Thailand Day 5

This morning has been uneventful so far. We took a flight back to Bangkok and checked into our hotel. We have a free day so after I finish wring this email, I will look for something cool to do. We will probably go to a bar/lounge at night. Stay tuned for our next segment where we go to the tiger temple, ride elephants, raft and play with monkeys

***

I just want to start by saying that today was a super duper fun day!!!
Ok, let’s go back to where I left you last time:
Masha and I had a very easy going day yesterday. I took a nap and she read by the pool. At night we decided to check out a backpacker neighborhood that was recommended by a friend of hers. We took a cab over there and just walked around for a little while getting situated. We were constantly accosted by people trying to get us into a tuk-tuk or a ping pong show. We were dying to know what the hell the ping pong show was. It's not like we had no idea, we knew that it was something sexual in nature, but why ping pong?
We found a bar that served food and had tables outside, sat down and had some very delicious Thai food and a couple of drinks. While there, we met three SCOTTISH FARMERS. Apparently, if you happen to be a Scottish farmer you can go on a 4.5 month vacation all around the world during the low season. I now want to be a farmer. They also enlightened us on why a ping pong show is called that. Apparently the patrons are given ping pong rackets and then girls shoot ping pongs out of their orifices!!! AND open beer bottles with them!!! AND smoke with them as well!!! How does one discover that they have such a talent??? No matter, the question was answered and our curiosity was satisfied. After the bar we went out and clubbed for a bit, but because we had a long day ahead of us, we were home by 2 and asleep probably by 2:06am

Thailand Day 4

The Golden Triangle Tour.
We got picked up a little late and ended up leaving about 2 hours after we were slotted to. Our tour was with a very varied group of tourists. There was only one other American on the bus, a couple of French girls, some Canadians, a Dutch couple and two Israeli men in their 50s. I ended up sitting up front so I wouldn't get car sick and chatted with the Israelis for a while. That’s right! I broke the “anti-social no making small talk” rule. I thought it would be good for me to be outside my comfort zone for a while. The Israelis met in the army when they were 18. One lives in Haifa and the other lives in a kibbutz by Beersheba. They are vacationing in Thailand for 3 weeks. Surprisingly, the one that lives in Haifa knows almost no English. It was cool to chat it up with them for a bit.
Our first stop was at the "White temple" I have to say that this was probably my favorite part of the tour. The temple is beautiful and extremely understated by Thai measures. There are fountains around it and the mural inside is very modern. Also, there was a monk sitting in the middle of the temple meditating. Masha thought that he was real and argued with me for a little while that he was just deep in meditation, but he is actually made of wax :). We took a bunch of pictures here. In the pictures we took it kind of looks like we're in because of the white of the temple and the white of the clouds against the background of the deep blue sky.
On the way out I stopped to use the rest room and it was a little strange. You stand in line. Take off your shoes and put on other designated bathroom shoes. Once properly attired you go, do your thing, and then come back through the exit only to change back into your original shoes again. I think this has way too many steps. As a side note I noticed that Thai people love to have one-way traffic everywhere. There is always an entrance and an exit. In a lot of temples you have to follow only one way. The same is true for baggage storage at the airport and apparently some public bathrooms.
Our next stop was the golden triangle itself. I have to say that the location is not beautiful, and I am surprised that it's such a big tourist destination. We took pictures with Laos and Myanmar in the background, but were pretty bored since there was not much else to do there. The lunch we had there was not bad at all, but other than that “The Golden Triangle” wasn’t anything ultra exciting.
After lunch we were driven to the northernmost point of Thailand. There was a big market there and we bought ourselves some "jade bracelets" We are not convinced, but they look cute so who cares? Again, OK experience but nothing out of this world.
I will take a moment here to tell you about our guide. He makes very low brow jokes, is extremely hard to understand, and usually walks facing forward so he is also hard to hear a lot of the time. Neither Masha nor I liked him very much.
After the Northernmost point we were taken to a couple of Thai villages. We both really liked this part of the tour. Some of the older women were wearing the traditional costumes so it was nice. I thought that it was funny that some homes were built in an old school way but had satellite dishes. Everyone can see this in more detail in pictures when they are ready.
The ride back was horrible for me. We were driving fast through the mountains and I got extremely car sick. I couldn't wait to get out of that car. We were the second to get dropped off. After the Dutch couple left, the driver made a rude comment about their tip ("40 baht, that’s almost a euro, how generous" the tour guide exclaimed.) God I hated that guy.
We finished our night at the night market and bought all the presents that we needed. Both of us were completely shopped out by the end of that night. As we were walking to get a cab, both of us realized that we didn't know the address of our hotel. We never needed to remember it before since tours just picked us up and dropped us off there. We talked to some tuk-tuk drivers and thought we figured it out. However, when we got to our destination it became clear that it was not our hotel and we were totally lost. We told the driver to just circle and look for an internet cafe so that we could pull up the website but as we drove around we saw that everything was closed. Suddenly I saw our hotel sign and the crisis was averted. All is well.

