Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Every good thing must come to an end

Hi all,

After almost 5 months, 6 countries, 13 flights and numerous rented vehicles the time has come for us to finish our trip and come back home. In other words, we totally ran out of money. Although we didn’t get to all the places we wanted to get to (Fiji, Laos, Vietnam) we don’t look back in sorrow, we rather see it as opportunity for a trip to come.
In the past 5 months we got to do a lot of things for the first time in our lives: We were at an NBA game, played golf, drove in a snowstorm, scuba dived, flew in a chopper, hiked on glaciers, watched whales in nature, hand fed a kangaroo, circled the world and most important of all got married (a first time for half of us).

Needless to say, this is our last blog post (at least till the next time we feel like traveling), we thought that it would be nice to close it with a few things we learned along the way:
1. No matter where you go, it will always be full of Asians.
2. The Japanese among them will be ordered in groups holding cameras and watching their guide (the only Japanese not holding a camera).
3. There is a direct proportion between the sizes of the country to the size of its cucumbers.
4. In Australia & New Zealand the salt & pepper cellars will always be upside-down, meaning that the cellar with the many holes will hold the pepper and the cellar with the single hole will hold the salt. WE HAVE NO IDEA WHY.
5. Our country (Israel) is ugly, anyone saying otherwise is either lying or a complete fool.
6. But no one make Hummus like we do, not even the Arabs.
7. Just like in the Simpsons, the salesclerk in every seven-eleven will be Indian.
8. And the salesclerk in every dry cleaning / laundry shop will be Korean.
9. Mexicans in Vegas will assume that if you are out on the street and not inside a casino, it must mean that you are looking for a whore.
10. Overseas countries have much more interesting road kills.
11. The fact that English is the native tongue does not necessarily mean that the people are technologically advanced. Don’t be surprised if while in New Zealand you’ll run into people using cell phones that will give you flashbacks of the 80s.
12. The bigger the surf waves are, the bigger the sharks waiting behind them.
13. For some reason Australian calls pubs hotels, that could be quiet frustrating when looking for a room.
14. In some countries street signs are luxury.
15. Forget about models, football players & movie stars. The most photographed person in the World is the king of Thailand.
16. There is a heaven on earth, it is called Bora Bora.

Doron & Gali

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Scuba diving in Koh Tao

Hi all,

We are now both an official PADI Open Water divers. It’s the equivalent to a first star in the Israeli system. Judging from how Gali is talking, the second star will follow shortly.

The course was very funny. The instructor was an Israeli so the course was in Hebrew, besides us there were 6 more people. A couple that seemed to share a brain (I think they didn’t understand a single thing during the entire course), another couple of “semi arsim” that were great people, and 2 guys that were more into making jokes than into learning how to dive. According to what we have learned, in a dive you are in charge of two things: your air and your dive partner. These two guys managed to lose one another and run out of air on the same dive.

The dives were very nice, except for some annoying things they make you exercise underwater (mask off, no air, etc). The scenery was nice but to be honest, it’s not like things you see at Sinai or even Eilat.

We are now back at Koh Samui planning our next steps.

Gali & Doron

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Koh Phangan & Koh Tao

Hi all,

The resort in Lamai beach (still at Koh Samui) was a great success, it had an amazing beach and a very nice pool. After 2 nights there (a total of 7 nights in Koh Samui) we decided that it is time to move on to Koh Phangan.

The trip to Koh Phangan was an experience. To travel from island to island here you buy a combined ticket that includes a pickup from the hotel by a “taxi” and a ferry ride. The taxis they use here are pickup trucks, the driver sits inside and all the passengers sit outside at the back. Our driver managed to take an amazing number of 16 people. The ferry pier was build from bamboo sticks and looked like the outcome of a boy scouts camp. It didn’t seem like anyone ever tested if it can hold the weight of the dozens of people that were currently on it. Fortunately it did.

