Wanderlust Heaven!

OK, this week’s entry will be relatively short – I’m out of Israel, I have no new photos this week, and I have a hell of a headache from Thai nightlife…

My final night in Israel was solid, despite having to put in another night at Hotel Eilat – which I visually confirmed to be a no-tell motel.  My head was still spinning from my West Bank trip, but getting to Tel Aviv put some distance between me and the mayhem there…and Tel Aviv is mentally a world away.  Was hoping to meet up with Turkish friends Erol and Banu, and we were texting throughout the early evening to set something up – then I got a text saying that Banu (who’s pregnant) was violently ill and they were returning home, to the ‘burbs.  Oh well.  I had another lead, a friend of old friend Charles’s – they had been partners in a startup years ago to bring Au Bon Pain to Israel.  We made dinner plans.

Yaron and his (also pregnant – what is it about Israel?) wife came to get me at Hotel Eilat around 9 p.m.  They’re lots of fun – both switched-on, both studied and worked in the States for years.  Emblematic of a fairly large contingent of Israel-USA dual citizenship folks.  Yaron runs a chain of fitness centers and his wife, who’s an electrical engineer who used to work for Digital Computer in Boston, takes care of their 3 kids, soon to be 4.  They took me to Sushisamba, a fusion place that was very good – I hadn’t had sushi in perhaps 6 months, and that was a welcome change from bread, meat and cheese.  They also had umeshu (plum wine) and a few brands of sake, so we tried those and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Was happy that Charles introduced me to them – I still wonder why my set of contacts in Israel is so sparse.

Much warmer in Tel Aviv – had gone for a pretty good run along the beach before dinner.  Was too tired to make it all the way to Jaffa, but at least put in a good showing.  The ensuing two days would be all travel, with no time for exercise.

Read a bit about the new Palm Pre, the successor to the Treo – about fucking time.  Will try to check this out when back in Boston in a few weeks – my own Treo 680 is less than a year old, and serves the purpose, but at some point I’ll want something a bit more fresh and sexy.  iPhone, Pre, Nokia E71 – those are the three products I’ve got in mind right now.  The Pre has a charger that’s wireless, you just put the Pre on top of it.  Great idea – I think more products will use something like this in the near uture.

After dinner, walked to Mike’s Bar, where I’d spent my first night in TA two or so weeks earlier.  Someone had told me that Mike’s had been attacked by two suicide bombers a few years ago – hadn’t know that.  Apparently the two guys were amateurs (understandable – in that field you don’t really get a chance to become a professional, huh?) and didn’t do much damage, one blew himself up outside when he was challenged by a guard, the other ran into the Mediterranean and drowned.  I need to find this story online, would be a good read.

Became friendly with a Russian-Israeli computer geek named Boris, with whom I practiced a bit of Russian.  Then we started bantering with a cute Latvian seated near us – Boris spoke to her in Russian while I tried to get in a few words.  Seems she was ‘working,’ and we soon lost interest.  Around 2 a.m. I wandered back to the hotel and went to my room.  The bathroom was in the hall, I brushed my teeth and then went back in my room.  I didn’t see my room key anywhere and wondered where it was.  After searching everywhere, for a good half hour or so (not fun when drunk), I pulled up the mattress and the keys fell out.  I wonder how they got under there, seemed to violate the laws of physics – although said laws can get bent by alcohol…

Next day was Saturday, Shabbat, and the city was quiet.  Beautiful day – I went out for a coffee, walked along the beach for an hour, then returned to the hotel to check out and do some computer stuff.  Cleared most of my emails, made some Thailand and Philippines travel bookings, and got rid of most of the junk on my computer desktop.  I have a feeling that a cluttered desktop slows down the startup speed…let’s see how it is now.

A friend sent me a website called Most Traveled People, it was created by a classmate of hers who appears to be just about the world’s most traveled person.  The site spells out over 750 countries, territories, and other distinctions, and when you create an account you then check off the places you’ve visited.  Quite cool – you can look at a world map with your visited places colored in, and you get ranked vs. other members.  Right now I’m at something like 150 places visited, and am ranked #610.  Humbling…a lot like Technocrati.com telling me that I’m the world’s 4 millionth-ranked blogger…anyway, check out this site, it’s terrific.

