I don't know if it is getting harder to write this blog or our beach time in Thailand is just making me lazy.

Yeah, we are in Thailand. Our stay here started in Bangkok. We arrived just in time for the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement. As we are far from family we decided to spend our fast with some fellow Jews. In this part of the the world most of the Jews that you will find are Israelis and loads of them. But all the sudden we heard English being spoken in the Beit Chabad. Coincidence brought us two Canadian Jews from Montreal (Shona and Ariel) to hang out with.

Our accommodation was greatly provided by an Israeli couchsurfer, Yuval. As we contacted him we understood that we will be hosted in his house. Well, it was sort of his house. His place is an abandoned whore house turned bar-hostel-long-term-living place, oh did I mentioned that it is a hot spot for the whole Hippie community of Bangkok? We didn't quite fit in, we just didn't have dreadlocks and marijuana chimney. It's a really cool scene if you are into that. For more info go to The Overstay website.

Rebecca pretending to be a rastafarian

Once the fast finished we were able to eat the delicious street food from the famous Kha San street. The pad thai and all the excellent fruit did it for us. To me in comparison with street food in India, Thailand has some hygienic standards.

As we discussed in a previous post (Plan to Plan) we rarely book hostel/hotel in advance and we never know what or where we will be the next day. Well, we were convinced by our new Canadian friends to follow them to a travel agency they knew and we ended up booking our lives for the next two weeks.

Do we regret it? Maybe a little but it's not too bad. Now we don't have to think too hard for the next couple of weeks.

Our first stop was at Koh Tao, a small island with some of the Top 10 diving sites in the world. We came specifically to this island to get certified in the PADI's Open Water course. This course consisted of in-class, confined and open water lessons. Yes, we pass with flying colors! Rebecca got a better mark than me on the written exam but no surprise there.

Rebecca getting ready to scuba

The dives were great. So many fish from every color and shape.

Our next island in our itinerary was Koh Pha-ngan. As planned we arrived there for the World famous Full Moon Party. Basically an excuse to party your ass off until the next day. As we learned later is that the whole week prior to the date there are multiple of other parties like the "Full Moon Warmup Party" to give you and example. In this island they sure like their parties. The even celebrate the Half Moon and Black Moon with a party in their honor.

Well for this party we were lucky to meet family friends. Yeah, we hang out with Tali, Einat and Michal Haymann. Our parents have known each other for the last three decades and we are always planning our next get together. The party preparations started by getting the whole crew all painted up with glow-in-the-dark colors. The whole beach is lined with bars playing different kinds of music. They compete against each other with drink specials and by seeing who can play the music louder. Everyone just goes crazy dancing on the beach. The rest of our days were spent recupperating by relaxing on the beach and eating lots of Pad Thai.

Kiss me baby!

It is such a hard life! After relaxing on the houseboat we went to relax on the beaches of Varkala. The beaches here are considered to be sacred, and there are distinct "tourist" and "local" beaches. It was strange to us that locals come to the beach fully clothed in jeans and saris in which they swim.

With one week left in India it was time to get into sightseeing mode! We really wanted to see the Taj Mahal, after all, how can you come to India and not go see the Taj? On the way to Agra we had to spend one night in Delhi. Let me tell you, one night was enough! We arrived  at the hostel and were showed one room. The door was opened and about ten cockroaches greeted us. "OK?" the hotel employee asks...not OK. We were showed another room, sans roaches but as we were getting ready for bed a little mouse ran across the floor. We were happy to leave the next morning.

We made it to Agra, checked into our room and went to the roof top terrace.  There she stood, all majestic, the Taj Mahal! We couldn't wait to get out to explore. The Taj is every bit as beautiful as they say it is...particularly at sunset. We just sat in front and watched as the marble changed colors from white to pink to gold as the sun set over the horizon. It was truly magical.

Taj Mahal at sunset

We then began to hop across Rajasthan. First, Jaipur. We walked around the old town and visited the Hawa Mahal, another palace built by yet another maharaja. It is here is Jaipur that we ate McDonalds for the first (and last) time in India. Since Hindus don't eat meat there are no Big Macs. Instead they have the Chicken Maharaja Mac. I ate the McAloo Tikki which was basically a deep friend potato pancake on a bun. It just wasn't the same!

We then made it to Pushkar in time for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. This little town doesn't even show up on most maps of India and still we celebrated the holiday with about 150 Israelis at the Chabad House. Actually Pushkar almost feels like mini-Israel. All the signs are in Hebrew, all the tourists are Israelis and the locals speak better Hebrew than I do (nine years of Jewish education, down the drain). As we walked down the streets, store owners would say "shalom" and "shana tova". Apparently we look Israeli...at least Gadi does.

Gadi in front of Beit Chabad

Our next destination was Jaisalmer. We bought tickets for two reclining seats in the front of a super deluxe bus. We got on the bus to discover our seats were the last row of the bus. Not only were they not reclinable, but they weren't even seats, just a bench at the back! We totally got screwed and had to sit there for the ten hour ride through the night. What a nightmare!!!

Jaisalmer has beautiful architecture and old fort but it was way too hot to tour much. We were recommended a beautiful hotel called Pol Haveli. We spent much our time just lounging in the cool breeze on the roof top terrace. Apparently marijuana is legal in the province of Rajasthan and there is even a government run store where you can buy "special cookies" and other various products. I took the opportunity and on the last night had myself a "special" banana milkshake. VERY GOOD!

The beautiful rooftop terrace were we spent most of our time

Our last and final stop was the romantic city of Udaipur. This is where the famous Bond movie, Octopussy, was filmed. The lakes are truly magical and were the scene of my 27th birthday. It will be a very memorable one.

My 27th birthday!

Looking back, I can't believe we hit so many cities in the span of about a week. It was time to leave India and continue our adventure. Thailand, here we come!