Koh Phangan itself was a disappointment. The beaches are not nice (they say it because of the law season) most of the resorts are very simple and the ones who looks better are not located on the beach. On top of that, the island is full with Israelis and there are signs in Hebrew every where. One day during lunch we heard something that made me laugh so hard that I thought it’s worth sharing with you. It was one “Ars” Israeli explaining to his girlfriend that “35% alcohol is only in the bottle, in a glass there is room for much less”. We stayed in Koh Phangan for 2 nights and moved on to Koh Tao.

Koh Tao is the best island so far, the resorts are great, the prices are fine and it does not sound like Tel Aviv. We rented a motorbike and toured the island (actually we did that in Koh Phangan & Koh Samui too). Tomorrow we are starting a 4 days scuba diving (PADI Open Water) course and we are really looking forward to it.

Gali & Doron

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Bangkok & Koh-Samui

Hi all,

We arrived to Bangkok last Sunday (June 10th) and Doron went into a “culture shock”, but after one day and a good hummus at the “Kesher” he snapped out of it. Bangkok is crowded, filthy and full with annoying tuk tuk and taxi drivers. The good thing about Bangkok is that the Thai food is VERY cheap and tastes great. We did all the conventional stuff: MBK, weekend market, the electronics mall, Lying Buddha, etc. After 3 nights (and a lot of Phad-Thai’s & Watermelon shakes) we moved on to Koh-Samui, the biggest island on the south east of Thailand. Everything here is much better than Bangkok, there are great beach resorts here in decent prices and a variety of places to eat. We spend most of the time either in the pool or at the beach. The nights are dedicated to special Thai experiences, one night we went to a lady-boy cabaret show and the next one to a Muay-Thai (Thai boxing) evening, you can guess who picked what. Tomorrow we are moving to a pretty resort in Lamai beach (up to now we were in Chaweng beach).

Our next stop after Koh-Samui is Koh-Phangan.

Gali & Doron

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Singapore

Hi guys, we are now in Bangkok (Thailand) after spending the last few days in Singapore.

Singapore was amazing, it is a tiny country (just a bit bigger than Tel-Aviv) that has about 4.5 million citizens. They are very advanced technology wise, for example: they have shops where you can pay using your thumbprint alone (assuming you are a member of a local bank). Another example is the city aquarium, the fish there have RFID tags and you can get information about them with a RFID scanner they give you.

Among the two of us we have been in more than a few countries and we both agree that this place is the most shopping oriented place in the world. They have a whole street (Orchard) that has inconceivable number of malls, each one bigger than Asrieli and with all the top designers shops.

As oppose to Australia, Singapore has a nightlife scene. The shops are open till 22:00 and there are plenty of bars, pubs, night clubs and restaurants that are open till late. The Cinemas for example work every day till 3:00AM. Matan, Gali’s friend from Followap who lives in Singapore for the last year gave us a tour of the coolest places. That night we went to eat humus in a restaurant that soon we discovered belonged to a Lebanese guy. After hearing that we are from Israel, he and Matan where sitting with Arak, discussing business.

Next, we are planning on Laos and Vietnam. After that, we are going to rest a bit in the islands. The trip was exhausting.

Gali & Doron

Monday, June 4, 2007

Perth

Hi All,

After one night at (boring) Adelaide we caught a flight to Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a location that is not on the usual route of the Israeli traveler. After five days here we understood why. The beaches here are nice but not as nice as those on the east coast, the view is nice too but nothing like Sydney. On top of that there is practically a curfew after 6PM. Most of the time we hang around the city saw the main beach, which was disappointing since the lonely planet promised it would be full with kite surfers and there wasn’t even one. One day we took a trip to a small port town to the south called Fremantle. Tomorrow we are driving north (about 250 Km) to a national park that has some weird nature phenomena (something that looks like giant anthills).

The day after tomorrow (actually, very late tomorrow night) we are saying goodbye to Australia and fly to Singapore. We really liked it here in Australia but we are both very excited to see something different than what we have seen so far.

BTW – a good thing that happened this week is that Gali wasn’t attacked by any maniac women!

