly, which was a refreshing change.
Our luck as far as lodging has come to an end. We were not able to find a place in Bucharest and so we headed out of town with no luck still. Ultimately, we tucked out tails between our lags and went to Miron and Liana’s..
We brought a couple of Pizza’s and at the Pizza place we witnessed a group of Israelis do what Israelis do best – namely, they embarrassed the shit out of me with their vulgar behavior so much as I wanted to burry myself (or better yet - them).
From Pitesti we got on one of the two real highways in the country and headed to Bucharest. The drive was brilliant. The road was great with few cars and effectively no speed limit (a sign of a truly advanced country). So we cruised at 150kph mostly, which was a refreshing change.
Our luck as far as lodging has come to an end. We were not able to find a place in Bucharest and so we headed out of town with no luck still. Ultimately, we tucked out tails between our lags and went to Miron and Liana’s..
We brought a couple of Pizza’s and at the Pizza place we witnessed a group of Israelis do what Israelis do best – namely, they embarrassed the shit out of me with their vulgar behavior so much as I wanted to burry myself (or better yet - them).
Tuesday, 2 Oct: Curtea de Arges - Craiova
I was feeling a little better and we decided to leave town and get some mileage. The first goal was to get to Targu Jiu some 160km west, where there are stone sculptures of some famous Romanian guy. To get there we had to pass through a town called Ramnicu Valcea, which is only 30km west. However, the road wsa “broken” as the sign said, and we had to go southeast for 30km up to Rascov (near Pitesti – bigger city), and then head back up northwest for another 40km.
Anyway, we continued on westbound to Targu Jiu and stopped along the way at a monastery called “Horezu”. This was the real deal for once. Unlike previous monasteries, this one had the nuns and monks and their leaving quarters and the whole shpiel. What we always saw up to now was just the central prayer building/church/whatever.
An important point is that a few km before the monastery, we stopped at a joint called “Pensiune Evrica”, which the best soup I’ve had up to that point! The bread, however, was really bad and there was a starving dog there, who benefited greatly as I fed him about 10 slices or so.
We arrived in Targu Jiu around 17:00. Checked out the whole sculptures stuff, which was by no means magnificent… The museum itself had already closed, so maybe we missed all the good stuff…
Finally, we continued to Craiova (80km south). It was already dark and the drive was not easy as Romanian roads are one lane in each direction, have no shoulders, and are not of the highest quality. In this particular instance I had suicidal folks also walk at the edge of the road and drive their bicycles. In all cases they had no lights and were wearing camouflage so as to make avoiding running them down nearly impossible.
In Craiova we yet again ran into difficulty finding a place. We were lucky once more as someone who had made a reservation failed to show up and we got their room. The hotel was extremely well located at the very center of the city. Its restaurant had the first or second best soup (ciorba) I’ve had in Romania, with the other being the one I had for lunch. I suppose I should designate today as “soup day”.
Anyway, we continued on westbound to Targu Jiu and stopped along the way at a monastery called “Horezu”. This was the real deal for once. Unlike previous monasteries, this one had the nuns and monks and their leaving quarters and the whole shpiel. What we always saw up to now was just the central prayer building/church/whatever.
An important point is that a few km before the monastery, we stopped at a joint called “Pensiune Evrica”, which the best soup I’ve had up to that point! The bread, however, was really bad and there was a starving dog there, who benefited greatly as I fed him about 10 slices or so.
We arrived in Targu Jiu around 17:00. Checked out the whole sculptures stuff, which was by no means magnificent… The museum itself had already closed, so maybe we missed all the good stuff…
Finally, we continued to Craiova (80km south). It was already dark and the drive was not easy as Romanian roads are one lane in each direction, have no shoulders, and are not of the highest quality. In this particular instance I had suicidal folks also walk at the edge of the road and drive their bicycles. In all cases they had no lights and were wearing camouflage so as to make avoiding running them down nearly impossible.
In Craiova we yet again ran into difficulty finding a place. We were lucky once more as someone who had made a reservation failed to show up and we got their room. The hotel was extremely well located at the very center of the city. Its restaurant had the first or second best soup (ciorba) I’ve had in Romania, with the other being the one I had for lunch. I suppose I should designate today as “soup day”.
Monday, 1 Oct: Curtea de Arges
I Woke up and realized I was not getting any better. While the fever was gone, my stomachaches weren’t, and my visits to the most important chamber of the house were ever more frequent. Therefore, we decided to pay a visit to the local hospital.
I suppose one does not fully experience a "developing" country without visiting the ER (I do suspect that much like Thailand my health situation was food driven).
The ER experience was interesting and quite different from the Thai one. The Romanian hospital looked much older and in worse condition than its Thai counterpart (yes, that is possible). The place was pretty empty and when we saw a doctor walking down the hall and asked him where to go – he told us to join him and he ended up checking me out. Unlike the Thai situation, there was actually a doc around and he knew what he was doing. Ultimately, I got a two large injections with some stuff (I’m not sure what exactly) and some prescriptions. The most surprising and unique thing about the whole experience was when we asked how much to pay. The doctor just waved away and said we needed to pay nothing! I call upon the US healthcare system to learn from the Romanians!
After this we had lunch at a Serbian restaurant, though I could not detect anything different about their food. Afterwards we checked out the Arges monastery, which concluded the day.
I suppose one does not fully experience a "developing" country without visiting the ER (I do suspect that much like Thailand my health situation was food driven).
The ER experience was interesting and quite different from the Thai one. The Romanian hospital looked much older and in worse condition than its Thai counterpart (yes, that is possible). The place was pretty empty and when we saw a doctor walking down the hall and asked him where to go – he told us to join him and he ended up checking me out. Unlike the Thai situation, there was actually a doc around and he knew what he was doing. Ultimately, I got a two large injections with some stuff (I’m not sure what exactly) and some prescriptions. The most surprising and unique thing about the whole experience was when we asked how much to pay. The doctor just waved away and said we needed to pay nothing! I call upon the US healthcare system to learn from the Romanians!
After this we had lunch at a Serbian restaurant, though I could not detect anything different about their food. Afterwards we checked out the Arges monastery, which concluded the day.
Sunday, 30 Sep: Lake Balea - Curtea de Arges
My health situation continued to be feverous and we decided to leave Balea and head to Curtea de Arges, which is a small town located about 70km south. On the way (still part of the Transfagarasan), we passed through a large dam called Vidraru from where it is possible to Bungee jump!The height is 166m. I suppose all those NZ Nevis jumpers (134m) should stop walking around as like Spanish peacocks...
Upon arrival around midday, we found a place to stay, which was easier than finding a restaurant. Apparently, people prefer drinking to eating in this town.
Nothing too spectacular happened for the rest of the day. There’s a famous monastery about 500m from the hotel but I was in no condition for it (although I could have used some divine intervention).
One general comment about all those cases where I’ve had some dead hours to spend. I typically watch the National Geographic channel, which is really interesting and is also the only watchable channel around.
Upon arrival around midday, we found a place to stay, which was easier than finding a restaurant. Apparently, people prefer drinking to eating in this town.
Nothing too spectacular happened for the rest of the day. There’s a famous monastery about 500m from the hotel but I was in no condition for it (although I could have used some divine intervention).
One general comment about all those cases where I’ve had some dead hours to spend. I typically watch the National Geographic channel, which is really interesting and is also the only watchable channel around.
Saturday, 29 Sep: Sibiu - Lake Balea
First a few words about the night. I woke up quite a few times feeling like I had some fever, but I didn’t have a thermometer handy, so I’m not sure if I did have it or not, although I suspect that I did.
In the morning we got to see in daylight the place where we lodged, and it was quite lovely indeed, as it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere (explaining the pitch darkness of the night before).
Anyway, we headed out and first went south 17km to Paltinis, which is at 1400m or so and the views on the way were quite nice. From there we headed back to Sibiu (32km) and proceeded eastbound towards Fagaras on E81 for 45km until we hit the Transfagarasan road, which is the road that crosses the Fagarasi mountains that I hiked three weeks before. Heading north on the Transfagarasan for another 30km we arrived at Lake Balea.
Lake Balea is at 2044m, and I spent two nights there when I hiked through (although not in the hotel but rather with the Salvamont – i.e. rescue service, as it was cheaper and nicer for me..). It was nice being back to this place so shortly after having been there.
We got the last spot at the hotel. The place is very nice with some beautiful lake and surrounding mountain views. The hotel is situated right on the shore, literally touching the water. The view from the room was beautiful. We had the worst lunch there, however. It was both expensive and disgusting (a lethal combination)…
By the evening I started feeling worse and my fever had already gone up to 37.9, which is quite high for me, and I was worried my ear were going to melt…
In the morning we got to see in daylight the place where we lodged, and it was quite lovely indeed, as it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere (explaining the pitch darkness of the night before).
Anyway, we headed out and first went south 17km to Paltinis, which is at 1400m or so and the views on the way were quite nice. From there we headed back to Sibiu (32km) and proceeded eastbound towards Fagaras on E81 for 45km until we hit the Transfagarasan road, which is the road that crosses the Fagarasi mountains that I hiked three weeks before. Heading north on the Transfagarasan for another 30km we arrived at Lake Balea.
Lake Balea is at 2044m, and I spent two nights there when I hiked through (although not in the hotel but rather with the Salvamont – i.e. rescue service, as it was cheaper and nicer for me..). It was nice being back to this place so shortly after having been there.
We got the last spot at the hotel. The place is very nice with some beautiful lake and surrounding mountain views. The hotel is situated right on the shore, literally touching the water. The view from the room was beautiful. We had the worst lunch there, however. It was both expensive and disgusting (a lethal combination)…
By the evening I started feeling worse and my fever had already gone up to 37.9, which is quite high for me, and I was worried my ear were going to melt…
Friday, Sep 28: Cluj - Sibiu
In the morning we headed out to Sibiu (180km south), which is this year's cultural capital of Europe. We arrived around 14:00 and started to look for a hotel.
Sibiu was worse than Cluj in terms of finding a place to stay. We entered a Ramada hotel and they were booked too, of course, but they were kind enough to make a gazillion phone calls and ultimately they found us a place out of town a kilometer south of Rasinari (which itself is 15km south of Sibiu).
We spent the afternoon until the evening walking around the old center of Sibiu. When I say “old”, I mean old! Some houses were from as far back as the 14th century. The whole area was pretty large and was quite spacious and very nice. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it was probably the nicest city area I’ve seen in Romania. Before leaving we headed up a clock tower and got some nice 360 degrees views of the city.
We then headed to the Pension, called “Mirani”, which was a little hard to find as it was located in a c pitch dark area. It was just built and run by a couple who used to live in Torrence, CA for a while (60miles south of LA). They were really nice people. The place was very nice and spacious.
Sibiu was worse than Cluj in terms of finding a place to stay. We entered a Ramada hotel and they were booked too, of course, but they were kind enough to make a gazillion phone calls and ultimately they found us a place out of town a kilometer south of Rasinari (which itself is 15km south of Sibiu).
We spent the afternoon until the evening walking around the old center of Sibiu. When I say “old”, I mean old! Some houses were from as far back as the 14th century. The whole area was pretty large and was quite spacious and very nice. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it was probably the nicest city area I’ve seen in Romania. Before leaving we headed up a clock tower and got some nice 360 degrees views of the city.
We then headed to the Pension, called “Mirani”, which was a little hard to find as it was located in a c pitch dark area. It was just built and run by a couple who used to live in Torrence, CA for a while (60miles south of LA). They were really nice people. The place was very nice and spacious.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Thursday, Sep 27: Cluj
We spent the entire day walking around the city center. The place is quite interesting as it has some impressive buildings. The city also looks much cleaner and better maintained than Bucharest and some other parts in Romania. Apparently, this used to be Hungarian some before 1918. In fact, all previously Hungarian areas were well maintained and very clean. Maybe I should check out Hungary next...
In the evening I headed out to a club called "After 8", which was pretty good.
In the evening I headed out to a club called "After 8", which was pretty good.
Wednesday, 26 Sep: Sighetu Marmatiei - Cluj
Heading northwest some 11km we arrived at a place called Sapanta that hosts the "happy cemetery", which is a cemetery where the gravestones writings are with rhymes. While it is called the happy cemetery I could find nothing happy about it. There was a large organized group of Israelis there. Nothing particular about this detail really...
We proceeded west about 105km on road 19 to Satu Mare, which is a bigger city. Still, we just passed through and continued to south another 17km all the way to Cluj.
Cluj is a big city and for the first time it was quite difficult to find a place to stay. It seemed all hotels were fully booked. Fortunately for us, a central hotel had a cancellation (the dude got stuck on the road or something). The owners of this hotel as we found out later was an older Israeli couple originally from Romania...
Bad Restaurant experience: In the evening we went to a food joint (I would not dare call it a restaurant). Mom ordered soup and dad a burger. Mom's soup was a little on the cold side and she asked that it be warmed up, and it was. Dad's burger was as cold as the Potomac river in the winter.. When he pointed that out the waitress, she took it and never brought it or a replacement back. Finally, we were billed for it. When talking to the waitress about it, she had the nerve to claim that he ate half, while he only had a (bad) bite. Next, she claimed it sat on the table for 10 minutes. Ultimately, the item was removed.
We proceeded west about 105km on road 19 to Satu Mare, which is a bigger city. Still, we just passed through and continued to south another 17km all the way to Cluj.
Cluj is a big city and for the first time it was quite difficult to find a place to stay. It seemed all hotels were fully booked. Fortunately for us, a central hotel had a cancellation (the dude got stuck on the road or something). The owners of this hotel as we found out later was an older Israeli couple originally from Romania...
Bad Restaurant experience: In the evening we went to a food joint (I would not dare call it a restaurant). Mom ordered soup and dad a burger. Mom's soup was a little on the cold side and she asked that it be warmed up, and it was. Dad's burger was as cold as the Potomac river in the winter.. When he pointed that out the waitress, she took it and never brought it or a replacement back. Finally, we were billed for it. When talking to the waitress about it, she had the nerve to claim that he ate half, while he only had a (bad) bite. Next, she claimed it sat on the table for 10 minutes. Ultimately, the item was removed.
Tuesday, 25 Sep: Vatra Dornei - Sighetu Marmatiei
We started the day with a walk around Vatra Dornei, which was quite nice. We then headed northwest on road 18 about 160km to Sighetu Marmatiei. The drive was very nice with some beautiful views. Sighetu Marmatiei is yet another one of them little towns and we didn't do much there especially as we arrived in the evening.
Monday, 24 Sep: Iasi - Vatra Dornei
We left Iasi and headed west on road 28A for about 75km and north on E85 for 300km up to Falticeni, which is where my grandfather's on my mom's side was born and lived until he was 1919 when he was 18.. The house was still there, though renovated much later in the 50's...
Next, we continued up north another 25km and passed through a tiny little town (of which there are many in Romania) by the name of Suceava. From there we headed west to Vatra Dornei some 115km passing through another little town called Gura Humorului and a couple of km further we visited a monastery called Voronet. The driver from Voronet to Vatra Dornei was very pretty and we had a bit of a picnic stop shortly after Voronet, where we had among other things one of, my now famous, salads The last segment of the drive (about 30km) was a bit difficult due to serious road construction. In fact, it appears the entire country road system is under construction.
