Category: English

Neil and I took the ferry boat, that was way overloaded, from Koh Phangan to Koh Samui. We got a room at a place called Tango Resort on Chaweng beach, which is a very nice place to stay – A/C, free WiFi, hot water, big pool and immediate access to the beach. We didn’t even go out of the resort’s area (except for the beach) because we were both dead tired. The resort has a very good restaurant (and substantially more expensive than Koh Phangan’s restaurants) called “Lazy Wave”. We had both lunch and dinner there and then crashed. Our plans to go to a party on the beach later were foiled by sleeping through it until morning (and that’s why the late update.)

Neil got back from the Full Moon party at about 5:30am and woke me up. He was wasted, so it was a funny (unfortunately I can’t go into details because I care for his privacy.) I slept for 2 hours and had a shower before I went to sleep so I was refreshed. We went outside to see the party still going on. The sun was about to rise at about 6:30 and breakfast at the resort was served at 7:30 so we decided to wait for both.

The sunrise was really nice (see pictures below) and then we went to breakfast. I wanted my eggs sunny side up, so I tried to tell the extremely nice hotel employee but he didn’t understand. I started describing it to him and then he asked me if I wanted an “eye egg.” It took me a few seconds and then I asked him if they call it an eye egg in Thailand as well but he said no and that he only used that term because I’m an Israeli. So that was kind of funny (and shows you how much Israelis affect the locals here. The same guy also knows quite a bit of Hebrew.)

Neil and I both crashed after that only to wake up at around 2pm, go to eat, go jet skiing (and for me actually to get in the water for the first time since I got here) and go to eat again. After that I went running and after that I ate again (add 3 showers in between some of these activities.) Another satisfying day.

Neil really wants to go to Koh Samui and I like hanging out with him so I’m going to go there until he goes back home on the 15th. After that I plan to go back to Koh Phangan for a few days and then go to Koh Chang, which unfortunately doesn’t get me closer to Bangkok as I had originally thought (it’s a 6-hours bus drive to Koh Chang from Bangkok.) But like all plans on this trip these can change too. The only certain thing right now is that I’m going to Koh Samui tomorrow. We already have the boat tickets. This means I need to pack, which I hate, but hopefully will be easier since I sent about 4kg of stuff back home.

Here are some photos from the past few days. The videos I have are much more interesting but I can’t upload them from here because it takes forever. I need to find a way to deal with that and upload them.

It’s 2:45am and I’m just back from the Full Moon party. It is crazy out there. My ears are still ringing and my legs hurt from jumping around. The beach is packed with people, mostly dancing frantically. But some are already completely wasted. This means they are either dancing without noticing their surroundings, walking funny, sleeping or letting lady boys make out with them. The latter are going to have quite a surprise tomorrow morning :)

I have pictures and videos but again I need to sort them out and there’s no way I’m doing that now. Instead I want to share a dilemma I have: I was going to go to Koh Phi Phi, but it turns out the entire area of the western islands is out of the question because there’s a severe warning for Israeli travelers (Hebrew link, IE only) regarding that area. I already considered in the past going to Koh Samui (very close too here, but too western and too much prostitution) or Koh Tau (also close, but too quiet) so I am left with the following options:

• Stay in Koh Phangan some more (or until the 26th, which is when I go to the UK.)
• Leave to Ko Chang, an island very close to Bangkok, from which it will be easy for me to travel out of the country on the 26th.
• Go to Bangkok soon.
• Go north to do some trekking.

Right now I’m thinking on staying in Koh Phangan for a few more days (the prices drop here after the Full Moon, so even if Neil goes home I can stay in the same room, which makes it a comfortable choice.) During those days I will go do some day tours around the island and go see other beaches. After that I’ll go to Ko Chang and then to Bangkok a few days before the flight or on the day of the flight (right now I’m inclined not to visit Bangkok at all, except the airport.) I don’t think I have the right equipment to go trekking in the north and I’m not really in that mindset.

If any of you 7 readers has an idea, please leave it in the comments or email me (my email address is in the About page.) Thank you.

Today I:

• got up at about 9am7am
• ate
• Went to the post office to send some excess stuff back home
• showered
• ate and watched “Friends”
• transferred my CDs to the MP3 player
• ate and watched “Yes Man”
• walked around a little bit
• ate and watched “Family Guy”“Friends” and 30 minutes of “Transporter 3”
• napped for about 3 hours
• ran 5055 minutes
• showered
• watched 45ate and watched 30 minutes of “Superbad”
• got a massage“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”
• went to the Warm Up Full Moon Party (videos tomorrow)

(Thanks to quickdiff.com)

Today I:

• got up at about 9am
• showered
• ate and watched “Friends”
• transferred my CDs to the MP3 player
• ate and watched “Yes Man”
• walked around a little bit
• ate and watched “Family Guy”
• ran 50 minutes
• showered
• watched 45 minutes of “Superbad”
• got a massage
• ate and watched “Friends”

Now I’m exhausted. That’s what I call a good day. Sweet dreams.