Got a random email from Nico, the Dutchman I’d met on the trip from Cairo to St. Katherine’s Monastery.  We’d had a bizarre and fun time hanging out, and our climb up Mt. Sinai (which commenced with a climb up the wrong slop) is something I won’t soon forget.  Nico wrote that he stayed at St. K’s for a few days and was able to review some pretty old and rare manuscripts kept there, he became friendly with an American priest who hooked him up.  He also invited me to visit him in Mozambique, but is leaving there for Holland in July so I’d better move fast.  Let’s see…

Headed to Ben-Gurion Airport.  Had a round-the-world flight itinerary, made using frequent-flier points, that was taking me to Bangkok via Istanbul, where I’d lay over that night.  Had to take a cab to the airport, on Shabbat there are no public buses, and no sheruts (minivans) run to the airport.  Ugh.  These are the sorts of things that bust a budget, but what can you do?

Security at the airport was predictably high, but not overwhelming.  When I went to have my large pack X-rayed, a female guard gave me the third degree – asking me some fairly obscure questions about where I studied Hebrew, about my cousin who now lives in Jerusalem, etc.  I guess there’s a method to their madness…and I guess my profile is odd, my passport is enormous, I have no fixed address, etc.  Anyway, she went to chat with her supervisor, and eventually I got waved on.  Otherwise, not a hassle – they X-ray your stuff once and the worker actually pays attention.  A nice contrast from, say, India or the Philippines, where they seem to do everything between 2 and 5 times.  Do it once, the right way, and let us be…

En route to my gate there was a long wall with posters from each year of the country’s existence.  The early posters were largely dedicated to independence and the birth of the country, later posters more to education, industry, sports, and tourism.  Different artists got picked each year to do the posters – a well-executed and moving tribute to Israel.  You can, undoubtedly, find the set of posters somewhere online…

While waiting for my flight to Istanbul I perused the Departures board.  I love doing this, you see some obscure and tantalizing destinations.  This time I saw the random set of Kaliningrad, Addis Ababa, and Newark.  Made sense to me – might be some kabbalistic interpretation to be made here…

Also spent some time thinking back to what I’d seen in Israel, and particularly to my West Bank trip.  Many of my long-held beliefs were crumbling, and I was OK with that.  Traveling is foremost an educational experience and if I wasn’t challenging myself, this would all be a waste.  I wondered how culpable I should feel in the oppression of Palestinians and their hard lives…and while I didn’t come up with an eloquent answer, I was able to tell myself, reasonably, that there can be some crawl space between being Jewish and being Israeli.  I hope that’s not a cop-out – after all, I’m not doing anything more to ease Palestinian conditions than visiting their cities and blogging about it.  I would be very unhappy if donations I’ve made to Israel in the past were used to mistreat Palestinians…no idea if they were.  I think this is an internal struggle I’ll work through over time – as I wrote last week, I truly hope someone/something emerges to break the cycle of hatred and violence and changes this ugly game.

Met a nice American woman who teaches English in The Hague.  She also faced the overnight layover in Istanbul, and we traded some ideas for how to get through the hours.  She’ll be back in Israel before long so I gave her my Lonely Planet guidebook…better than tossing it in the bin.

Flew to Istanbul without a hitch.  The airport was surprisingly busy for 10 p.m. or so, Istanbul is a major hub for Europe-Asia flights so that was the reason.  After wandering around for a while, found a lounge that I could pay to enter and spend the night.  Didn’t make sense to go into Istanbul, wasn’t enough time for that…and the airport hotel was a brutal 210 Euros a night.  Not worth it.  The lounge was $45 and had beer, food, comfortable seats, and power outlets.  I had a few beers, a few plates of food, printed out some e-tickets, read, and watched some DVDs.  Probably would have spent $30-$40 outside the lounge on these things, so it made economic sense.

The American teacher showed up there too.  We both sat around reading, eating, drinking beer, and watching movies on our respective laptops all night.  The layover was about 8-9 hours, I did manage an hour of sleep near the end of that, had set my mobile’s alarm just to be sure.  Long night, but could have been worse.  I was pretty knackered when I got on my flight to Bangkok…

Finished a couple Economists, and realized that for the first time in memory, I was without any books/guidebooks, or magazines to read.  I would be getting my US mail when in Bangkok, and would be loaded up again with reading material…but for now it was actually refreshing.  I had a couple DVDs I could watch…there were also newspapers to be had, so I wouldn’t just sit and stare.  And my load was noticeably lighter – having a ream of books and mags is a pain when you’re moving around.