Thailand Day 3

Doi Suthep Temple:
When we got to our hotel in Chiang Mai it was still too early for us to check in so we checked our bags and went to get something to eat. We ended up having Spanish Omelets nearby the hotel. I am surprised that there doesn't seem to be any breakfasty Thai food available. We will either have to buy American snacks or full American since curry is a little too heavy first thing in the morning.
We ended up having to haul ass at our hotel since we only had about 20 minutes for both of us to shower and clean up. Our tour driver was a very pleasant friendly woman named Minnie (like Minnie Mouse she said). My only complaint was that she was a little overwhelming with the amount of facts that she showered us with. Over all I found the temple tour very enjoyable. Minnie showed us a book that tells you what day of the week you were born on. I was apparently born on a Thursday and Masha was born on a Wednesday. Every day of the week has a particular Buddha position assigned to it. Mine was the meditating Buddha which means (according to Minnie) that I am very smart and my profession should be teacher, lawyer, or governor. (I guess I am in the wrong line of work). Masha's, Wednesday, Buddha position was Buddha giving alms and Minnie said that Masha must be very good at eating :). We watched Minnie pray and do the whole candles (Buddha), incense (Buddha’s teaching), and the lotus flower (monk) prayer bit. It's kind of interesting. She also taught us the proper prayer form and had a monk bless us with holy water.
We found out a little about the imagery in the temple. There are beasts in the front which are a mix of crocodile, snake and dragon and they protect the temple from evil. The dragons at Doi Suthep temple had seven heads. The more heads the beast has the more powerful he is in fighting off evil.
The story goes, that the beast in question wanted to become a monk really badly but only humans were allowed to be monks so he made himself look like a human and went to the Buddha to become ordained. The Buddha, being a pretty sharp guy, saw through the beast's disguise and decided to teach him a lesson. "Go down the (306 according to Minnie) steps and wait for me. When I am done meditating I will come get you.” The beast waited for hours and hours and still the Buddha didn't come. Finally he went to sleep and changed back to his original form. Now he stands guard at the foot of the stairs to the temple.
There are also lions at the top of the staircase as a second tier of protection. The lions are not commonly used in the south because they were brought in as part of Burmese influence. We also saw another protector beast which was a combination of elephant, pig, fish, salamander, and dragon. Apparently the Thai like to create mutants J
On our way out of the temple we checked out the Jade factory. Apparently jade doesn’t only come in green but goes through the whole spectrum of colors (I still like green best). We were also taught how to spot “jade” that’s really plastic or glass. The museum was interesting but really overpriced…. Oh well.
Random facts about Thailand that we know because of Minnie:

1. The royal palace was built out of teakwood. Every new king would level the old palace and build a new one. The wood from the old palace is usually donated to build a temple.
2. Thai people don't like to live in old houses because they are haunted. They constantly rebuild so that their house doesn't have a bad history. I tried to ask if this was for wooden houses only or for concrete as well :) but I don't think I was understood
3. Temples are used as places of worship, places of meditation, tourist attractions, and hospitals. The monks have an herb garden and create different combinations to make people better. A blessing can also be performed when all else fails.
4. There are 2 different types of medical plans:
• Insurance - 50% of the cost is from taxes, 25% from your job, 25% from you
• No insurance - "yellow card" get charged 30 baht (1 dollar) every time you go to the hospital no matter what you go for
5. Most tour guides are women because they are more gentle and pleasant, although now the lady boys are starting to crop up more in those positions.

