Next adventure...

will start in Rio de Janerio, Brasil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
leaving from LAX in july.

AHHH long time! Sawadeeka from Thailand.

It has been forever since i wrote you guys!
So let me try to remember what i did in the past 2 weeks.....
My brother arrived in Bangkok at 1am. i took a taxi to the airport to pick him up, then we went to my host and stayed there for the night. we woke up and decided to go sight seeing.. we went to the Grand Palace (i heard its the most holy place to the Thai people). but we didnt go in. they dont allow short pants/wife beaters inside. so we decided to pass and keep on walking. next door to the Grand Palace there is the Wat Po. Bangkok's largest temple with a reclining Buddha 46 metres long. the Wat Po is also THE place to learn traditional thai massage. after saying wow for an hour and after taking 300 pictures, we continued to walk to China Town. there was nothing much to see there, unless you're interested in buying gold, wholesale stuff... and crap. the smell in China Town was too strong for my brother and he wanted to puke the whole time. so we left there pretty quick. we continued to walk and ended up in the Golden Mount which i already wrote about. we went back to get our stuff and took a taxi to our new host's place. The next day (Friday) we (I) decided to make it a Mall day.. we went to Siam center, Siam Paragon, Siam Fun center, MBK - all those are connected somehow by bridges.. in my opinion there are at least 4 million malls in bangkok. then we went to Pantip Plaza - heaven for electronics, compuers, illegal fake software, illegal dvd's, illegal fake computer games, and fake everything... we didnt buy anything, just made a list of what we want to buy when we go back there before we leave thailand.
On Saturday we went to Khao San Rd. and we decided to buy a tour ticket to Kanchanaburi. We got a one hour Thai Massage for 180 Baht ($4.80) and then headed back to the Weekend Market - the hugest market in Bangkok - i think - that is only open on Sat and Sun. We met Nammon (our host) and enjoyed watching people stop and stand for a min while the national anthem was playing in the background. then on a tuk tuk (taxi style rikshaw) he took us to a pretty fancy thai restaurant. The next day (Sunday) we were waiting to go out on the tour when suddenly i see Tzofit and Shiri - the girls i started Thailand with. turned out they are taking the same tour as us and are on the same van!!
On the van we also met a newleywed couple from Israel on their honeymoon - Zohar and Asaf (they will be mentioned again later on)
The first day of the tour included a 2-2.5hr drive to Kanchanaburi - a little town west of Bangkok close to the Burma border. we arrived in the very very cool resort, and chilled out on the hammock for an hour. then we went on Thai Speed Boats (very fun!!!) they took us to a cave near by. then the boats picked us up and took us to the Kwai River Bridge (the one that was built in WW2 by something like 60,000 war soldier prisonars.) after that we went back on the van that took us to an Elephant camp! we all got to sit on the elephant's head with one brush in our hand. the elephant went in the water that was so deep it covered him and us. and then we got to scrub his hairy head, and he gave us a shower with his trunk. after that half of the group got to eat dinner, and half went on an elephant ride. The guy that was in charge of our elephant was crazy, and we are convined he is stuck on a trip. he was yelling and singing songs in Hebrew (!!!) which made us realize how comerciallized and israeli this trip is.... later that night we (me, tofit, shirt, and the newleyweds) decided to go to the night market after a bathroom break. after i was done i went down to the meeting spot, but no one was there... i realized they left without me. so i decided to walk alone. on the way i asked for direction and ended up getting a ride on a motorbike. as soon as i got to the market i saw my friends that apologised and said that the taxi driver didnt want to wait (wtf??)
the next day we all woke up at 7, had breakfast, and left the place by 8am. they drove us to a national park that had 7 waterfalls. we hiked up for 2 km and got to the 7th waterfall (tzofit and shiri gave up on the way and turned around and hiked back down....losers!!) the waterfalls were amazing, and the blue water made me want to be in the islands already! after that we had lunch, and drove to the Tiger Temple.. we all got to take pictures with the tigers - that some people believe are drugged up. we were not allowed to wear the color red, yellow, and orange, not to piss off the tigers. i was wearing a purple shirt that i found out as i got to the temple was not a good color.. so i got to wear a stinky white shirt on top of my purple (so when you see the pictures, you'll understand why i was dressed like poop)
after the photoshoot with the tigers we went to the resort again to pick up our stuff, and back to bangkok. the next day (tue) we didnt do much... we went to this shopping market called Big C that kinda reminded me of K-Mart or Wal Mart.. walked around and then took a bus to Khao San Rd. were we ate Israeli food. there i met Dana, the girl i was traveling with in India. at 6pm we were on a "VIP" bus to Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) after watching 2 dvd's and 12 hours ride on the bus we arrived in Chiang Mai. the Capital city of northern Thailand. very cute town with tons of travelers and internet cafes (but expensive ones). sits on the Ping river that contributes a lot to the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok.