A few words about Vatra Dronei - It is a resort town similar in that respect to Sinaia. My dad spent two years working there early on ('59-'61) and had loads of fun.
Next, we continued up north another 25km and passed through a tiny little town (of which there are many in Romania) by the name of Suceava. From there we headed west to Vatra Dornei some 115km passing through another little town called Gura Humorului and a couple of km further we visited a monastery called Voronet. The driver from Voronet to Vatra Dornei was very pretty and we had a bit of a picnic stop shortly after Voronet, where we had among other things one of, my now famous, salads The last segment of the drive (about 30km) was a bit difficult due to serious road construction. In fact, it appears the entire country road system is under construction.
A few words about Vatra Dronei - It is a resort town similar in that respect to Sinaia. My dad spent two years working there early on ('59-'61) and had loads of fun.
Sunday, 23 Sep: Iasi
We went to the Jewish cemetery to see visit my dad's mom tomb, who has been there for a long time. This was the least maintained most horrendous cemetery I had ever been too. It was literally impossible to see many of the grave stones, and it took the four of us a couple of hours to finally find my grandmother's gravestone (and that's given the fact that my parents knew where to look...). Ultimately, mom spotted the place..
We got to see my great grandfather's gravestone as well.
After the cemetery we headed to a place region called St. Sava, which is where my dad lived from the age of 11 to 24. Three houses were constructed in the mid 40's by my grandfather and a two of is partners, and each took one. They were all still there and occupied by one family (two sisters + 1 husband + 1 child) that bought and joint all three over the time (each house is pretty darn small). The interesting thing was that my dad knows them as he recalled when the sisters parents bought one house and remembered them since they were very little.
After the house thing, we went to the airport to drop Talmon, whose part in the trip has come to an end. The three of us then proceeded to the cultural palace and then walked around Stephen the Great str, which was closed for cars and had heaps of people.
We got to see my great grandfather's gravestone as well.
After the cemetery we headed to a place region called St. Sava, which is where my dad lived from the age of 11 to 24. Three houses were constructed in the mid 40's by my grandfather and a two of is partners, and each took one. They were all still there and occupied by one family (two sisters + 1 husband + 1 child) that bought and joint all three over the time (each house is pretty darn small). The interesting thing was that my dad knows them as he recalled when the sisters parents bought one house and remembered them since they were very little.
After the house thing, we went to the airport to drop Talmon, whose part in the trip has come to an end. The three of us then proceeded to the cultural palace and then walked around Stephen the Great str, which was closed for cars and had heaps of people.
Saturday, 22 Sep: Iasi
Didn't do too much today. Got laundry done (really important!), walked around town and saw the following:
1. Copou - a park where a bunch of Romanian folks have statues. Among them, Eminescu, who is the best Romanian poet and who apparently wrote all of his stuff next to some tree over there in that park.
2. The university where dad studied (right next to Copou)
3. Downtown
4. Ulius mall (where we got all our food...)
1. Copou - a park where a bunch of Romanian folks have statues. Among them, Eminescu, who is the best Romanian poet and who apparently wrote all of his stuff next to some tree over there in that park.
2. The university where dad studied (right next to Copou)
3. Downtown
4. Ulius mall (where we got all our food...)
Friday, Sep 21: Piatra Neamt - Iasi
Left in the morning to Iasi (via Roman some 150km east), which is were dad is from. Iasi is the second largest city in Romania after Bucharest. We stayed at a hotel called T23, which is a rather bizarre name, yet with the exception of the bad bed springs (an unfortunate recurring theme in Romania), the hotel was quite good.
Today was Yom Kippur Eve and parents (while completely not religious) wanted to go to "Kol Nidrei" prayer. Since the thing takes about 5 minutes, Talmon and I didn't care. However, they were wrong about the time (not taking into account that we are not in Israel) and to make a long story (that involves a synagogue being renovated, going to another synagogue to early, prayer being late) short we arrived at the synagogue at 17:55 and stayed there for nearly 2 hours... At least the Rabi was amusing...
Before the synagogue saga we got to see where my dad was born and grew up until he was 11.
Today was Yom Kippur Eve and parents (while completely not religious) wanted to go to "Kol Nidrei" prayer. Since the thing takes about 5 minutes, Talmon and I didn't care. However, they were wrong about the time (not taking into account that we are not in Israel) and to make a long story (that involves a synagogue being renovated, going to another synagogue to early, prayer being late) short we arrived at the synagogue at 17:55 and stayed there for nearly 2 hours... At least the Rabi was amusing...
Before the synagogue saga we got to see where my dad was born and grew up until he was 11.
Thursday, 20 Sep: Brasov - Piatra Neamt
In the morning we visited the "Black Church" in Brasov, which is called that way because it was burned some long time ago. The church was far more impressive on the outside than on the inside. It was built back in 1383, a few years before I was born.
We left Brasov and proceeded to lake St. Ana (100km north) , which was quite nice, and then proceeded to Tusnad (5km). We had lunch in Tusnad at a place called Iris, which served the best chicken goulash to date. We continued to Lacul Rosu ("red lake") some 90km north and 15 km east. That was the first place where I saw a hollow "Cozonac" (a type of cake), which was really good except that it had way to sugar and they didn't sell insulin along with it...
We proceeded to Cheile Bicazului (15km north/east), which is a very narrow road with some steep rocks that were very impressive.
Finally, we arrived in the evening at Piatra Neamt (60km north/east). We had dinner at some pub called Tequila, which like all places in Romania was completely smoky. Talmon and I stayed to get some work done... After that we headed to some other joint that had Romanian Karaoke - hurray!
We left Brasov and proceeded to lake St. Ana (100km north) , which was quite nice, and then proceeded to Tusnad (5km). We had lunch in Tusnad at a place called Iris, which served the best chicken goulash to date. We continued to Lacul Rosu ("red lake") some 90km north and 15 km east. That was the first place where I saw a hollow "Cozonac" (a type of cake), which was really good except that it had way to sugar and they didn't sell insulin along with it...
We proceeded to Cheile Bicazului (15km north/east), which is a very narrow road with some steep rocks that were very impressive.
Finally, we arrived in the evening at Piatra Neamt (60km north/east). We had dinner at some pub called Tequila, which like all places in Romania was completely smoky. Talmon and I stayed to get some work done... After that we headed to some other joint that had Romanian Karaoke - hurray!
Wednesday, 19 Sep: Sinaia – Busteni – Brasov
First thing we went to Busteni (8 km north of Sinaia). There we took a cable cart up a mountain (2200m) to see a two interesting rocks called "babele" ("old ladies"), which have been nicely formed over the years. From there we took another cable cart to the other side of the mountain (1600m) to see a cave (Pestera Ialomicioara).
Around 15:30 we were done. We had lunch and continued to Brasov (40km north). The center was quite nice and we had the usual evening walk.
Around 15:30 we were done. We had lunch and continued to Brasov (40km north). The center was quite nice and we had the usual evening walk.
Tuesday, 18 Sep: Sinaia
I got a haircut first thing in the morning, then we went to Peles Castle, which belongs to the King (yeap, these folks actually have a king). We couldn’t go in as it was closed, but the construct seemed rather impressive from the outside. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day.
Monday, 17 Sep: Bucharest – Sinaia
We finally left Bucharest, not without incident though. We were supposed to rent this car and when the guy showed up with it, it turned out the contract had no insurance. So we canceled at the very last moment, which left us car-less and with loads of nerves on behalf of some family members. But, fortunately, the situation was resolved within the hour and we got a bigger and better car!
We left the hotel around 13:30, and by the time we left Bucharest it was about 15:00 or 16:00. I was trying to find a ticket to Israel, which delayed our departure. We arrived in the evening to Sinaia, which is a resort town some 110km north of Bucharest, where my dad spent a few month back in the day (as will become evident later on – my dad traveled quite a bit in the country in his youth). We stayed at a B&B place that actually had no breakfast included. It was very clean with the exception of the host who was seriously stinking. Thank god I can hold my breath for 3 minutes and 22 seconds..
In the evening Talmon and I went out but the place was completely dead.
We left the hotel around 13:30, and by the time we left Bucharest it was about 15:00 or 16:00. I was trying to find a ticket to Israel, which delayed our departure. We arrived in the evening to Sinaia, which is a resort town some 110km north of Bucharest, where my dad spent a few month back in the day (as will become evident later on – my dad traveled quite a bit in the country in his youth). We stayed at a B&B place that actually had no breakfast included. It was very clean with the exception of the host who was seriously stinking. Thank god I can hold my breath for 3 minutes and 22 seconds..
In the evening Talmon and I went out but the place was completely dead.
Tuesday, 11 Sep – Sunday, 16 Sep: Bucharest
As I may or may not have mentioned, the main purpose of the Romanian section of this trip is to have a family reunion and get to see where my parents came from/grew up/etc. We (Mom, Dad, Brother) spent several days in Bucharest with the intent of mostly visiting those places that are mom related (given that she’s from Bucharest). So here goes:
Tuesday, 11 Sep: After my arrival to Bucharest we caught up a bit and in the evening went for dinner (which was ok but not more than that) at a place called "Carul Cu Bere", which is some famous joint that’s been around since the 19th century.
Wednesday, 12 Sep: We did two things today. First, we went to a Filantropia Cemetery, which is the "noble" Jewish cemetery, i.e. a place where the rich and famous are buried. We met many of my relatives there among them all of my mom’s grandparents who passed away years before anyone imagined that the wonder called Daniel would come to be…
Next, we went to Strada Lunei 5 to see the house where my mother was born, grew up, and pretty much spent her entire life until she got married and went to Israel. It was under renovation, which allowed us to go in freely and examine the place. It was quite impressive indeed due its size and central location.
Thursday, 13 Sep: The vast part of the day was consumed with a 4-hour lunch at my Mom’s first grade teacher’s house. They have been in touch since that first grade…
We arrived there separately, parents with one cab and Talmon and I with another as we needed to get laundry done. The reason I’m mentioning this is because our cab ride was rather eventful. Specifically, due to the local bad driving and disregard to the law some guy bumped into the cab, where I was sitted (back left). What was most amusing was the set of swearing the cab driver came up with quite instinctively (involving ancestors, various genitalia, mouths and so on and so forth). Thanks to Tudor, I managed to understand everything. No doubt Romanian is a very delightful language..
After lunch, Talmon and I needed a breather and so we split from parents and went to some Mall to hang out.
Friday, 14 Sep: We visited Ceausescu’s grand parliament building, which is very famous as it is the second largest building in the world (the Pentagon is #1), and the third most voluminous (Cape Canaveral rocket assembly building is #1, and I forget which is #2). 50% was constructed during Ceausescu’s time, and another 40% after his demise, 10% has not been finished. 700 architects were supposedly involved. It is a true testament to what dictatorship can achieve. It is fairly impressive, yet rather poorly maintained.
We also went to see where my dad used to live when he moved to Bucharest (Taben road). The building was still there.
In the evening we went (with my dad’s friends – Miron and Liana) to a restaurant called "cocosatul", which was quite good and had excellent kebabs. Talmon couldn’t come due to some prior engagement…
Saturday, 15 Sep: We yet again did the "lunch at friends" thing. This time at Miron and Liana’s. The former used to be my dad’s boss some 100 years ago. Unlike the previous lunch, the food here was better and the lunch shorter.
Next, we went to a "Cismigiu Park", which is a nice park in the center of Bucharest. In the evening we all split.
Sunday, 16 Sep: Didn't do much today. Bro and I went to the largest mall to hang out (had a really good pasta thing there), and parents went off to some concert (not guns n’ roses…). We all had dinner in the evening.
Tuesday, 11 Sep: After my arrival to Bucharest we caught up a bit and in the evening went for dinner (which was ok but not more than that) at a place called "Carul Cu Bere", which is some famous joint that’s been around since the 19th century.
Wednesday, 12 Sep: We did two things today. First, we went to a Filantropia Cemetery, which is the "noble" Jewish cemetery, i.e. a place where the rich and famous are buried. We met many of my relatives there among them all of my mom’s grandparents who passed away years before anyone imagined that the wonder called Daniel would come to be…
Next, we went to Strada Lunei 5 to see the house where my mother was born, grew up, and pretty much spent her entire life until she got married and went to Israel. It was under renovation, which allowed us to go in freely and examine the place. It was quite impressive indeed due its size and central location.
Thursday, 13 Sep: The vast part of the day was consumed with a 4-hour lunch at my Mom’s first grade teacher’s house. They have been in touch since that first grade…
We arrived there separately, parents with one cab and Talmon and I with another as we needed to get laundry done. The reason I’m mentioning this is because our cab ride was rather eventful. Specifically, due to the local bad driving and disregard to the law some guy bumped into the cab, where I was sitted (back left). What was most amusing was the set of swearing the cab driver came up with quite instinctively (involving ancestors, various genitalia, mouths and so on and so forth). Thanks to Tudor, I managed to understand everything. No doubt Romanian is a very delightful language..
After lunch, Talmon and I needed a breather and so we split from parents and went to some Mall to hang out.
Friday, 14 Sep: We visited Ceausescu’s grand parliament building, which is very famous as it is the second largest building in the world (the Pentagon is #1), and the third most voluminous (Cape Canaveral rocket assembly building is #1, and I forget which is #2). 50% was constructed during Ceausescu’s time, and another 40% after his demise, 10% has not been finished. 700 architects were supposedly involved. It is a true testament to what dictatorship can achieve. It is fairly impressive, yet rather poorly maintained.
We also went to see where my dad used to live when he moved to Bucharest (Taben road). The building was still there.
In the evening we went (with my dad’s friends – Miron and Liana) to a restaurant called "cocosatul", which was quite good and had excellent kebabs. Talmon couldn’t come due to some prior engagement…
Saturday, 15 Sep: We yet again did the "lunch at friends" thing. This time at Miron and Liana’s. The former used to be my dad’s boss some 100 years ago. Unlike the previous lunch, the food here was better and the lunch shorter.
Next, we went to a "Cismigiu Park", which is a nice park in the center of Bucharest. In the evening we all split.
Sunday, 16 Sep: Didn't do much today. Bro and I went to the largest mall to hang out (had a really good pasta thing there), and parents went off to some concert (not guns n’ roses…). We all had dinner in the evening.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Tuesday, 11 Sep: Plaiul Foii Cabin – Bucharest
I woke up at 5:48 and then again at 6:15, when I decided it was time to really get up. While the original plan was to get a taxi to the nearest town (Zarnesti), I decided I preferred to do a bit of walking. So at 6:55 I was ready to start walking (Zarnesti is 12.5 km away). The only problem was that there was no one in the cabin to unlock the door! So I had to do what I had to do, which meant that I crawled out of the window from the cabin’s restaurant . At 7:00 sharp, I started heading towards town. A couple of vehicles along the way offered me a ride, but I enjoyed the morning walk.