Current Plans:
Go get Thai massage with Masha and then go to a dinner show. More to come later. Stay tuned.

***

Masha and I ended up getting a very lovely hour long massage for about 5 dollars each. The Thai massage is different. They have you put on these weird pajamas and massage you through the pjs. No oil or lotion used. Thinking back on it, the massage might have been a bit rougher than I wanted. After the massage we just had enough time to get ready for our dinner and a show. I have to say that the food wasn't great at all, show was pretty cool. We saw the peacock dance, the sword dance and a bunch of other village dances for weaving and building. Not too bad overall and we took a bunch of cool pictures. By the time we got back to our hotel we were both pretty tired and went to bed early.

Thailand Day 2

Yesterday was really good. Masha and I went and checked out the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. It's not my kind of beautiful, but I definitely appreciate the style and the amount of work that went into it. We also walked around the non-touristy part of the city and stumbled upon a temple with 300 Buddhas positioned all around the perimeter and a huge one inside the temple. It had a nice calm vibe to it which was a welcome change after the overcrowded Grand Palace. We had no problems getting to the train station on time which was nice.

We had tickets in 1st class which apparently meant that we each had a bed and didn't have to share the room with anyone. As we learned the hard way, 1st class does not mean a clean cockroach free room :). I just started eating when I saw it and completely lost my appetite. The bathroom was disgusting with pee all over the floor and the smell that made me a little nauseous. I dealt with it and just rolled up my PJs to the knees so that they wouldn't be soaked in some random urine. Also the lady that was serving food was super annoying and no one knocked before coming into our berth so we just locked the door.

Our train was 3 hours late but it was cool because I left the morning free. Right now we are going to get some food, shower and go on tours. Chiang Mai has a really nice calm vibe and I am excited.

Thailand Day 1

I landed about 14 hours ago but everything was crazy and it was late so I didn't get a chance to use the internet (o\plus 20 hour flight takes a lot of mental capacity out of you)

I got lucky enough to sit behind a screeching 2 year old on the 12 hour leg of my trip and her dad kept almost hitting me in the face with his seat since he was moving it back and forth every half an hour. Other than that the flight was very smooth and the transfers were pretty painless. After I got in and SHOWERED, we went out to the night market to walk around and then had drinks at the beer garden. I got a local SIM card so I have a cell phone number here: 08-7706-1947.

There was the whole ordeal of getting the phone unlocked which basically involved going to the biggest mall that I have ever seen in my entire life. I don’t know how anyone finds anything there. We were directed by three different people to three different stores and finally one of the guys from the store just walked us to a stand where they unlocked my phone for $9 dollars. Pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself. They apparently unlock all phones including the iPhone. Now we will go to the Grand Palace and see the Emerald Buddha and then catch our 6pm train to Chiang Mai.

I got to hear a lot about India from Masha. We should totally go at some point. She loved it. Also, the food here is incredible (although I haven't had all that much of it yet).

September 11th and Lake Atitlan

We were told that the New Year's Day procession was something to see, so we went over to a little town called Santa Maria de Jesus. I have to say that this was probably the least exciting day we had spent in Guatemala. When we got to the down, no one really knew when the procession was, so we had a couple of hours to kill and walked around a bit. There was a market where all sorts of food was being sold, and the flies were buzzing around like crazy. The weirdest food I saw sold, is a tie between fried gators and fried iguanas. Yummers!

As we waited on the main square we noticed that there was a guy who set up backgrounds and was taking pictures. Imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw that one of the backdrops was a picture of the twin towers, where one tower has smoke billowing out of it and a plane is flying towards the other one. In front of this display is a plastic donkey that you can sit on. I am not an emotional person, but seeing that picture in that way made me sick. I can not fathom why this is a fun holiday background for a photo.

