Every year on Yom Hashoa (and Yom Hazikaron) they sound an air raid alarm across the country for two minutes of silence in order to reflect on  the tragedy. It is absolutely awe inspiring to witness. Here is a great Youtube video showing the Tel Aviv highway shutdown completely. 

I haven't been all over Israel and I've heard some places are less machmir about this, but in Tel Aviv it is absolutely amazing. (I saw it for the first time in person last year). 

It is like the ultimate freeze.

I think Israel really does an excellent job trying to take these days seriously. They also make sure that ALL stores - restaurants, grocery, etc... - are closed by 7 PM on these days. 

Michael Jordan - Shooting Guard

Magic Johnson - Point Guard

Larry Bird - Small Forward

Lebron James - Forward

Wilt Chamberlain - Center

Team chemistry would either make or break them, but these are the best of the bests. 

Below is a letter I recently received from a Darfur refugee in Tel Aviv. I understand both sides of the issues and have a hard time deciding which is correct. I think it's worthwhile for everyone to be aware of the issue and make up their own minds.

If you have ever been by the old bus station in Tel Aviv it is absolutely devastating. 

-------------------------------

I am a member of the community of Sudanese refugees living in south Tel Aviv. Since 2007, I have been living in Israel, working for a living and doing everything in my power to help my people as a volunteer at the Darfur Association.

It is very important to the Sudanese community that Israelis understand us, our culture, and the circumstances that brought us here. For this reason, I decided to write this open letter to the Israeli people. 

We are a group of asylum seekers, forced to flee our homeland and our families. Since 2003, Darfur has been under attack by forces allied with the Sudanese government. The Darfuri people have fallen victim to genocide, organized rape and looting and mass displacement, with millions forced to leave their homes. Since 2004, 400,000 Darfuris have been slain and 6,000 villages in the Darfur region have been burned.

To this day, almost 4 million people stagnate in refugee camps, surrounded by violence and fear and in desperate need of food and medicine. It was this situation in our homeland that drove many Darfuris to flee north, to Egypt. 

But the Egyptian government received us with hostility and violence. In late 2005, Egyptian police raided a protest encampment set up by Sudanese asylum seekers across from the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cairo. Dozens were killed, and hundreds were left homeless and penniless. In the wake of the attack, many decided to flee north once more, this time to Israel.

The journey to Israel is not an easy one. Egyptian forces police the border with orders to shoot at African refugees. Many of those who do manage to cross the border into Israel arrived injured by bullets or having lost family members en route. We do not know how many of our people have been killed trying to cross the border.

On the Israeli side, the army carries out a policy of “hot return,” turning back whomever they manage to catch. Those who are not caught in the act of crossing the border are sent to Israeli prisons, where they can stay for months on end. 

Once released from prison, most refugees make their way to Tel Aviv, where they find themselves in a delicate and unstable situation. Homelessness is common, especially among people suffering from psychological trauma and injuries. Last winter, many Darfuri refugees had nowhere to spend the night, and were forced to sleep in Levinsky Park, across from the Central Bus Station. 

In March 2008 our community began to organize itself, and we rented a shelter to house Sudanese refugees. The rent and bills cost us several thousand shekels a month, more than we could afford. 

Although the shelter was originally meant to house only the injured and minors, we soon had about 100 people sleeping there. Over the course of the year we accommodated over 1,000 refugees, most of them only for a brief time until they managed to get on their feet and rent apartments. For most, this was their first stop in the country after being released from detention by Israeli authorities. 

In September of 2008, the immigration police decided we were no longer permitted to stay in Tel Aviv. Many of us were detained. Others left Tel Aviv to seek work in Eilat. The shelter was kept open, but only the wounded and a handful of students, teenage boys who study at an ulpan in Jaffa, remained. 

Since then, the shelter has filled up once again, and now houses around a hundred people. In late February of this year, we were again on the verge of closing the shelter due to lack of funds, when private individuals from the Sudanese community stepped in and offered us their support. 

All that we ask from Israel is the right to work, so that we may take care of ourselves and live freely and in peace and security. The shelter is dependent on contributions from its residents for monthly rent and bills, but without work visas it is increasingly difficult to cover these expenses. 

