FireDragonII

Hello All, this is a bit late in coming, but i am posting our August / September trip report.
the report was written for our family and friends back home, so there is much reference to the Israeli Shekel equivalence rates etc...
its still worth reading... enjoy!!!!

FireDragonII

Day 1: Bangkok:

So we had a wonderful business class experience (first for me, many times over for Dave), and fell asleep the moment we took off from TLV… great comfortable reclining seats, so comfortable we literally slept thru most of the flight!

Arrived in BKK at about 5 pm local time, and quickly got a cab to hotel. About 40 minute drive for 450 baht (50 NIS)… we overpaid on Thai standards, but we were new tourist, and now a day old, we know better!

The Millennium Hilton, Bangkok is magnificent. Barely 6 months since opening, the place is decorated in modern oriental style of sleek dark wood… just beautiful. The hotel staff kindly arrange for a private doctor to come to our room, as I forgot to mention the nasty eye infection I got on the flight!! Red tearing eyes, glasses and all, we are pleased to get some meds and try not to let this ruin our honeymoon. The doc says no lenses for a week… yeah right. 4000 baht later (a half month Thai salary) I am on my way to a full recovery.

We head out to our first night on the town, or should I say our first night on the market, and there are plenty of them in Bangkok… actually, the best markets are night markets. This city doesn’t sleep. Wow, the colors, the sights, the sounds and the unfortunate nasty smell of weird seafood (and other foods I am not sure I want to know about) surround you completely. They sell everything and anything… actually all quite amazing stuff…some beautiful Thai silks, dishes, souvenirs, and clothing galore. You don’t know what to look at first, and we decide not to shop much as we can buy things before we leave this amazing country… however, we still managed to buy a bunch of stuff!
The money seams like nothing. 100 baht equals to 11 NIS and you can buy quite a lot for that. 500 baht is a splurge on something beautiful.
We are exhausted and stop at a foot massage place in the market. We splurge a whole of 17 or so NIS for a 30 minute most wonderful foot massage with promises to have one every day!
Everyone in this country wears Polo clothing, making all look well dressed. They are actually all fakes and can be bought at any street market, along with fake Luis Viton, Rolex and Nikes.
Another interesting thing… we arrived on a Monday , and about 75% of all Thais were wearing the color yellow. This seams to be the kings color, and as he was born on a Monday, Thais wear yellow on Mondays. Cool.

We have yet to spend more than 100 baht on a taxi or tuk tuk inside Bangkok, and trust me this city is huge. You bargain every price down and pay a fraction of the original request.

We go to the Kao San road which is full of backpackers from round the world. More street vendors and stores attempting to attract you and lure you into their stores. Walking along we find a huge well lit red sign with the Hebrew words and arrow to "Beit Chabad". We follow the signs and Israelis and find Chabad Bangkok to be a really nice restaurant, store, internet and phone room. All Hebrew, with Thai waiters! We have a wonderful dinner, really nice and proper… all for an equivalent of about 30 NIS for both including fresh juices! In addition to Chabad, the Kao San also has a huge Hebrew sign for the "Kesher HaYisraeli" and "Green House" which are Israeli hangouts and tour info places. We pay 10 baht (11 Agorot) for 30 minutes of internet access… not bad. Back to the hotel… shower and konk out asleep.

Day 2:

We oversleep. I guess that’s a honeymoon thing. We jump out of bed to make it for some coffee at breakfast. Head out and want to explore the city with the initial itinerary of going to the grand palace. Dave is wearing shorts and we are told he will not be able to go to the grand palace in shorts… oh well, we will do that another day and its shopping again for us today.
The day is jam packed with great shopping malls, markets, dinner at Chabad again and I guess not too much to expand. Did I mention the shopping is spectacular here? I see a pretty skirt in the market and want to try it on. Asians are tiny and all the clothing is in minuscule sizes. I ask her if she has a medium for me. The lady tells me I will need an EXTRA EXTRA LARGE. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. I laugh and buy the skirt for 25 NIS.
Back at the hotel, we decide to run across the street to the 7-11 to get some drinks. Its pouring rain. The hotel guard sees us trying to cross the 6 lane road and starts across waving all the cars and buses to a stop so that we can cross over! Literally stops heavy Bangkok traffic for us! We buy him a 2 shekel coke as a thanks… its worth the royalty!!
We must not get to bed too late as we need to wake up early for a guided tour tomorrow.

