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Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

hi
we are now at the airport from the islands to bangkok we had 2 nice days of diving in koh tao.
red sea is better, but here we also saw some nice things the water is warmer and less salty i saw a leopard shark, a reef shark and a huge puffer.
we are also getting good tans.
now we will spend several days in bangkok safi plans on doing shopping, just like a woman.
i hope to catch some sights as well.
i hope the rains have started in israel, because here i got used to rain at leat once a day.
earth to scotty, beam me up !
hemi

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

hi
i survived the full moon party
not that it was too hard. it ios a big hoax, just like beach parties in israel maybe a few years ago it was wild, but now it is a tourist attraction many undercover cops so people are afraid to do drugs and therefore are less energetic and wild.
but it was fun anyway.
now we are in ko tao which is 30 km north of ko phan gahn this is a diving island, and tommorow we will see how it compares to the red sea.
enjoy hol hamoed.
bye

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

hello from paradise.
sun, sea, coconuts, mosquitos, showers with no hot water…
but basily this is awesome.
safi and i are riding around the island exploring with bikes and in the evening lazing around the party area. 80 percent here are fellow countrymen. tommorow night is the big full moon party , but each night there are some parties going on here.
bye for now!

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

hi !
hope u were signed for life on yom kippur.
i am writing from chiang mai
we returned after a 2 day rafting expedition in the western area of PAI and MAH HONG SON. it was pretty fun, though there were no true rapids or scary parts. on the way we saw waterfalls, hot springs, monkeys and lots of jungle of course. we had a good group, 2 locals that were the guides, and 4 more travelers, a nice german guy with remorse and shame for what his grandparents did, a young bisexual german girl, and 2 friendly australian girls that we had met previously.
previous to that we rented 100cc bikes for one day and drove to a cool place called thamlot – it has a series of caves that have a river running thru them. u pay 100 baht and a lady guide takes u for a tour with a little gas lantern.
later on in the evening hundreds of thousands of birds swarm into one of the caves.
it reminded me of the movie “birds” by hitchcock.
when we wanted to return to PAI it was raining so hard that trees fell down on the road so we decided to stay in a nearby village called SOPPONG. we stayed in a posh bungalow farm called T-REX!
the proprieter was an ex-east german and we had an interesting chat – mainly he talked and told us stories of a thousand nights.
the next morning it rained some more so we managed to get back to PAI only at noon time. the rest of the day we just lazed around, talking to inrterseting people like Ming, a new yorker born in hong kong who is a computer genius but works as a bicycle delivery boy, or 2 australian girls that eventually came with us to the rafting trip as well.

tommorow we fly out to the islands. plans are ko -phangan for 4 days (full moon party) and then ko- tao for some scuba diving.
so start working on the huts (sukkot) and we will be in touch.

h e m i  : )

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

HI TO all of u
emailvery expensive here so ill bee breif hope u havean easy fast and gmar hatima tova to u we will stay in the north (pai and mae hong son) for 3 more days and than fly to the full moon party in ko phan gan so in the meanwhile bye.

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

hi everyone !
just got back from a three day trek to the northern rainforests of thailand.
it was really great. we ordered it from the guesthouse and the guide picked us up on monday morning. we met up with the rest of the group, atotal of 9 tourists and 3 crew members.
we drove north of chiang mai to the area of chiang doi – the 2nd highest mouintain in thailand. our trek centered around this mountainous area (max hight = 1600 meter). the truck drove from the road to a muddy bypass starting to climb and at some point we got off and started walking with our backpacks. it started very nicely but after 2 hrs it started raining so hard that we could barely see ahead. we were soaked to the bone. safi found a fish in his underwear…
later on we even had to cross a river kneehigh.
in te evening we reached a remote little “village” – 5 huts, and people of a hilltribe that had last seen visitoes 5 monthes ago.
we stayed in a hut whos owner has married off his daughters to other villages so that he had plenty of room for us. we ate food prepared by him and the crew.
very tasty and after we dried up we all felt pretty good.
after we dank some of his rice whiskey , we felt even better…
the next day was better wheatherwise, as we continued walking up and down beautiful mtn landscape rich with plants and bugs of all kind.
it was very cheerful even though are shoes were all wet and we were kind of stinky.
toward the end of the day we had to cross a deep river using a raft and then we slept in a little hut in a campsite by the river.
this time we took a shower in the river and washed our clothes as well, te current was very strong and the water was brown from dirst but we still felt pretty good.
the crew once again did not fail us and the food was sumptious. the whiskey was good too. (actually the whiskeey tastes like cats pee, but after the 4th glass, i didnt give a damn) today we rafted down the river for an hour on bamboo canoes, and later rode on elephants (only females). safi and i had a really mad one, she must be at that time of month.
then we were taken in a truck for a 4 hour torture drive thru the backwoods of the mountains, in order to get back to the paved road.
every once in a while we had to get off so the truck could pass easier thru amounts of mud that cannot be encompassed. i am talking about mud deeper than the tires !!
finally we made it and without any harm…
tommorow we head west to a place called mae ho song…

by for now and take care.

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

heeeelllllooooo !

today we moved to a different guest house near the other one – Darets guest house. it is nicer and cheaper.
also email is only half baht per minute, so i can write u longer letters.

today we walked around town, ate yummy foods, and tasted strange and exotic fruits that i dont even know how thay are called.
later i safi had a massage and i had a foot massage. i concentrated on the technique so that i will be able to do it for you when i come back.

tommorow we go out to a 3 day trek in the mountains, with a group of people from the guesthouse. the trek is organized by the guesthouse including the instructor.

so i wont be able to talk or write until thursday.

i pray u get some rain in israel from here, because it rains all the time.
(in intervals of a few hours)

bye for now.

Note: This is taken from emails sent in Sept/Oct 1999. Hemi

benny
i will kill u if u even scratch the car.
i am now in CHANG MAI, a northern city in thailand.
we were on planes for almost 24 hrs.
the route was telaviv- larnaka (cyprus) – addis ababa (ethiopia) where we switched planes – bombay (india) – bankok we didn’t leave baNKOK apt and immeditely took a flight to chang mai.
it was 1 hr instead of 12 hr bus ride. cost = $40.
now we are walking around town.
we are staying in a guesthouse full of israelis , the workers all speak hebrew but funny – ahi ma hamazav and stuff like that.
tommorow we may want to go to guesthouse with a more international feel.
up ahead we will take some treks to tribal villages here.
shana tova and dash to mom and dad and eyal and sarit and froori.
by the way this messege will self destruct in five seconds, so please save a copy of it for me when i return.
bye love peace.