Doron & Gali

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Melbourne

We arrived to Melbourne on last Monday late at night. The next morning we went looking for this coffee places that Melbourne is known for. We found a nice place and order breakfast. While we were waiting, a mid age strange looking women started to examine Gali, at first I thought it was someone who knew her or was wondering whether she recognizes her. Then she became real close to us, never taking her eyes from Gali and yelled "surprised!, are you scared?". Gali automatically said yes (and indeed she was) I asked her what the fuck is wrong with you. She kept looking at us and got really close to Gali, at this point I was screaming at her to back the hell away or I swear to god I'll beat the shit out of her. The owner of the place noticed (like everyone else in the place) the scene and came to see what's all the noise about. The crazy women started to say that Gali is evil and that she is very dangerous and stuff like that. The owner realized that she is crazy and kicked her out. We then noticed her bugging a new victim.

Other than that incident, Melbourne was really nice, though not as pretty as Sydney, it is still very cool place. We did "just a bit" of shopping and purchase a new apple MacBook (the coolest laptop there is). It's just that the price went down and we couldn't resist the temptation.

We left Melbourne today and started our drive along the "Great Ocean Road", it is known as one of the prettiest coastal drives in the world and for what we have seen so far, it is indeed so.

Most important of all - Tomorrow is Gali's birthday (which she's already got some gifts for) so don't forget to send gifts. Since the weddings checks were lost in the mail, you can deposit them directly to our bank account (-:

Doron & Gali

Saturday, May 19, 2007

The Gold Coast

Hi guys,

It has been a while since our last post. Many things have changed since then. We rented a car at Sydney and drove to Canberra (general direction south) which is Australia's capital city. It reminded us a bit of Washington D.C, a lot of "important" buildings to see and monuments but nothing much to do. Canberra is also where all the embassies are located, there are ~30 embassies located within a 3 blocks area. Each embassy decorated in a matter that resembles its origin, most of them have security lesser than an average mall. The Israeli one was very easy to find, it was the only one surrounded with roadblocks, high fences and armed police patrols. We would have taken a picture but we were too afraid to be shot.

After one night at Canberra we headed back toward the coast (still south to Sydney) and stayed the night at some small town. It was that night that we decided that the south coast is boring and we much rather travel the east coast instead. We made the necessary arrangements (rental car drop off location, flights, etc.) It's unnecessary to mention that this sort of change required a whole day drive and more than 500 KM. The same drill for the two following days.

The visit to Port Macquarie (a city just north to Sydney) was a special one. We finally got to pet a Koala. We went to a Koala breeding center. We arrived there at 17:00 so the petting hour was over. We were very disappointed so we had to spent the night in the city and return at the following day. Finally on the next morning we got to pet a Koala and even hand feed some kangaroos.

We visited some cool beach towns and rested at a place called Surfers Paradise (You can imagine the waves there) for 2 days.

The most exciting thing we have to tell is about our visit to theme park named "Dream World". It's the most (or the only, we don't really know) famous park in Australia. We (or at least Gali) went on all the rides in the park and it was a great fun.

We arrived to Brisbane at the same day and found a nice backpackers to stay at. We spend there 2 nights, we didn't like Brisbane very much so we continued north to Harvey Bay. Today we took a day trip safari to Fraser island, it was very nice but a bit too mature ("Gil Hazahav") and cost a lot of money.

In 2 days we are flying to Melbourne.

Gali & Doron

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Sydney - Australia

Hi all,

We arrived to Sydney last Monday straight to a shitty hostel full of weird Chinese / Japanese / Korean, we can’t really tell the difference so we call them all “Meluchsanese”. The day after, we started looking for a new place and found a nice one at Bondi beach.

We stayed there a whole week splitting our time between lying at beach and touring the city. Sydney is defiantly a pretty city and is currently rated first on our “Would like to immigrate to” list. The weather here is much warmer than New Zealand and everything is bigger and not technology challenged (there is wireless internet here allover the place).

After a week here we rented a car and started our ride along the south coast.

Checkout our Sydney pictures, especially those of the great white shark taken by the National Geographic newest photographer, Gali Manor.