Day 3:

We have booked a tour guide while still in Israel to take us on a day trip to areas outside Bangkok. Cherry Aviram, our guide (who's husband is Israeli) picks us up with her driver at 8.30 am. We head out in a real nice Toyota minivan towards Kanchanaburi, a neighboring region. Our first stop is the Floating Market, about an hour away from Bangkok. We get in to a narrow canoe with a local rowing woman, and start our way through the narrow canals of water. The canals are full of rowing boats and canoes, bumper to bumper (longtail boat to longtail boat) water traffic! The sides of canals are full of boat markets, selling anything possible. There are boats floating through selling fruits, veggies and we even see a floating noodles bar - on the spot cooking food!... drive by...LOL. We get a fresh coconut from a passing boat, the woman chops the top off, sticks a straw in, and walla, FRESH coconut milk! Delicious. We pass a guy with a huge snake, and he goes ahead and puts his pet snake around Dave's neck!! I have a scare, but we get some great pics and adrenaline rush!!!!

Next stop: The River Kwai, famous for its WWII allies prisoner of war camps and bridge. Reference movie: "The Bridge Over the River Kwai". I saw the movie as a kid, and the history lover in me just couldn’t go to Thailand and not go to the river kwai! We go to the war cemetery, and see the neatly laid out rows of British, Australian and Dutch soldiers graves. We are told that the American soldiers who died there where all taken back to the US for burial. For a very brief history lesson, Kanchanabury region was controlled by the Japanese during WWII, and had a bunch of allied POW camps there. As the JAPS wanted to expand their control towards India, they decided to build a railway through Thailand all the way to Burma. The area is also called the Burma Pass. The POW's were used for slave labor in terrible conditions. Thousands of soldiers of the above nationale's died of jungle diseases and malnutrition. The famous bridge was part of the railway track they were forced to build.
We continue by motor boat along the river kwai and under the bridge. We stop there for some fruit and enjoy the serenity and beauty.

We continue on in the region and reach the Tiger Conservatory. This is a Buddhist camp which raises tigers since infancy in a calming manner. The tigers are HUGE Bengali Tigers. We go down to the canyon and find about 15 or so tigers strolling around. They are tied by chains to the ground, though with plenty (maybe too much for comfort!) of room to roam around… or to jump you should they wish to… ! We are lead one by one over to the tigers and are told we can touch them. The guides take pictures. I understand that the tigers are usually very calm (sedated? Some wonder), however, it is drizzling that day, and they are not very calm when we are there! It's actually quite cool, as every few moments another tiger gets active and growly and the tourist start running for their lives. Including us.

We get back to Bangkok at about 7 pm.. We are utterly exhausted, they day was amazingly full, expensive, but well worth every penny. Cherry drops us off at Chabad for dinner.

FireDragonII

next chapters : Chiang Mai, Koh Samui and Hong Kong...

FireDragonII

Day 4: Chiang Mai

We get up early to catch our noon flight out to Chiang Mai, Thailand's northern capital. We are on business class tickets (extra 20 bucks), and enjoy the one hour business class relaxation on Thai Air.
We reach Chiang Mai and are met at the airport by a uniformed hotel personnel holding a "welcome Mr. and Mrs. Grunberg" sign. Nice touch. Its pouring in Chiang Mai, and we are driven to our hotel with the most amazing service. Did I mention that the Thai people treat you like royalty? As soon as you near hotel entrances, they rush over to greet you, bow all the time, I will definitely miss that.