I arrived to town at 9:15. Got a microbus to Brasov at 9:45 and arrived at 10:20. Then took a local bus to the train station, where I arrived at 10:35. The train to Bucharest was late and left at 12:00 instead of 11:30. Eventually I arrived to Bucharest at 15:00 – an hour late (somehow we managed to pick up another 30 minutes delay along the way). Then I got a cab and arrived to the Hotel where my parents and brother were at 15:55. Coincidently, my parents and brother (whom I have not seen in 17 and 7 months, respectively) were at the reception. I called on to them and made sure to have my camera ready for them once they turned. It was a rather nice photo.
I arrived to town at 9:15. Got a microbus to Brasov at 9:45 and arrived at 10:20. Then took a local bus to the train station, where I arrived at 10:35. The train to Bucharest was late and left at 12:00 instead of 11:30. Eventually I arrived to Bucharest at 15:00 – an hour late (somehow we managed to pick up another 30 minutes delay along the way). Then I got a cab and arrived to the Hotel where my parents and brother were at 15:55. Coincidently, my parents and brother (whom I have not seen in 17 and 7 months, respectively) were at the reception. I called on to them and made sure to have my camera ready for them once they turned. It was a rather nice photo.
Monday, 10 Sep: Piatra Craiului (Curmatura Cabin – Plaiul Foii Cabin)
We all (4 Israelis and me) left at 8:40. From the very beginning it seemed that the group were much slower than me (granted their packs were a bit heavier and they had no tracking poles). For example, it took me 17 minutes to get to the first saddle (crapaturii), while it took the last of them 27min. I walked with them up to Turnu Peak (1911m), while heaving to wait for them continuously. I arrived at this peak at 10:45 so it took over 2 hours instead of one hour and 20 minutes, i.e. 50% longer than it should. Since I was worried it was going to rain (due to some unfriendly clouds in the sky) I decided to split from the group and take off on my own in a much faster pace with no distractions. So I told Ehud (who was the first to show up) that I was splitting. This came as no surprise as we had already talked about this possibility before. This would be the last time I’d see the folks. I’m a little ahead of myself here, but they never made it to the cabin, and I’m not sure what became of their day. In fact, I saw absolutely no one until nearly the end of the day.
I did the rest of the crest up to a place called La om Peak (2238m), which is the tallest peak in this mountain ridge and arriving there meant I covered nearly the whole crest. The hike was even more dangerous than Fagarasii mountains as it entailed going up and down peaks (over 10 for sure) and the descents almost always required the use of my hands. The terrain was very rocky and the path was rather narrow. Anyway, I arrived at the peak at 15:30. After some photos I continued a few more minutes to a place called La Lanturi (The Chains), where I had lunch and finished all my food with the exception of garlic (garlic is brilliant – it makes everything taste great). I left at 16:30. La Lanturi, was without a doubt the hardest and most dangerous part of my entire trip. It was a 600 meter descent over a distance of not more than 600 meters. It required extreme care and the nearly continuous use of my hands. There were many places where chains were attached to the rocks to enable one to descend or ascend. Without a doubt this place would have been 10 times easier going the other way. So I took my time in order to avoid the unpleasantness of falling off the cliffs. I arrived at a point called La Zaplaz (1640m) at 18:30, which was the end of La Lanturi. From here things were easy and simple and fast. At 19:00 I arrived at Spirla Refuge (1440m), where I met the first two people – a couple who was staying at the tiny refuge. I continued on arrived at Plaiul Foii Cabin (849m) at 20:45, which made this my longest day – a 12 hour hiking day.
The cabin was really good and I got a good meal and a hot shower!
I did the rest of the crest up to a place called La om Peak (2238m), which is the tallest peak in this mountain ridge and arriving there meant I covered nearly the whole crest. The hike was even more dangerous than Fagarasii mountains as it entailed going up and down peaks (over 10 for sure) and the descents almost always required the use of my hands. The terrain was very rocky and the path was rather narrow. Anyway, I arrived at the peak at 15:30. After some photos I continued a few more minutes to a place called La Lanturi (The Chains), where I had lunch and finished all my food with the exception of garlic (garlic is brilliant – it makes everything taste great). I left at 16:30. La Lanturi, was without a doubt the hardest and most dangerous part of my entire trip. It was a 600 meter descent over a distance of not more than 600 meters. It required extreme care and the nearly continuous use of my hands. There were many places where chains were attached to the rocks to enable one to descend or ascend. Without a doubt this place would have been 10 times easier going the other way. So I took my time in order to avoid the unpleasantness of falling off the cliffs. I arrived at a point called La Zaplaz (1640m) at 18:30, which was the end of La Lanturi. From here things were easy and simple and fast. At 19:00 I arrived at Spirla Refuge (1440m), where I met the first two people – a couple who was staying at the tiny refuge. I continued on arrived at Plaiul Foii Cabin (849m) at 20:45, which made this my longest day – a 12 hour hiking day.
The cabin was really good and I got a good meal and a hot shower!
Sunday, Sep 9: Piatra Craiului (Gura Raului Cabin – Curmatura Cabin)
I woke up at 7:30 with no help from my alarm clock – the cold took care of things. I was ready to leave before 9:00 but reception was closed and they had my driver’s license. Fortunately, someone showed up shortly thereafter and I left at 9:00. This is my third and final mountain ridge called Piatra Craiului. The formations are very steep and rocky and this is a good terrain for mountain climbers.
Gura Raului cabin was at 750m. I arrived at Curmatura cabin (1470m) at 12:00. At 12:30 I took off again on a circular 3 hour track, which took 2:45. This track involved climbing up to Piatra Mica Peak (1816m) and passing through Crucia Eroilors (The heroes cross) 1791m. The views were great as was the climbing up, which entailed going up some steep rocks and using chains and my hands. It started raining just as I got back to the cabin (15:15). At a little after 18:00 I talked to my dad and then 4 Israelis (Ela, Aiala, Udi, Ehud) walked in – the first ones I met in Romania. They were tracking guides from Ein-Geddy 19-21 y/o and were in Romania for 10 days just to hike in the mountains. Since we had the same itinerary for the next day, we decided we would all leave together the next day and possibly walk together (if we walk at the same pace).
One last thing – when I was in Bucharest I experimented a little with the locals and saw that they knew English well. Later I used just Romanian. Apparently, the Israelis had a really hard time communicating with the locals since outside Bucharest (or in the mountains) they don’t know much English – a problem I was completely oblivious too. Fortunately...
Gura Raului cabin was at 750m. I arrived at Curmatura cabin (1470m) at 12:00. At 12:30 I took off again on a circular 3 hour track, which took 2:45. This track involved climbing up to Piatra Mica Peak (1816m) and passing through Crucia Eroilors (The heroes cross) 1791m. The views were great as was the climbing up, which entailed going up some steep rocks and using chains and my hands. It started raining just as I got back to the cabin (15:15). At a little after 18:00 I talked to my dad and then 4 Israelis (Ela, Aiala, Udi, Ehud) walked in – the first ones I met in Romania. They were tracking guides from Ein-Geddy 19-21 y/o and were in Romania for 10 days just to hike in the mountains. Since we had the same itinerary for the next day, we decided we would all leave together the next day and possibly walk together (if we walk at the same pace).
One last thing – when I was in Bucharest I experimented a little with the locals and saw that they knew English well. Later I used just Romanian. Apparently, the Israelis had a really hard time communicating with the locals since outside Bucharest (or in the mountains) they don’t know much English – a problem I was completely oblivious too. Fortunately...
Saturday, Sep 8: Brasov – Zarnesti (Gura Raului Cabin)
Today was an easy traveling day. I woke up at 9:30 and caught the 12:00 O’clock train from Brasov tp Zarnesti and arrived at 12:39. Again I had some shoe issues and had to stop at a shoe repair shop and had my right boot fixed a bit. I then walked 3km to a Gura Raului Cabin, where I arrived around 14:00. Right after my arrival it started raining. The place seemed very nice and promising at first. However, my room was freezing (I used three blankets) and the restaurant/reception/bar area, which was warm, was a smoking area. Therefore, I had a choice between suffocating or freezing. Not an easy choice. The receptionist also annoyed me as she asked that I don’t open the window, and later in the evening when I found a non-smoking area, she asked that I leave as it apparently had a private gathering. Additionally, there were simply too many people around, the result of the proximity to town I presume. Lastly, the bed was crap as I could feel the springs in my ribs. This is not the first time. What’s up with those Romanian beds??
Friday, Sep 7: Fagarasi (Podragu Cabin – Victoria - ... Brasov)
The bed at Podragu was awful as it was way too firm. Anyway, I got up at 6:45 and left at 8:30. Today was my last day in the Fagarasi mountains and was an 11 hour long hiking day so there was much to do. The entire day I saw absolutely no one although the Cabin person claimed that it was very populated before. I presume the reason I saw no one is that the weather in general was getting worse and was predicted to be crap. In reality, however, the weather was great (at first). I managed to get to the tallest peak in Romania - Moldoveanu Peak (2544m) - in 2 hours and 45 minutes instead of 3:30 to 4 hours as the signs claimed. I guess I was finally in shape. The views were beautiful. More than that since nature called I had the chance to crap on top of the tallest mountain, which was exceptionally gratifying… I spent a total of 1:15 hours at the top, taking pictures, enjoying the views and talking on the phone.
As I started to leave the weather got worse (not bad timing). The descent to a small town called Victoria was lengthy and nasty. It was very misty and while the markings were mostly well places, I was on occasion not sure how to proceed. Additionally, I had to cross a stream a couple of times, which required taking off my boots. The water was so cold that I couldn’t feel my feet after the crossings until they warmed up again. After 4 hours since leaving the Peak I reached a 9km to Victoria sign, which took another couple of hours of walking.
Once in Victoria I walked another km or two towards a place called Ucea de Jos some 10 km away. I then hitch-hiked and arrived there. From there it took a couple of minutes before a 20 ton truck stopped and gave me a lift to Brasov. While the distance was about 100km, the ride took 2 and a half hours due to the road being under construction throughout and I arrived at 22:20.
I spent the night at a “hotel” that had a sink and a toilet but no shower :(
As I started to leave the weather got worse (not bad timing). The descent to a small town called Victoria was lengthy and nasty. It was very misty and while the markings were mostly well places, I was on occasion not sure how to proceed. Additionally, I had to cross a stream a couple of times, which required taking off my boots. The water was so cold that I couldn’t feel my feet after the crossings until they warmed up again. After 4 hours since leaving the Peak I reached a 9km to Victoria sign, which took another couple of hours of walking.
Once in Victoria I walked another km or two towards a place called Ucea de Jos some 10 km away. I then hitch-hiked and arrived there. From there it took a couple of minutes before a 20 ton truck stopped and gave me a lift to Brasov. While the distance was about 100km, the ride took 2 and a half hours due to the road being under construction throughout and I arrived at 22:20.
I spent the night at a “hotel” that had a sink and a toilet but no shower :(
Thursday, Sep 6: Fagarasi (Balea Lake – Podragu Cabin)
It was a nice day and off I went towards Podragu Cabin (2136m). We all (Costin, Diana, Alexandru, Alexandra, and me) started the hike together (at 9:45), but only for 45 minutes (up to a saddle point on the blue triangle). They all had a short circular track, while I proceeded to Podragu Cabin. Of course, I met no one on the remaining 5.5 hours track. My original plan was to walk on the crest until a point where I could split from the crest and take a direct path to the cabin, which is less exposed and safer. However, since the weather was getting better and better, I decided to deviate from the original plan and walked on the crest the entire way. Indeed, it was a little more dangerous but it was a splendid walk with brilliant views. It was well worth it.
I arrived at the cabin at 16:00, which was a refreshing change from arriving really late. At the cabin there were 5 people: The cabin manager and her two aids, and 2 Polish tourists. The Polish knew no English so communication with them was impossible.
I arrived at the cabin at 16:00, which was a refreshing change from arriving really late. At the cabin there were 5 people: The cabin manager and her two aids, and 2 Polish tourists. The Polish knew no English so communication with them was impossible.
Wednesday, Sep 5: Fagarasi (Balea Lake)
Today was a rainy day and so I stayed in and did not proceed to the next cabin. Catalin couldn’t spend more time and so his trip to the mountains came to an end. I spent quite a bit of time reparing my shoes again as a new hole appeared, so I had to stich them myself - and I did a pretty good job!
Three folks showed up: Diana, Alexandru and Alexandra. The first two are a couple. I taught them Yaniv and we played some for a while. At 17:00 I went to Hotel Balea in the hopes of doing my laundry and taking a shower – both of which were quite needed (the rain again happened when it was needed). I did both for 15 Lei (10 USD). The laundry took forever. I had to come back for it at 20:00 and ultimately it was ready only at 21:45..
I did get to finish my book, which was rather good but had too many similarities to another book by Harlan Coban that I read (Gone for good), so I doubt I’ll be reading any more of his stuff… Returning to the Salvamont cabin was an impossible mission as it was pitch black outside and I hadn’t brought my headlight. So I borrowed one from someone and made it safely “home”. Costin – the Salavmont – claimed I got my laundry back in record time as it typically takes 2 days. We all stayed up until around 1:00 and chatted a large part about Costin hike to 7000m back when he was 35. It was rather interesting.
Three folks showed up: Diana, Alexandru and Alexandra. The first two are a couple. I taught them Yaniv and we played some for a while. At 17:00 I went to Hotel Balea in the hopes of doing my laundry and taking a shower – both of which were quite needed (the rain again happened when it was needed). I did both for 15 Lei (10 USD). The laundry took forever. I had to come back for it at 20:00 and ultimately it was ready only at 21:45..
I did get to finish my book, which was rather good but had too many similarities to another book by Harlan Coban that I read (Gone for good), so I doubt I’ll be reading any more of his stuff… Returning to the Salvamont cabin was an impossible mission as it was pitch black outside and I hadn’t brought my headlight. So I borrowed one from someone and made it safely “home”. Costin – the Salavmont – claimed I got my laundry back in record time as it typically takes 2 days. We all stayed up until around 1:00 and chatted a large part about Costin hike to 7000m back when he was 35. It was rather interesting.
Tuesday, Sep 4: Fagarasi (Negoiu Cabin – Balea Lake)
The weather was good and so off we (Catalin and I) went towards Balea Lake. This was a long 9.5 hour day that started at 8:10. First we hiked up to Negoiu Peak (2535m), which was nearly 1000m up from the cabin. There were other hikers on the way up. From there we started heading down though a place called “Strunga Dracului” (translation: “the devils way”). This required going down using chains, and while that sounds rather exciting it pretty quickly lost its appeal, as it was simply plain dangerous. The descent was of approximately 200 meters I’d guess. We arrived at Caltun lake where we had lunch and from where we saw no one until the end of the day. At that point the weather also got a bit colder, but fortunately rain was not involved. We proceeded towards Balea lake with no incident and it took another 4 or 5 hours to get there.
Balea lake is a touristic place, unfortunately. There’s a road that crosses (north to south)the Fagarasi mountains and it goes through this place. Thus, unlike the rest of the mountain areas, there’s some noise there, people that are not hikers, and an overpriced hotel with not too friendly people. So we asked the Salvamont if we could stay in his cabin (some places have Salvamont cabins, which are not meant to host people officially). The guy was extremely nice and let us stay there for 20 Lei (8 USD).