Gali & Doron

Monday, April 30, 2007

Christchurch

We are writing this post from Christchurch airport waiting for our flight to Sydney Australia. Christchurch was great, it is full with pubs, restaurants and shops and we had a lot of fun here. We even hooked up with another Israeli couple and spent some of the time together. One of the days we drove to Kaikora (a 3 hours drive north of Christchurch) where we took a “whale watching” cruise. It was really cool; we got to see five sperm whales (that’s a big kind of whale, not the “Free Willy” type) from really close. You get to see only 10% of their body, the rest is under the water, but before they dive they raise there tails and it is one of nature’s pretty moments. The only bad thing in the cruise was that Gali got a little sea sick and spent half of it at the toilets.

Since we are car-less now, until we find something in Australia (maybe a caravan this time) we had to get rid of most of our camping gear. We made a lot of people happy with a lot of free handouts.

To summarize New Zealand: It is an amazing place full with inconceivable amount of nature’s beauty accompanied with nice English speaking people and affordable prices.

Gali & Doron

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Queenstown & Dunedin

Hi All,

Queenstown was great, it is a small but very tourist oriented town full with (expensive) things to do. We chose to do an extreme downhill mountain bike course. You go up the hill via a gondola (their “rachbal”) and from there on it is downhill all the way. As it turned out it was a bit above our technical riding level but we had a lot of fun after all.

After Queenstown we headed east to Dunedin, a big city on the south east coast of the south island. Dunedin is described in the Lonely Planet as a European city with many gardens. We had big expectations from it and that is probably the reason why we got a bit disappointed. A cool thing that we did there is a wildlife tour. The tour is a ridden guided tour (they take you on an 8 wheels drive vehicle). We got to see a seals colony, (from much closer than last time) and even two yellow eyed penguins.

Now we are at Christchurch, we found a very cool hostel where we got a complete apartment (kitchen excluded) for very cheap, so we are really happy here. Christchurch is very nice, a lot of good places to eat at and a lot of places to see. We decided to not postpone our flight to Sydney (April 30) and stay here for the meanwhile.

Gali & Doron

Monday, April 16, 2007

Te Anua and Milford

After Wanaka we headed south to Te Anua, the starting point of the Kepler track and many other trips and attractions in the Fiordland area. During our three nights stay there we encounter some bad weather (rain and some snow) for the first time in New Zealand. On the first day there we just hanged out (pool & beer night) at the town which was much nicer than we had expected. On the second day we hiked a bit (we did the beginning of the Kepler track) it was nice except for the sand-flies, for those of you who never been to New Zealnd, sand-flies are small annoying flies that looks like “barchashim”, they have a painful bite and they are totally unaware of the fact that they are suppose to be repelled by pest repelling products (we have three different kinds!).

The day after that we drove (about 2 hours) to Milford, a small village (about 200 people) on the edge of Milford Sound (for the common people, a Sound is very similar to a Fiord). Milford Sound is considered one of New Zealand’s prettiest places and the Milford track requires booking a half a year in advance, since we only started trying to book it about a month ago it was already fully booked. What we ended up doing was a two and a half hours cruise along the sound. It was VERY pretty! It is impossible to capture such beauty with a camera but God knows we tried.

Now we are back in Queenstown, we plan on staying here for the next three days. Tomorrow morning we are going for an extreme downhill bike ride with some bike adventure company, the course is suppose to be very extreme and we hope we are up for the challenge.

We posted some new pictures, check them out.

Gali & Doron

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Greymouth & the Glaciers

First of all I must apologize to my wife for causing numerous people thinking she is pregnant. She is not!!!

Greymouth is a small but cool town on the west coast of the south island, we stayed there for 3 days at a place owned by two Israelis immigrants. The place was crowded with “after army” Israeli travelers, it made us feel a little old. Anyway we talked a bit with the owners who said that the immigration process is very easy, it made us think…

After Greymouth we continued going south toward the glaciers. At Franz Josef glacier we took a “Heli-Hike” tour which included a chopper flight to the top of the glacier and an “on ice” two hours walk, it was very nice (and expensive) experience. The next day we kept going south to Fox glacier, this time we watched it from the bottom.