We reach the Yaang Come Village. Wow. A Thai Oasis in Chiang Mai. The hotel staff are all dressed in beautiful Thai silks, they are all beautiful. We are seated in the lobby veranda and offered some hot tea while they process our check in. The hotel is just absolutely beautiful. It is decorated in Northern Thai style, very different from the modern style of the Hilton. Real authentic original style… stunning. (pics will be attached!) We are shown our room and Dave starts snapping pictures of it before we mess it up with our stuff! The room and bathroom are huge. The bath is filled with water and floating flower petals. The room is also full of fresh flowers everywhere and beautifully arranged fruit basket. They set the bed with a pretty heart on it made up of flower petals (this is something we later get "used to" in other hotels as well..) what a nice romantic touch!

Did I say Bangkok was great? I fall in love with Chiang Mai immediately. We head out to Beit Chabad which is literally around the corner from our hotel. Chabad in Chiang Mai is much more simple than in BKK.. no frills, but wonderful atmosphere. The food again is heavenly and cheap. There is an internet and phone room to service the travelers and we call home for like 50 agorot a minute. We meet some other couples, and head out with one couple to the Chiang Mai night market, which is actually between Chabad and our hotel… I couldn’t have picked a better location! The market is better than in BKK, as its much cheaper. We go there every night.. just walk around the mazes of stalls…
Chiang Mai is in a more rural area of Thailand (the north in general in rural and green), and though its a big city, its not full of huge tall buildings, but more spread out, quiet and calm. It really has a small town feel to it, and I wish I can move here to escape our hectic life for a few months!

Day 5:

We really want to go white water rafting in Chiang Mai, but as its monsoon (rain) season, the river is swelled and too dangerous to raft in. we schedule an ATV trek in the mountains instead. We are picked up from the hotel and taken along with 3 other European tourists out of the city and into the mountains. The region is beautiful. Full of greenery and small rivers. We drive by small towns on the way and really see the way of life here. We hit ATV base camp right along the overflowing river. Gear up and head out on our 4 hour trek along with the Europeans and 4 guides.
I cant even describe how amazing of a time we have. Literally in jungle mountainous ranges. The drive is so much fun, and we keep stopping to snap pictures of the scenery. It is so unbelievably breathtaking to us city folk. The guides bring along ice cold bottled water which proves very useful during the trek. We pass rice paddies, villages and elephants on the way, and drive through many dense wooded areas. It starts to rain and then starts to pour. Each ATV is equipped with a light rain jacket (like a big plastic bag with hood and sleeves). We drive through the pouring rain through mud paths and get our legs covered in mud. Good thing we stopped at the market to buy 20 shekel sneakers before we left! The experience in total was just amazing. As soon as the trek was over, the rain stops. Or maybe that’s because we headed down the mountain. Either way, we urge the guides to get us back to Chiang Mai fast as we don’t want to be late for Shabbat.

We reach the hotel 40 minutes before Shabbat, rush to shower, dress and head to chabad for Candle Lighting.
Shabbat at Chabad in Thailand is an amazing experience. The Beit Chabad is set up with long rows and rows of tables. It’s a small place, but it was packed, we figure about 180 people for dinner. The atmosphere is so warm and friendly. The Rabbi, his family and some others sit at the head table and the Rabbi leads the meal. Every place is set with a Chabad bencher which has an explanation of each section of the seuda, so its nice for those who don’t have the background to understand. The benchers have a few pages set up for songs, and the Rabbi starts the crowd going with song after song… everyone sings together… its so beautiful. Avodat Kodesh. The Rabbi also gives a dvar torah and as the Parsha is Ki Tisa, he directs a lot of what he says to the many honeymooners in the crowd (many!!!).
There is an Oneg Shabbat after the seuda, but we are exhausted and head back to the hotel.