Several hundred Sudanese were granted official refugee status, and with it the right to work. Most, however, are still denied the right to work in Israel legally. This despite the fact that they are displaced refugees, and receive no support from the government. 

Officially prohibited from working between Hadera and Gedera, many of us have tried to look for jobs outside of Tel Aviv, but there are few to be found. Darfuris are also forced to compete for jobs with migrant workers and other refugees, many of whom are allowed to work legally. 

Unfortunately, the handful of organizations that are involved in helping us are limited in their resources and capacity to help. Also, education programs promised to us by the government have not materialized. 

We are displaced people looking for peace and security. We live in Tel Aviv because it is the only place in Israel where we have access to jobs and health care. I believe that, given the right to work in Israel, we could take care of ourselves and be a benefit to the communities that we live in. 

Our organization needs support. Our immediate need is for funds to cover the shelter’s rent, in order to have a place for injured people and minors to sleep. In the longer term, all we ask is the right to live and work in Israel and take care of ourselves while we are here. 

Hamed Sadindin is Director of Humanitarian Affairs of the Darfur Association/Sudan Liberation Movement Israel Branch. He can be contacted at shararanaar@yahoo.com.

I was just reminiscing over the first real concert I ever attended and found the actual event on Youtube! They have a few videos actually. It's obviously difficult to capture the true power of being there. 

I'm pretty sure it's the best rock concert I've ever been to. 

What I always find amazing is that Gene Simmons has never been high, drunk or smoked in his life. (I guess fire breathing doesn't count).

Gene Simmons is a stand up guy (in some respects). Born in Haifa, he was a big supporter of GW Bush and sent a televised message of support to an Israeli soldier wounded in the recent Lebanon War calling him "his hero".

I first went to the Israel Museum when I was in Yeshiva about 5-6 years ago during Pesach break. Unfortunately most of it was closed and found the open parts to be extremely boring and uninteresting. 

Thankfully that did not keep me from revisiting it today and finally see what I missed. To sum it up: I was very pleasantly surprised.

This museum is absolutely fantastic. 

Hands down the best museum I have visited in Israel and possibly the best museum I have ever visited.

I will break this review down into parts.

Jerusalem During the Second Temple:

This is the first exhibit you see when you enter. It is similar to mini-Israel. It is a model of what Jerusalem looked like during the second temple. You get the audio guide earphones to explain exactly what you are seeing and what each building is. They try and make it as accurate as possible based on all available Judaic, Christian, Muslim, and secular sources. It was really interesting to get a better visual of what the city once looked like. I've always learned about it, but seeing the visual really enhanced my understanding. 

Billy Rose Sculpture Garden

I can't believe I was unaware of this before today. Isamu Noguchi, the Hulk Hogan of sculpture artists, not only has sculptures there but designed the entire flippin' garden! I honestly have never really been much of a sculpture person but I found the garden to be extremely enjoyable, provocative, and interesting. The weather was also perfect for walking around which only enhanced the experience. 

Shrine of the Book

The home of the Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls, two of Judaism's most important artifacts. The Aleppo Codex is "considered the most authoritative document in the masorah ("transmission")". I don't understand how someone cannot find this amazing. Especially a religious Jew. It is absolutely priceless. (It is called keter in Hebrew which means crown.)

This was really the highlight of my visit and my main reason for going. 

Bizarre Perfection Art Exhibit

Even the Israel Museum's art exhibit was excellent. Nearly every piece they had was unique and interesting. Like the picture below: This is a full size kitchen made out of shiny beads! It looks stunning in person. (I am considering remodelling my kitchen to be similar...)

Conclusion:

There is nothing negative I have to say about any of the parts of the museum I saw today. It was a really fun, educational and thought provoking trip. 

If someone told me they were coming to Israel for a week I would definitely put this on the must do list. 

It is truly one of Israel's national treasures and almost bizarrely perfect.

Note: There is a lot of construction going on so a good portion of the garden and museum is currently closed.

10) Brother Can You Spare a Dime (Many many artists) : Very popular during the Great Depression (and has been seeing a revival lately for obvious reasons).  This is Tom Waits version. 