Now we are at Wanaka which is a lakeside town, it is suppose to be full of water sports activities but it is a bit too cold for that now. Since we are a bit tired from traveling we decided to stay here for 3 nights at a decent level hotel not like the hostels we got used to this past month (we miss Bora Bora).

BTW - I am getting better at Golf, I hardly ever miss the ball (-:

Gali & Doron

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Abel Tasman, Lake Rotoiti and Westport

Hi guys,

Since we last wrote we left Nelson, a very cool town on the edge of the Abel Tasman region and headed toward Motueka which is a small town close to Marahau (the starting point of the Abel Tasman costal track). The track is 51 Km walk with climbs up to 700m along the coastline of the Abel Tasman bay. It can be done anywhere between 3-5 days. Since we are Rambos we decided to do it in 3. After the first day which included a 19 Km walk carrying ~12K each in a nice but monotonic view, we decided that we got the point and that it’s not that fun. So we spent the night at the first hut and on the second day we caught a water taxi back to our beloved car. Just so we won’t feel like we missed anything we then drove to the track end point and spent the night there in our tent.

BTW, we bought an inflating mattress with an electric inflator / deflator that connect to the car 12v plug. Along with the DVD player we have in our laptop (We are now into “Desperate Housewives”) and the cooking facilities we bought, we only need a portable swimming pool to reach a 5 stars hotel class.

After the Abel Tasman area, we started to head south towards Lake Rotoiti at Nelson Lakes National Park which is not that close to Nelson city. On the way we stopped at a sky diving club and almost took a 13,000 feet tandem jump. The thing that made it just an “almost” was that on the disclaimer they make you sign before you jump, it said in big bold letters that if you are a pregnant woman or suffer from a spinal / back injury then it is not that good of idea to jump. So I guess me and the pregnant women will have to wait a little longer.

Lake Rotoiti was a beautiful place. We stayed 2 nights at St Arnaud in a place called “The yellow house”, a nice backpacker’s hostel. We met there for the first time in NZ Israeli people.

The next place we got to was Westport, it has a cool seals colony, only 15 Km from the town. At last, I got to see some seals!!! Finally, after the disappointment we went through at Wellington (That included 3 hours of walking and complaining about Gali’s shoes), and no seals what so ever, I finally got to see them. The colony had 30 seals at the time we visited. Actually, in a good day, you get to see 100 seals. You can just imagine the urge I had to take some pictures (Around 100 pictures).

BTW - we uploaded new pictures so check them out.

Doron & Gali

Friday, March 30, 2007

Hag Sameach

We are now at the south island, we got here 2 days ago (we took a ferry with our car).
It is very beautiful here and on Sunday we are going for a 3 days track called "Abel Tasman".

We want to wish you all the best holiday, try to have as much fun as we are having here.
Think of us when you dine well in the "seder" while we are eating canned food.

Tomorrow we are uploading some new pictures from Wellington area (BTW - I rock in golf) so make sure you check them out.

Once again, HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!

Doron & Gali

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Hello From New Zealand

We landed at Auckland and for the first time in a bit more than a month we didn’t have a tight schedule, as a matter of fact we had no schedule at all. We checked in at the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) for a cheap room that literally contains only a bad. After 2 nights of shared bathrooms we decided that when we are in civilization we can allow ourselves a bit better accommodations so we moved to an actual hotel room which eventually only cost us 20 NZ$ more.
Auckland is very nice and is not that different from any big western city. We spent most of our time shopping for camping gear (tent, sleeping bags, gas cooker, etc.) and the rest of it just having fun (Starbucks and Cinemas). We even got to see Saint Patrick’s Day which seems a bit like our Independence Day eve only in green.
We debated a lot whether to buy / rent a vehicle and should it be a private or a van / campervan. Eventually after checking all sort of options we find a really good deal for renting a Mazda Demio 1997 for only 20 NZ$ a day (that’s just under 60 NIS).
After four days in Auckland we started heading south, we decided to tour the south island first and then to come back for the north one since the winter get to the south island first.
The minute you get out of Auckland you start to see sheep by the hundreds, they are everywhere!
On our first day on the road we stop at a camping area near some hot springs and Gali got to sleep at a tent for the first time! The next day we continued to Hamilton which is a medium size town south to Auckland, we bought some stuff that we were still missing and continued to Waitomo caves. Waitomo is a very small village that is known for the many caves that surrounds it, the special things about those caves is that they are filled with glowing worms (kind of like fireflies only much cooler). We spend the night at a nice B&B motel and at the next morning Gali did some extreme cave touring that included rock climbing, snepling and crawling in small places at the dark. I passed on that one for the sake of my back and did some hiking routes instead.
Now we are at New Plymouth heading toward Mount Taranaki.