We spend our last day in Chiang Mai by hiring a private taxi driver for about 160 NIS for the day. Our driver picks us up at 9 am and we head out to the Elephant Camp on the outskirts of CM. The Elephant camp is awesome. We see an elephant show of about 45 minutes, and these elephants are trained and talented! They play soccer, dance, paint pictures (live!! This is real!!) we have some great laughs as well. Off we go, or rather UP we go for an elephant trek! This is actually quite touristy, but heck, we were still riding on elephants!
After elephant camp we go to a monkey camp for a short and really cute monkey show.

We continue our day by heading up to the Doi Suthep, which is a temple on top of a very high mountain overlooking CM and the region. The view is amazing, and the mountain top is full of villagers selling stuff. We just enjoy the ancient Thai architecture, and walk down the dragon sided 200 steps down to the street.

Our next stop is the tribal villages!! There are many ancient hill tribes in northern Thailand, and of course, the further you go the more authentic and less touristy they are. We unfortunately didn’t have a chance to go to the rural hilltribes, so we made do with some small villages not far from the Doi Suthep. The village people have different tribal names and they dress and live as per their tribal manner. We go to the Karen Longnecks. They are the ones with the brass rings around their necks. When a girl reaches the age of 5, she gets a brass long neck thingy, which is extended every year till she is 17. by that age, her neck is quite long! They never take the rings off, and I actually heard that should they take it off, their necks would not be strong enough to support their heads! We take pictures and are shown some neck braces. Each one is about 5 kilo in weight!!! Its heavy!!! I cant imagine what they go through wearing that all their life, but for them it’s a pride thing I guess.
We also visit the Lihsu and Akha tribes. They invite us into their homes so we can see how they live. Their houses are on high stilts – I cant imagine how the floor doesn’t cave in under them!

On our way back to town, we stop at some handicraft villages, which produce a many variety of things. The most interesting were the paper manufactures, who show you how "simple" it is to produce beautiful paper… like the ones with flowers in them… easy work, only takes a few days to make(!) The factories are not like modern factories you'd imagine, but more like some open sided huts with people doing handicraft in them. We also see woodcarvers doing painstaking work of handcarving wood into gorgeous ornate designs. These are mostly made to order, as are the wicker furniture, which take a few weeks-months to make. Their labor is so cheap, stunning wicker furniture for relatively cheap.. makes you just wish you can import home!!
The last handicraft stop is the umbrella and painting factory. I buy a few solid T shirts and 3 different artists spend about 30 minutes each painting beautiful flowers and butterflies onto the shirts. Their talent is amazing. Each artist charges 100 Baht, which is 11 NIS.

We reach the hotel at about 5 pm and head out to Chabad for dinner. After dinner, we scheduled massages at the fancy Oasis Spa. We are picked up by the spa taxi and spend a heavenly 2 hours of pampering at the Oasis. This is actually like a real fancy spa, as opposed to the cheap street massages. Its still considerably cheap, and a nice indulgence for our last night in the North.

I am so sad to leave our beautiful hotel and the beautifully peaceful Chiang Mai. After 4 nights in Chiang Mai, we head out to Koh Samui Island in the morning.

cynstalker

I am really enjoying your report so far, FireDragonII - keep it coming!

Is there a good difference in flying business class on your Thai-domestic flights? My husband is 6'3" and is sooo uncomfortable in coach seats. We will be getting the business class tickets, and are hoping they will make these flights more bearable for him.

How "difficult" was your trekking? We are in our 50s and are in reasonably good shape (ok, I'm a little chubbier than I should be )and we really want to do some jungle treks. Did you see any wildlife? Monkeys,birds?

<font color="green">Cyn</font>

FireDragonII

Hi Cyn,

The only domestic thai flights we took are Thai Air to Chiang Mai, and Bangkok Air to Koh Samui. On Thai Air you can upgrade to Business Class for about $20. My husband is also over 6&quot; and needs the legroom... it was a nice treat, as we sat in comfort with great service.. also, no lines and easiest boarding etc for BC customers...
Bangkok Air which is the only flight going to Koh Samui doesnt have Business Class, so thats not an option.
In all honesty, we did it for the fun and luxery - it was after all our honeymoom. the flights were both only about an hour or less, so i cant say it was a necessity.