(In reality I was so exhausted I actually fell asleep with the computer next to me before I managed to post this. Now it’s morning already so I’m posting late.)

(I’ll post pictures soon. I’m not so happy with the ones I got so far.)

I got up at 6am today, probably because I napped during the day yesterday, and went jogging on the beach before the sun came up. But I only went for about 30 minutes, which was really disappointing. It was hard to run, though. Probably a combination of me not being used to running on sand and the weather here (very hot and humid.) I think it would be better to try running in the evening because there’s a cool breeze and the sand is wetter. I hope to try that tomorrow.

Yesterday’s beach party was pretty crazy. People get really drunk with the encouragement of the locals that sell “buckets” of alcohol (a bucket is literally a small bucket that is filled with your choice of alcohol, e.g. Vodka and Red Bull.) And then they go dancing to the loud music played all over the beach. So you may be able to imagine what that’s like. I’ll post pictures soon (I tried to take some at today’s party but they came out pretty crappy. I’ll have another go at it tomorrow.)

It’s safe to say that I’ve gotten used to the do-nothing type of vacation. Today I went from restaurant to restaurant, watching TV or a movie, eating and drinking. I also did a little napping and caught up on my online reading as well. Oh, and a massage (they’re dirt cheap – like 9 USD for one hour.) It’s very very hot these days here. Too hot for me to be in the sun, so I just go restaurant hopping most of the day.

Yesterday I met this English guy, Neil, on the plane. We spent the night at the same place in Koh Samui. As we were checking out of the bungalows the receptionist asked me if I had a woman with me in my bungalow during the night. She was really insistent on it and I had to convince her that all I did was go to bed and nothing more with no one else. Neil and I had a good laugh out of it.

This morning we took the taxi boat to Koh Phangan together. Then we went looking for a place to stay. We nearly booked two bungalows at a place called Paradise Bungalows but then Neil found a better place nearby called the Sunrise Resort, where we got a room together that has a view of the resort’s pool and also has WiFi (although not free.) Like most places the resort is 10 meters away from the beach. We booked the room for 6 nights to include the Full Moon party and the night following that.

Most of the 7 readers of this blog have been to Thailand’s islands so I’ll refrain from describing what it’s like. I’ll just say that the beaches are beautiful and the laid back atmosphere is really great once you get into it.

Koh Phangan is also packed with Israelis. There’s Hebrew everywhere. Even the locals speak it. And I’m sorry to say that but Israelis are so… for a lack of a better word… vile. And loud. Oh so loud. This is very similar to what happened to me 15 years ago when I came back to Israel after 5 months in the US – I just can’t stand the way Israelis push you around and the way they talk to the locals – no courtesy whatsoever. Unfortunately I’m probably behaving more like that just because they’re around. I spoke very few words in Hebrew today, my excuse being that I have an English guy with me, but I’m sure many recognize that I’m Israeli. I guess I’ll socialize more with the Israelis in time. I just need to reconnect to my Israeli self again.

Just two pictures today. I doubt I’ll have many more pictures to post from here, as I’m going to be in the same place for a few days.

I got up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I got everything packed and ready for the flight today and got out at 6am to look for breakfast and have a last walk around Hong Kong’s streets. My plans were quickly foiled by rain. There was nothing open on the street except for a restaurant I tried but didn’t like and McDonald’s. So for the first time in years I went into McDonald’s and had an arteries-blocking meal of egg McMuffin and hash brown. At least I picked something that I never tried before. I’m going to have to run a few kilometers to lose the weight (and guilt) gained from eating this meal.

On the way to the airport I arrived to Central Station at a very busy time. It was probably the morning rush. I was so amazed at how quiet and civilized that rush is, that I had to take this 15 seconds video. Notice how you can hear the footsteps of the passengers walking quickly in and out of the station.

I got to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) using the Airport Express train, which was a treat (it’s more expensive than the bus, but much faster and easier.) HKG is the cleanest, quietest, most accommodating and among the biggest airports I’ve ever been to. For example, carts are free of charge and there’s free WiFi everywhere. There are no boarding calls so in the terminals there is about one message per hour. Apart from that it’s absolute quiet. In the gates there are a little more messages, but not like in other airports I’ve been to – no “keep an eye on your things” type of messages, for example. The airport also has many shops and restaurants and is simply a pleasure to pass through.