9) Get By (Talib Kweli) : Likely the most respected hip-hop artist you've never heard of. "Get By" was his breakthrough single and still my favorite of his songs.

8) Drink Before the War (Sinead O'Connor): An amazing artist that was crucified because she spoke out about the Pope allowing priests to molest little kids. Only a few years later people realized how right she was. Her entire The Lion and the Cobra album is a classic but her recent album Faith and Courage I think is even better. "Drink Before the War" is a classic anti-war song.  

7) True Colors (Eva Cassidy): Eva Cassidy died in 1996 from cancer and at the time was virtually unknown. In 2000 she was suddenly discovered and has been a chart topper ever since. In 2005 Amazon released a list of its top 25 best-selling musicians, which placed Cassidy in 5th position! When I first heard True Colors by Cassidy I was working in NYC. At lunch I went to Best Buy and purchased 3 of her albums. (The original Cindy Lauper hit ain't bad either.)

6)  St. James Infirmary (Many many artists) : A jazz standard. I love this version by Arlo Guthrie (a Jew). This version by Eric Clapton and Dr. John is excellent too.

5) Sweetheart Like You (Bob Dylan): Bob Dylan's Infidels album is commercially his most underrated. Most serious Dylan fans I've spoken to though agree that it may be one of his top 3 (especially if you include Blind Willie McTell which was foolishly cut from the album) The album also features one of my favorite musicians Mark Knopfler. One of my favorites Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight is also on the album as well.

4) Knocking at Your Backdoor (Deep Purple): Simply awesome. At one point in time Deep Purple was compared with Led Zeppelin but something went askew somewhere. Deep Purple has unfourtanetly fallen off the charts with only a few songs like Smoke on the Water still famous. Deep Purple did a bunch of sold out concerts in Israel recently which is also cool.

3) You Give Me Something (Jamiroquai) : An artist with a rare fresh sound. He has hit stardom with "Virtual Insanity" and "Canned Heat" (featured in Napolean Dynamite). 

2) She Doesn't Get It (The Format) : An indie band that unfourtanetly already broke up. They only released a couple albums but they are both golden. They will only get more popular with time.

1) I'de Rather Go Blind (Etta James) : This is a super popular song but since a few people I mentioned it to recently didn't know it I've decided to include it. It's simply a classic and really shouldn't need any introduction. 

Another song that I haven't heard in awhile but somehow crept up onto my playlist is Mandy by Barry Manilow. Say what you will about the guy, but this song is near perfect.

For those that may have missed it, over the last two weeks Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has been taking shots at CNBC for their terrible investigative reporting. Jim Cramer took personal offense and foolishly decided to come on the show. 

In hindsight this was definitely a mistake as anyone who saw the show clearly saw that Jim Cramer is a giant hack.

Follow link for the full interview.

Jim Cramer's responses such as "CEO's lied to him" clearly illustrates just how little his show has to offer. 

In case you missed the news... Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges. He was taken to jail immediately and will likely never leave jail again.

• Count 1: Securities fraud. Maximum penalty: 20 years in prison; fine of the greatest of $5 million or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense; restitution.

• Count 2: Investment adviser fraud. Maximum penalty: Five years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 3: Mail fraud. Maximum penalty: 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 4: Wire fraud. Maximum penalty: 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 5: International money laundering, related to transfer of funds between New York-based brokerage operation and London trading desk. Maximum penalty: 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.

•  Count 6: International money laundering. Maximum penalty: 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 7: Money laundering. Maximum penalty: 10 years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 8: False statements. Maximum penalty: Five years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 9: Perjury. Maximum penalty: Five years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 10: Making a false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Maximum Penalty: 20 years in prison, fine and restitution.

• Count 11: Theft from an employee benefit plan, for failing to invest pension fund assets on behalf of about 35 labor union pension plans. Maximum penalty: Five years in prison, fine and restitution.

His new living conditions are going to be terrible. Especially from what he is used to. 

It's hard not to feel sorry for him, but I think everyone agrees the punishment is just. 

This one is definitely not good for the Jews.

If I were to cast actors in a movie of the purim story I would have:

Achashverosh : Marlon Brando

Mordechai: James Stewart / Humphrey Bogart

Esther: Natalie Portman

Haman: Al Pacino

Charvona: Morgan Freeman

I don't know how I overlooked this article several months ago.