We didnt do any regular treks... as we arent really the kinda people to enjoy walking for hours (!!!) we are more the actiony types, and as we didnt want to take any 3 days jeep tours, the ATV was our pick. ATV is a 4 wheeler, individual rider bike. we had the most amazing time... more for the experience, its loads of fun, and getting far into the mountainy area of the region, the views and villages were outstanding...!!! you will love chiang mai!

Elainee

Very interesting report. Never knew about the Chabads in Thailand. Amazing to know about 180 people for Shabbat in CM. Thank you for sharing.

FireDragonII

Koh Samui:

No more counting days, as I cant keep track anymore.
We near landing at Samui Airport… the view from the plane is spectacular. Its such a small island! The airport itself is really cool… its like big open island huts! Each hut is another terminal!!

We are schedules to stay in Koh Samui for 6 nights. We booked the first 3 nights at the Baan Laem Sai Resort which is on Maenam Beach at the north of the Island. This is further out than the busy Chaweng Beach area. We want some quite time away from noise etc. The hotel is amazing. We are booked at a pool villa, which is right on the beach! We have total seclusion… a private swimming pool and 3 meters from the sand and Gulf of Thailand. We head out by cab to Chaweng beach as that’s where Chabad is.

Koh Samui is a lot bigger than I expected. There are many beach areas to the island, and each has a village on it. The busiest beach is Chaweng, which is less charm and lotsa tourists and shops and bars etc. we hang out at Chabad as do all the Israelis. The food of course is delicious. Koh Samui is a very expensive part of Thailand, as it very touristy. Even chabad is expensive in Samui. A full meal for 2 is about 55 NIS which seams a fortune by now.
We rent a motorbike as it’s the most efficient and cost effective way to get around the island. We buy a bottle of white wine at chabad and head to our private pool for a night swim with glasses of wine…heaven!

We love the motorbike, and Dave is a good cautious driver. Motorbike accidents are very common in Samui, and its often you see someone bandaged on one side of the body (one arm and one leg…LOL). There are many hospitals on Samui and we read somewhere that they are like beautiful resorts and some people just want to be admitted so that they can stay there! We pass.

We spend our days on Samui just either at the hotel, driving around or at chabad with others. We walk along the shop roads at nights, stop for massages almost every day… its total chill. One day we decide to take a drive all around the island. There is one main road going all around the island, and as we have the bike, we go for it. The drive around takes about an hour and 45 minutes, but as we stop along the way at different point of interest (waterfalls, viewpoints, rock formations etc) we get back 4 hours later, sunburn and all. It was definitely one of the highlights on the week, as I am sure most people who come to Samui don’t get a chance to see the areas we did. By the way, the motorbike cost us 25 NIS per day, and its like a cool Yamaha automatic bike. I think its like 100 &quot;samak&quot;.(I don’t know what that means but I heard Dave mention that to Aryeh on the phone, so the guys who read this will know what it means). We fill up gas only like once every 2 days, and a full tank costs like less than 10 NIS.
On Thursday we change hotels to the Muang Samui Spa Resort which is on Chaweng beach so that we can be closer to chabad for Shabbat. That night is the Full Moon, and the islands are in full preparation for Full Moon Party's on Koh PhaNgan Island. We plan to go to the party just for the experience as its very famous. Every street vendor and store is hawking speedboat tickets to Koh PhaNgan. We can see the island from Samui, but its about an hour speedboat ride away. Eventually, we decide we really aren’t up to an island full of loud music and drunk people, and dont go. I guess age is catching up with us.
We stay on Samui which is nice and empty that night and go see a &quot;Cabaret&quot;. Ok – the Cabaret… this is a song and dance show in full costume, like Vegas style I guess. The thing is, the singers / dancers are all ladyboys!! Its hysterical to see. Most of the time you are either looking at these &quot;women&quot; and thinking, &quot;god, I'd like a body like that&quot; or you're like &quot;ugh, ugly man dressed as lady&quot;!!! We are there with another Israeli couple and have a lotta laughs.

