Songkran

So I made it to Chang Mai and immediately found my friends that I had made in Sukkothai. After getting lost a few times walking back to the hostel, I went to sleep to get ready for what I heard was a 'water fight'. What ensued the next day was something that I will always remember. So Tuesday the 13th was the first official day of the Songkran festival, which is the Thai new year. When we walked out to the main street we saw lots of people, but then we saw more people and more people and then we realized that we had walked into something truely special. Thousands of people lined the street and everyone, and I mean everyone, was having a giant water fight. Everyone with either a water gun or a bucket of water and just getting everyone else completely soaking wet. The street was packed with cars but mostly pick up trucks with big barrels of water in them so that the people in the flatbed could have a supply of water to get the people on the street wet with. We found a great little open air pub to have a couple drinks and an endless supply of cold water. Everyone needed a home base in order to refill their water guns. The bar had a great mix of westerners and Thais and it was just awesome to be able to share in this festival with lots of Thai people. They seemed to love the fact that we were celebrating with them and of course we appriciated and reciprocated that love. Needless to say it was quite a tiring day but really one of the best things I have ever experianced.

Yesterday was the first day of our trek. It seems that trekking in Chang Mai is a traveler right of passage. Everyone I've talked to here had either gone or is going on one. Mine was 2 days 1 night. It started with a bamboo raft ride down a river. We thought it was going to be just that, but Songkran was still going on. As we're traveling down the river we see that there are thousands of people there splashing water from the river on each other. It was another sight to see. Families rented out little huts that are right on the water and everyone was drinking and eating and enjoying. Young, old it didn't matter. The river was just filled with people. After lunch we went on a hike that was pretty much just straight incline for about 2 hours. It was hard. I need to hit the gym a little harder when I get back I think. After swimming in a nice waterfall to cool off midway up the mountain we continued onto the little village that we were staying in for the night. After dinner there was some cards and songs and an all around great time.

Today was more hiking, but much more my style (going down the mountain). Then elephant rides. I sort of felt like I was back at the zoo when they used to have elephant rides but it was fun none the less. Turns out Thais really love water and fighting with it because Songkran is still going on. I have to admit I'm sort of done with being wet all the time. As I was walking over to this internet cafe a roving truck of water gunners soaked me again. It'll be nice to walk down the street and not have to worry about getting wet.

Food!
The food on the trek was all homemade Thai food which was really great. Breakfast here seems to consist of eggs and toast, which I love. The scrambled eggs this morning were great, served with onions. All that was missing was a little lox! Tomorrow I signed up for a Thai cooking class which I'm really looking forward too.

I have to admit that this place is pretty crazy the mixture of westerners and Thais and the stunning natural beauty of the surroundings are really having an impression on me. After getting over the initial "what am I doing on my own in Thailand" I think that I've settled in and am really getting the hang of traveling. There are always more people to meet and things to go see so there really isn't ever a dull moment. I'm off for some dinner with some trekkers. Talk to you soon!

So This is Thailand

Well I made it. I'm currently sitting in my hostel in Sukkothai and after a few days in Bangkok, I'm very happy I'm here. Bangkok was a totally crazy place. Coupled with the fact that being alone might be harder that I originally thought Bangkok didn't leave the best taste in my mouth. After a pretty crazy day alone on Thursday I booked a day trip to the Thai town of Kanchanaburi. There I saw a floating river market, the bridge on the river Kwai, and chilled with some tigers. The best part of the day was by far making some new friends. There weren't too many other native English speakers in our little tour but thank god for Fiona. We seemed to become fast friends which made the day truly great.

After some dinner and some beers on the totally insane Khao San Road I was off to bed to get up early for my venture north. The day started off just like the rest, pretty overwhelming but I found myself more at peace with this whole trip and being pretty much alone. The train ride up to Aruttiya was maybe the best part of the day. I was in the standing car which means that I just stood up for the whole 2 hour trip. The train was packed and people just kept getting on. This seemed like the most real Thailand that I've encountered so far. I was standing next to a family of Thai people that must have been on a trip somewhere. They had rice, water coolers and a gaggle of kids. It was somewhat comforting to know that even though there might be huge cultural differences between us everyone still is looking for the same thing, to spend time with friends and family.

I was in Aruttiya for only the morning and afternoon and then off to Sukkothai. I was the only white person on the bus but I made it here late last night. The staff was nice enough to make me dinner and give me some Thai Brandy which was great. Today I met some Canadians girls from BC and Alberta and we rented bikes and toured around the temples here. So far its been a great day and I'm getting much more used to being alone an meeting people. Tomorrow I head up to Chang Mai for the Songkran water festival. Everyone I talk to seems to be heading there too so I think it should be a pretty good time.

FOOD!
So here are my thoughts on the food of Thailand. I didn't eat that much street food in Bangkok, it sort of freaked me out a bit and I felt that I could probably get a better Thai meal and one of the many restaurants. I had some pad thai that was mediocre but I had some great yellow curry at my hostel. I've eaten lots of rice and last night the hostel staff made me a great pork and rice dish. I was told that Thais take the pork off of one plate with a fork and eat it with rice with a spoon. I was also told that Thais don't drink alcohol and eat at the same time. I told them that we eat and drink together all the time. I'm hoping to eat some noodle dish tonight but its pretty hard to eat when its so hot out all the time. Hopefully I'll get some good eats tonight.

Thats all for now!

Let The Trip Begin

So this is my first among (hopefully) many blog posts about my travels in Asia.

I'm not totally sure what the nature of this blog will be. I've been thinking about writing about food because I love food and I feel this trip will be a culinary adventure. I also don't really want to just write my day to day, that's not very interesting. I imagine it will end up being a little bit of both and I will try to make it as interesting as possible.

