Enroute

AWAKE

AWAKE

 We talked to a taxi driver the night before. He was supposed to come at 5:30am. So we woke up at 5:00am. He showed up at 5:05am. We rushed around with him waiting in our courtyard and managed to be dressed and relatively put together within 15 minutes, to drive to Poipet at the Thai border. We understood that this would be a 3 hour journey so we wanted to get started early before the lines at the border (mostly tourists travelling from Siem Reap back to Thailand became busy). The driver woke us up just after 7:00am. We were there. The border wasn't open yet.

found an internet connection
in Aran

 It didn't take long after the border opened around 8:00am for us to cross into Thailand into the town called Aranyaprathet. In between the Thai and Cambodian borders you have to walk through a no mans land that is a gamblers haven. It is full of massive casino's and even so early in the morning was pretty hustling. Once we were in the border town we had to figure out how to get to Bangkok. We knew we wanted a bus, preferably a public one (usually cheaper and more reliable than the private tour companies). We finally hooked up some google on the iPhone and found a lady tuk-tuk driver to take us 10 minutes to the bus station for 80baht ($2.50).

We found the bus no problem but got slayed by the only money changer that was open before 10:00am, who happened to work at the bus depot. The trip was enjoyable. We started and finished a novel called "Make Lemonade" written all in verse. We arrived at the Northern Bus Station in Bangkok in the afternoon and did not know what to do next. Thai people look a lot like Cambodians but are culturally very different. The large tourist population in Thailand has created a very aggressive local culture, and made us wary of many of the people who were trying to offer us rides without a meter. We finally found the government taxi line up and got a very sweet driver to take us into the city to our guesthouse.

great sign, abandoned shop

 Unfortunately traffic was ridiculous and he kept missing the turn offs which resulted in him leaving us on the street a few blocks away from our hotel with our bags. He felt really bad (he did not want to charge us for the trip!) but we all decided it was better than being stuck in traffic jams for another hour to go 4 blocks. We paid him most of the fare and he was very grateful. And then he left and we were really lost. We dragged our suitcases up and down stairs and through crowded side walks and back alleys. We were just about to give up when I stopped to take the above photo of Ash. After I took the photo, I looked over from the stairs I had climbed up and caught a glimpse of the street signs and there was Chatburi Rd. that we were in search of!

this is how we found our towels in our
guest house

The guesthouse was great. Just opened a few months earlier and was suggested by friends that live just one block away. We indulged in some western food delights that we can not find in Cambodia, and being in the commercial shopping district we just spent the evening wandering around (sans bags finally!) and reveling at the affluence and materialism of it all! It was like jumping into a completely different universe from our sleepy, dusty Battambang town.

in case you were looking- it is in Bangkok, and it is a shopping
mall

drinking fresh pomegranate
juice in the Arab district

shopping, shopping, shopping

Most of our time in the city was spent shopping. It was unfortunate but I was ill equipped for the upcoming cold Israeli weather. I had no shoes to wear (all that I own is flip flops) and not many clothes that suit weather below 20degrees. On the upside there is a LOT of shopping to be done in Bangkok, especially near our hotel. On the down side no one in Thailand carries shoes in my size. On the upside I eventually found a pair from some very kind sales people. On the down side they gave me blisters and were painful to walk up and down all of the stairs and hills in Haifa. On the upside I also had my sandals to wear. In between all of the searching for shoes and clothes we met up with Ryan Duly and his family. He and his wife also lived in Battambang early in their marriage doing similar work to us, then upgraded to Phnom Penh and a child, and are now living the life in Bangkok with two children. It was cool to see who we will be in a few more years :) They took us out for Arab food (to wet our appetites for Israel) right near their house. There is an amazing Arab section of the city, mostly developed around a hospital that caters to medical tourists from the Middle East.

We flew out on New Years Eve. Before flying we had a chance to stop in at our friends just down the street from our hotel and have a quick dinner with some more friends who were there for the evenings festivities. The door opened while I was helping to cut pineapple and there was one of my friends from highschool who I haven't see in 5 years! She was more surprised that I was and so we had a great couple of hours just catching up and sharing stories and memories.

it was an all night flight

We arrived early in the morning in Tel Aviv but could not arrive in Haifa until after sunset. Because security at the airport went so smooth we had many hours to kill in the city with no plans and two large bags. We found a cafe in a residential district (after taking the train from the airport to a random stop that we thought sounded interesting). The cafe was sweet and we had some great pastries and capuccinos, then I got my hair cut next door and then we wandered. For hours. With large bags on cobble stone streets and a chilly January wind.

Ashraf expounding on the great art of ancient paper map usage,
it is so much easier to follow the little blue dot on google maps.

we coordinate when we travel

 We managed to eat lots of amazing food, and visit the old city of Jaffa (pronounced Yaffo) before making our way back to the train. The best was our dinner (pictured on the right) at Big Itzik. Our taxi driver took us there and was really excited. We didn't know what was going on at all. We ordered salad and a lamb kebab and they kept bringing us food....