Balea lake is a touristic place, unfortunately. There’s a road that crosses (north to south)the Fagarasi mountains and it goes through this place. Thus, unlike the rest of the mountain areas, there’s some noise there, people that are not hikers, and an overpriced hotel with not too friendly people. So we asked the Salvamont if we could stay in his cabin (some places have Salvamont cabins, which are not meant to host people officially). The guy was extremely nice and let us stay there for 20 Lei (8 USD).
Monday, Sep 3: Fagarasi (Negoiu Cabin)
A rather uneventful day. It has been raining the entire day and so I decided to stay in the cabin and wait the rain out. The rain could not have come at a better time, as I was aching from all the previous walking and needed a bit of a break. I spent the day reading Harlan Conban’s “The Innocent” and read some 200 pages. There was a group of older Hungarian folks that had good gear and wanted to head out. They came back after about 30 minutes..
I talked to a Salvamont guy who was there and he mentioned that there was another guy that intended to go to the same destination as I the next day. So I talked to the guy (Catalin – 34 y/o) and we decided to meet the next morning and hike together should the weather permit.
I talked to a Salvamont guy who was there and he mentioned that there was another guy that intended to go to the same destination as I the next day. So I talked to the guy (Catalin – 34 y/o) and we decided to meet the next morning and hike together should the weather permit.
Sunday, Sep 2: Fagarasi (Avrig – Negoiu Cabin)
Today was a bit of a shit day. I successfully hitchhiked from Avrig to Poiana Neamtului (15km), which is one of the many access points to theFagarasi mountains. It is located on the east side and my intent was to proceed westward. I left Poiana Neamtului at around 11:00. I missed the sign to Barcaciu Cabin mostly because the driver said the path leading there was really easy and wide etc., and thus I presumed mistakenly, that the wide path I walked on was the way. I further, paid no attention to the fact that it had no markings. Anyway, I walked up for 2 hours (and saw no one) until reaching a dead end. Well, several dead ends since there were forks in the road and I tried all of them. I called the Salvamont at that point and realized I had to go back to the very beginning, which was most upsetting. So at 13:30 I left again this time on the right track. An important (and useful) lesson was learned though: The paths in Romania are (mostly) very well marked so if you see no mark, then you’re not on the path.
From Poiana Neamtului (706m) it took me 2 hours to get to Barcaciu cabin (1550m). The weather got bad and it rained a bit. At 16:35 I left to Negoiu Cabin (1546m). While there is not much height difference the walk was extremely unpleasant because the path was very narrow with loads of wet vegetation that soaked my barely dry boots again. I was wearing shorts (which was a good thing because it kept my one pair of long trousers dry), which meant that I was pretty damn wet and cold. The walk took 2.5 hours and of course I met no one on the way. Negoiu cabin was great. First, I had a hot shower which was brilliant. Next, the nice lady over there took my shoes and some socks I had and placed them near their kitchen heater to dry. Additionally, she gave me a room of two for the price of a room of four (30Lei =~ 13USD), and there was no one there but myself. Also, I had some good food (or was I just too hungry?).
From Poiana Neamtului (706m) it took me 2 hours to get to Barcaciu cabin (1550m). The weather got bad and it rained a bit. At 16:35 I left to Negoiu Cabin (1546m). While there is not much height difference the walk was extremely unpleasant because the path was very narrow with loads of wet vegetation that soaked my barely dry boots again. I was wearing shorts (which was a good thing because it kept my one pair of long trousers dry), which meant that I was pretty damn wet and cold. The walk took 2.5 hours and of course I met no one on the way. Negoiu cabin was great. First, I had a hot shower which was brilliant. Next, the nice lady over there took my shoes and some socks I had and placed them near their kitchen heater to dry. Additionally, she gave me a room of two for the price of a room of four (30Lei =~ 13USD), and there was no one there but myself. Also, I had some good food (or was I just too hungry?).
Saturday, Sep 1: Carnic - Avrig
Today was a traveling day that got me close to Fagarasi Mountains – my second set of mountains. I woke up at 6:15 and took the microbus to Ohaba de Sub Piatra, where I arrived at 7:00. Then I took a train at 9:01 to Deva, which is a bigger town, and arrived and 10:20. I wanted to get a direct train at 11:50 to Avrig, but missed because of my mail experience (see next). Since my backpack was rather heavy and I heard that the Fagarasi mountains were harder to hike (as indeed turned out to be the case), I decided to mail to my parents’ friends the tent, and some other gear and change the designation of my trip from a tent oriented trip to a cabin oriented trip (this was not possible in the Retezat mountains).
Mail experience:
So I got a taxi driver to take me to the mail center, where my adventure began. When I wanted to mail my stuff the mail person said I needed a box. So the cab driver took me to some supermarket where I got a box. Then once at the mail again, the person said I needed to close the box somehow. So of the cab driver and I went to get some tape. Then upon my return she said that all printing on the box needed to be covered. So I taped some paper on those. Finally, when I thought I was done the person said I needed to close the box with a string. So I got that too. But by this time it was too late as the 11:50 train was gone. Still the adventure was not over. I had to fill out some form in Romanian, and while I can sort off read Romanian this was way beyond me. Additionally, the mail person refused to accept the fact that I had no “From” address. I had to explain to her I was a tourist but to no avail. The compromise was to have the ”From” address match the “To” address.
Eventually I managed to mail the stuff. Next, I got some supplies (i.e. food) and also bought some socks, a T-shirt, and some sheets. The idea behind the latter was that in the cabins one is provided with blankets etc., but these are not clean. Thus I figured why not sleep comfortably with sheets rather than in a sleeping bag.
At 14:40 I got a train to Vintu de Jos and arrived at 16:05. At 16:25 I got another train to Sibiu that arrived at 18:39. Sibiu is currently the cultural capital of Europe. All I got to see was a pharmacy downtown where I went real quick to get some cold medication. At 19:16 my final train ride left and I arrived at Avrig at 20:20. Then I had no choice but to lodge myself in a hotel for 80 Lei (about 35USD). At least I had a good shower…
A couple of notes:
1. The whole trip today got me about 150km (or maybe more) eastward.
2. I was wearing my flip flops the whole day as my boots were still wet :(
Mail experience:
So I got a taxi driver to take me to the mail center, where my adventure began. When I wanted to mail my stuff the mail person said I needed a box. So the cab driver took me to some supermarket where I got a box. Then once at the mail again, the person said I needed to close the box somehow. So of the cab driver and I went to get some tape. Then upon my return she said that all printing on the box needed to be covered. So I taped some paper on those. Finally, when I thought I was done the person said I needed to close the box with a string. So I got that too. But by this time it was too late as the 11:50 train was gone. Still the adventure was not over. I had to fill out some form in Romanian, and while I can sort off read Romanian this was way beyond me. Additionally, the mail person refused to accept the fact that I had no “From” address. I had to explain to her I was a tourist but to no avail. The compromise was to have the ”From” address match the “To” address.
Eventually I managed to mail the stuff. Next, I got some supplies (i.e. food) and also bought some socks, a T-shirt, and some sheets. The idea behind the latter was that in the cabins one is provided with blankets etc., but these are not clean. Thus I figured why not sleep comfortably with sheets rather than in a sleeping bag.
At 14:40 I got a train to Vintu de Jos and arrived at 16:05. At 16:25 I got another train to Sibiu that arrived at 18:39. Sibiu is currently the cultural capital of Europe. All I got to see was a pharmacy downtown where I went real quick to get some cold medication. At 19:16 my final train ride left and I arrived at Avrig at 20:20. Then I had no choice but to lodge myself in a hotel for 80 Lei (about 35USD). At least I had a good shower…
A couple of notes:
1. The whole trip today got me about 150km (or maybe more) eastward.
2. I was wearing my flip flops the whole day as my boots were still wet :(
Friday, Aug 31: Retezat Mountains (Lake Bucura – Bucura Peak - Carnic)
I left camp at 12:30 with all the gear. This was my last days in these mountains. The original plan was to exit the park from the west side. There was a trail marked with yellow stripe and a red circle, which was supposed to split into two trails. Anyway, I somehow missed it, and ended up on the yellow strip trail, which was the one I used to arrive to lake Bucura the first day. The first part was a hike up, which was fairly strenuous, especially in light of the heavy pack, and so I decided to simply backtrack out of the park towards Carnic the way I entered. But, after a little while I realized I could use another track (the red stripe) to get back to Carnic so as to make the hike more interesting. This red stripe track intersected the yellow track. So, I had to backtrack a bit. Next thing I knew I ended up at Bucura Peak (2433m). At least the views were nice. The path I took was by no means optimal, rather it was a nearly circular one and after some 4 hours of walking I ended up about 45 min from where I started…
Anyway, I then continued towards Pietrele cabin (on the way to Carnic) using the blue stripe track and met a group of people near a lake whole name I forget (????). I continued with them to their cabin, which was on the way. I got the train schedule from them and then continued on. Unfortunately, it started raining and since my boots are crap that resulted in an in-shoe flood… There was a shortcut through the woods that could have taken and decided not too as it was getting dark. I arrived at Carnic at 20:30 right as it got dark, which made this a long 8 hour day. It was nice to have a shower!
Anyway, I then continued towards Pietrele cabin (on the way to Carnic) using the blue stripe track and met a group of people near a lake whole name I forget (????). I continued with them to their cabin, which was on the way. I got the train schedule from them and then continued on. Unfortunately, it started raining and since my boots are crap that resulted in an in-shoe flood… There was a shortcut through the woods that could have taken and decided not too as it was getting dark. I arrived at Carnic at 20:30 right as it got dark, which made this a long 8 hour day. It was nice to have a shower!
Thursday, Aug 30: Retezat Mountains (Lake Bucura – Peleaga Peak – Papusa Peak – Lake Peleaga – Lake Bucura)
Woke up at 8:30 and wasn’t feeling too well. I left camp at 12:30 and left the tent and most of the gear. The track today was a circular track that first got me to Peleaga Peak 2509m (the tallest peak in the Retezat mountains) in 1.5 hours The views were terrific . I met two Germans there that arrived shortly after me (they were the only people I met until nearly my return to camp). From there I continued to Papusa Peak 2508m, which took one hour. The two peaks are one next to the other and I basically had to decent to a saddle and then ascend to the other peak. Then I got back down to the saddle between the two peaks and from there descended further on an unmarked path to lake Peleaga, where I arrived at 17:00. I had lunch there and then things got a little interesting as I had to continue on an unmarked path. The Salvamont (i.e. a person working for the rescue service) claimed it was no problem. In reality I had (bad) flashbacks from my Nina Valley Track experience back in New Zealand. Still, I managed to get a place called Poiana Pelegii at 18:48, from where the path was marked. In fact, things were ok even before then, once I crossed Peleaga stream.
The sign to lake Bucura said 2 hours. Although I was already pretty damn tired, I got my ass in gear and headed up (m height difference) toward lake Bucura as fast as I could, at first mostly because it was going to get dark and then because it was going to start raining. Ultimately, I arrived at my tent at 19:50 after having run the last few meters as it started to rain pretty heavily. Indeed, it poured the whole night real hard and fortunately my tent withstood the onslaught with dignity.
The sign to lake Bucura said 2 hours. Although I was already pretty damn tired, I got my ass in gear and headed up (m height difference) toward lake Bucura as fast as I could, at first mostly because it was going to get dark and then because it was going to start raining. Ultimately, I arrived at my tent at 19:50 after having run the last few meters as it started to rain pretty heavily. Indeed, it poured the whole night real hard and fortunately my tent withstood the onslaught with dignity.
Wednesday, Aug 29: Retezat Mountains (… Carnic – Lake Bucura)
I arrived at a place called Petrosani at 2:42am. At 4:10 I took a train to Ohaba de Sub Piatra, which arrived at 5:30. From there I got on a special “Microbu”, which is simply a minivan service that got me to Carnic at 6:20, which is a starting point for Retezat national park mountains. There was one other person with me on the microbus named Alexandru, who is a 36 y/o that went for the mountains as well.
We left Carnic together at 7:45 after a good morning tea. We walked together to a place called Pietrele Cabin, where we arrived at 9:30. This was supposed to be an easy intro walk, but I found it rather difficult as I was carrying quite a bit of weight. We then separated and I continued on my own towards lake Bucura (2040m). On the way I got to Retezat peak (2485m), which was very very nice. Ultimately, I arrived at lake Bucura at 19:15, which made this an 11.5 hour hiking day… There I met up with Alexandru again and set up my tent. I went to bed at 22:30. It was raining, but the tent worked out ok.
We left Carnic together at 7:45 after a good morning tea. We walked together to a place called Pietrele Cabin, where we arrived at 9:30. This was supposed to be an easy intro walk, but I found it rather difficult as I was carrying quite a bit of weight. We then separated and I continued on my own towards lake Bucura (2040m). On the way I got to Retezat peak (2485m), which was very very nice. Ultimately, I arrived at lake Bucura at 19:15, which made this an 11.5 hour hiking day… There I met up with Alexandru again and set up my tent. I went to bed at 22:30. It was raining, but the tent worked out ok.
Tuesday, Aug 28: Bucharest
Spent most of the day re-organizing my backpack and trying to reduce its weight as much as possible. Ultimately, I ended up with an 18kg pack (without any water), which was still rather heavy in my opinion. Miron helped quite a lot with this endeavor. Also, I had my boots repaired a bit (i.e. stiched), since each boot had a hole and there was not time to get new ones... At 20:45 I got on the train. I had a sleeping cart.
A few words about the intended route:
My plan was to do three mountain ridges from west to east: Retezat, Fagarasi, and Piatra Craiului. The second contains the tallest peak in Romania (2544m). The idea was to get from Bucharest to the first using trains (about 400km or so north west), then once done with that go off with trains to Fagarasi. The Fagarasi mountains connect to the third ridge and so I intended to connect using my legs. Ultimately that didn’t happen due to not having sufficient time (rain delays) . This wasn’t too bad as I learned that the nicest parts of Fagarasi or on the west to center part, which I ultimately have done.
Layout:
In order to do Retezat properly, one needs a tent as there is no cabin in the very center. Thus this began as a tent oriented hike. Fagarasi and Piatra Craiului can be done using cabins that are laid in “strategic” locations along the way.
Dates:
My return date to Bucharest is Sep 11th (no connection to America…) at which point I am to meet parents and brother, whom I have not seen in 17 and 7 months, respectively. It sort of feels like “The Simpsons” as my brother would be arriving from the US, parents from Israel, and your truly from some god forsaken mountain. Bro will be arriving on early 10th, parents on early 11th, and I sometimes during the day.
A few words about the intended route:
My plan was to do three mountain ridges from west to east: Retezat, Fagarasi, and Piatra Craiului. The second contains the tallest peak in Romania (2544m). The idea was to get from Bucharest to the first using trains (about 400km or so north west), then once done with that go off with trains to Fagarasi. The Fagarasi mountains connect to the third ridge and so I intended to connect using my legs. Ultimately that didn’t happen due to not having sufficient time (rain delays) . This wasn’t too bad as I learned that the nicest parts of Fagarasi or on the west to center part, which I ultimately have done.
