Back to Basics or the Israeli Trip

After some 3 long months of Israeli free environment, I had made first contact once again when I decided to go on a 3 days organized Jeep tour in the north of Thailand, and boy what a contact it was! Now you must understand, I promised myself that I would be joining the Israeli horde with an open mind and a welcoming smile, and though I did succeed in acquiring some new trip partners, the experience in its whole was a bit unnerving, but sadly predictable.

Day 1

mainly day one was comprised out of getting to Chiang Mai, a district close to the Golden Triangle border (Thai, Laos, Burma). The bus left at 18:00 from Bangkok, and arrived Thana hotel at chiang mai at 7:00 the next morning. The trip was long, but I've managed to keep myself entertained with getting to know some other Israelis that were on the same bus. Actually, my main agenda was to make friends with the Japanese people who were on the bus, but I wasn't that successful with that, so mainly I talked with a nice girl from Jerusalem who left her friends at the Islands to the south in order to do a 2 days trek up in the north.

Interesting way of moving furniture

Day 2

Groggy and hungry, like everyone else on the bus, we were dropped in Thana hotel/adventure thingy, and it was soon apparent to me that this is going to be an all Israeli tour. This Thana business is an expert when dealing with Israelis. That's why everybody were talking Hebrew, including the receptionists, guides and some of the street dogs. It didn't take me long to bond with the guys who were on the bus with me, 4 of them were best friends who met up in Thailand, and also a very young couple doing a trip. I liked them, and I guess they liked me, so we paired up. Unfortunately, there wasn't a seat available for me in their Jeep, so I had to join anothers group Jeep. You can imagine what I was thinking the moment I saw my name among other names such as "Biton", "Cohen", and so on. Unfortunately, my prejudiced assumptions were too accurate, and the minute I saw them, I knew this is going to be a loong trip. These guys looked like the type who would shout and yell at 3:00 am in the morning inside an hotel, even though people would beg them to be quite (they did that by the way).

monkey shrine

But, as you remember, I decided on giving it a shot, and at first, I thought I earned their trust, as I played them over the Stereo the only Trance music I got... but soon they were bored with my other songs, and it wasn't long till the "Heavy" Israeli songs were played. Later that trip I was practically scorned at for being the only Ashkenaz in the A'ars-Mobil.

Our first stop was at a snake show farm. Apart from the wrecked snake cages, the only attraction was the show, which was nice, but not exciting. The only thing that was actually fun was the Thai announcer who was speaking funny Hebrew with catchy phrases such as:

אל דאגה. יש ביטוח, אבל לא בטוח

Just two ordinary Cobras :)

Extreme Free (stinky) Hugging

Next stop was at an elephant show, which was actually pretty nice, if they weren't so miserable and poor treated animals. Up came the Elephant ride, but me and others decided on skipping that and have a quiet chat and just relax.

Elephants chained to posts

After a bit of lunch, we drove to the next brilliant attraction, which was, as written on the Tour Pamphlet, "White Water Rafting"...

The water were definitely not white... perhaps toxic green, and there was nothing actually that would even suggest a hint of an adrenaline rush, since the river was cool, calm, shallow and a bit slimy I may say. But, still, it was fun. since most of us were in a good humorous mood.

Later on we finished with an off-road ride, and It was... well... shaky.

At about 20:00, we parked at the Hotel, and after a good dinner and a failed attempt at a Karaoke night (with the same annoying songs I heard in the Jeep), everyone drifted to their beds.

day 3

Morning At the hotel

I guess you could say that day 3 was a bit more adventurous, but commercialized to the fullest. First stop was at the long-neck tribes, which for me was a sad and grim experience. those poor bastards are actually refugees from Burma, for many years now. However, they still haven't got any known recognition from the Thai Government. So the Thai actually isolated them in one location, prohibiting them from leaving, and they are used as a tourist attraction. So they are pretty much stuck in their primitive way of life, and their old traditions are used as a means of income - probably that's why they force the little girls to don the brass, whether they like it or not. You could see the women and young girls, each one sitting on top of a bamboo platform, weaving, or just sitting as a puppet, half smiling, waiting for someone to either buy their goods or take a picture with them. Later I was told that they get money out of the tour guides for every tourist they bring with them.

Long neck beauty

We drove on to the next attraction, the Monkey Shrine.

Next, we went to Golden-Triangle, which is actually the spot where the river acts as a border between Burma, Laos and Thailand. We took a boat ride to a small Island which had a market, not much different from any other markets around (except from the big knives).

After we were lodged in our Hotel, we were all routed to a party in a huge Korean club with some live music. At first we the Israelis were pretty much huddled one to another and, well, for me it was quite lame, but luck served me right. When everyone else went smoking or something, I did a bit of a walk around the club, looking apprehensively at frozen Thai boys and girls, glued to their tables and their drinks. However, suddenly there were 2 guys grabbing my arm and pleading me to join them at the very front of the stage. Soon I was cheering and drinking with 3 extremely generous Thai guy, who luckily weren't gay (I know, I'm experienced already). I also knew that I need to be cautious when offered a drink, so I made sure they were drinking the same thing that they gave to me, and sometime from the same glass as well. The liqueur was flowing into my veins, and I was more than ready to hit the dance floor, but still most of the club was nailed to the floor, and I and the three Thai guys were the only ones "having fun". Luckily, the Cavalry rushed in from nowhere - all of a sudden, instead of me and 3 Thai guys, there were all the other Israelis I went with, some 8 of them, all jumping and shouting and wasted. Soon many of them joined the drinking fest, even without asking, and the poor Thai guys had to just accept the fact that they payed .for a whole bottle of scotch just to dance with crazy foreigners.

After enough drinking, and some good music, some of us, including me, decided that the whole of the club needs to see us, so we went up the stage and danced like crazy... I think I was almost a full hour on the stage, inviting girls and boys to dance, shouting at people who didn't obey my dance orders, and mainly danced with the hot Thai dancers who were put on the lower levels of the stage. I've had a blast, and, from what I was told the next morning, everyone enjoyed that evening.

Kelly and the sling boy

Day 4

I woke up, with a bit of a hangover, but I felt just fine, and the breakfast was filled with talks about last nights events. Once again, we finished breakfast, and hit the road. This time, the first stop was at a national park. We hiked for about an hour till we reached a dazzling waterfall, and I didn't even pause to undress before I jumped into the cool waters, enjoying the slapping rush of the waterfall. It was great! especially after sweating it out all the way to the waterfall.

Bamboo forest

brrr....

On the way back, me and one other guy, Amit by the name, took turns in piggy-bagging a third guy, Assaf, who has sprained his ankle at last nights party (too drunk). The whole of the group had to wait for us for about 40 minutes or so, but it was a fun experience, since these two actually have something to say that's worth hearing.

Next stop was at a beautiful spot up on the mountains, where we ate our lunch. The view in all of Chiang mai is amazing, but due to a permanent haze (from the heat and from supervised fires all over), the horizon was always giving us only hints of its beauty. Taking pictures of the scenery was also difficult thanks to that.

Our last stop for the whole of the trip was at some hot smelly springs, which were, for me, a total insult considering my experience coming from Japan. The only good thing I got out of there was a photo of a sign I saw, which reminded me the good old times of "Engrish" hunting.

So, in conclusion, I guess I've had a nice time. Although the Jeep rides were long, smokey and boring for me, the mingling with the sane people here was worth it. My next stop would be a city called "Pai", which is praised constantly by many travelers, and I still have no clue why is that.