Bill Miller, former best stock picker ever, was dethroed royally over the last two years. 

He was a portfolio manager that I was always personally impressed by.

It's hard to really believe in the value-add of portfolio managers after this. 

Where are all of our best and brightest? 

If no intelligent investor will invest, it's our responsiblity as idiots to!

Google’s web-based email service, Gmail, has crashed this morning, leaving millions of users from Britain to Australia unable to send and receive messages

The email service went offline at around 10.25am GMT, and the outage appears to have affected users throughout the UK as well as across Europe, and even as far afield as Australia and India.

According to insiders, Co-CEO's Larry Page and Sergey Brin have recently clashed over whether to keep Google's web-based email service free. One insider has even mentioned the possibility that they will dismantle the service completely as it did last year with Google Answers. 

If Google decides to shutter it's free email service it will likely give users little to no warning. Many employees actually thought that today's outage was actually the official closing of the service. According to Google's disclaimer they are allowed to close the free service without warning and without recourse. 

The last two paragraphs are absolutely false. But when I couldn't access my email today I was scared that something like this had happened. It was worse than the worse dream I have ever dreamed.

Today I attended the Bar Ilan ESCape "Family Day BBQ" as it was family day in Israel. 

Why?

Clearly I have lots and lots of free time. 

I did have fun though.

I don't have time to write a long description of the event as I am extremely busy, and most of what I would write would be extremely uninteresting, but I wanted to share with you the most important thing I learned today: Egg fights are downright hilarious.

I don't know why, but eggs flying through the air and eventually cracking on something or someone is extremely funny to me.

My suggestion for Bar Ilan ESCape's next event: A giant egg fight.

Imagine 50, 100, or 200 people lining up in a giant battlefield, with some stationed on tops of roofs, hurling giant eggs at each other; the thrill of seeing hundreds of eggs whirling through the air towards you at one time; the feeling of eggs cracking against your body. 

I checked on Youtube to see if anyone has ever constructed an egg fight as the one described and could not find any. I think such an event, on a large enough scale, could become a great viral video too.

If anyone wants to organize such an egg fight you can definitely count me in.

I don't have to tell you things are bad. 

Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. 

The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. 

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! 

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone." 

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. 

I want you to get mad! 

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. 

I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you've got to get mad. You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!" 

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08

Like many of you, I am sick and tired of being misinformed and disinformed by Pres. Barack Obama. That's why I'm writing this letter, to bring the communion of knowledge to all of us. I shall give you candidly and without circumlocution the best estimate of our present plight that I have been able to make. Let me preface my discussion by quickly reasserting a familiar theme of my previous letters: Pres. Barack Obama's tracts should be labeled like a pack of cigarettes. I'm thinking of something along the lines of, "Warning: It has been determined that Pres. Obama's statements are intended to turn marauders loose against us good citizens."

Be forewarned: Pres. Obama wants to produce an army of mindless insects who will obey his every command. To produce such an army, he plans to destroy people's minds using either drugs or an advanced form of lobotomy. Whichever approach he takes, we ought to reveal some shocking facts about Pres. Obama's complaints. That'll make Pres. Obama think once—I would have said "twice" but I don't see any indication that he has previously given any thought to the matter—before trying to peddle the snake oil of ruthless libertinism.

Pres. Obama will stop at nothing to increase alienation and delinquency among our young people. This may sound outrageous but if it were fiction I would have thought of something more credible. As it stands, in a tacit concession of defeat, Pres. Obama is now openly calling for the abridgment of various freedoms to accomplish coercively what his illiterate squibs have failed at. Failure to analyze the morbid—and what one can term only testy—underpinnings of his complaints will threaten the existence of human life, perhaps all life on the planet. So please permit me to appropriate and paraphrase something I once heard: "Enough is enough." I've left out many criticisms of Pres. Barack Obama from this wailing wall of a letter. Nevertheless, I feel that it's a start—a philosophical space where we can plant a new flag symbolizing all that is wrong with Pres. Obama.

