24/10 - Bangkok

Hi all from crazy Thailand !!!

Finally we arrived to our little peace of the insane life, here in Bangkok life seems to be much more peaceful and damn easy, it is strange suddenly to speak with all kinds of local tourist providers and not feel they want your money and nothing else, the taxi drivers are actually help you if or when you get lost.
We know, this is not our first time in Thailand, but coming here after a long stay in India makes it a little bit different.
Efrat says that unlike whatever bad thing she has been thinking about Thai people 2 years ago (that they are money suckers), now she is seeing it in a different point of view (like it was written in the above text).

For those of us who hasn't been in Thailand yet (and it's pretty damn shame !) let you know that the main backpackers area here called: Khao-San Roed. you can find here every tourist service you ever want (Hotels, Restaurants with all kinds of cuisine, Interent services, Laundry services, Shops which sells everything, Beauty parlors and more, much more), and all cheap, all tempting.

Khao-San Road:


The flight here was super, Thai Airways can surely know how to provide a service, one frustrating thing is the time - 2 AM, couldn't they picked a worst time ? we arrived to Bangkok at 6 AM so freaking exhausted.



The bad news, we don't have much time to spend in this marvelous country, Our flight is tomorrow. A week in Thailand is definitely not enough, not even in Bangkok - a city which both of us love (although many won't agree).
The good news are - we are leaving this place to fulfill an old dream, going to explore Australia is something we have been thinking about for a long long time, and we are about time to make it happen!



Lucky us we are going to come back here at the end of our journey, in about a year from now (a little bit less, but who's counting ?)

To view Bangkok Slide show, click here
To view Bangkok Photo Album, click here
To view Street Market in Bangkok Movie Clip, click here

See you all in Perth - Australia,
Efrat & Yoni.

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Our Photo Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/yonifln
Our Movie Library: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=yonifln

18/10 - Kolkata

Hello from Kolkata (former known as Calcutta), We arrived to the real deal of India, the differences between Sikkim where we had traveled the past 10 days and Kolkata are huge. We returned to the buggers, to the filth, to the heat, you can see poorness wherever you go around here, what a hell of a way to finish our journey in India.
On the train to here we met a nice Swedish couple - Ellen and Sacha, the chemistry felt right in the beginning, they had come here to volunteer in one of the Charity foundations of Mother Teresa.

Ellen, Sacha and Yoni infront of Victoria Memorial:


The "Victoria Memorial" Museum turned out to be one of the best we have visited in India. Although we didn't have much time to spend in the city, we eventually found ourselves in the "Mother Teresa Hospital", absolutely the most difficult sight we have seeing in India, people go to this place to die not to get their health back, we "took a tour" around the place and were very strongly influenced by the foreigner volenteers which do a divine work in this hopeless place.

With these involved feelings we are going to leave India, the flight is at 2:00 at night. couldn't they picked a worst time ? We guess that this night is going to be a very very sleepless night.

Human Rikshaws:


To view Kolkata Slide show, click here
To view Kolkata Photo Album, click here

See you all in Thailand,
Efrat & Yoni.

12/10 - Dzongri Trek

Hi All,

We just finished a 4 days hard trek in the Himalaya mountains, called "Dzongri Trek", this was our first trek (hopefully out of many), so we were not exactly in our best shape. As we put our efforts to climb over 4300 meters to view on the peak of the third highest mountain in the world ! we enjoyed ourselves very much, although the weather was against us in the first 2 days.



The scenery was a breath taking, this non touristic area flourishes with vast variety of wildlife. while being there we did it with 2 other Israeli guys which turned out to be a very nice people (both of them are students on their semester break).
We finished the trek at a small beautiful village called Yuksom, which is located in a surrounding green natural area.

The day after we headed to Pelling, the ride over there took us 2.5 hours by a taxi-jeep, it's funny, the distance between these places is about 60 KM, but nevertheless - 2.5 hours !
The room we took was definitely was one of the best rooms in India we had taken, the scenery out of the balcony viewed to the great Himalayans mountains as you can see in the following photo:



Efrat did one of the best Massages she has ever had in a local barber-shop, this pleasure cost us 3 shekels !



To view Dzongri Slide show, click here
To view Dzongri Photo Album, click here

We will see you in Kolkata,
Efrat & Yoni.

6/10 - Gangtok

Greetings from Sikkim,

We arrived to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim a few days ago, the ride from Darjeeling was one of the most beautiful rides we ever seen. it took us 4 hours by a Jeep to get here and we liked the scenery very much.
Most of the population here are Nepalese and Tibetan, which makes the trip here easier, they are such of nice and friendly people. A good example for that is when we arrived here, We forgot our Camera bag in the taxi-jeep, it took us 30 minutes until we noticed that one of the most important things is missing, Yoni ran like a mad-man straight to the taxi station, well ... it turned out that the driver was waiting especially for us to give back the lost (expansive) bag... you can not find it in the other side of India.

At a View Point outside of Gangtok:


We found out that we don't have enough time to spend here in Sikkim (remind you, we have a flying tickets out of here to Bangkok), and because of all the bureaucratic procedures of issuing permits around the area, we found ourselves putting more efforts in figuring out how to do it instead of enjoying the tour.
Eventually things turned out to be OK, we found other partners to travel in the city and the area (monasteries, view points, waterfalls ...) and 2 other Israeli guys which will join us to a 4 days trek in west of Sikkim.



To view Gangtok Slide show, click here
To view Gangtok Photo Album, click here

Miss you all,
Efrat & Yoni.

3/10 - Darjeeling

Hi All,

Darjeeling is a "Hill Station" which is located in north east of India, it's altitude here is 2150 meters above sea level and the air is cleaner than any other place we stayed in the country so far. what makes this town very famous is the Tea estates here which suppose to export one of the best (and expansive) tea in the world!

Darjeeling Sky:


Unbelievable how 2 places at the same country can be so different, here the people are much nicer - no hassling, you can barely find buggers on the streets, just kind people who want to help with no interest, the girls here are much more beautiful, the streets are cleaner - no crap on the ground, and even the weather here is cold.

The journey here was not a treat, it took us 25 hours from the moment we left our hotel room in Varanasi until the moment we arrived to our new room in Darjeeling.

We spent here a few days, trying to digest these differences, the street markets here are really something that worth to visit, the verity of colors, smells and sounds are powerful.
While we were exploring the streets and alleys we spotted a local school and decided to pay them a visit, the teacher who spoke with us really expanded our minds regarding the Indian education system.
It was very interesting to walk along the tea bushes and to learn so many things in the Everest mountain museum.

Women peaking tea leafs:


Next we are going to Sikkim which bordered with China, Bhutan and Nepal, that was the reason why we spent few hours to make the permit for foreigners.

To view Darjeeling Slide show, click here
To view Darjeeling Photo Album, click here

Have Fun, and keep in touch,
Efrat & Yoni.