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

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

Bangkok & Koh-Samui

Hi all,

We arrived to Bangkok last Sunday (June 10^th) 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

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

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