Bangkok airport, on the other hand, is one big mess. So noisy and crowded. When I saw it I decided to ditch my plan to spend the night at Khoa San Road just so that I won’t have to be back to Bangkok airport tomorrow. I booked a flight to Koh Samui and immediately boarded it. A propeller plane took me there. Now usually I doubt the airlines’ claims that cellphones interrupt the flight or communication but for this flight I wanted to turn my cellphone off. It went fine and now I’m in Koh Samui after getting a room. It was 33 degrees Celsius when we landed and it’s still hot although the sun already set.

I’m in deep culture shock again. So far I only had to deal with western civilization. I hope I’m going to enjoy it here. Anyway, tomorrow I’m taking a taxi boat to Koh Phangan to find a place for the next few days.

Last night I went outside to see what Hong Kong is like at night. I went to Kowloon’s bar area only to find out that most bars were pretty empty around 11pm with girls standing outside trying to convince pedestrians to get in. After reading about the abundance of “working girls” in those bars and seeing that there was not much going on anyway, I decided not to go inside. I don’t drink and being alone in a bar isn’t really something I like. The hostel’s street was filled with fire trucks when I got back. I was afraid that the hostel’s building is the one in flames but luckily it wasn’t it (see first picture below.)

Today I went to Ocean Park, an amusement park with ocean-related attractions. The park is divided into two parts on different sides of a mountain. To travel between the parts you can take a shuttle or ride the mountain-side cable car, which has an amazing view of the bay. As for the contents of the park – too many amusement park stuff, too few ocean attractions. If you’ve been to Eilat’s Coral World Underwater Observatory and Aquarium it’s pretty much the same, only with other sea creatures. The Allot Reef and Lagoon are amazing and the Jelly Fish display is beautiful. Other attractions include the sea lions, the giant panda habitat and an aviary, which I was less impressed with (the pandas look very unhappy in there.)

I really loved Hong Kong. It’s a great place to be in because there is so much activity here and things to do. But for now these three days were enough. I think Hong Kong is a place that would be amazing to live in, especially if you can speak the language. Who knows… maybe in the future :)

Tomorrow: a short 2 hour flight to Thailand. I plan to spend the first day there in Khoa San Road and the day after take a flight to Koh Phangan. There’s a full moon party in a few days, which I plan to attend (just to see what it’s like) and then decide whether I want to stay in Koh Phangan or move to a quieter place.

I don’t know what the Internet situation is going to be in Thailand, so there may not be regular updates from there.

I got up at around 4am (you already know that if you read my last post) and got out at 7am. I like the empty streets of an otherwise extremely busy city. Everything looks calm and the few people on the streets are taking their time walking, unlike the crazed typical walking you see during the day.

I went straight to Hong Kong Park, deciding to postpone Ocean Park for tomorrow. Hong Kong Park is a really beautiful urban park with many kinds of plants. It also resides on a mountain side, but after all the nature I saw in this trip I was a little underwhelmed. The thing I really liked about Hong Kong Park was the Aviary – a small, closed and controlled forest with many types of tropical birds and plants. You can see in the pictures some of the birds (I’m really happy I had the new camera for this.) Another nice thing in the park was Vantage Point – a 30 meters high tower with a very nice view.

Seeing it was still early, I went to Victoria Park – another urban park. I enjoyed walking the paths of the park, as there were already many people around at the time – exercising Tai Chi, jogging and playing Bowls.

After resting for a while (jet lag, I guess) I took the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is a must-see tourist attraction that gives a beautiful view of Hong Kong that is only ruined by the air pollution’s fog. Today wasn’t the best day for the peak, either – it was very cloudy and even rained a little. But tomorrow isn’t going to be any better. Like this guide suggested, I didn’t go to the sky terrace (observation deck) but instead walked the beautiful roads around the peak, which go through the mountain-side forest and give the best view from the peak.

Today I was walking around with headphones listening to Invaders Must Die in a loop. At times I was bobbing my head up and down or smiling because I was enjoying the music so much. I guess I looked a little stupid but I didn’t care. I like taking in sounds as much as sights, but walking around with familiar music gives some sense of security. Also, a lot of the locals walk around with headphones. And there’s another benefit – when you’re with headphones they don’t offer to custom make suits for you (what’s up with that?)

I took so many pictures it took me over 2 hours to create all the panoramas and choose the good ones. On some I couldn’t decide which are better so there are some that look almost identical. I’m such a crappy photographer.

I think I’ll go out tonight to have a taste of the nightlife, but since I’m tired of the blogging thing for today I’ll post now without telling about it. If anything interesting happens tonight I’ll write about it tomorrow. I also plan to go to Ocean Park tomorrow, but as usual… we’ll see how things go.