On the bus we met another couple on their honeymoon and a guy they met in bangkok 2 days before. we all walked together in search of a guest house. we finally found one in the old "walled" city of Chiang Mai. a very cute guest house with very nice people, and a cute 2 year old called Jing. after settling in we all went to rent bicycles (50 baht ($1.35) for 24 hours) we biked around the city that is not too big and not too small. perfect for cycling. on the way we saw the 3 Kings Monument, we went into the Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Center, we saw a very very old and huge temple (you'll see everything in the pics) and then we found a cute little local restaurant with amazing food. at night me and Reut (the new wife) went to the Night Market a huge market with northern thai products and hilltribe handmade stuff. On thur we decided to keep the bikes and cycle 12km out of town to the Mae Rim Lake. after cycling for 15-20 mins the newleyweds decided they cant do it, and their friend they disscused things with their friend and totally ignored us. they continued to cycle back to the city and we kept on standing trying to figure out what to do. we decided to continue... so we cycled for 45 mins untill my bro got us a ride in a truck. we put the bike in the back and go in the car. the very nice guy took us straight to Mae Rim. we couldnt really find the lake but we did stop at Bai Orchid - an orchid and butterfly farm. there was nothing much to do in that small town, so we started to head back into town.. on the way we got a ride again to Chiang Mai. the next day - Friday we got ourselves another thai . this time it was 2 hours for 200 baht ($5.40!) which was so much better than the first time. whn you get a full body 2 hour massage they do your sides too.. and your head.. which was nice.
After the massage we went on a mini-van on the way to Pai - a small town north of Chiang Mai. the ride was not easy. it was 3 hours of turnes and curves and steep. i was nausious the whole time. later on i found out that everyone that does this road feels the same - shitty and sick.
but it was worth it. Pai is a very relaxed town popular with backpackers. we got a bungalow in a guesthouse were the owner was not that nice.. and then went to eat pizza at a italian restaurant operated by... an italian man.
On Sat morning we left that guesthouse and got a new bungalow on the river! we 2 rented motorbikes. at first i was not feeling comoftable driving it.. the max speed in the first 2 hours was something around 20km/hr..what made my brother really mad...hahah.. but then i got over the fear and increased the speed to 40km/hr. hah! so we explored the region with the bikes, we went to 2 waterfalls, and a hot spring which we never went into because it was waaay to expensive. we saw the local villages, and the local people that i think the only modern thing they own was a crappy motorbike that always carrys minimum 3 people. for lunch we had a "home-made" meal.. we made salad, tuna salad, cheese, and bread. it was a feast. in the evening i decided i want to check out some of the cute little shops in the town. as i look at the merch i hear my name.. and surprise it was Zohar and Asaf! the newleyweds from Kanchanaburi (we also saw them in Chiang Mai for 15 mins) during the day i told my bro i wish we met them again, they were the nicest we met this whole time. we hung out all night and went to the italian place with them again. the next day they left for Chiang Mai and we made plans to meet again in the islands. we didnt do much on sunday, just bummed around.. chilling on our porch watching the river. on monday my brother impressed our neighbors (2 girls from israel) with his salad skills - veggie salad, and fruit salad. again, we didnt do much.. i watched 3 movies on that day. my brother left for Chiang Mai at 2:20pm. and i stayed in Pai untill 11:00pm. on 11:00pm i took a mini van to the Burma border for visa extension. we arrived at the border at 6:20am. we (me and 3 other people) stamped out of thailand, and stampped in Burma.. it was raining and too early for stores to open, so we turned around 2 mins later and entered Thailand again. so i got visa for another 30 days in Thailand.. some people choose to do visa extnsion but they only give you 10 more days and its 1900 baht.
at 7:45am we left the border on the way back to Pai. after 4 hours drive the driver dropped me off in a town 30 mins from Chiang Mai (instead of going back to Pai and taking another 3 hours ride to Chiang Mai)
I took a ride to Chiang Mai and got there 45 mins later, met with my brother and did nothing. at 6:00pm we took a night bus to Bangkok. we arrived this morning at 6am. we are tired.. especially me.. after 2 nights with no bed. it is 11:42am now and we are waiting for the bus at 6:00pm - we are finally going to the islands!!!!!!! the bus is taking us to a town in the south and from there we take a 3.hr boat ride to the island Koh Tao. i cant wait to be there.. shower.. and sleep. its going to be 3 whole nights without a sleep on a real bed.