One DVD I got around to watching was Sicko, by Michael Moore.  I’ve been meaning to watch this for a long time.  What a depressing movie.  Admittedly one-sided and over-the-top (I don’t think the Cuban healthcare system is better than ours, or any sort of paradise), but not so far off the mark.  And besides the predictable charges leveled at the US healthcare system, the larger social analyses were pretty compelling.  As I’ve written, I don’t come easily to conspiracy theories, but I do wonder sometimes about hands behind the puppets – for example, are there people/entities that benefit from the status quo, wherein American workers rarely strike, only get 2 weeks of vacation a year, don’t get much in the way of maternity leave and daycare, and, perhaps most prominently, depend on their employer for healthcare and are often stuck in a shit job?  There are certainly policies that get implemented that dramatically favor one or more interest group – the Medicare drug benefits package that got passed a few years ago seems to be a huge giveaway to the pharma industry, for instance.  I realize that Congress’s debates and actions are on the record, but the presence of so much lobbying and money going around makes me wonder who really benefits from bills like this one.

And whatever the situation is with ‘hidden hands,’ I’m fairly well convinced that some societies have done a much better job balancing their competing interests.  France seems to be able to deliver good healthcare at a reasonable cost, provide daycare for nearly free, not force university students to shell out ridiculous sums, etc.  Sure, they don’t eat crappy American fast-food (well, less than we do, anyway), they have a lower military burden, and they pay higher taxes…but their quality of life seems much higher.  I think I’d rather make 80% of the American salary, pay 45% taxes (as opposed to 35%), and have a lower level of discretionary income, and in return get more holidays, have my healthcare and children’s university bills be taken care of, be able to switch jobs at will, etc.  Tufts University, my alma mater, now costs $45K/year.  Incredible.  They have a beautiful new arts center, sports center, and language center…big deal.  $200K for a 4-year education for one student – yowza.  I think I’m not joining this game (or scam) and putting my head down and working for 40 years…

I think Americans aren’t, generally, demanding customers.  They make do with mediocre food (albeit at very cheap prices), they get little holiday, everything is out-of-pocket, etc.  Japanese and Europeans are much fussier consumers.  And part of the problem is, IMHO, dogma – Americans have been warned about the dangers of ‘socialism’ for so long (communism is about dead, most would admit) that if a politician talks about raising taxes and offering more benefits, well then they’re a ‘socialist.’  Forget for a moment about collapsing bridges and crappy infrastructure – much more important to worry about avoiding socialism and ‘wealth distribution.’  Never mind that we already have Social Security, Medicare, huge military expenditures, and, of course, the current mess in which the federal gov is saving a bunch of companies.  To Americans, government is bad.  How weird…

Sicko had an interesting quote about Euro governments being afraid of their citizens, who are much more prone to strike and protest than Americans are.  I haven’t seen any data on this, but having spent a fair amount of time in Europe, it rings true.  It’s annoying to be screwed when there’s a transport or rubbish-haulers strike, but at the same time it seems to bring results, and allows the people to vent.  Americans, except for the occasional anti-Iraq War march, seem a bit cowed and/or apathetic.  I certainly think if the French were given our package of goods – higher salaries, lower taxes, and lower level of benefits – they’d have a shit fit.  It’s amazing that America is still trying to figure out the healthcare thing…the Euros figured it out 50 years ago.  ‘Nuff said – reactions welcomed.

Between thinking about this sort of thing, and recalling my day in Hebron, I was becoming a bit depressed about the world.  Good thing I was moving on to Thailand, an admittedly corrupt and poor place where, still, people seem pretty happy,  and they probably understand the real situation better than most.