By the way, I didn’t mention that the Muang Samui and the Ban Laem Sai are also amazing hotels… they are like top top resorts on Samui, and we enjoy the total royal treatment. Most of the travelers and Israelis we meet are staying at guesthouses and think we are loaded. I feel like a snob so we don’t tell people how much we are paying when they ask (and Israelis ALWAYS ask….ggggrrrr) so yes, on Thai standards it’s a fortune, but the hotels are still so cheap compared to the rest of the world!

On Friday we rent a wave runner (jet ski) for 30 minutes which was awesome. The gulf is huge and the water is endless… we don’t actually get very far but have a great time. Dave drove really fast… too fast for me.

During out first few days in Bangkok, we hear that Hong Kong is only a short flight away and it’s a good place to shop for good fakes. Dave gets excited and asks me if I wanna go to Hong Kong, and since we figure heck, we're already in Asia, might as well go…! So while in Chiang Mai we book a flight to Hong Kong for our next stop after Samui.

Chucho

Great Honeymoon FireDragon11 - Congratulations! I will be going to BKK, CM and HK next May/June so I am loving your report. When did you go? I am sure although it was raining on some days it was still warm, right? I will also be staying at the Yaang Come Village so was happy to read that you loved it. Did you book a special suite for all the extras? When will we get to read about Hong Kong? Can't wait]!

rhkkmk

great report, thanks for sharring..

peacheysmokey

FireDragon,

the 180 people at Chabad in Chiang Mai-were they all Jewish? Here in Syracuse, NY we couldn't possibly find 180 Jews for a Shabbat dinner!

FireDragonII

hey guys!
I am happy you are enjoying my report..!
Chucho - you will LOVE the YCV... we got a deluxe room there, so we had a bathtub, i dont know what their standard rooms look like, but this room was great and spacious! worth the few dollar upgrade.
the hotel was just so nice... they have free internet (wifi) in the hotel, and 2 computers on the veranda / lobby for users.. this was a really great touch, as most hotels charge a lot for internet use. also, they have a bunch of DVD movies at the front desk that you can borrow - free. not that u'll be spending your time watching DVD's, but we took one movie, and anyone traveling with kids should make note of this!

peachysmokey - yes, the people who come and eat at Chabad - and the shabbat meals are all Jews, as its the only Kosher food available in Thailand. you think 180 people in Chiang Mai was a lot? Koh Samui's froday night Shabbat dinner was about 550 people! and Bangkok had about 700!!! (we spent one weekend at each of those places). its an unbelievable atmosphere...
most of the travelers are actually Israeli's like us, as Thailand is a hot spot for Israeli travel, and El Al runs about 2 flights per evening to Bangkok!

Gpanda

Super report. Keep it coming. It's your honeymoon, so the late penalty is waived.

sharon1306

Great report. We're planning a Thailand trip next year.

FireDragonII

Hey guys, BTW, i indicated our hotel stay at the Baan Laem Sai in Samui... we took a pool villa.. we really wanted that private pool experience, and it was probably the cheapest among teh fancy hotels with private pools... we paid i think $210.00 per night... real splurge.
the hotel was BEAUTIFUL. for sure. the pool was awesome. BUT (drum roll) i wouldnt go back and wouldnt recommend it much either. the rooms are very small for thai standards, there was barely anywhere for us to put our luggage and clothing. we just felt all in all that the service needed major upgrading. when you are used to 5* hotels in thailand, and used to the royalty treatment... this was lacking at the baan laem sai. its hard to pinpoint precisely, but just the general feeling (or lack of!) no major smiles from the staff and reception etc... they put beautiful flower petals on the bed when we arrived - beautiful romantic touch, but when we came back to the hotel for dinner, the flowers were still there for us to clean up...i.e. they didnt think of that as most hotels do! no turn down service. furthermore, we had asked for mosquito coils or for them to spray the room while we are out for dinner - as the YCV and Muang Samui did - they just were totally not accomodating.
one more thing... they have a hotel shuttle to chaweng beach, which is greaat, but only twice a day... should be more often, as a taxi is like 300 or 350 baht... a lotta money for such a short trip.