we have tons of photos to share with you, but we cant do it here... they dont have a cd burner here!!! what in the world!

miss and love you

next time i will talk to you i will be on a sweet island, looking at the blue water, chilling on a hammock with watermelon shake in my hand.

Maya

TCDC, pad thai, and tom yam

Dear people,

on tue i went to the TCDC - thailand creative & design center (www.tcdc.or.th ).... "One of the largest design resource centers in Asia, TCDC Resource Center, where over 15,000 design-related books and journals are brought together." we spent some time there, miss bee worked, and i surfed and looked at books. later she reserved us one of their screening rooms. this round room with black curtains and a fancy couch, and big flat screen tv!(and dvd, and sound system) our very private screening room.. they had a great selection of dvd's, and we picked Amores Perros (good movie btw)(mexican).
today (wed) i took a thai vegetarian cooking class. we started by going to the local market to by our ingrediants. then we went back to our class and started to cook. we made tom yam soup (and then made it into tom kah soup by adding more coconut milk to it), Isaan, fried veggies with ginger, fried veggies with cashew nuts, pad thai, peanut sauce, fresh spring rolls, massaman, penang curry, green thai curry, red pineapple curry, pumpkin hummus, green papaya salad, and for desert black and white sticky rice with mango, banana, and coconut milk!!!!!!!!!
the class was great. it was only me, bee, a guy from canada, and a couple from holland. May Kaidee the teacher is this small skinny girl with tons of energy, she sang and danced to us.. then at the end of the class she showed us a board with pics of herself 10-12 years ago when she was un-vegetarian and overweight. LOL. then we all got dimplomas.. now i can open my own thai vegetarian restaurant in vegas. think it will work?
at midnight i left here to go pick up my bro at the airport. i took a taxi, as soon as i got in the driver asked "how much?", so i said "how much what?"
so he showed me 3 fingers to sign 300 baht for the ride to the airport... i said no.......put the meter on. we got to the airport and i only had to pay 180 baht. YOU CANT TRICK ME!!!!
anyway, my brother arrived, and we went back to bee's place to sleep. today we change a host, and go to stay with another guy that can host us both.
its 8:41 am now and we all woke up ready to go, ready to go where? i dont know.. prolly eat first and then start my new adventure with my brother!

i uploaded some videos (some dont seem to work?) and i will keep on uploading when i can.. in the mean time enjoy the one that are up already here:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=MissMayas

i also uploaded more pics into my thailand folder (you can find them at the end of the slide show, you dont have to watch it all, you can fast forward)
http://mayaspics.spaces.msn.com

enjoy,
talk to you all soon
Maya

Sabai dee mai ka? (how are you?)