My last trip to Thailand was way back in October 2007 – quite a while by my standards.  Was happy to be back, Thailand is a much less heavy place than the Middle East and I was looking forward to decompressing.  It’s also significantly cheaper across the board.  My room, in the building where friend Bob now stays, is less than $30/night, and is huge.  I couldn’t decide where to spread out my yoga mat.  That’s rarely a problem.  And the street food – little reason to go to a formal resto here.  You can get a plate of food for less than 50 cents.  No wonder Bob likes it so much – I think he spends less than $1K per month.  I was spending more than that every few days in Israel…

Got to VP Tower around 11 p.m.  Bob was waiting for me…he had some beers in his room, it was an election day and the authorities had banned booze sales.  Oh well.  We sat around and caught up for a while, then went out for a walk.  I bought a local SIM card, which offers web access – ah, the ease of this place!

Drank till around 3 a.m.  I never seem to go to sleep early in Thailand – the place encourages late nights and late mornings.  Slept in till nearly 11 the next morning – rare for me, but I’d had a night without much sleep and I’m not 25 years old anymore.

Got up and did some errands.  Got a moto taxi to Porntip Plaza, where they sell lots of DVDs.  Bought a bunch.  Walked out to get some lunch, saw a kid playing with a Rubik’s Cube (knockoff version).  Hadn’t seen one of those in years.

Went next to Siam Paragon, the high-end mall, where I found a Zara shop.  I wrote a couple weeks ago that my clothes are getting ratty, I need a few new items.  Got a couple shirts and a belt in Zara for US$67.  Very copacetic.  Walked around a few other shops, tried on a shirt in the department store, didn’t take it but managed to leave behind my shades.  Realized I’d done so an hour later, boogied back to the store and the fellow had actually found and saved the glasses.  Whew – would not have been happy to lose those $140 shades, that would pretty much blow my good-value experience that day out of the water.  It’s the stupid expenses like that which can really nail you.

A strange Thai woman was calling me all afternoon.  Here they recycle #s all the time, I guess my new mobile # was previously owned by her friend, or something like that.  I finally got rid of her.

Went to the park on Soi Rangnam with Bob for a run.  This park really makes the ‘hood – it’s spacious and clean, and perfect for a run.  Had a good jaunt, 4 times around the track.  Then went back to VP Tower and called Dad, it was his 67^th birthday and we talked for a while.  My sis was making him dinner that night, he sounded in good spirits.

Bob and I headed out to Water Bar, one of my favorite drinking holes around the planet.  Met Bob’s friends Jan and Sue there – they got married about a year or so ago, congratulated them and we all had a lot of beer, whiskey, and very nice Thai food (ostrich dish not to be missed) over the next few hours.  Jan is an enthusiastic imbiber, he’s often here (and everywhere else).  Turns out he was here when 9-11 was unfolding, soon after the bar opened for business, and sat there drinking and watching the tube.  Water Bar recently expanded and bought out the café next door – shitty timing, the bar used to always be packed, now it feels almost empty – a combination of the extra space and the crap economy.  I hope it gets through this period OK…a great bar closing down is almost like a death.

Got up the next morning with a solid hangover.  Went to Bumrungrad Hospital to update my vaccinations – thought I needed a Havrix/Hepatitis booster, and perhaps another 1-2.  Also wanted to get a yellow fever vaccine.  Turns out that the yellow fever vaccine is like a controlled substance, you need to get it from the Immigration Office – like in India.  Torture.  Got three other vaccinations at Bumrungrad – meningococcal, typhoid, and Japanese encephalitis – and decided to try to get the yellow fever vaccine at a Thai airport before leaving the country.  It’s optional at this point…but if I need to visit an African or Latin American country, I’d want to have this first, and preferably 1-2 weeks beforehand.  That could be an issue down the road…

Had a call with a former colleague about a potential project – a few others joined the call as well.  We had a follow-up call the next night.  Despite not working for three years, it was relatively easy to shake off the rust and within a few minutes I was doing most of the talking.  Might be a formal role for me on this work – am in the process of discussing this.  I sort of like the idea of being a contractor, living where I want, and jumping on and off defined projects.  At the same time, the potential gig in India is also quite attractive – I clearly have some thinking to do.