The procession finally started and it was very colorful. It started in a church and went to all of the corners of the square. Incense smoke was everywhere. I would describe it as a mix of a Catholic Mass and a small town parade. The whole parade consists of the one float that you can see in the picture. On the float are: Mary, Jesus, and a wise man.  The whole procession is accompanied by an extremely sad, off tune sounding band and the locals explode incredibly loud confetti bombs. The parade also has a queen, la Reina de Santa Maria de Jesus. We were stuck in the town for a little bit, since transportation is pretty unreliable, but eventually made our way back to Antigua and did a little more walking around the town and sight seeing. I was amazed to see some synagogues there. Apparently our people are everywhere.

On our last full day in Guatemala we went on a day trip to Lake Atitlan. Atitlan is considered to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world and when you are there, you never want to leave. The lake is surrounded by three volcanoes and the nature there is absolutely gorgeous. Mike and I had some time there, and since we didn't want to hang out at the beach and shop in Panajachel, we took a boat to the village of Santa Lucia de Atitlan, across the lake. If I ever win the lottery, I will build a house on this lake and will drink coffee on my deck gazing at the volcanoes. We had a very pleasant walk around Santa Lucia and even got a little lost. True to ourselves we ended up almost missing our bus back to Antigua, but to tell you the truth, I wouldn't have minded being stranded there. Our pictures don't do it justice, but I highly recommend that everyone go there at least once in their life. What a wonderful day to finish off our Guatemalan adventures. I found some pictures online that might come close to showing what it looks like. We came back to Antigua, and had our last Guatemalan dinner, in a restaurant with an inside courtyard of course. I will miss this place, Adios!

Happy New Years from Antigua, we lava you!!!

I arrived to our hotel in Antigua a little greener than usual. The streets are cobblestone, and I don't do well with the shaking. Our hotel here, Posada la Merced, looks much nicer than our Flores accommodations. We have a rooftop garden and the building is old and beautiful. Here's me on the roof of our hotel.

Our first day we just walked around and got acquainted with Antigua. What a beautiful city. I was surprised by how small it was. Our hotel is pretty centrally located so it's easy to get to everything. What I really love about the restaurants here is a setup where the courtyard is in the middle of the building. Every place we have gone to eat so far has a private, quaint and quiet outdoor area completely closed off from everything. My Spanish is getting quite a workout here, as very few people speak English.

Our plan included climbing a volcano on the day of new years eve. We booked the tour, and were told that we would both need flashlights on the trip. Nothing could be easier than buying a flashlight right? WRONG. I didn't know the word for flashlight, and fuego/luz were just not cutting it for me. It took us over an hour, several stores, and all of the crappy Spanish/charades skills I possessed to buy flashlights. Totally worth it in the long run, and I will never forget the word linterna as long as I live.

We got to the base of the Pacaya volcano and I saw that the climb was ridiculously steep. Right at the base there were locals asking if anyone in the group would like to ride the donkeys up (for a fee of course) and some in our group gave in right away. I was very tempted to give up, but Mike was all for doing it in our own. About 50 feet in, the hike got a lot easier. I suspect that the locals made it super difficult at the base in order to make some extra cash.

Another strange thing happened on our way up. As we were walking we heard weird screams. Eventually we passed a boy, probably around twelve years old, who was slowly hiking up and periodically screaming. He seemed OK in all other respects. A while later, after we have stopped hearing the screams we came upon a man and a little girl - looking very similar to the boy. They were hiking up, and the dad's face seemed set and upset. I suspect that the boy was whining, and the dad decided to leave him behind and teach him a lesson. (all pure conjecture, but it's the only sense that I can make out of this story)


After a little while longer we got out of the woods and to a place where there was lose lava rock everywhere. The climb got a lot harder then, like climbing up a hill of sand. We could see the smoke billowing a little ways up, so we got our strength together and made it up to the lava! The feeling of standing next to molten rock is incredible, there was a cold breeze blowing at the top and if you stood just right, you would get a mixture of the cold wind, and the hot hot air from the lava hitting you at the same time. We were close enough to the lava, to be able to touch it with a stick. AWESOME. We stood at the top and watched the sun start to set.