Layout:
In order to do Retezat properly, one needs a tent as there is no cabin in the very center. Thus this began as a tent oriented hike. Fagarasi and Piatra Craiului can be done using cabins that are laid in “strategic” locations along the way.
Dates:
My return date to Bucharest is Sep 11th (no connection to America…) at which point I am to meet parents and brother, whom I have not seen in 17 and 7 months, respectively. It sort of feels like “The Simpsons” as my brother would be arriving from the US, parents from Israel, and your truly from some god forsaken mountain. Bro will be arriving on early 10th, parents on early 11th, and I sometimes during the day.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, Aug 27: Bucharest
I spent most of the day, in fact all of the day, buying things for my big hiking trip in the Romanian mountains. The plan is to do three different ridges. The first are
I was just about to leave and in fact even made it to the train station and the train itself when I realized that the pack was simply too heavy, and the hike might become more of a torture than fun. So, I headed back home to re-think my packing and figure things out. Tomorrow I’m leaving. Hopefully there should no further delays.
Sunday, Aug 26: Bucharest
I spent the first half of the day at home playing with the Internet so to speak.
In the afternoon I went for a good 3 hour walk with the intent of doing some reading in a park. However, the extreme heat was over and it started raining, so no reading for me. While walking I met this Dutch girl (Joanne). She was holding a map and as the gentleman that I am I offered some help. It turned out this is her 6th visit to
Around
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, Aug 25: Bucharest
I woke up at
The plan is to hook up with brother on the 8th of Sep, and add parents to the party on the 11th. Until then however, I plan on going to the mountains for some good hiking. Therefore, a friend of the friends, who is well familiar with the mountains, showed up around
Once that was done I spent some time doing the usual things one does when arriving into a new country: Change some money, get a local sim card, get some maps, etc.
I need to mention that while
Finally, in the evening I went to check the night life and was very disappointed. Now this is either because I didn’t find the right places where all the action is (a rather likely possibilities), or because the night life does suck around here (I sure hope not).
A few words about the language – I have been used in the last 8 years or so that Romanian serves as a great private communication channel (simply put – Tudor and I have been talking about people behind their backs (or rather not) in Romanian for years). It is most bizarre to suddenly have everyone understand Romanian. Very strange indeed!
Friday, Aug 24: Istanbul
The day started with me shortening my stay in Turkey. Not that it's not an interesting place, but I this trip is not about museums.. So off I went to Turkish airlines and for only 50 USD I got to cut one day from my stay here.
Next I went to Dolmabace palace, which was built in the mid 19th century. The palace stretches 600 meters and is enormous. It has 285 rooms and among other things has a 4.5 ton chandelir with 664 lights. I suppose the palace serves to show how human ego is truly limitless. At the palace there were guards that stood motionless in the blazing sun with full uniforms. They stay like that for an entire hour. It seemed to me that it is some sort of torture.
After the palace I walked to the bridge that connects Europe and Asia and is supposedly the fifth longest in the world and the second in Europe. The walk turned out to be far longer than I had thought. Then I had some excitement. I got a taxi to take me over the bridge (one is not allowed to walk over it since someone jumped off of it). As we got to the beginning; a large traffic jam exposed itself and I got off right there. As I was walking away I hit a pole and tore my new Bilabong shorts :( But within less than 10 minutes I found a shop where I could fix them (only 2.25 USD).
Got on another cab and then the tram and I finally made it back to the old part of the city where I'm staying.
Next I went to Dolmabace palace, which was built in the mid 19th century. The palace stretches 600 meters and is enormous. It has 285 rooms and among other things has a 4.5 ton chandelir with 664 lights. I suppose the palace serves to show how human ego is truly limitless. At the palace there were guards that stood motionless in the blazing sun with full uniforms. They stay like that for an entire hour. It seemed to me that it is some sort of torture.
After the palace I walked to the bridge that connects Europe and Asia and is supposedly the fifth longest in the world and the second in Europe. The walk turned out to be far longer than I had thought. Then I had some excitement. I got a taxi to take me over the bridge (one is not allowed to walk over it since someone jumped off of it). As we got to the beginning; a large traffic jam exposed itself and I got off right there. As I was walking away I hit a pole and tore my new Bilabong shorts :( But within less than 10 minutes I found a shop where I could fix them (only 2.25 USD).
Got on another cab and then the tram and I finally made it back to the old part of the city where I'm staying.
One last thing about the Turkish money. I have just noticed it today - it seems that like in Thailand all notes have the same face (in Thailand it's Mr. King and here I suppose it must be Ataturk - the dude who formed the republic) - how very convenient...
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Thursday, Aug 23:Istanbul
The flight to
Eventually I managed to get my hands on an Istanbul map and directions to an area in the old city that should have hostels. As is the case in Thailand, people here seem to solicit all the time (taxi, food, rugs, and so forth). This is one of the ultimate signs of a third world country.I say keep'em out of the union.
Anyway, after using the train and the tram I got to the relevant area and eventually found a hostel around 9:30am. Next, I got a haircut, which is ok but most certainly far from being spectacular (where is the barber from Nelson, NZ when you need him?). At11:30 I finally went to bed for a power nap.
The nap was good but from the depths of my sleep I could hear a man screaming through some speaker system. Yes, it was the Muazzin. I don't get this. Is God all mighty and deaf? Does he really need people to use speakers? I woke up at 14:30 and shortly thereafter went to tour the old city. I passed by Topkap and Ayasofya museums, and only admired them from the outside. I did go into the Blue Mosque, otherwise known as Sultanahmet, which was built between 1609 and 1616. The Mosque is most impressive and I can see the appeal of becoming Muslim. I was not let into the mosque during prayer unfortunately...
In the evening I went for a long walk along the Bosphorus straıts.
One thing about driving: for the first time in 6 months I'm back in a country that drives on the right (in more ways than one) side of the road. It was slightly confusing at first, but as I had anticipated, it took very little time to get used to it.
Wednesday, Aug 22: Bangkok
This was my last day in Bangkok. As such, it was fully dedicated towards running errands. Specifically, I did some more shopping (it probably sounds like I bought half the country - but as most of you know I'm an exceptionally slow shopper). I went to the MBK, which is a large shopping mall and got myself one of those basic MP3 players (2GB + rechargeable batteries + charger for 37USD). On my way back freom the mall I managed to crack the display...
From 18:00 till 19:00 I had my last massage, which was actually pretty good. Hopped on the airport bus at 20:00, and took off to Turkey at 23:45.
From 18:00 till 19:00 I had my last massage, which was actually pretty good. Hopped on the airport bus at 20:00, and took off to Turkey at 23:45.
Tuesday, Aug 21: Bangkok
I spent the first part of the day shopping, which is always a painful experience for me. Mostly I bought cloths - although not too many. I met up with Anat and Shira and an American friend of theirs (Sarah) for lunch. In fact, for the last couple of days I've been eating only ion the Israeli place, since I've gotten sick of Thai food, which for the most part is noodles, noodles, and some more noodles. Furthermore, I haven't eaten meat in quite some time, since it hasn't been sitting well with me ever since my ER experience.
I didn't do too much in the afternoon/evening except for devouring a whole pizza myself for dinner...
I didn't do too much in the afternoon/evening except for devouring a whole pizza myself for dinner...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Monday, Aug 20: Bangkok
It was a rather short night. I woke up at 9:45 so I didn't get much sleep. I didn't do much today. Basically, went to the "Israeli center" for some breakfast. A bit of explanation is in order here: There are two Israeli businesses called: "Lametayel" and "Haksher", where most Israelis around here congregate. The latter is a restaurant only, while the former is both a travel agency, a restaurant, a storage service, and an Internet facility. Both places swarm with Israelis and it's a good bet to meet people here. Indeed we met Anat, Shira, Sharona and Namoi, and had breakfast with the last two.
Other than that the day was spent doing mostly nothing. Nir took off at 13:30 to the airport as he is going back to Israel. So I'm traveling solo again. Naomi and Sharona took off to the north (Chiang Mai) at 18:00, and Anat and Shira are supposed to still be in town.
Other than that the day was spent doing mostly nothing. Nir took off at 13:30 to the airport as he is going back to Israel. So I'm traveling solo again. Naomi and Sharona took off to the north (Chiang Mai) at 18:00, and Anat and Shira are supposed to still be in town.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, Aug 19: Bangkok
Today was mostly an errands day. First, Nir wanted to have a suit tailored. So off we went to some shop and got that out of the way. Then around 14:00 we went to MBK, which is one of those large malls. We hung out there for a while and got to see "The Simpsons", which is quite funny indeed. Then we returned to Kaho San road, which is around where we're staying. We met up with Anat and Shira and then ran into Naomi and Sharona (met these girls before Kanchanaburi). Ultimately, we went out with Naomi and Sharona (I'm not sure what Anat and Shira were up to). We hung out with them rather late and I didn't get to go to bed until 6:30am.
Friday - Saturday, Aug 17-18: Kanchanaburi
I just wrote a bloody long entry that got deleted. So here goes again - in short. I got myself on one of those organized tours to Kanachanburi, which is 2 hours away from Bangkok. As in the Jeep tour up north in Chiag Mai, the whole group was Israeli. Unlike the Jeep tour, this group was much more fun. most of the time Nir and I hung out with 4 girls that we met - Anat, Shira (sisters), Shani, and Inbar. Here is what we did:
Day 1 - Friday:
1. Visited Tiger Temple - a place where wild tigers can be seen and patted. I think they were drugged though.
2. Had a boat trip along the river Kwai and saw the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai", which was built by POWs during WWII (there's a movie too).
3. Got a 30 minute foot massage (which was in fact only 22 minutes long).
4. Went to the local night market, which was mostly boring and had nothing to offer.
Day 2 - Saturday:
Today we did two things. First went to the 7 Tiers Waterfalls, which is a 2.5 km walk along which there are 7 waterfalls.The highlight was waterfall number 3, where we got into the water. What was exceptionally fun was sliding down two dome shaped rocks over which the waterfall was flowing.
The second attraction of the day was riding some elephants and bathing them in the Kwai river. Elephants are really fun creatures. They walk really slowly and seem as if nothing really bothers them. They also have the incredible ability of taking a dump while they walk (and yes, elephant poop does float).
Finally, on the way back to Bangkok Nir and I had a conversation with an older man who was traveling with with his family. As it turned out rather quickly, this person was the head of the "Lavi" project in its entirety. The conversation was extremely interesting and illuminating. (For those not familiar, the "Lavi" project was the Israeli project of constructing a state of the art jet fighter back in the 80's. The aircraft was built in as little as 4 years from scratch and used new technologies that made it a superior to F-16. Only 4 prototypes were built. The project was canceled upon completion due to American pressure.)
Once in Bangkok we did the bar thing and played some pool with the gals.
Day 1 - Friday:
1. Visited Tiger Temple - a place where wild tigers can be seen and patted. I think they were drugged though.
2. Had a boat trip along the river Kwai and saw the famous "Bridge over the River Kwai", which was built by POWs during WWII (there's a movie too).
3. Got a 30 minute foot massage (which was in fact only 22 minutes long).
4. Went to the local night market, which was mostly boring and had nothing to offer.
Day 2 - Saturday:
Today we did two things. First went to the 7 Tiers Waterfalls, which is a 2.5 km walk along which there are 7 waterfalls.The highlight was waterfall number 3, where we got into the water. What was exceptionally fun was sliding down two dome shaped rocks over which the waterfall was flowing.
The second attraction of the day was riding some elephants and bathing them in the Kwai river. Elephants are really fun creatures. They walk really slowly and seem as if nothing really bothers them. They also have the incredible ability of taking a dump while they walk (and yes, elephant poop does float).
Finally, on the way back to Bangkok Nir and I had a conversation with an older man who was traveling with with his family. As it turned out rather quickly, this person was the head of the "Lavi" project in its entirety. The conversation was extremely interesting and illuminating. (For those not familiar, the "Lavi" project was the Israeli project of constructing a state of the art jet fighter back in the 80's. The aircraft was built in as little as 4 years from scratch and used new technologies that made it a superior to F-16. Only 4 prototypes were built. The project was canceled upon completion due to American pressure.)
Once in Bangkok we did the bar thing and played some pool with the gals.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Thursday, Aug 16: Bangkok
The day started late at 11:30 when we met Dikla, Sharona and Naomi. We all did three things today:
1. Went the king's palace. it was interesting but I wasn't facsinated.
2. Went to the Massage school next to the palace and had a herb massage. It was ok.
3. Went to the MBK shopping center (one of the main ones) and saw the movie "The Bourne Ultimatum", which was brilliant! We got to the shopping center a "tuk tuk" and it was most amusing. The guy claimed he could get us there in half the time a taxi would. Now I was wondering how could that be given that a tuk tuk is also wide and occupies a lane. The answer was presented to me shortly thereafter when he drove part of the way on the wrong lane...
1. Went the king's palace. it was interesting but I wasn't facsinated.
2. Went to the Massage school next to the palace and had a herb massage. It was ok.
3. Went to the MBK shopping center (one of the main ones) and saw the movie "The Bourne Ultimatum", which was brilliant! We got to the shopping center a "tuk tuk" and it was most amusing. The guy claimed he could get us there in half the time a taxi would. Now I was wondering how could that be given that a tuk tuk is also wide and occupies a lane. The answer was presented to me shortly thereafter when he drove part of the way on the wrong lane...
Wednesday, Aug 15: Pai - Bangkok
The day started at around 9:00 when we drove the motorbikes to a waterfall and had breakfast at a truly Thai place (i.e. a house/restaurant in the middle of nowhere). Then we had a Thai massage (these are actually semi painful but insteresting - more like an extended stretching session I suppose). After that we got on the minivan back to Chiang Mai. This drive is awful. A 140km road which is mostly windy and takes over 3 hours to drive.
From Chiang Mai its airport we took something called a "tuk tuk", which is a 3 wheeled motorbike. These folks tend to be extremely annoyiing as they swarm all over the place and keep offering their services. However, we figured we had to experience it once so we took one to the airport. The ride was quite fun actually.
We then hopped on a plane and flew to Bangkok. The taxi ride to Kaho San road was interesting. Specifically, the driver wanted 200 Baht (the first wanted 500 so I didn't even start negotiating with him), so we hopped on. 200 Baht seemed a bit on the low end, and I was a bit worried he might somehow change his mind. Indeed, when we arrived he asked for 200 x 2 - i.e. 200a person. Of course, I pretended not to understand and quoted his original 200 offer. The driver pretty quickly said "ok ok" and took the 200. Now here's the thing about the Thai people. They know very little English, and often they purposely pretened not to understand things so that the tourists loose their patience and they (the Thai) get things their way. I've learned this and decided to use the same strategy against them. It worked wonderfully well with this taxi driver.
Then at dinner we met 3 Israeli girls that had just arrived (Dikla, Naomi, Sharona) so we hung out with them for a while.
From Chiang Mai its airport we took something called a "tuk tuk", which is a 3 wheeled motorbike. These folks tend to be extremely annoyiing as they swarm all over the place and keep offering their services. However, we figured we had to experience it once so we took one to the airport. The ride was quite fun actually.