Went for another run with Bob – the Water Bar drinking made this run challenging.  Got through four laps again, but I was dragging.  So was Bob.  Went back to VP Tower and chatted with one of the girls at reception – this one is super-smiley and friendly.  Hmmm…

Had dinner with Bob at Larry’s Dive, a burger joint where we’d been before.  Bob was dying for a burger.  This visit wasn’t as good as our last – they screwed up Bob’s order, my food was just OK, and the prices were pretty high.  And we didn’t even drink beer there.  Oh well.  Might have to stick to Thai food – you can find anything in Bangkok/Thailand, but you really can’t count on getting world-class steaks or other international specialties, unless you’re willing to pay a lot for it.  And with the street food being so good, there’s not much of a value proposition there.  As I’ve written, I do sometimes ‘need’ Mexican or Chinese food, but I have some control over my cravings…

Walked around after dinner with Bob.  We were on Sukhumvit Soi, one of the city’s major arteries.  I swear that Bangkok is a priest’s version of hell – there are so many bars and massage parlors that you could get swallowed up by them.  There are entire streets dedicated to Japanese karaoke joints and bars…I think north Asians love coming down here and misbehaving for a few days.

Wound up on Soi Cowboy and drank at a few bars.  At one an attractive bargirl sat next to me and ordered some fried grasshoppers from a vendor.  I sat there and watched her pull the legs off the creature and munch them.  Oddly seductive…

Hit the sack at 3 a.m., again.  Had to get up the next morning and fly to Chiang Mai.  Dreamed that night that someone, I can’t recall who, showed me a copy of my favorite book, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll the Looking, by Alvaro Mutis, and we talked about the book for a while.  I have my copy sitting in Boston and need to dig it out in a few weeks.  If you haven’t read this book, and most of you haven’t, get it on Amazon.

Got up and packed my bags.  Checked emails – friend Seung, in San Francisco, had read my West Bank post and deemed it my best post yet, out of nearly 140 posts.  Nice to get that sort of feedback.

Headed to the airport, and flew to CM on Thai AirAsia, probably the best of the discount operations.  Had to cough up some baht to cover excess baggage – should have left more at Bob’s.  Oh well – when I return I’ll put more in my hand baggage and try to get away with that.

Checked into my Chiang Mai guesthouse, Safe House Court.  Odd name but very solid place – they’ve renovated since I was last here.  Big room, large bed, aircon, and clean bathroom, all for US$15/night.  Bingo.  Dropped off my bags and walked around for a couple hours – noticed some funny, familiar places, like Mike’s Burgers, Marijuana Bar (I wonder if they even know what that means, or if they simply like the Latin-sounding name), the UN Irish Pub, and the wonderful ‘Mr Beer – Car Rental.’  Two things that go nicely together, beer and car rentals.

Went to the ATM, which proceeded to give me only large bills.  Asked the front desk at my guesthouse to make change, they held my 1K baht note to the light to verify its authenticity, apparently there’s some counterfeitting these days.  My bill passed muster, and I got some smaller bills in return…which I then held up to the light, eliciting a fit of laughter from the Thais.  I love moments like that…

Transferred my recent photos to my external hard drive.  Had almost exactly 1,000 pics from Egypt, and from Israel as well.  Hard to imagine places that have more to capture on film…although there is lots of competition.  Burma, Mongolia, Cambodia…

Made plans to see my Japanese friend, Hira, the next evening for dinner.  Went for a good run around the Chiang Mai moat – not a calm run, but got to see and remember a lot of the city (this is my third visit here, I think), which is fairly large and a bit confusing – the old city is basically a square and you can forget which side you’re on.  At least after hitting the bars, which I did afterward.  And again went to sleep at 3 a.m.  Slept late, got up and bumped into an American guy, older, who told me he lived in my room for a year.  A year – well, I could probably stomach that, the place is perfectly fine, and cheap as chips.  Traveling has made me identify what I want, need and can live with – and it turns out I’m a very cheap date.  Chew on that notion for a while – I doubt you’ll disagree.

I’ll leave you with my first video posted directly on my slog, it’s from Petra, and features Marcel the Dutchman and I doing our version of the Indiana Jones theme song.  I’ve been meaning to post this for months, and am finally getting around to it.  Feedback welcome.  Over and out.

http://www.fliqz.com/public/aspx/playerdefault.aspx?vid=0D94BE37FDE131DFBE22DDDDD8A8A221

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.