Doron & Gali

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Bora Bora – a.k.a. Heaven

Hi guys,

We are now onboard flight NZ023 on our way to New Zealand.

Our honey moon was AMAZING!!! Though we haven’t been in all the places on this planet (you have to admit that we are working on it) we can say without a doubt that there is no place prettier than Bora Bora.

Our flight from Los Angles landed in Papeete, (one of Tahiti’s bigger islands) where we had to wait a couple of hours and continue with a 45 minutes flight to Bora Bora. When we finally landed at Bora Bora there was a Le Meridian (our hotel) booth at the airport, the guys there (which already knew our names) took our luggage and escorted us to a small boat that will take us to the hotel. The cruise took about 15 minutes, when we got to the hotel we were taken on a private tour of the hotel. The tour ended at the reception desk where there was waiting for us our room key and two tropical cocktails. By the time we got to our bungalow, our luggage was already waiting there. That’s what I call a service.

Our overwater bungalow was very cool, and had a glass floor which you could see the fish through. Each bungalow has a porch and stairs going into the lagoon, the color of the water in the lagoon is the brightest possible.

We spent the first few days snorkeling, kayaking and just hanging out at the pool or on a hammock (Arsal) near the beach eating cocoanuts.

The day before we left we took a boat to the main island (only 6 minutes cruise), rented a bugster (some kind of very small jeep) and tour the island. The main island is very small (its perimeter is about 40 kilometers) it’s basically a mountain covered with a tropic jungle and two small villages at the shore at the opposite side to our hotel.

The only two bad things we have to say about Bora Bora are:

  1. Dinner at the hotel’s buffet costs 80$ a person!
  2. It is owned by the French.


Doron & Gali

Friday, March 9, 2007

San Francisco

Hi Guys,

We are now at the LAX airport waiting for our flight to Bora Bora. San Francisco was very nice (Although the pictures didn’t come out so good), we even defined it as a place we will happily live at. The first 3 days we toured the city and then dedicated our fourth day to shopping. We found a big outlet (70 miles from the city) with all the big brands you can think of, Timberland, GAP, Guess, Quick Silver, Billabong, Tommy Hilfiger, Sketchers and many more.

We really don’t have anything special to add about San Francisco, mainly because we are thinking of Bora Bora all the time.

Check out next week for pictures of (what we hope is) Heaven.

Doron & Gali

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Las Vegas & The Grand Canyon

Hi all,

We got married on the 1st of March (Thursday) at 10:30 am.

We took a taxi down town to the marriage license bureau. Things went really smoothly. They didn’t ask for any of the translated papers we brought from home (and cost us a lot of money). Afterwards we headed to the court house to get married. On the way, few people bothered us on the street and offered us to do the ceremony at their chapel.

When we got to the court house, we realized that we are short of a witness. We started asking people around if they mind, all as a matter of fact did mind. Some because they worked over there and some just because they are asses!!!!!

Finally, Doron found a man on the street (Jonathan). I though it was very generous of him to help us but when the whole thing was over, Doron told me he paid him 20 bucks. And I say….”where is the love”?

Anyway, back to the ceremony…
A woman was sitting in the front desk and asked us for all our papers. Afterwards we entered the chamber with Jonathan and waited for her a lifetime…
Finally, she arrived and the ceremony began. We stood one in front of the other and took our oaths. Doron found it a bit funny and I must add that it was a bit absurd but we got married J.

The rest of the day was casual…we took a taxi back to the strip and continued our touring. I’m taking comfort in the fact that next week we are going to our honeymoon at Bora Bora.