As the sun was setting our guides got very nervous and started taking us back. The way down was hard and the darkness wasn't helping. I was having a difficult time going down in all of the lava rock and since Mike was taking his time looking around, another guy took my hand and started helping me down. That got Mike to come over and help :). We were rushed down as a pretty insane speed, my understanding is that there are people that prey on tourists that separate from the group after dark, so our guides were hurrying us out. We stumbled down and finally made it on to the bus and back to Antigua.

By this time, Mike and I were absolutely starving. All of the restaurants were completely packed because it was New Years Eve, and we never thought that we would be back so late and didn't make any reservations. We waited for an hour to be seated at a restaurant. In fact, we were the last people that were accepted in, the rest were turned away. It took FOREVER to get our food. We managed to sneak a peak into the kitchen and were absolutely shocked to see a normal house stove with four burners. This is why the cooking was taking so long. I don't even know what the food tasted like, because we inhaled it as soon as it came out. We were done with dinner a little after 11 which just gave us enough time to get back to the hotel, and shower before New Year's

The New Year's celebration in Antigua blew me away. Mike and I went up to the roof garden to see all of the fireworks and it was spectacular. There were fireworks exploding everywhere. People on the streets had backpacks and shot fireworks straight from those (don't try this at home). The fireworks lasted for a long time, I think half of Guatemala's budget probably gets spent on New Years. We just stood and watched and felt like we were on top of the world. We could even see the fireworks display from the next towns over. Happy 2009!!!!!

All hail from Flores

Hi everyone,
so to catch you guys up so far:
We arrived into Guatemala yesterday and after a day of flying and a sleepless night we were exhausted. My Spanish is slowly coming back to me so we can do basic communication. We had a really nice cabby who picked us up from the airport and we stopped by the pharmacy to get toiletries and such. Then we had a small but delicious dinner at the hotel. Our hotel, La Casa de Don David, has really beautiful grounds with a hammock gazebo and luscious gardens but the rooms are pretty basic. I can't complain though because it's 18 dollars a night.

In the morning we were picked up for our trip to the Mayan ruins at 5:30am (brutal). Our guide was fantastic and the whole group was very educated. Mike and I even got a complex because they were all so well read and knowledgeable about the Mayan culture. The tour lasted from 6am to noon and we went all over Tical park. We have got some crazy pictures of animals and the different temples. The coolest thing is that the Mayans worshiped some kind of bird and the temples are built in such a way that when you clap your hands the sound that gets reflected from the temples sounds like that bird call. We will show everyone the pictures later so i don't want to get into details.

After the ruins we came back to the hotel, had lunch and rested for about 2 hours. Then we went out again and did the zip lining tour. We were in a group with 3 Germans that were scared and said "SUPER" EVERY TIME they made it on to the platform. We were very amused :). Zip lining was a blast and again pictures will be coming shortly. Now we have just eaten and going to start showering to turn in early. We have an early morning flight to Guatemala City. I will write more from Antigua.

Having a blast!

#6 Yehudia, Mt Bental, Winery, Tel Aviv, Home‏

This is the final email in this chain - I know you are all sad :-)


I am back already, (and at work) but I thought I would tell you about our final days in Israel

After my last email Ralph, Antonov, and I went to grab some dinner. We have passed by a really cool lounge called Mambo that was on the beach really close to our apartment and decided that it was time we checked it out. You guys will not believe it - they had salsa dancing. It was incredible, we basically just stumbled into it. Antonov grabbed a beer and Ralph and I ordered sandwiches which would have fed a whole army - neither of us was able to finish even half of ours. Besides, we couldn't sit still and did a bit of salsa dancing. It was really crowded and hot, but lots of fun. I guess Salsa Dancing in Israel is only possible when you are not looking for it. It needs to find YOU. Later on in the night some guy went up there and did HORRIBLE karaoke. Someone took a spotlight and shone it on him the whole time. He was atrocious, but I think well known, since people originally cheered when he showed up. Regardless of his notoriety he basically killed the mood. By the time the Shaffies showed up people were slow dancing and the big screen TV was being prepared for the World Cup watching. I bailed but the rest of the group stayed to watch the game.