hey guys
hope you're all good!
the girls i was with didnt really feel like waiting 1 night for me to hear from my bro if he's coming or not, and went ahead and bought a bus ticket to Chiang Mai for the next day. so the next day i heard from my brother that SAID HE'S COMING TO THAILAND TO TRAVEL WITH ME FOR A MONTH!!!
so the girls left, and i stayed in bangkok (things happen exactly as i want them to happen... i felt like i need to stay in bangkok for longer..and here, my wish came true)
so i called a couchsurfer friend, and she came to pick me up, gave me a place to stay, took me, showed me around her bangkok (not the lonelyplanet bangkok that everyone knows. i saw bangkok from a local point of view! which is so much better) and im still here, at her house. for a week now, waiting for my brother to arrive (tonight)
in the past week i did so many things, i already forgot what i did... so im gonna try to remember
i went to at least 745785 malls in bangkok. all kinds of malls...fancy(gucci,lamburgini type), and not so fancy (illegal burnt software, computer games, and fake hardware)
met 2 other couchsurfers for lunch - foreigners that moved to live in bangkok.
went to a movie (the Alibi) - after all the commercials before the movie starts there was a msg on the screen "please pay homage to his majesty the king" so everyone stands up for a min (in the mean time there are pics of the king and music) at the end they all bow their head and sit down, and then the movie starts!
i went to get a facial - free! my host (miss bee) had copuns so we both went to get one. it was something like an hour of cleaning face, putting something else on it (like scrub, mask, all kinds of creamsetc) i think they put no less than 1 kilo of cold cucumber on my face and eyes.. and whenever the mask was getting dry, they massaged my legs, hands, and shoulders! ahhh!! it was great.
i took my first ferry ride on the Chao Phraya river!
i ate, ate, and ate... 4 days of nonstop pad thai. but im done with that for now.. i changed to other stuff.. for example noodle soup in the morning, and guava fruit at night.
i went back to the guesthouse i was staying at with the girls, and helped around..just to kill time and not money till my brother comes.
yesterday we went to the Phyathai babies' house - an orphanage for kids under 5. before that we went shopping.. we bought 3 packs of diapers, 2 huge bottles of baby powder, 2 baby shampoos, and 2 big boxs of baby milk...our donation to the orphanage. bee also donated lots of stuffed animals. we got there and we only went into one baby room ages 1.5-2 years old. at least 20 babies were in that room. as soon as i sat down a baby came over, turned around, and sat on me. also, took over my cellphone! that baby had one leg shorter than the other, what made us think the reason she got abdoned :((
those babies just lerned to walk, and are the cutest thing ever!!!!!!!! we played with them..and they just come to you, climb on you, put their heads on you and hug you. its the saddest thing.. and they dont let go. if you try to put them down they will cry and look at you with sad eyes. i think they are just so trained to do that to people. this one baby boy came to me and i played with him, and made him laugh..whenever i put him down he would make a face "hey why you put me down" face. follow me and cling on me till i picked him up again. when it was time to go it was so hard.. we needed to run away and do it quick.. before they cry too hard and break your heart. after that we walked around the "village" and saw even smaller babies (less than a year!!), but they were sleeping.. the 3, 4, 5 year olds were outside eating chocolate.
we left there and went to eat..kinda hard after seeing those babies. after that we went to a thai movie called Gang chaneekube. of course before the movies starts you have to pay respect to the king.....the movie was cute, i enjoyed it.
well thats all i remember for now..
see you all soon
maya

hello!

hey guys
i am still in bangkok, loving every min
i will update you soon... but for now check out my new pics!
i uploaded 30 new pics into my india folder (scroll down if you already saw the other pics)
and i have a new folder for thailand with something like 80 pics!!!
enjoy!

http://mayaspics.spaces.msn.com/

love
me

Sawatdee! (Hello from Thailand!) + link to PICS (finally!)

originally posted july 18, 2006:

hey guys!