So far our gambling budget is still on the plus side, Doron won 130$ playing the roulette and lost 50$ playing Poker. So, for now we are up 80 bucks.

The day after our wedding we rented a car and started our trip to the Grand Canyon. We started our ride at noon cause we stopped to buy a new bag and to ship some clothes back home. We bought an orange colored bag with wheels and with an option to carry it on the back (“Hores”).

The driving went great until we decided (According to our stupid GPS program) to get off the main road and drive through a different one. That was a huge mistake. The road was unmarked with no road signs, only for speed limit and animals crossing the road cautions. No cars except us and sunset (Not in a good way… I mean dark). After a little while we started to think that maybe it’s a good idea to turn around and go back to the main road. For an unknown reason, we didn’t. We continued on the dark scary road. Like that was not enough…soon animals begin to attack us. It started with a bull that decided to cross the road right in front of us. I saved our lives and hit the breaks although the bastard did see it coming. After calming down, we continued, few minutes later a skunk was running across the road. Again, I saved lives. Other then those two, there were a rabbit, a deer and a giant squirrel that attacked us and the fuel was running out with no gas station in the horizon. We decided to turn around and head back to the main road.

We found a “holiday inn” on the next town and spent the night there.
The next day we went seeing he Grand Canyon took a lot of pictures and drove back to Vegas.

On Monday we are flying to San Francisco and a few days later to our honey moon at Bora Bora.

We uploaded some picture from Vegas and the Grand Canyon so check them out.

Gali & Doron

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Boston & NY City

Hi all,

We are now in Las Vegas, after being in Boston and NY City.

Boston was the first place that was really cold, we freeze our butts off. It is so cold there that they have an ice sculptures exhibition out on the street. Other than that it is a very beautiful city, we ate well and saw the Blue Man Group show (haven’t changed since 1996). The drive to NY was much nicer comparing to the drive to Boston cause it was a sunny day and without snowstorms. We did one tactical mistake when we put me behind the wheel and Gali on the navigation program (we ended up at Queens instead of Manhattan) but once we fixed that (made a switch) things turn out OK.

Manhattan is always great, we did some (very little) shopping, went to see ground zero (those American sure are working slow), we were at our second NBA game (Nicks Vs Miami) and had dinner at Bubba Gump (a very famous Shrimp house). Central park is very pretty in the winter.

That’s it for now, check our blog next week to see how much we took Vegas for

Doron & Gali

Friday, February 23, 2007

Toronto & Niagara falls

Hi guys,

Today we arrived to Boston, our first stop in the USA. But let’s start from the beginning:

The flight to Toronto lasted 12 hours which I spend waiting to see when Gali is going to lose it!!!! She didn’t. She was very brave throughout the whole flight.

We took a taxi to the hotel and went straight to bed. The next day we took a decision to spend another night in Toronto. This decision turned out as a great one since the weather was great (sunny with temperatures above zero). We spent the day touring the city and Gali did some ice skating in the harbor. During our tour we went into the Air Canada arena (the home of the Toronto Raptors NBA team) to ask if there is a game in the evening. The cashier was an old lady that to my opinion could not tell the different between hockey to basketball, she told us that the Raptors are playing versus the Orlando Magic tonight, we bought tickets. When the evening came and we went to the game we realized that the dumb women was wrong and that the game is versus Cleveland. So, I got to make one of my dream come true (be in a NBA game) and got to see Anthony Parker trying to guard Lebron James (Gali thinks that some of you might not know who is Lebron James, if that’s true you are forbidden to read our blog!).

The next morning (which was very snowy) we rented a SUV and drove to the Niagara falls. I was a bit disappointed with the falls, I guess I was expecting something bigger. A cool thing though, was that they were partially frozen. We crossed the border to the American side and began our 7 hours drive to Boston

.

Make sure you take a look at our web albums.

We’ll write some more next week,

Doron & Gali

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Our first posting

We are happy to announce the opening of our trip blog.
The plan is to keep it updated as our trip progress.

First real update should be in a month or so.