The next day we had a pretty big drive ahead of us. Fist order of business was a hike in the Golan in Yehudia. The drive took us about 3 hours and all we could have for lunch was the sandwiches that were sold on the spot. The boys were pretty sad about that. WE changed into our bathing suits and hiking wear and verified the trail that we would take. The Hike was supposed to take around 4 hours and was considered Difficult. we were warned that in some spots we would have to swim with all of our stuff in our hands. Awesome!!! The start of the hike was pretty easy. We walked through a field with Roman Ruins on either side narrowly avoiding the presents that the cows left behind for us. It was pretty hot but tolerable. After a while we got to go down about a million steps (this was the Masada experience all over again - but in reverse and shorter) As we neared the bottom of the steps we could hear yelling and screams of joy.

It was a waterfall!!! We quickly took off everything but the Tivas and bathing suits and went into the water. IT was cold and SOOOOOOOOOO nice after the sun grilled us for the 40 minutes or so of walking. The waterfall was beautiful and everything around us was blooming. There were pink flowers round the falls and trees everywhere. We really needed the shade. I got to go under the waterfall only once since it was pretty powerful and you really have to swim to get under it. I tried doing it again, but ended up swimming in place 5 feet from where I wanted to go. I guess swimming lessons for me wouldn't hurt. When we were sufficiently cooled off we continued the hike. It was basically bouldering. We had to negotiate our way between rocks - some were very hot from the sun. I have to say that the trail was very well marked. Eventually we got to a place that you have to swim across after going down some metal stairs that were jammed into the rocks.

Here we had to wait a bit since there was a camp of 16 year old boys - about 50/60 of them that was taking their time going across this thing. On the positive side though they had a rope and stretched it so that they could slide their backpacks from the top to the other bank without getting them wet. They offered to get our backpacks across in the same manner and we happily agreed. At first things went well with my backpack and the shaffies one, but when Ralph and Antonov's bags were on the rope someone on the other side let go of the rope and the bags were soaked. Fortunately Antonov's camera and phone were in a plastic bag and were not ruined. We swam across and found that we had another swim right away. This time we decided not to wait for the boys and went ahead of them. Sereja went fist and we gave him his backpack to swim across with. Then I went and we got the rest of the bags to me by swimming back and forth. on the other side - where the water was to the waist we formed a human assembly line and got our back backs across that way. Pretty cool huh?

That was the last of our swimming and being in the water. We got to boulder for quite a while in the shade(Thank god) It was really very cool but we had to hurry since the camp of boys was gaining on us and we just wanted to enjoy the nature and quiet instead of their shouts and 16 year old jokes. Antonov was especially bothered by them. He referred to them as Baboons (Litz I'm serious i didn't give him that word - he chose it himself Sheyla haunts us after all). We really had to hurry for the hike up the stairs (another Masada moment) Antonov took full charge and had designated resting points for us. He really wanted to get away from those boys badly. It was probably a 20 minute hike up, so we were pretty tired when we got up there. The last leg of the hike was easy through the fields and ruins again. But we had a great view and we knew that we were almost done. I'm proud to say that the 4 hour hike took us only 3 hours and 15 minutes with the swimming and the waiting for the camp and resting. Go Us!!!!

Our next stop was Mt. Bental right on the Syrian border. we crawled around an abandoned bunker at the top of the mountain and looked into Syria. It was so peaceful and beautiful up there. We hung out a little bit. It's amazing that we were allowed in the bunker. It was previously used by British soldiers. later we went to the gift shop and asked if there was a winery open nearby because we wanted to do a bit of wine tasting. The girl recommended one and we were on our way.

The winery was basically in a co-op. Everyone owns their own land but they share common interests so they work together a lot. At least that is how the co-owner of the winery explained it to us. When we drove up we saw a small farm petting zoo with a donkey chickens, ducks. hens, and even a peacock. Everything was made out of recycled garbage. Even the walkway was made out of broken ceramic bits cemented together. The owner explained how they made the wine and then showed us the dining room - made out of recycled bits again- that was supposed to look like it would in the Talmudic times. We also got to go down into the cellar - a bunker used by Syrians in the war of '67 BTW-to check out where the bottles are stored. The cellar was pretty empty since the winery is popular even though its very small. The woman owner is also a teacher and just does this in her spare time. they started opening up to tourists when their children started leaving home for the army. The husband is an artist who also makes jewelry and builds. The recycling is really his thing. Where people see garbage he sees a project. They even have space in their yard for people to bring them trash. We tasted the Merlot and bought some bottles. We wanted to eat too but the owners were leaving to see their daughter in a play of some sort so they couldn't feed us. They did recommend a good meat place called Meat Shos.