I just spent some time putting all my pictures into slide shows on Youtube. It's my first time doing this, but I think it was a good idea as it's easier to go through pictures faster this way. Slideshow One, Slideshow Two, Slideshow Three .

I'm not sure which is the best. The few people that have seen all three have each given me different opinions.

I spent the last day getting my last bit of sun relaxing by the beach/pool, attempting to copy the pictures from my friends camera onto my USB drive, and hanging out at Chabad.

My taxi driver to the airport was a former Israeli that currently lives in Koh Samui and he brought his Israeli friend. He started asking me questions about myself and when I told him I moved to Israel we got into a discussion about why he moved to Thailand.

His pitch for Thailand was that there are no worries and everything is perfect. In Israel it's all craziness. I had no strong rebuttal to someone not religious. 

The Koh Samui airport was fantastic. It is all outdoors and there are free drinks, snacks and newspapers. It was like the whole airport was a first class lounge. I think it's the best airport I've ever been to.

I took flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok and then El Al from Bangkok back home to Israel.

When I got back to Israel I took train and bus back to Givat Shmuel. It was great not taking a taxi like a friar as usual.

I already miss Thailand, but it is nice to be back. 

My roomate and some friends seemingly have a lot of extra time on their hands and made several posters welcoming me home. I thought it was very nice and I really appreciated it. Maybe Israel has some things that are better than Thailand.

Now I have to get back to real life. :(

Yesterday we took a boat to Ko Phangan, the island a bit north of Ko Samui, in order to witness the world renown Original and Largest Full Moon Party. Everyone we had met over the last few weeks told us that they were planning to attend so we figured it was worthwhile to see on our last night in Thailand. We didn't even book a hotel for the night as we planned to be up all night watching fire shows and listening to music. This proved to be a mistake.

Before we hit the shore we could instantly see that Koh Phangan is a beautiful island. It has many mountains and waterfalls (which fortunately makes it harder to build on) and is also surrounded by white sandy beaches with fairly clear water. 

If not for the people it would be a really terrific island, but unfortunately the island has been polluted to no end (primarily from monthly full moon parties), making it one of the most depressing islands we have seen.

Sadly this is also the most Israeli island in Thailand, with many touts first speaking in Hebrew and only switching to English if the tourist doesn't understand. Israeli flags are larger than the other countries and mounted higher. Restaurants serving Israeli food are plentiful. 

On to the Full Moon Party.

The music started about 7 PM but people didn't really begin to filter onto the beach until somewhere between 10 and 11. 

The anticipation for the party was palpable. You could feel the super heavy bass vibrate the ground below your feet and deep within your chest. People were lining up to purchase "buckets" which are plastic buckets filled with a type of alcohol and a soft drink which you then mix yourself in the bucket to drink. (Most sellers tout "Free Ice!")

By about 11 PM the party was in full swing: people dancing and fire flying. I have little to say about dance as I know nothing about it but I was not a fan of most of the music as it was all techno and electronics. This was a big let down as the Lonely Planet book said there would be Reggae as well.

They did the fire jump rope again which I thought was cool last time, but I decided not to do it (even though I mentioned earlier I would like to). The main reason for opting out was because you don't jump by yourself but rather with everyone else who wants to jump as well (like at a bar mitzvah), making it likely you are going to get burned due to someone (drunk) missing a jump. (It rarely got past 3 or 4 turns.) 

This is the same issue that kept me from jumping through the ring of fire as well: You have to trust the guys holding the rings to keep it steady. 

I did give fire limbo a try, but my knee gave out early on. (This is not dangerous as everything is in your control since the bar stands on stilts.)

Due to my boredom, I spent about an hour watching the emergency medical tents which proved to be very interesting. There were two connected tents in the middle of the beach where people with injuries would come to get basic medical treatment and be mocked by fellow party goers and doctors. 

The first guy I saw was a 19 or 20 year old that accidentally drank a laced drink. As he lay down shaking, crying and hallucinating, fellow party goers posed pictures with him: Some making mock sad faces, others sexually provocative, and others just posing with huge grins.