i arrived in delhi a week ago (yes, a week in delhi.. ugh)

we took a sleeper bus (beds) from rishikesh to delhi we left there at 10:30pm and arrived at 5:00 am in delhi. we took a cab to the main bazar (pahar ganj) and after walking around we found a place to stay. fell asleep and got up at 9 am. we decided to go to the caughnnut place (excuse me for mispelling) (a big circle with shops and underground market) just to find out (when we got there) from the rikshaw driver that everything is closed on sunday. we went to the underground market to find more annoying indians that bug us to buy something from their store. we left there because half of the stores were closed..and all the stores had basically the same garbage. and went outside to the circle. there were western shops like Levi's, Adidas, Nike, McDonald's, and even TGI Fridays. we felt like we're in europe, and it was a refreshing feeling. it was a great day!

the next day we went to this are with antiques and stuff, we went into a store and met a American Airlines stewardes (sp?) that took us to her hotel to freshen up - SHERATON($250 A NIGHT!!!!) it was such a fancy hotel. we went to the bathroom and they treated us like queens, and when we got out the lady (her name was Tamera) gave us a bag with a huge loaf of round bread, apples, and mints :) oh yeah and fragrent rode buds - "to put on your pillow tonight". oh and also at that store we sat and hung out with the commisioner of the delhi police. the only nice sikh person in india.

the next day we took a Delhi tour bus that cost us only 150 rupees, and was from 10am (10:45 india time) till 6pm - the bus took us to birla temple, indira ghandi memorial, raj gaht (mahatma ghandi's ashes), parliament house, india gate, lotus temple, and more that i dont remember at the moment. the tour was nice... for the price we paid. they changed our bus twice, and the guides changed 3 times.. non of them really spoke in english.

on wed - we bought plane tickets to thailand, and it was raining so we decided to just hang out in the main bazar (that we know so well already)

the next day we went to the chandi chowk, took a rikshaw that asked us for money for the ride AND to go in to 2 stores (he gets comission for bringing people in) - so we, smart girls, said ok we dont pay for the ride and we go in the stores. he took us to i think the most expensive stores with no people in them and annoying sales people that try to sell anything. the chondi chowk is an even grosser market than the main bazar. we found a mcdonalds so we bought ice cream and cooled down inside in the AC. then we started to walk around the market.. that was so gross :( we walked for 2 hours and after that we decided to go back to mcdonalds (its like our shelter), and we actually ate there.. at the middle of the meal some mcdonalds worker came and asked if we could fill out a suggestion card OF COURSE we said yes.. and 5 mins later he came back with free ice cream for us.. (so we needed to change our rating a bit, haha) after that we went to see the Red Fort - this huge um i forgot the word, like a palace type of building.

on friday i hung out with a new couple from israel i met at my guesthouse. in the morning we went to drink good coffee and then we decided we want to go to all the fancy malls of delhi. we took a rikshaw to the first mall. it was OK, nothing fancy, afterwards we took a rikshaw to another mall.. the driver wanted us to go into 2 stores, so we agreed, but without having to pay for the ride.. after visiting those stores the driver asked what day is it? so we said friday, so he said "ohh the mall is closed today" - we said go there anyway, its ok... 2 mins later he said theres not enough gas in the rikshaw and that he needs to go put gas and he will come back in 5 mins. we said.. ok... we'll go with you... "no no i will be back in 5 mins".... no... we go with you. anyway he kept on driving and drove fine for another 10-15 mins. we got to a place and i went to ask if this is the place we wanted to go, the lady said NO... the dumb driver took us to a different mall.. but we decided to go in anyway. after walking around we went outside, and the driver was still there.. we ignored him. we went into another store, came out, and he was still there, and we still ignored him. he came after us and said we didnt pay. the guy that was with us yelled at him and the driver ran away. HOW RUDE. later on we finally went to the mall we wanted to go to.. it was not fancy at all.. but whatever, better than nothing.