Meat Shos was an awesome experience. When we rode up to it we were a little worried since it was located in a fire house and looked pretty shabby from the outside. Inside was a different story. It was amazing. And the food was just incredible. The Shaffies and I split a sampler designed for 2 people and we were all full. Antonov had a 1 lb burger that he said was the best burger in his life. Ralph got a little unlucky though. He hates medium and rare meat so he wanted his steak well done. Unfortunately this was one of those places where the chef is insulted if you ask for well done because it supposedly takes away from the taste of the meat. The waitress told Ralph that there is no way in hell he will get his meat the way he likes is so he ordered chicken... and that's exactly what he got: a whole spring chicken with all the parts from neck to butt. Not exactly what Ralph had in mind when he ordered. He mutilated his dish until it no longer reminded him of the winery petting zoo. Once that was done the chicken was actually pretty good he said, but he still left a lot of it. The waitress clearly did not approve (no soup for you for one year!!!)

While we were eating we got a call from Misha that he was at his hotel and we promised to visit him. He was staying in Netanya with his birthright group. We were on the road a little after 9 pm and made it to Netanya by 11. Here are Misha's instructions of where he is as told to me by Olya. "We are in the center of the city by the beach. I am playing soccer with a green ball. There is a Pizza hut nearby" awesome right. Well, we found him with no problems anyway. I think we got incredibly lucky but there you have it. Misha grew out a beard since we last saw him and we made sure to complement him by asking if he's looked at himself in the mirror lately. He thoroughly enjoyed it. We only had time for a beer since he had to meet up with his group by midnight. It was cool seeing him and he was excited to be included in one of my emails. Here you go Misha, I hope it's everything you thought it would be :-) (shave the beard!!!!)

Out final day in Israel was one where we split up. Ralph went to the art museum and the beach, Antonov did shopping, Shaffies went to Ben Gurion's house, saw miniature israel and hung out with Sereja's cousin, I went to Yafo, the market and the beach, Antonov went shopping, and Ilyusha was still MIA visiting yet more family. It was just a relaxing day. We got our deposit back from the landlord and had our final dinner on the beach. The lounge was called Cheech Beach and it was the best one yet. They had really comfortable couches and chilled out music. And the food was incredible. The Shaffies came late and I bailed on them again since I wanted some sleep. (we had to get up at 1:30 in the morning to go to the airport)

We made it to the airport without killing each other - quite an accomplishment :-) Our flights were also pretty uneventful. On my flight from Milan to Chicago I sat next to a pretty cool girl who was visiting Chicago from Poland. She had a layover in Milan too. We talked quite a bit, esp in the last 3-4 hours of the ride. I found out that she is actually staying at Belmont and Clark - not too far from me. She took my number so maybe I will hang out with her. Pretty cool huh, I go to israel and make friends with a girl from Poland :-). Well that's all folks. The end of the "novel". I enjoyed writing it and getting your comments. I'm back in chi-town even though very Jet lagged still.

I will see you all soon!!!

Love,

Katya

Vacation email #5 - Nazareth, Tzvat, Teberias, tel aviv, Haifa, Akko

Hey all,


It's email time again. So here we go.........

on Thursday we got up relatively early and drove to Nazareth, where Jesus supposedly lived. This was the Christian part of our trip. We first went into a church where mary may be burried. It was very cool. In the cortyard of the church they had mossaics of Mary from different countries. It was interesting to see that the mary from Korea looked Korean, and the one from Thailand, looked Thai. When we went inside there were more mosaics,sculptures, paintings of Mary. The one from the US was done in a modern style, very cool. This church was built on top of other churches that stood before it so at the lower level you still see the ruins. There is also a little room where Mary's Toumb is. We didn't want to get too close since it seemed that everyone was praying there. We next went to Another church that was built on top of Joseph's workshop. You also get to see some ruins beneath it. Again, it was pretty amazing that people keep rebuilding on the same spot. Our final destination was a greek orthodox church built over the basin where Mary would walk to get water. She must have been in great shape to lug something all the way from there. It was quite a walk :-)