Currently I'm sitting at JFK waiting for my flight to Tokyo-Narita. The mediocre and overpriced omlette I had was nothing to write home about.

So far the most interesting part of my day was the flight from Toronto to NY. It was a 50 seater plane but there were only 8 passengers. It felt like I was on my own private jet. What I don't understand is how Delta could operate a plane with so few people?

After an hour and a half in Tokyo its off to Bangkok. So I'll post again when I get there!

Interesting Article

Here is an interesting article about the pro-Israel lobby and how they disagree on the current situation. 

Am I Really a Bad Jew?

Over the past nine days I have been watching and listening to others support or oppose the current goings on in the Gaza Strip. Like any conflict and especially the Israeli-Palestinian one, there are two sides to every story, except it seems among Jews. My views on the situation are as follows:

I do not support the offensive in Gaza.

I do believe in Israel's right to exist.

For most Jews these two statements cannot go together and are in fact antithesis of each other. What is the most troubling to me is that when I vocalize my opposition to the offensive I am automatically branded an 'anti-Israel wacko' or worse, a 'bad Jew'.

Now, I have encountered this before, particularly when I explain to people that I am writing my Master's thesis on the economic impact of the second Intifada on the Palestinian economy. People jump to conclusions again and think that I'm another self-hating, anti-Israel Jew like so many others that give Jews a bad name. While I certainly do not think that those people give Jews a bad name, I know that I do NOT give Jews a bad name. Why does blind support for Israel have to be equated with being a good Jew?

Because I do not agree with Israel's actions, it does not make me any less of a Jew. In fact, I think that it makes me a better Jew! All through history the Jewish people have been recognized as "the people of the book." We have been known for our mental prowess and the ability to look at the law laid out in the Torah and engage in healthy debate and finally come to a ruling. The entire Talmud is just that - debates on the oral law by the scholars of the day, with additional commentary by Rashi and his family added hundreds of years later. None of these great Jewish scholars ever took the law at face value. Each and every one of them looked deeper into the questions that they had about their religion that they devoted their lives to and came up with reasonable answers. At the Jewish schools I attended we always learned that these scholars were some of the greatest Jews in history and that they were all people to look up to. So why if I don't have blind faith in Israel am I a bad Jew? Because I can look critically at the situation and realize that there are serious shortcomings to the offensive in Gaza? Because I can sympathize with Palestinians I'm therefore anti-Israel?

Mainstream Jewish thinking is seriously flawed. The people who subscribe to the support-Israel-no-matter-what philosophy are pushing people like me further and further away from the community. I know there are other people out there like me, people that do believe in Israel but don't agree with what they do, though we are afraid to voice our opinions. But we are the people that you want in your community. The Jews that are actually anti-Israel and don't believe in its right to exist don't care what the community response to things like this are, because they know that the community won't represent their views.

But where do people like me go? There was a support Palestine rally on Saturday in Winnipeg. I could never go to a rally like this because there is a fundamental difference between them and me - I cannot support a rally that calls for the dissolution of the State of Israel. At the same time I cannot attend the pro-Israel rally that the community is organizing on Thursday for similar reasons, I do not support what is going on.

I am not anti-Israel.

I lived in Israel; I have taken out Birthright trips as a Madrich (councellor); I am considering moving back there to get my Ph.D. I love Israel. It is honestly one of the very few places that I feel the most at home. I would encourage everyone to go there. In terms of the Jewish community, I feel an obligation to try to get people to go to Israel and to experience what I experienced, and I am on the various Birthright committees so that I can do just that. And so it bothers me even more when people think that I hate Israel and that I'm a bad Jew because of it.

I know that there are other Jews out there that feel the same way I hope that this post can encourage people to come forward and voice their opinions in opposition to what is currently going on in the Gaza Strip without feeling like they will be branded a 'bad Jew'.

CBC!

My last post was published on the CBC website and can be found here!

Holiday Tree?

This post is a bit of a departure from the posts of late, because I'm not going to be talking about federal politics. Instead I want to deal with the issue of what to call a Christmas tree.

In Quebec there was an incident with the Premier's office. They sent out a press release referring to the legislature Christmas tree as a Christmas tree but soon retracted that statement and called it a 'holiday tree'. This is totally absurd and actually kind of offensive for the people that don't celebrate Christmas. I'm a Jew and I don't have a Christmas tree or a holiday tree. These politicians are trying to be overly politically correct by calling their tree a holiday tree. This is a quote from the CBC article about the incident:

We must respect culture, we must be open to the world," said Natural Resources Minister Claude Béchard. "We are an inclusive society here in Quebec. For me, it's a Christmas tree but to others it's a holiday tree.

What others? I don't know anyone that does not celebrate Christmas that has a tree. That's because only people that celebrate Christmas have trees. I recognize that there may be people out there that are not Christians that have trees, but they are not celebrating some other holiday with a Christmas tree, they are celebrating Christmas. I don't celebrate Chanukah with a Christmas tree.

The other thing about this that really bothers me is that why do I have to be included with the holiday tree? Holidays are great, and the people that celebrate Christmas should be happy that they do and should be happy that their government is lighting a tree that signifies their beliefs. All the other religions are in the minority in Canada and we all need to recognize that there are a majority of Christians and that they should be able to light the tree at the legislature. In Winnipeg there is also the lighting of the Menorah at city hall, do we have to start calling it a holiday candelabra?

To me this is all political correctness gone all wrong, it happens every year and it get more annoying every year. Call it a Christmas tree, that is what it is. Happy Holidays to everyone who is celebrating something, and happy December to the rest!