We then hopped on a plane and flew to Bangkok. The taxi ride to Kaho San road was interesting. Specifically, the driver wanted 200 Baht (the first wanted 500 so I didn't even start negotiating with him), so we hopped on. 200 Baht seemed a bit on the low end, and I was a bit worried he might somehow change his mind. Indeed, when we arrived he asked for 200 x 2 - i.e. 200a person. Of course, I pretended not to understand and quoted his original 200 offer. The driver pretty quickly said "ok ok" and took the 200. Now here's the thing about the Thai people. They know very little English, and often they purposely pretened not to understand things so that the tourists loose their patience and they (the Thai) get things their way. I've learned this and decided to use the same strategy against them. It worked wonderfully well with this taxi driver.
Then at dinner we met 3 Israeli girls that had just arrived (Dikla, Naomi, Sharona) so we hung out with them for a while.
Tuesday, Aug 14: Pai
Around noon we rented motorbikes: 125cc Honda, semi automatic (i.e. gear with no clutch) for only 6 USD for 24hours including all types of insurances (not bad..). Most of the day I spent riding the motorbike in the outskirts of this little town. How little is little one might wonder. Well, there are only two traffic lights in town...
That pretty much concluded the whole day.
That pretty much concluded the whole day.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Monday, Aug 13: Chiang Mai - Pai
Left Chiang Mai at 10:00 to a place called Pai. It was a 3.5 our drive that was aweful. 140 km of winding road that felt as bad as the worst boat trips. It was amazing to have a British couple that was actually reading in the van. How they managed is beyond me...
We arrived in Pai at 13:30 and didn't do much today. I was beat, so I took a 2hr nap, which was brilliant. That pretty much concluded the day.
We arrived in Pai at 13:30 and didn't do much today. I was beat, so I took a 2hr nap, which was brilliant. That pretty much concluded the day.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday - Sunday Aug 10 - 12: Jeep Tour
The Jeep tour consisted of about 8 Jeeps with some 40 people or so, all of whom Israelis with the exception of a Dutch family. There were young folks and families as well.
Day 1 - Friday:
We were supposed to be with the Dutch, but then they changed to a smaller Jeep where they can be on their own as they were not feeling to well and didn't want us to suffer their throwing up. So we got Haim (dad), Dana (mom), and Tehila (daughter), who are the typical (yes racist comment) "Mizrahim (i.e., "African Israelis" as I like to call them..). Anyway, I figured it might be fun and these people tend to be more open which had some good potential. I was wrong. But more about this at the end.
The first stop was at a snake farm, which was quite interesting. There were lots of sneaks around and there was a snake show, which was remarkable.
The second stop was an orchid farm, which was not at all interesting for me.
Stop three was an elephant show and riding. This was really cool. First we fed some of the elephants. It was strange seeing them eating whole bananas with their skins.. The elephants were exceptionally trained and performed some extraordinary tricks. Among them was drawing a picture with the trunk. We also got to ride an elephant. Now these animals are huge and so slow, that it's really strange riding them. We concluded the elephant place with an ox cart riding. This was ok, but by no means special.
The next stop was white water rafting. Now the water wasn't really white, and so the rafting was not nearly as much fun as it's New Zealand equivalent. But it was ok.
Finally, there was some Off Road driving, which is basically utilizing the 4x4 capability of the vehicles.
We had dinner and an overnight stay at a place called Faang, where there was nothing to do, which was great as I was under severe lack of sleep.
Day 2 - Saturday:
The first item of the day was visiting three tribes, one of which was the main attraction. That was the " Long Neck" tribe. Basically, these folks put ring around their females necks. These weight as much as 5 kilos, and they never take them off. Also they are only allowed to breed within their own tribe. Obviously this is not such a good idea as far as diversifying the gene pool, especially when the tribe has only 52 people. So brothers and sisters and you get the picture...
The next stop was visiting some monkeys that were loose. This was really amusing. We fed the monkeys with bananas and peanuts. It was amazing to see how fast they cracked the peanuts (which came inside a shell) and peeled the bananas. It seemed they all had the same system for doing so.
Stop three was a place called "Golden Triangle", which is where Thailand, Burma and Laos intersect. The place has its name from the fact that people used to smuggle drugs there and those drugs where pricier than gold. Nowadays there are no drugs in Thailand as they cracked down on it and in doing so executed some 2500 people... So we stopped in Laos for an hour for people to do some shopping. Most of the stuff their was completely useless ("Shmonzes").
Finally, the day ended in Chiang Rai, where we stayed at a pretty nice hotel.
On a completely unrelated note - during idle time when I was bored I toyed with the basic question of proving the existence of Pi from first principles - i.e. without the use of calculus. This is something that should be easy as it has been known for millennia yet I don't recall ever seeing a proof for it. I'm happy to declare that Pi does indeed exist...
Day 3 - Monday:
The first thing on the agenda was a pretty nice waterfall. We had to walk some 2km to get there. Next there was an off road drive, which was very cool. The Jeeps are very resilient it seems.
The second and final stop of the day was at a hot spring resort. It was quite nice but nowhere near as good as the hot springs in Hunmer Springs, New Zealand. On the way to the hot springs one Jeep rolled over in a self accident. Nothing happened to the four guys that were riding in it (they were a bunch of 18 y/o before being drafted). The reason they rolled over was because one of those guys was drinking and driving...
Finally we arrived back to Chiang Mai at 21:15.
------
A few words about the folks we were driving with in the car. We tried to befriend them and things were fine the first and second day. Mr. Dad was continuously smoking in the car, but we made no big fuss about it despite the obvious annoyance. It seemed however, that Mr. Dad wanted to drive more than he should. On the third day he pretty much tried to monopolize the driving, which was most annoying. Consequently things deteriorated. Effectively, we had a low intensity conflict that seemed to escalate as the day went by.
He drove nearly the entire first day, which meant the rest of the driving were to be divided by Nir and me. We got quite annoyed with him, as he wanted to drive part of the off road driving on the third day (there was no off road on day 2). Now this is the main attraction as far as driving is concerned and he had already driven the whole segment on the first day. There was no reasoning with him (mostly due to his bad breading and exceptionally low IQ). I didn't want to have a confrontation (I was under the wrong impression that it was avoidable) and so I offered that he get the first 30 minutes of the off road, which later turned out to be one third of the whole thing. This was most upsetting to us, and together with the fact that they (the whole family) wouldn't let us both sit in the front (as they did for the whole day) resulted in the sad realization that conflict was inevitable (and in essence was already taking place). So we used Nir's phone as an audio player and made sure to put only songs in English. We figured they wouldn't like them. Mr. Dad made some remark after the very first song (fergalicious - what a brilliant choice of mine).
To make a long story short the situation exploded after the hot springs (40 minute drive to the end) where Mr. Dad was in the driver's seat and I had the keys (effectively this was a standoff, although technically I had the better hand since I was mobile and he was not). He made all sort of silly accusations (of me being a snake etc. etc.) , which were factually baseless and completely unfounded. His wife and daughter joined in as well (I thought they were mostly mute up top that point). Of course, being the feeble minded "Amcha" creatures that they were (for those English speakers - I'm afraid there is no translation for "Amcha"), there was no point in trying to reason with them. It seemed to me that training an elephant to draw a picture would be an easier task. So I gave the dick head the keys and just waited for the experience to be over...
Day 1 - Friday:
We were supposed to be with the Dutch, but then they changed to a smaller Jeep where they can be on their own as they were not feeling to well and didn't want us to suffer their throwing up. So we got Haim (dad), Dana (mom), and Tehila (daughter), who are the typical (yes racist comment) "Mizrahim (i.e., "African Israelis" as I like to call them..). Anyway, I figured it might be fun and these people tend to be more open which had some good potential. I was wrong. But more about this at the end.
The first stop was at a snake farm, which was quite interesting. There were lots of sneaks around and there was a snake show, which was remarkable.
The second stop was an orchid farm, which was not at all interesting for me.
Stop three was an elephant show and riding. This was really cool. First we fed some of the elephants. It was strange seeing them eating whole bananas with their skins.. The elephants were exceptionally trained and performed some extraordinary tricks. Among them was drawing a picture with the trunk. We also got to ride an elephant. Now these animals are huge and so slow, that it's really strange riding them. We concluded the elephant place with an ox cart riding. This was ok, but by no means special.
The next stop was white water rafting. Now the water wasn't really white, and so the rafting was not nearly as much fun as it's New Zealand equivalent. But it was ok.
Finally, there was some Off Road driving, which is basically utilizing the 4x4 capability of the vehicles.
We had dinner and an overnight stay at a place called Faang, where there was nothing to do, which was great as I was under severe lack of sleep.
Day 2 - Saturday:
The first item of the day was visiting three tribes, one of which was the main attraction. That was the " Long Neck" tribe. Basically, these folks put ring around their females necks. These weight as much as 5 kilos, and they never take them off. Also they are only allowed to breed within their own tribe. Obviously this is not such a good idea as far as diversifying the gene pool, especially when the tribe has only 52 people. So brothers and sisters and you get the picture...
The next stop was visiting some monkeys that were loose. This was really amusing. We fed the monkeys with bananas and peanuts. It was amazing to see how fast they cracked the peanuts (which came inside a shell) and peeled the bananas. It seemed they all had the same system for doing so.
Stop three was a place called "Golden Triangle", which is where Thailand, Burma and Laos intersect. The place has its name from the fact that people used to smuggle drugs there and those drugs where pricier than gold. Nowadays there are no drugs in Thailand as they cracked down on it and in doing so executed some 2500 people... So we stopped in Laos for an hour for people to do some shopping. Most of the stuff their was completely useless ("Shmonzes").
Finally, the day ended in Chiang Rai, where we stayed at a pretty nice hotel.
On a completely unrelated note - during idle time when I was bored I toyed with the basic question of proving the existence of Pi from first principles - i.e. without the use of calculus. This is something that should be easy as it has been known for millennia yet I don't recall ever seeing a proof for it. I'm happy to declare that Pi does indeed exist...
Day 3 - Monday:
The first thing on the agenda was a pretty nice waterfall. We had to walk some 2km to get there. Next there was an off road drive, which was very cool. The Jeeps are very resilient it seems.
The second and final stop of the day was at a hot spring resort. It was quite nice but nowhere near as good as the hot springs in Hunmer Springs, New Zealand. On the way to the hot springs one Jeep rolled over in a self accident. Nothing happened to the four guys that were riding in it (they were a bunch of 18 y/o before being drafted). The reason they rolled over was because one of those guys was drinking and driving...
Finally we arrived back to Chiang Mai at 21:15.
------
A few words about the folks we were driving with in the car. We tried to befriend them and things were fine the first and second day. Mr. Dad was continuously smoking in the car, but we made no big fuss about it despite the obvious annoyance. It seemed however, that Mr. Dad wanted to drive more than he should. On the third day he pretty much tried to monopolize the driving, which was most annoying. Consequently things deteriorated. Effectively, we had a low intensity conflict that seemed to escalate as the day went by.
He drove nearly the entire first day, which meant the rest of the driving were to be divided by Nir and me. We got quite annoyed with him, as he wanted to drive part of the off road driving on the third day (there was no off road on day 2). Now this is the main attraction as far as driving is concerned and he had already driven the whole segment on the first day. There was no reasoning with him (mostly due to his bad breading and exceptionally low IQ). I didn't want to have a confrontation (I was under the wrong impression that it was avoidable) and so I offered that he get the first 30 minutes of the off road, which later turned out to be one third of the whole thing. This was most upsetting to us, and together with the fact that they (the whole family) wouldn't let us both sit in the front (as they did for the whole day) resulted in the sad realization that conflict was inevitable (and in essence was already taking place). So we used Nir's phone as an audio player and made sure to put only songs in English. We figured they wouldn't like them. Mr. Dad made some remark after the very first song (fergalicious - what a brilliant choice of mine).
To make a long story short the situation exploded after the hot springs (40 minute drive to the end) where Mr. Dad was in the driver's seat and I had the keys (effectively this was a standoff, although technically I had the better hand since I was mobile and he was not). He made all sort of silly accusations (of me being a snake etc. etc.) , which were factually baseless and completely unfounded. His wife and daughter joined in as well (I thought they were mostly mute up top that point). Of course, being the feeble minded "Amcha" creatures that they were (for those English speakers - I'm afraid there is no translation for "Amcha"), there was no point in trying to reason with them. It seemed to me that training an elephant to draw a picture would be an easier task. So I gave the dick head the keys and just waited for the experience to be over...
Thursday, Aug 9: Patong - Chiang Mai
A traveling day mostly. Got up at 5:30 got an 8:50 flight to bangkok. Then switched airports (long story, but we made a mistake and got a connecting flight to the north from the wrong airport). Got another flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (in the very north of Thailand) at 12:50 and arrived at 14:00. We registered for a three day Jeep safari with a company called Thena. As it turns out this company effectively serves just Israelis, which is not a good thing in light of the type of Israelis involved. I predict "Gveret Timtemet" might have some good competition for the tittle. I both look forward to the experience and also dread it...
Wednesday, Aug 8: Koh Phi Phi - Patong
Despite the action of the previous night, we decided to go with the original plan. Namely, Nir and I separated from Nadav (he is flying back to Israel shortly) and took a boat at 14:30 to the mainland. The boat was a 2-hour sale, which was not very pleasant. In fact, most boats I got on in this trip were not very pleasant and I mostly find myself lying down waiting for the time to pass and for me to get back on solid ground. Anyway, we arrived in Patong at around 18:00.
We then had dinner, which was the best soup I've had in this country or anywhere else for that matter. Speaking of food, I'm on a three day special diet, which means I can pretty much eat almost nothing... Finally, the day was concluded with a pretty good massage.
We then had dinner, which was the best soup I've had in this country or anywhere else for that matter. Speaking of food, I'm on a three day special diet, which means I can pretty much eat almost nothing... Finally, the day was concluded with a pretty good massage.
Tuesday night - Wednesday morning, Aug 7-8: Koh Phi Phi ER
Shortly after dinner I started feeling not so well. Around 22:30 I figured I had to go back to the guest house where we were staying as the bad feeling got slightly worse. Nir and Nadav came along and fell asleep shortly thereafter. I started having stomach aches the like of which I've never had in my life (a pretty bold statement coming from someone like me as some might know). While typically when one eats something bad the stomach hurts in the belly button area and the matter is easily resolved through diarrhea, in this case it hurt way up (uncharted territory) and there was no output at the little boy's room (at least at first). So around 1:00 am, after a couple of hours of pain, which got worse, and after making friends with the toilet I woke up Nir and Nadav at that point when I was afraid I was going to faint.
They were of great help. First, Nadav found Lili (I am not sure how he managed that) and brought her up. They asked me if I wanted go to the hospital (I was surprised there was one), and I figured I should since things were getting worse. So off we went. Now getting to the hospital wasn't a simple matter. At first Lili suggested they take me using a two-wheel transportation device (hell if I know what it's called), which was the most uncomfortable thing in the world. About 10 seconds into the ride and after banging my head I decided walking was a better option. Nir helped me with the walking, and the distance seemed endless since when a wave of pain came the walking was halted. Close to the hospital we passed by some sort of a cop who helped as well.