Another bloke, who reminded me of John Belushi in Animal House (who died of an overdose of Heroine and Cocaine), was either stoned or drunk out of his mind (or both). He just sat there going in and out of consciousness. He received the same treatment as the fellow above, but the crowd had decided to up the anty by having one guy shave off his eyebrows with a razor blade. This won loads of laughter. Even the doctors were posing for pictures. 

I forgot to mention that the doctors and nurses were allowing this ridiculous mistreatment of patients the entire time, as well as laughing, and taking pictures of humorous injuries (About two hours later I saw the guy, with no eyebrows, dancing in slow motion over a fire in the shape of a heart clearly wasted away having no idea what was going on and that he no longer had eyebrows.)

The injuries I saw most listed in order of most frequent to least frequent were: Cuts from glass (primarily due to the littered bottles on the dark beach floor), alcohol/drug overdose, fire burns, and blunt traumas (from falling from tables and platforms while dancing). There are probably more injuries that I missed. As I was waiting for the boat I saw one guy being taken by stretcher to the hospital boat to be taken off the island to a real hospital. 

Basically the night was filled with debauchery and crude behavior. The shore line was filled with hundreds of men and women defecating and vomiting throughout the night. For your sake, I will not describe the rest of the night and everything I witnessed.

On a bright note, throughout our trip we felt that we were missing out to a degree as we never partook of the night life due to religiousity. After this party I am certain we didn't miss anything.

Why people enjoy debasing themselves to less than animals is beyond me. There was absolutely no class at the entire party. It was the lowest of the low. The bottom of the mud. Completely self centered and hedonistic.

It's an absolute shame that these people are ruining our world with the pollution from their parties. Ko Phangan was a paradise before they destroyed it with their nightly self-centered parties. Leonardo DiCaprio actually mentions the destruction of Ko Phangan in The Beach now that I think about it.

Now to mention some positives...

There were likely over 30,000 people there making it an absolutely huge gathering on a fairly small beach. It was pretty crazy.

Some of the fire shows were really amazing and seeing people attempting to jump ropes and fly through hoops was entertaining.

The fire signs they had were also excellent as were the kites (?) that flew by lighting a fire underneath them.

The Koh Phangan full moon party is overrated. Trust me. Skip it if you are in Thailand.

Overall, I was less than pleased and took the first speed boat home at 2 AM but I would have prefered earlier. When I get back to Ko Samui we didn't have a hotel room so I decided I would like to try sleeping either on a city bench or on the beach - both would be firsts for me (and things I have always wanted to try.)

First I tried the city bench but the lights and noise from the street were annoying so I switched to a city bench nearer to Chabad a bit further from the street but the prostitutes kept propositioning me. 

At about 3:45 AM I decided to give the beach a try where there were still a handful of people around. I gave it about 15 minutes but the sand was bugging me and I really didn't feel safe as anyone could come and take stuff from me as I was sleeping. So I head back to the Chabad bench - when about four streetwalkers approached me and asked if I had a hotel room for the night. I broke my silence and answered I did not and they offered me to have one of their rooms for free for the night.

I clearly did not take them up on this offer as how inappropriate can you get - even though they promised I would be totally alone and no funny stuff (no "boom boom" as the Thai's call it). I was taken back by their kindness though. I found it amazing the extraordinary contrast between the behavior of the people I saw a few hours earlier and now.  

I decided that if the prostitutes felt so bad about me sleeping on the street it must be a pretty bad thing to do. After visiting a few hotels I was able to negotiate one hotel to give me a room for 100 baht an hour so I took it. 

Last night we had a Tu B'shvat seder which was entertaining especially since none of us knew what 95% of the fruits were called even. It was fun trying native fruits - they were very tasty. I guess that's the closest an Orthodox Jew can get to enjoying local Thai food.

Today we sat by the ocean and the pool and I read while my friend listened to music. It was nice and relaxing.

We also played a few games of pool.

Today we went to the marine national park about an hour away from Ko Samui by speed boat. The snorkelling was terrible as there was only two types of fish and the water was a bit cold for my taste. The scenaries were glorious as usual, especially since the government takes good care of the islands. We also went kayaking a bit which was nothing super special.

We did meet a lot of interesting, pleasant people though.

Overall I think this was one of my least favorite days. I am pretty sure I really just want to bum on the beach and around the pool for the last few days.