the next day we (me and the couple) went to the Akshardham Temple (that was recommended by vijay and kalmeeta - THANK YOU GUYS!) - the temple is a new (only 5 years old) huge huge amazing complex with an amazing all hand carved from stone and marble, and amazing gardens (cams were not allowed). in the complex there were 3 attractions - this hall with like 8 different huge rooms with exhibitions better than disneyland with dolls that move and talk and great sound effects, this took 50 mins. it was AMAZING. the next thing was a 40 mins long movie about the guy this temple was built for. the movie was on a huge screen and it was great. the next attraction was a 15 min boat ride (like a small world in disneyland) showing us the history of india, important people, inventions, etc..

on sunday we didnt do much. i did henna on both of my arms and we just hung out in the room watching a movie.

at 11:30pm was our flight to Bangkok, Thailand.

we arrived at 4am and walked around for 2 hours looing for a guest house.. we finally found one in the Kaho San) backpackers favorite street. the guesthouse is called sheikin in bangkok (sheinkin is a street in israel) its pretty cool.. we passed out and basically did nothing all day. in the evening we finally went out to the Kaho San that is an amazing street with tons of cool stores selling cool stuff and tons of bars and pubs, and millions of people (travellers and locals). i ate my first pad thai in the street(was very good) and we went bar hopping. this is my second day here in bangkok. today we (me, tzofit, and shiri - her friend from israel that also landed in thailand yesterday, dana left us earlier in delhi, and went to thailand alone) walked around a lot. i planned us a tour. we saw the Democracy Monument, the Loha Prasat (a complex with temples), the city Parapet Phrakan Fortress (this weird white place.. probably a temple), the Golden Mount (amazing buddhist temple), the Giant swing (i dont really have any idea on what it was), Wat Suthat - inside there was a HUGE sitting buddha. then we walked around looking for the Chao Phray River.. and then looking for Chinatown, and ended up in a very busy park doing Tai Chi with a group of very nice old ladies! i LOVE it. i love it, i love it.... too bad thailand is a little more expensive.. i would love to stay here for longer than 2 weeks. i love thailand, and the stuff to buy here is exactly my taste... i hope to win the lotto while im here, cuz i really want to buy whatever i like! (not much.. just some bags, clothes, and stuff for my new room)

is it too early to say that i like thailand better than india?

i have more pics on my cam to download, but i am too tired for now.. i will do it later.

for now check these out!!! http://mayaspics.spaces.msn.com

enjoy

miss you all

maya

sab kuch milega (anything is possible...in india) - originally sent july 7

hey guys!

after spending almost 2 FUN weeks in Dharamsala (Bhagsu)
i got on the bus to Shimla - we took a night local bus that left at 9:30pm and got there at 5am. the ride was weird. but thats a story to tell when im back home.
as soon as we got off the bus 2 old porters started to bug us. we hiked up from the bus station 4 KM with our heavy bags.. and with us the bugging porters that try to convince us to let them carry our bags for 20 rupees each. 2.5 hours later we still look for a guest house, and the old annoying guys are still there with us. we finally got a room. we decided not to go to sleep and just hang out and see the city. Shimla is a very expensive city that only indian honeymooners go to and only indian tourists. it was so expensive and nothing to do really.. we hated it.
so we decided to leave asap! we got a bus ticket to Haridwar for the next day at 5am. after hanging out all day we went to sleep and woke up at 3am. we walked down all the way but this time we hired porters to carry our bags (if it was up to me i would carry my own bag!)
we left Shimla at 5:30am we arrived in Haridwar at 4pm and took another short ride to Rishikesh (the capital of yoga, meditation.. and other stuff!)
both cities sit on the Ganges river. 2 days ago we walked to the Ganges with 2 other israeli girls and 3 spanish boys.. we got in the water (that is very brown for some odd reason) and then 2 guards told us that we cant because its too dangerous.. so we continued to walk and got to the waterfall. it was a great day! then of course we walked all the way back to our guesthouse. i think in total we walked 8km. yesterday we didnt do much we were too lazy.
today we walked to another waterfall. the hike up was hard (2km), but worth it. it is SO humid here.. not that hot but very very humid! even after taking a shower we sweat so much. but i really like it here..
the internet connection here is very bad, everywhere i go they cant burn my pictures on a cd and its way too slow to upload pictures.
i know you're all waiting for pictures... but please have some patients... i will do it soon.
love you and miss you
maya