The hospital was the worst one I've ever been. First of all it was not very clean. Mostly the problem was with the toilet (which I visited all too many times during the night) - it lacked toilet paper (except for some that was outside and thus outside help was needed) and there was no soap to wash one's hands. Furthermore, there were loads of mosquitoes, which made the whole experience not too pleasant. More about mosquitoes shortly.
As we were getting to the hospital I told Nir that if needles are involved he must make sure they are disposables and never been used. Also, since I had no idea what was to come, I told him that only under the most severe circumstances should he allow blood transfusion. I was very worried about the possibility of HIV.
When I was in the ER communicating with the outside world was a problem. I was under nearly continuous pain and could not talk to anyone (although I could indeed think properly mostly). They wanted me to drink water as I got dehydrated. In fact Nadav, ran to get bottled water (you shouldn't drink water from the tap and they had no bottled water in the hospital). Anyway, the water made me feel worse and I had to use pen and paper to write in the most basic manner that water was bad and IV was needed. So I got an IV and spent the night there. I was fortunate that Lili was there at the ER as she made communicating with the nurse much easier.
The nurse didn't make any decision and I found it extraordinary that there was no doctor on call. I thought they should treat the situation methodically by running some tests. Of course none were performed. We decided that it would be best for me to spend the night at the hospital and so I did. At that point Nadav took off (the next day I learned that he threw up a couple of times..) and Nir stayed for the remainder of the night.
The night was packed with mosquito fun. I spent the night in the lobby, which had fans to keep away the mosquitoes, but with little success. Both Nir and I got beaten really badly. At some point my left arm was completely swollen, but that somehow faded away in the morning.
The pain subsided as the night progressed and in the morning I checked out. The whole thing only cost 1300Baht ~= 40 USD....
They were of great help. First, Nadav found Lili (I am not sure how he managed that) and brought her up. They asked me if I wanted go to the hospital (I was surprised there was one), and I figured I should since things were getting worse. So off we went. Now getting to the hospital wasn't a simple matter. At first Lili suggested they take me using a two-wheel transportation device (hell if I know what it's called), which was the most uncomfortable thing in the world. About 10 seconds into the ride and after banging my head I decided walking was a better option. Nir helped me with the walking, and the distance seemed endless since when a wave of pain came the walking was halted. Close to the hospital we passed by some sort of a cop who helped as well.
The hospital was the worst one I've ever been. First of all it was not very clean. Mostly the problem was with the toilet (which I visited all too many times during the night) - it lacked toilet paper (except for some that was outside and thus outside help was needed) and there was no soap to wash one's hands. Furthermore, there were loads of mosquitoes, which made the whole experience not too pleasant. More about mosquitoes shortly.
As we were getting to the hospital I told Nir that if needles are involved he must make sure they are disposables and never been used. Also, since I had no idea what was to come, I told him that only under the most severe circumstances should he allow blood transfusion. I was very worried about the possibility of HIV.
When I was in the ER communicating with the outside world was a problem. I was under nearly continuous pain and could not talk to anyone (although I could indeed think properly mostly). They wanted me to drink water as I got dehydrated. In fact Nadav, ran to get bottled water (you shouldn't drink water from the tap and they had no bottled water in the hospital). Anyway, the water made me feel worse and I had to use pen and paper to write in the most basic manner that water was bad and IV was needed. So I got an IV and spent the night there. I was fortunate that Lili was there at the ER as she made communicating with the nurse much easier.
The nurse didn't make any decision and I found it extraordinary that there was no doctor on call. I thought they should treat the situation methodically by running some tests. Of course none were performed. We decided that it would be best for me to spend the night at the hospital and so I did. At that point Nadav took off (the next day I learned that he threw up a couple of times..) and Nir stayed for the remainder of the night.
The night was packed with mosquito fun. I spent the night in the lobby, which had fans to keep away the mosquitoes, but with little success. Both Nir and I got beaten really badly. At some point my left arm was completely swollen, but that somehow faded away in the morning.
The pain subsided as the night progressed and in the morning I checked out. The whole thing only cost 1300Baht ~= 40 USD....
Tuesday, Aug 7: Koh Phi Phi
We (Nir Nadav, Daphne, and me) rented a taxi boat for the whole day with some Thai guy who called himself "The Boxing Man", although he had no resemblance to one. We went to a place called "Maya Bay", which is where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. In order to actually get to Maya Beach one needed to get to the shore and get past some big rocks. Many got slightly injured. I didn't. But then again I didn't go since I decided to stay with the boat (a precaution against having Mr. boxing man still our stuff). We also did some snorkeling, which was very nice and would have far better if I had worn my contacts...
Afterwords, we continued to a place called "Bamboo Island", which was about an hour away. As we arrived some guy demanded we payed 200Baht (~6.5 USD) to enter. The boxing man never mentioned that and when we asked him why he hadn't he just shrugged. So we figured this was some sort of a scham. We did some arguing and Daphne proposed we pay 200B for all four of us and the "ranger" agreed. That in my opinion was an indication that it was indeed a schem. Furthermore, the note the ranger held had loads of English mistakes, which strengthened my belief in the schem theory. Ultimately, when we were about to pay the guy let us in without any payment.
We returned to the main island (Phi Phi) at 18:00. We ran some errands among them was to ask Lili (a Hebrew speaking Thai travel agent who worked in Haifa for 11 years!) about the whole 200B thing. She claimed it was legit. Who knows..
At around 20:00 the four of us went for dinner in an "all you can eat" meat place. It wasn't bad. Or was it?
Afterwords, we continued to a place called "Bamboo Island", which was about an hour away. As we arrived some guy demanded we payed 200Baht (~6.5 USD) to enter. The boxing man never mentioned that and when we asked him why he hadn't he just shrugged. So we figured this was some sort of a scham. We did some arguing and Daphne proposed we pay 200B for all four of us and the "ranger" agreed. That in my opinion was an indication that it was indeed a schem. Furthermore, the note the ranger held had loads of English mistakes, which strengthened my belief in the schem theory. Ultimately, when we were about to pay the guy let us in without any payment.
We returned to the main island (Phi Phi) at 18:00. We ran some errands among them was to ask Lili (a Hebrew speaking Thai travel agent who worked in Haifa for 11 years!) about the whole 200B thing. She claimed it was legit. Who knows..
At around 20:00 the four of us went for dinner in an "all you can eat" meat place. It wasn't bad. Or was it?
Monday, Aug 6: Koh Phi Phi
In the morning I we ran into Daphne, who is a Dutch girl that I met a couple of days before in Railay Beach after dinner when we put our own movie up (Jack Ass 1). She seemed pretty cool (unlike the three Israelis) as she was actually enjoying the silly stuff they were doing in the movie. Anyway, she was hanging out with this German girl Silvi and we all went to the beach together. It was pretty damn hot with absolutely no shade at all.
After the beach we pretty much all met for some dinner. I was up for this meat place but Silve is vegetarian..
After the beach we pretty much all met for some dinner. I was up for this meat place but Silve is vegetarian..
Monday, August 6, 2007
Sunday, Aug 5: Railay Beach - Koh Phi Phi
We (the guys and the three girls) left Railay and arrived in Koh Phi Phi at around noon. Now I had not been feeling to well, and consequently I made the horrendous mistake of entrusting the girls with finding a place to stay. The girls being as spoiled and whiny and that they are, wasted our time tremendously. Specifically, we went to a different part of the island (called Long Beach) using a taxi boat. Again, as was the case with the taxi boat from Railay (I haven't mentioned this yet) they whined about the possibility of it going under, and about the holes it had and so on and so forth. Most irritating. Once we got to Long Beach we couldn't find a satisfactory place for them. Things have gotten even worse. There was this one English person at a hotel, which is a rare commodity (i.e. an English speaking person) and the girls were so nasty to him that I literally wanted to bury myself. Anyway, it was so bad that I ended up walking up to him later and apologizing for their behavior. No wonder Israelis get such bad reputation (and these Israelis didn't even mean bad...). Anyway, after this we found only one room and I was quite glad as it was a good excuse for us to do the "gentleman's thing" and let the girls have it and have walk to the other side of the island (30 min). Nir picked up my thought right away as was clear from our exchange of stares. Unfortunately, Inbal found a bloody taxi boat and my hope of dumping the girls shattered. So off we went to the other side of the island (together). At that point we finally split when nothing seemed good enough for the girls. We had little trouble finding a satisfactory room.
One last thing about the girls. It seem they are (especially Nati) the most spoiled and whiny people I've ever met. Now this is interesting in light of the fact that the dumbest person I've ever met is also Israeli ("Gveret Timtemet" as we called her from the Whitsundays sailing). Makes me wonder...
The rest of the day was just dinner, since there wasn't much day left...
One last thing about the girls. It seem they are (especially Nati) the most spoiled and whiny people I've ever met. Now this is interesting in light of the fact that the dumbest person I've ever met is also Israeli ("Gveret Timtemet" as we called her from the Whitsundays sailing). Makes me wonder...
The rest of the day was just dinner, since there wasn't much day left...
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Saturday, Aug 4: Railay Beach
Today was hardly any different than yesterday. Again spent most of the time at the beach. I finished reading "Angels and Deamons" by Dan Brown. It was an interesting read, yet it seems the guy writes all books in the same fashion. There's always the sexy smart bitch that somehow gets invovled in the plot. Anyway...
In the evening we all went for dinner. Now I have to say something about the gals. They are starting to get a quite annoying. They keep whining and complaining (especially the sisters) and for the second time already they had the need to give back a dish at a restaurant since it was not meet their taste standard. The most complaining one is the little sis, who behaves like a 4 y/o. The older sis ain't much better (she sometimes behaves like a 4 y/o and sometimes like an 80 y/o grandma). Either way they all seem to suffer from ADD and a severe lack of reasoning. For example, we had an option to play a DVD at the restaurant. There was no reasoning with them about the movie, and it was painfully obvious to both Nir and I that once we put their movie, they still wouldn't watch it due to their severe ADD. Of course we were right.. (There are more details but in the interest of interest I'll spare them..)
In the evening we all went for dinner. Now I have to say something about the gals. They are starting to get a quite annoying. They keep whining and complaining (especially the sisters) and for the second time already they had the need to give back a dish at a restaurant since it was not meet their taste standard. The most complaining one is the little sis, who behaves like a 4 y/o. The older sis ain't much better (she sometimes behaves like a 4 y/o and sometimes like an 80 y/o grandma). Either way they all seem to suffer from ADD and a severe lack of reasoning. For example, we had an option to play a DVD at the restaurant. There was no reasoning with them about the movie, and it was painfully obvious to both Nir and I that once we put their movie, they still wouldn't watch it due to their severe ADD. Of course we were right.. (There are more details but in the interest of interest I'll spare them..)
Friday, Aug 3: Railay Beach
Woke up around 11:00. We went to another beach today, which was possibly even better than the one from the day before. The beach was a great success as I have finally managed to break my record! I held my breath for 3min and 22 sec! As I've noticed before, holding the breath for a long time involves certain strategy. First, I can never get to even 2 min right away. It requires a few attempts and basically working my way up slowly. I'm thinking that it takes the boy time to acclimate and maybe it takes time to reduce the heart beat which I presume happens as well. Other than that as far as strategy is concerned it is important to reduce anything that's energy consuming. So no movement, eyes closed, and all muscles need to be as relaxed as possible. Then, there's releasing small bits of air at the right times, and swallowing (swallowing nothing really, but just having the motion in the throat). All these prolong one's ability to stay under water. Also, there's a breathing reflex that makes a drowning person drink water, when that kicks in, you need to have a "make believe breath", namely, breath in but keep the mouth closed (sounds strange but it can be done). This buys a few more seconds. After I open my eyes (that happens at the point where holding my breath becomes difficult) I have about 30 - 40 seconds left in me. (The time before eyes are opened is the most fun part, as it is the time where one can reach a high level of relaxation.) This time, I opened my eyes after 2 min and 20 or 22 sec. I thought I would not be able to break the record, yet I did want to go beyond 3 min. Once I did the record seemed to be within reach and so I held for a while longer until it was broken. Then I wanted to get to 3:20, and ultimately, figured a round number wasn't cool so I managed to get to 3:22...
Thursday, Aug 2: Krabi - Railay Beach
Left early in the morning (9:30) to Rai Lay beach, which required just a water taxi for some 15 minutes. The place at fist looked awful. As is the custom in Thailand, the garbage is simply burned. This induces a perpetual smell of burning, which one could do without. Furthermore, the place where we landed seemed like a place I would not dare go into the water - way too disgusting. Anyway, we got ourselves into a hotel for 800 Baht (25 - 30 USD for all three), and then we met 3 Israeli girls (2 sisters and their cousin - Inbal, Nati, Liron) who claimed there was a much nicer beach. Off we went, and sure enough they knew what they had been talking about. The beach was quite lovely with beautiful massive rocks on the side, which gave the place a rather unique touch.
We spent the whole day at the beach. We also met an Israeli new weds couple (Yoav and Rachel). other than that I tried to break my "hold the breath" record but with no success. It still seems elusive.
In the evening we went for dinner. It was most amusing to have the little sis argue with the old one about where to eat. Frankly,I couldn't care less. I went for an entire fish, which ended up being a bit of a blunder. Food was followed by a session at the pool. Finally, we were all planning to play Yaniv, but that didn't really work due to the incredible attention deficit disorder from which half the people (at least) seem to suffer. I am always amused (and disappointed) to see people that cannot concentrate on one thing for more than 15 seconds..
We spent the whole day at the beach. We also met an Israeli new weds couple (Yoav and Rachel). other than that I tried to break my "hold the breath" record but with no success. It still seems elusive.
In the evening we went for dinner. It was most amusing to have the little sis argue with the old one about where to eat. Frankly,I couldn't care less. I went for an entire fish, which ended up being a bit of a blunder. Food was followed by a session at the pool. Finally, we were all planning to play Yaniv, but that didn't really work due to the incredible attention deficit disorder from which half the people (at least) seem to suffer. I am always amused (and disappointed) to see people that cannot concentrate on one thing for more than 15 seconds..
Wednesday, Aug 1: Koh Phangan - Krabi
There was no point in staying any further in koh Phangan once the full moon party was over. So off we wet to Krabi, which is located on the other side of the country (not that far though since Thailand is quite narrow here). This entailed taking a taxi, a boat, a bus and a minibus, and it consumed the entire day. Our goal was actually to reach Railay beach, but it was too late for that.
Tuesday, July 31: Koh Phangan
Again, I spent most of the time at the beach (this phrase is getting somewhat dull). The most exciting part of the day was the full moon party, which if I were to guess had perhaps as many as 20,000 people! The whole beach was simply covered with the. Drunk (and not dunk) guys peeing into the water was part of the view and most amusing. I figured this was as good a time as ever to drink (or get dunk) and so I went for the "bucket". The "bucket" is basically a plastic bucket that is filled with some alcoholic beverage. I am not sure what it is that I got, but it sure as hell worked.. However, unlike some of the folks out there, the experience for me was not gruesome. Namely, I didn't throw up, nor did I loose any memory or any of the bullshit some people claim. I retired from the party at 5:30am...