From Nazareth we drove to Tiberias. We were starving so we all had some fish on the boardwalk. It must have been 110 degrees. We were just boiling. Seriously hot weather. After lunch the boys wanted to go for a swim. The free beaches in Tiberias look like garbage dumps (as in there was a shopping cart right there and some garbage laying around) so Olya and I abstained. The boys said the water was nice but got out in about 5 minutes since we were short on time.

We then went to Tzvat where we spent a good 40 minutes looking for the old city. I mean it was definately insanely hidden. We finally found it after asking for directions 5 times. No one here wants to look at a map when giving directions. It's rediculous. I stayed in the car for the hour that the others needed for the city since my foot was acting up again. Besides I have already been there. They visited the synagogue where all the Kabbalahists are and just walked around the most narrow alley in the world.

We left by 5 since the shaffies and Ilya and Antonov wanted to go to this Russian Rock competition that started at 8. Ralph and I decided to go salsa dancing and then meet up with everyone at a trance club at midnight or so. The website Ralph got was really outdated and both of the places we tried no longer existed/no longer played salsa. We might try again tonight with a bigger group.

We met up with the rest of the group at 12:30 and tried to get in to the club. This is how it works: There are about 4 bouncers standing and blocking your way. Then there is a woman that gave me the witch of the west vibe that walks around and looks through you. She is known as the SELECTOR. In order to get in you MUST either know someone who works at the club, be famous, be on some list, or maybe just completely model beautiful. After standing there for about 20 minutes Sereja got a great Idea. He told the lady we were American Tourists and the doors opened for us. It was amazing how easy it was. Cover was a little over $20 dollars US. - 100 shekels. The music was house. I danced almost non stop until about 4 am. It was great.

The cool thing was that the club lets in all handicapped people so there was a guy in a wheelchair doing crazy spinning moves on the dance floor. There was another guy on crutches busting a move in the corner. I thought that was great. Also, unlike American clubs there is very little of the guys coming up to you and grinding. Everyone seems like they are there to dance. If they want to hook up they just hug to break the touch barrier and go from there. Very interesting to observe.

Yesterday everyone basically did their own thing. I slept till 4 pm and chilled out a lot. Ilyusha and Antonov went shopping, Ralph went to Jaffo, and the Shaffies had a relative run. They were exhausted by the end of the day but they were definately well fed :-). They got matching shorts from their relatives so we had them put on a mini fashion show for us. Great stuff really. In the evening we went to a lounge on the beach called the Bungalow and smoked a nergilah with apple tobacco. Very good stuff. Then we proceeded to go home and pass out.

Today we left our house by 8:30 - a record i think. We first went to haifa where be basically hung out at the Bahai Gardens (they even let us into the temple - a very anticlimactic moment for all of us) and walked around for a little bit. Olya met up with her 4th grade teacher and hung out separately. It was a nice city, but not much to see in terms of cultural stuff. There were some museums but we didn't really want to do that.

we went further north to Akko after lunch. Akko is the city that has been fought over the most. It definately has an old atmosphere about it. We walked around the old city for a bit and did some shopping at a silver/jewlery store. I think they don't have to be open again for a month. They loved us so much. We singlehandedly raised Akko's economic status. We also got pulled over on the way for rolling through a stopsign, but got directions to the old city instead of a ticket. I wish American cops were more like this. It would make our lives much easier I think.

We dropped off the Shaffies in Petah Tikvah to visit more relatives on the way back and mad it to Tel Aviv without getting lost. Who hoo!!!!!!!! Now we will go to eat dinner and later on we may attempt to go Salsa dancing again. Tomorrow is a hard day of hiking at Golan hights and maybe crawling around in some caves followed by visiting Savchenko at Natanya. I think you guys will get a final update from me on Monday night. I miss you all and can't wait to see you.

Oh BTW sorry I missed it, but happy belated birthday yan!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Katya