update email originally sent on july 2

Hello guys
i am still alive! and having fun.
still in Dharamsala (Bhagsu)
but leaving to Shimla tonight. 10-12 hour bus ride with 2 sweet israeli girls i've been with for a week now.
I took a Tibetan cooking class, learned how to make Momos (like dumplings) with 4 different fillings (potato, spinach and cheese, veg, and ..... chocolate!) and 3 different designs. was a great class. i met 2 new girls - one from Zambia and one from Korea. we ended up hanging out all night.
I went to 3 different music concerts - classical indian music with a classical Kathak dancer. and Fusion which is indian musicians playing with israeli musicians. sounds pretty cool
i've been chilling out mostly, meeting new people.. till now i had 4 different roommates (first one that was with me in delhi and amritsar, then a new girl that stayed with me for 4 days then left to Manali, and the 2 girls im with now.)
I took Reiki classes - level 1 (self healing) and level 2 (healing on others). so now i can heal you....
been walking to McLeod (the tibetan village) almost everyday, nice road on the mountains, 15 mins walk.
one day i went to see the Dalai lama speak.. i didnt really see him it was too packed. so i saw him on a tv screen and heard him speak in tibetan.. it was cool.. but i was more interested in the fat tibetan babies..
i dont have much time to update.. so this is it for now. i will write more soon (hopefully from Shimla..)
i know this is not much updating, but forgive me. i promise i will do it soon
oh and about pics, i will do it soon too.. cuz my cam cable is already packed.
we leave tonight at 9pm
see u soon
maya

Namaste

Namaste! (Hello!)

I finally get the chance to write to you guys!
i arrived in Delhi after 18 hours flight. the flight was good, and full... but i had 3 seats for myself for the whole time!!!
i arrived at the guesthouse at around 5am and didnt really sleep. i spent the day in Pahar Ganj (the main bazar) which was the stinkiest, dirtiest, croweded, and loudest place i've ever been too. the air was so unclean i could feel it in my throat and chest, and (gross alert) when i cleaned my nose it all came out black!!! ah!!! so i was walking around the bazar which is basically a very busy street with tons of shops and food, and cows, and people honking all the time... indian people are the craziest drivers EVER! the honk is working extra hours and signals dont even exist.. i couldnt wait to get outta Delhi (i know there is much more to Delhi than the main bazar... i shall return at the end of my trip) hmm..at least 7 people asked me if i was indian.
i spent another night at the guest house, then then next day i took a 5 hour train ride to Amritsar (Punjab state) which is like the main city for the Sikh religion. on the train i met a guy from new york and a girl from germany. we ended up sharing a rikshaw to a guesthouse and staying at the same place and going places together. we went to the Golden Temple - an amazing temple (pic soon) lucky us it was some big Sikh festival there were so many people.. i decided to sit down and enjoy the beautiful temple and suddenly i notice that people stare at me... families just stop and look at me, and smile and laugh.. some of them came up to me and asked if i was indian.. i thought maybe i looked like some indian movie star and they think im her or something. some even took a picture of me!
then we shared a taxi to the border of Pakistan and India to watch a ceremony of closing the border. there were thousands of indians there, it was such a great experience, people singing, yelling.. i ended up carrying the indian flag to the gate infront of all of those people!!! then they invited me to dance (i did my best, but i really cant) it was so hot and so many people made it even hotter. we went back to the golden temple that looked totally different and even more amazing at night.
the next day we took a local bus (i repeat - local bus) to Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh state)the ride was surprisingly easy.. and only 7 hours! we finally arrived took another short ride to McLead Ganj (a little more up the mountain) and then we said goodbye. i took a taxi to Bhagsu, and now im here. its such a great place, on the footsteps of the Himalaya (not yet sure) lots of israelis, israeli restaurants, and signs in hebrew... yesterday i didnt do much, i wanted to just chill out and walk around. i went to Haifa restaurant and this kid came to ask for money, he said he was hungry... after asking other people for money with no success, he came to me and i deicded to just buy him food.. so we ended up having brunch together. he ordered chowmein (hehe) as soon as he ordered it started to rain so hard, he had no shoes on and short sleeve. he was freezing, but with a smile on his face! we manged to talk with his broken english and i found out he was 12 years old, and doesnt go to school. oh and that he loves Israel. the rest of the day i just hung out. became friends with the 21 year old that works at my guesthouse. i bought him "Bhagsu Cake" (so yummy i dont know whats in it) and he invited me for Chai (my first chai!) we talked alot, he's such a nice guy.
anyway, now im here.. enjoying the green mountains..
I am going to take some courses (Reiki, Massage, Cooking, etc)

