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