FireDragonII

hey guys -
here is the last chapter in my trip report:

Hong Kong:

Again, the landing view is amazing… The airport is located on an island neighboring Hong Kong Island, and its got stunning mountain range and water views… just spectacular.
Hong Kong is expensive. Not on European standards, and probably similar to life in Israel.. but coming from Thailand its definitely a change. Our hotel is in Kowloon, which is the part of Hong Kong that is on a peninsula of Mainland China. Kowloon is just BUSY. People – people – people – shops - shops – shops. The entire downtown is lit up at night, you'd think its daytime. Hong Kong is very modern. I have never seen such a condensation of skyscrapers. Much more than New York, its just surreal. The View from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, is just a skyline of the tallest and narrowest buildings stacked together like matchsticks. It’s a small Island (comparatively… and with 6.5 million inhabitants!) so space is limited. They build upwards. Literally.
We spend our first day there shopping. We cant find good fakes. Dave is bummed, but we decide no regrets. Most of the stores are very high end… Gucci, Dolce &amp; Gabbanna, Viton… I cant shop there. People are very stylish.. its like Asian New York City. It would have been great if we can go into mainland China, to actually FEEL China, however, that requires a visa (Hong Kong doesn’t) and we don’t have the time to apply for one. We don’t feel &quot;China&quot; much in Hong Kong. No Chinese buildings or anything. Bummer. Next time: Beijing.
We don’t love Hong Kong and decide to cut our stay by one day. WE MISS THAILAND!!!
We spend our next day on Hong Kong Island, and we go to Victoria Peak. See, Hong Kong is a very mountainy Island, and the built areas are really just at the waterfront. The rest is just high mountains! Victoria peak is on a mountain on top of Hong Kong Harbor. You get up there by taking the peak tram which was established in like 1880. its literally a railway tram going at like a 45 degree steep angle up the mountain. Its quite cool. The view on top of the peak, when you are looking down at the harbor and seeing the skyscrapers like small buildings is quite amazing. The roads on the island are a jumble of twisty levels going up and down in all directions.
We go to the JCC for lunch. Food is gross and expensive. A lot of Israelis / Jews are there with their kids.. not travelers, but Jews living in HK for business. There are about 8000 Jews in Hong Kong. The JCC is very nice, with a lot of information on Jewish Hong Kong. We go to the oldest Shul in Hong Kong… Ohel Leah, which was completed in 1901. I read that the first Jews in Hong Kong came in the mid 19th century. They were mostly rich Sephardi Jewish merchants from India. The Ashkenazim came much later – as they started escaping Europe in the 1920's and 1930's.
Hong Kong is also quite cold and a Typhoon warning is up. Dave buys a jacket and I buy a sweater.
We are happy to leave Hong Kong in the morning as the typhoon has struck during the night and its stormy rain.

We head back to Bangkok for a last few days of shopping and market and massage heaven before heading back to life. I'll leave that up to imagination as I think I am done with this journal for now…
What can I say, this has been an amazing 3 weeks…will be hard to start work again on Sunday.

AmeliaM

We are going to take the overnight train from BKK to Chiang Mai, too -- not sure which one yet. Are you all purchasing your tickets before you arrive in Thailand? How? Thanks!

AmeliaM

Oops, I'm new at this and posted to the wrong message. Sorry about that!