I miss you all.
I am having a good time.
Love
Maya


p.s. i will upload some pics+videos soon!

it is finally time to leave here... next time i'll be writing here i'm gonna be in India.

with my lightly packed backpack (only 1 pants, 1 shirt! still kinda heavy..why??)
18 hours flight with a one 1/2 hour stop in Frankfurt, Germany

please dont worry about me (i know its hard not to, heehee)
i'll be having an amazing time!!!!

miss you all already ;)

why are people so freaked out when i tell em that i am going to India for 4 months?
people who've never been there tell me its dangerous and crazy
they call ME crazy
how can you say something like that about a place you've never been to?
it's like when people who have never been to Israel (MY country that i was born & raised in 19 years) say its too dangerous to go there... have you been there? NO. so you have NO right to say those things.
until now all my non israeli friends that traveled in Israel said it was an awesome country, and they loved every min of it... they also like to add that its not as dangerous as they show you on the media.
i do understand my parents.. and everyone else thats worried because after all its my first time traveling alone for such a long time.
but i'm not worried.. it's going to be great!

Chicago was great. I love it
It was nice to see my friends again, meet their family, and make some new good friends. I had an amazing time... The weather was so good! Chicago is the kind of city i would like to live in someday (i should probably check it in the winter first, eh?)
I appreciate it so much Matt, Rebecca, Lukas & Eben! Maxi Pads, and all the Jesus People USA that were so nice to me even tho im a jew...

I met Tamara! a felow jew, and a friend that i met online a long time ago. she took me, drove me around, fed me, took me to the free zoo, and was my personal city guide. What a great girl, i had so much fun with her just talking forever about everything. another friend for life...


I finally bought my plane ticket to India. the Visa application went to fast. i sent it to the consulate of India in San Fran on monday, they recieved it on tuesday morning, proccessed it, shipped it to me on wed, and i recieved it on thursday morning. i was so surprised. i bought my ticket yesterday. I'll be leaving LAX in june 12, and arrive in Delhi in june 14... I will be traveling for 4 months. i'm so happyyyyyyyyyyyy woooohoooo

i am supposed to be on a flight right now

but i am not. i missed my 11:50am flight.
i blame starbucks (and other airport lines)! damn iced green tea
and what's up with flights actually leaving on time? isnt that like.. ilegal or something?
so now i wait for the 10:30pm flight... i will land in milwaukee tomorrow morning at 10:30
and matt will pick me up from there and we'll drive to chicago.
i always said i hated starbucks. but now, for real, it is banned for life. oh and your "coffee" sucks ass.
and for the biatch that totally ignored me while i was sadly looking at my plane leaving..... i have one word for you. KARMA.
and for the other girl that helped me, thank you for putting me on a new flight without charging me. god bless you.
ahhhhhhh! i guess i need to get used to it... the life of a traveler.... haha!

i am going to travel asia in the summer, starting in india
i am working so hard to make this happen, woohoo!
i cannot wait. it's going to be amazing.
soon i will fill this space with lots of colorful pictures and stories :)

...

monkey says goodnight

a year and some...

it's been a year and some since i wrote here....
i deleted
and wrote it all in my mind...

?

were you always crying wolf?