Monday, July 30: Koh Phangan
Nothing particular happened today. The usual time on the beach plus a back massage that Nir and I had, which was pretty good. I have to say a few words about food. While Thailand is mostly quite cheap, the island seems a bit more expensive and the quality is not that great. For instance a banana shake would cost a little over a dollar but it's not nearly as good as one you could get in a "normal" country. We have been eating most of the time in a place called Mama's Schnitzel, where like many other places there's tons of Hebrew written papers on the wall glorifying he place. Some of the waiters actually speak some Hebrew which is most amusing.
In the evening we all went to the beach party, which seemed to have grown in size since the days before. No doubt as a sign for the upcoming full moon party.
In the evening we all went to the beach party, which seemed to have grown in size since the days before. No doubt as a sign for the upcoming full moon party.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Sunday, July 29: Koh Phangan
Like everyday here, I woke up rather late (I guess around 12:00). So the day actually starts at mid day. I had a quick internet session where I met this Russian-Israeli-Canadian girl (Tanya) who travels with 2 others like her (Mai and Yulia). After that there was the usual food followed by the beach. The beach was packed with people, which was quite nice, among them there were various topless gals, which made the scene even nicer (most of the time, except when dealing with whales...). The beach entailed reading, matkot, going into the water, and work...
I tried again to break my "hold my breath" record but have been unsuccessful and managed to get only 2min and 40 sec. I met again the Irish-English girls, who apologized for not showing up the day before (apparently they went to bed).
The evening was rather slow as there was no major beach party because of some Buddha holiday. Instead we hung out with Tanya, Mai, and Yulia and a bunch of other folks. I retired early.
I tried again to break my "hold my breath" record but have been unsuccessful and managed to get only 2min and 40 sec. I met again the Irish-English girls, who apologized for not showing up the day before (apparently they went to bed).
The evening was rather slow as there was no major beach party because of some Buddha holiday. Instead we hung out with Tanya, Mai, and Yulia and a bunch of other folks. I retired early.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 28: Koh Phangan
I finally got my beauty sleep and woke up around 14:00. By the time we got to the beach it was already around 16:00 or close. This time I was awake enough to go into the water which was warm and good! Anyway, I hung out there for a while and decided to take advantage of the warm water and try to see how long I can hold my breath (it helps when the water is warm. I'm hoping to break my 3:12min record). So as after one of those "hold your breath and float like a dead body" things, I get my head out of the water and couple of English/Irish girls were there saying they thought I was dead... Not quite though.
After the beach, dinner, and a short reading seassion, we headed back for the party, which was like the night before. At the party there were two people holding a long rope that was on fire (the use fuel of some sort to keep it burning) and they were spinning it so as to allow people to jump over it (like in elemetary school). Why am I mentioning this? Well, because this one girl tried to jump over it and the rope hit her and she caught fire! I figured that her instinct would be to jump on the sand (so I didn't do anything - also I was a bit away). Apparently, it wasn't. Eventually after a few second some folks pushed her down and put her out (of the fire..). Both Nir and I were watching this and when I told him we should have been quicker in helping her, he said his first thought was "cow on fire"...
After the beach, dinner, and a short reading seassion, we headed back for the party, which was like the night before. At the party there were two people holding a long rope that was on fire (the use fuel of some sort to keep it burning) and they were spinning it so as to allow people to jump over it (like in elemetary school). Why am I mentioning this? Well, because this one girl tried to jump over it and the rope hit her and she caught fire! I figured that her instinct would be to jump on the sand (so I didn't do anything - also I was a bit away). Apparently, it wasn't. Eventually after a few second some folks pushed her down and put her out (of the fire..). Both Nir and I were watching this and when I told him we should have been quicker in helping her, he said his first thought was "cow on fire"...
Friday, July 27: Koh Phangan
I arrived at the islad around noon and then met up with Nir and Nadav. I barely got any sleep on the bus because the AC was tured so high that I was freezing. Also, I haven't brought any warm cloths since Thailand is very hot and humid (I left most of my gear in storage with the Israelis - 15cents a day...).
Despite being tired as hell we all headed for the beach, which was quite loaded with people and finally was warm enough to go into the water, although I didn't go in.
There are loads of Israeli restaurants around here. Hebrew is heard all around and one gets the feeling one is in Israel. Perhaps the most amusing thing is when some little Thai person speaks to you in Hebrew. Quite funny indeed.
Koh Phangan is known mostly for its parties, namely, the full moon and half moon parties, with the former being the biggest. This is also the reason why I headed south first rather than north. The fool moon party is on the 31st, and there are parties every night before then. So at before heading to the beach for all the happening, we all got foot massages, which was really funny. The three of us sitting side by side getting massage for an hour (too bad I didn't bring a camera).
The beach party was quite imressive with lots of people aroud, loud music and some fire poikes (however you spell that). Nir got to meet someone whom we have dubbed "the stalker" for some obvious reasons.. I retired at 4:00am and barely found the sleeping place, as I had been too tired (hadn't slept for about 43 hours except for short nap on the bus) to pay attention how we got to the beach..
Despite being tired as hell we all headed for the beach, which was quite loaded with people and finally was warm enough to go into the water, although I didn't go in.
There are loads of Israeli restaurants around here. Hebrew is heard all around and one gets the feeling one is in Israel. Perhaps the most amusing thing is when some little Thai person speaks to you in Hebrew. Quite funny indeed.
Koh Phangan is known mostly for its parties, namely, the full moon and half moon parties, with the former being the biggest. This is also the reason why I headed south first rather than north. The fool moon party is on the 31st, and there are parties every night before then. So at before heading to the beach for all the happening, we all got foot massages, which was really funny. The three of us sitting side by side getting massage for an hour (too bad I didn't bring a camera).
The beach party was quite imressive with lots of people aroud, loud music and some fire poikes (however you spell that). Nir got to meet someone whom we have dubbed "the stalker" for some obvious reasons.. I retired at 4:00am and barely found the sleeping place, as I had been too tired (hadn't slept for about 43 hours except for short nap on the bus) to pay attention how we got to the beach..
Thurday, July 26: Bangkok - Koh Phangan
I finally managed to finalize my ticket to Romania (not without the usual difficulty). I also got a sim card finally (just gave up about finding out what the calling rates are). Got in touch with Nir, who apparently met Nadav down in the islands. I'll be joining them tomorrow. Speciofically, there's a bus that leaves Bangkok at 21:00 arrives somewhere at 5:00 from where there's a ferry that leaves at 7:00 and get to the island at 11:00 or so. It's a pretty long journey, but not too bad relative to Australia.
Anyway, I spent most of the day hanging out in the Kaho San area. As I mentioned the food is very cheap and in particular so is freshly squeezed orange juice! (80 cents for about 500cc!!). So of course I got many of those. It seemed to me however, that the OJ wasn't really OJ. As I suspected it was actually mandarine juice, which is a close relative and therefore completely fine and quite tasty indeed. Also, I got a new book finally, called Angels and Deamons by Dan Brown. It came wrapped and seemed to be new. Well, techincally it was new, however, it was not original. It was a good copy but I could easily tell it was a fake (but who cares, the information is there).
Anyway, I spent most of the day hanging out in the Kaho San area. As I mentioned the food is very cheap and in particular so is freshly squeezed orange juice! (80 cents for about 500cc!!). So of course I got many of those. It seemed to me however, that the OJ wasn't really OJ. As I suspected it was actually mandarine juice, which is a close relative and therefore completely fine and quite tasty indeed. Also, I got a new book finally, called Angels and Deamons by Dan Brown. It came wrapped and seemed to be new. Well, techincally it was new, however, it was not original. It was a good copy but I could easily tell it was a fake (but who cares, the information is there).
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25: Bangkok
Today has been a most frustrating day. The main problem came to be when I wanted to pay cash for my ticket out of BKK to Romania (about $1000). Anyway, naiively enough I tried towithraw some 1500 USD from the ATM, which didn't work (thanks to the bloody US bank). After trying various amounts with zero success I figured I'd call'em. Surprisingly, there are pay phones that have a Verizon collect call button. Not surprisingly, it didn't work for my number. My guess is that Verizon charges an arm and a leg for such calls and Bank of America is too god damn cheap! To make a long story short, making a simple phone call required more than an hour some times. Ultimately, I managed to get a hold of those Bank of America peolple. Then I got some money out, and then again my card stopped working! So, as it turned out it was blocked, which required yet another conversation with Bank of America...
What else? Ah, getting a sim card. Quite easy to do actually. The hard part is getting the calling rates. Apparently, the sellers only sell those sims, but have absolutely no fucking clue what the rates are..
So much for errands. I've heard some nasty stuff about how badly Bangkok smells. The fact is, that it's really not that bad. When one walks down the street one is continuously offered Taxi, Tuk Tuk (I say "Mi Sham") - that's a motorbike ride, a tailored suit, prostitute, food, massage, and anything else that can be sold.
The food is incredibly cheap here especially on the street. For example, a Pad Thai, which is not too big, but just enough, is 15Baht ($0.5) or 20 Baht with egg. A 500cc bottle of water can be 15 or 30 cents, a one hour full body oil massage 8 buks. Pretty darn cheap...
Speaking of massages, I did get myself one. It was pretty good actully.
What else? Ah, getting a sim card. Quite easy to do actually. The hard part is getting the calling rates. Apparently, the sellers only sell those sims, but have absolutely no fucking clue what the rates are..
So much for errands. I've heard some nasty stuff about how badly Bangkok smells. The fact is, that it's really not that bad. When one walks down the street one is continuously offered Taxi, Tuk Tuk (I say "Mi Sham") - that's a motorbike ride, a tailored suit, prostitute, food, massage, and anything else that can be sold.
The food is incredibly cheap here especially on the street. For example, a Pad Thai, which is not too big, but just enough, is 15Baht ($0.5) or 20 Baht with egg. A 500cc bottle of water can be 15 or 30 cents, a one hour full body oil massage 8 buks. Pretty darn cheap...
Speaking of massages, I did get myself one. It was pretty good actully.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, July 24: Singapore - Bangkok
I spent the first 3/4 of the day in Singapore mostly hanging out and running some errands. At 20:40 I had a flight to Thailand. The folks at the check gave me the "15kg" restriction bullshit, which inconvinienced me quite a bit. Apparently, 15kg for the check in bag and 7 for the carry-on. I had a total of about 25kg. So it suddenly got really cold at the airport and I needed to wear my fleece and jacket and long pants....
The Bangkok airport is quite impressive. From first look it seemed like Thailand is quite advanced. Then I got the main street arond 12:00am (Kao Sahn - I am probably badly misspelling this), and saw the familiar signs of a third world country: 3-person motorcycle, crap cars, dirty, weirdos on the street, locals that try to sell you anything that you need and don't need - but mostly don't need. At the main street there's the "Israeli connection". A huge sign in Hebrew letting all the Israelis know where to congregate. In all honesty, however, these folks are quite helpful in providing various information.
Anyway, I walked around and found myself a nice place for 520 Baht (~17USD), which is relatively expensive around here, but I needed a clean place.
Did a bit of walking around before going to bed, and sure enough the lady boys where all around (one more for the 3rd world country signs..)
The Bangkok airport is quite impressive. From first look it seemed like Thailand is quite advanced. Then I got the main street arond 12:00am (Kao Sahn - I am probably badly misspelling this), and saw the familiar signs of a third world country: 3-person motorcycle, crap cars, dirty, weirdos on the street, locals that try to sell you anything that you need and don't need - but mostly don't need. At the main street there's the "Israeli connection". A huge sign in Hebrew letting all the Israelis know where to congregate. In all honesty, however, these folks are quite helpful in providing various information.
Anyway, I walked around and found myself a nice place for 520 Baht (~17USD), which is relatively expensive around here, but I needed a clean place.
Did a bit of walking around before going to bed, and sure enough the lady boys where all around (one more for the 3rd world country signs..)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Monday,July 23: Singapore
I have to start this entry with a bit about my dorm fellas. There are 3 Africans that have continuously been getting on my nerves. They are all here trying a get a job. There's one Internet computer. These guys are monopolizing it, which is very annoying, and they are beyond slow (you know typing with one finger - or was it two??). Anyway, what really ticked me off was when one of them had a phone call at about 4:15am and he was speaking so fucking loudly that it woke me up (and I had just went to bed maybe a couple of hours before..). Then again, at 8:00am they start talking like there are no sleeping people. Unbelievable.
Ok, enoug venting. Today I had a really good dish for lunch, whose name I canot remember (obviously). Then saw Die Hard 4(with Cinese subtitles...). It was actually a pretty good movie. In the evening I met the Chink for dinner at a place called Newton, which apparently has a food fare going on a the time we were there, but no at the same day...
I spent a lot of time trying to make a collect call to the US (credit card stuff). Apparently, there are no Sing Tel (national phone company) paypjones that are coin operated. Now one would ask why would I need coins to make a collect call? Well, it seems collect calls cost money in Singapore, which sort of defeats the some of the purpose of a collect call. Go figure...
Ok, enoug venting. Today I had a really good dish for lunch, whose name I canot remember (obviously). Then saw Die Hard 4(with Cinese subtitles...). It was actually a pretty good movie. In the evening I met the Chink for dinner at a place called Newton, which apparently has a food fare going on a the time we were there, but no at the same day...
I spent a lot of time trying to make a collect call to the US (credit card stuff). Apparently, there are no Sing Tel (national phone company) paypjones that are coin operated. Now one would ask why would I need coins to make a collect call? Well, it seems collect calls cost money in Singapore, which sort of defeats the some of the purpose of a collect call. Go figure...
Monday, July 23, 2007
Sunday, July 22: Singapore
Today I went to a place called Fort Canning Park, which holds singapore's largest bunker from WWII. It did them (theBrits who were in control back then) little use as they ultimately surrendered to the Japanese.
other than that, I went to this main street called Orchard, which is packed with people and is all about shopping. It was nice to stride along, although I have no intention of buying anything.
In the evening I met up with Chinky Boy, checked out one of his ballroom pratice spaces (the chink is doing not too badly).
A few words about Singapore in general: The official language (maybe here's more than one) is English, yet so many people don't seem to know it.. Loads of places to eat, which are all mostly cheap and look alike. The food is decent but I fear I might excede my yearly intake of noodles and rice. So far I've had frog legs, I beleive I mentioned that and also had some other exotic food, which I can't seem to remember!
other than that, I went to this main street called Orchard, which is packed with people and is all about shopping. It was nice to stride along, although I have no intention of buying anything.
In the evening I met up with Chinky Boy, checked out one of his ballroom pratice spaces (the chink is doing not too badly).
A few words about Singapore in general: The official language (maybe here's more than one) is English, yet so many people don't seem to know it.. Loads of places to eat, which are all mostly cheap and look alike. The food is decent but I fear I might excede my yearly intake of noodles and rice. So far I've had frog legs, I beleive I mentioned that and also had some other exotic food, which I can't seem to remember!
Saturday, July 21: Singapore
Today started slow but picked up. In the afternoon I went to a place called Esplanade,which is some sort of a park. There there was a General rehersal for Singapore Day (i.e. Independence day). So I got to see some Hellicopters flying around and the most exciting part was seeing 5 jet fighters crossing the whole area very quickly.
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