Mere, Igor & Alex

So after the beaches I returned to Bangkok to meet up with my tour group for a two-day excursion packed with activities in & around Central Thailand. I had to be at the travel agency very early to meet my group. There were only three of us. Me and two young guys: Igor & Alex. One of their first questions was, "From the U.S....Hmmm...But you are Jewish, No?" "No," I replied, "Why do you ask?". "Well, you are in an Israeli travel agency, about to leave on an Israeli tour." "Oh!"...I exclaimed, not quite understanding if there was any real issue with my race/religious status... As I looked around the travel agency, things did start to click a bit...so it was Hebrew everyone kept speaking...my ears are bad at discerning language, and I've had little to no exposure to Hebrew, so I wasn't all that shocked that I'd missed that que. But looking around there were other clues and tips I might have noticed, but I had only been focused on the trip itineraries & prices when I'd made my decision to book my tour here, days earlier before I went south to the beaches. So I asked the woman behind the counter whether the tour would be in English or Hebrew. She confirmed English, and I couldn't see any other reason it would matter, so off we went!

On the drive out of Bangkok I learned that Igor & Alex were celebrating the successful completion of their 3-year mandatory stints in the military, and taking this trip to relax before starting university in March. They thought it was so funny that I hadn't noticed I was in an Israeli travel agency, and were great sports about speaking in English, not Hebrew, so I wasn't excluded. English is their third language. Igor's family moved to Israel from Russia when he was seven, and Alex's family moved there from the Ukraine when he was four. So Hebrew is their second language, and English their third. Thankfully, they're really fluent.

I had so many questions about their military service, and they were happy to talk about it. They were both very confident, well educated guys, Alex a lot more serious than Igor who had the dry, sarcastic Russian thing going on, but was also easily excited and could get quite animated. They loved telling me about all of the various pieces of military equipment they used that were from the U.S. They'd describe weaponry and boxes of ammo, etc. with "U.S. Army" and our flag printed right on them. Igor also had a very matter of fact "eye for an eye" speech, complete with quoting the Old Testament, when discussing the Palestinians. They also had questions for me, about 9-11, about Jewish culture in America, about my own Cold War childhood when Russia/U.S.S.R. was a superpower. These topics surfaced time and again over the two days. Very interesting conversations to be having with these boys so young in some respects, and yet seemingly old & experienced in others.

Anyway, the drive was just shy of two hours, and then our tour began with a visit to some caves that housed a number of Buddhas in various underground rooms. The Buddhas had been hidden in the caves when the Japanese invaded Thailand in WWII, and the monks never moved them out, deciding to keep the caves as a holy place following the Japanese occupation. When we wrapped up the cave tour, Alex & Igor complimented me on my willingness to climb up to the cave area and crawl around in the caves' dark, wet, dirty passages. They said many of their girl friends would have complained. I assured them I was here for adventure and would only get really "girly" if large bugs crossed our path. They agreed to attend to the bugs, and we were all looking forward to the next adventure. It involved a trip on a Thai longboat (a long wooden canoe with a speed boat motor on the back). This was our mode of transport down the River Kwai from the caves to our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel's dock, I was last to leave the boat and made the mistake of pushing off with my first foot in such a way that the boat immediately began moving away from the dock as I had one foot still in it, and the other in mid air but moving farther & farther from the dock. Thankfully the boys were turned in my direction, and both of them grabbed my outstretched arms and pulled me up onto the dock. I was so happy I didn't fall into the murky water! And from that point on, they assumed a distinctly protective role with me. I thought it was so funny, because they were the young ones, but from then on, I was definitely under their watch. They wouldn't let me carry my luggage, they opened my doors, if we were hiking, they insisted I walk between them and they'd point out the slippery patches and suggest the safest routes for me. Chivalry was alive and well.

From the caves, we visited Tiger Temple, where the monks take in orphaned tiger cubs and raise them to be released back into the wild. Of course, if the tigers are not showing signs of ability to hunt for themselves, etc. as they grow, the monks keep them at the temple, and use them for their tiger breeding program. It's these breeder tigers that visitors are allowed to pet. They're enormous and beautiful! I loved it!!

The following morning, we were joined up with a larger group -- a tour bus full of Hebrew-speaking Israelis! I was sure I was about to be excluded due to the language barrier, but to my delight, Igor & Alex stayed surprisingly loyal to our trio and speaking English. We spent the morning hiking in the gorgeous Erawan Falls National Park. There are seven steps, or lookouts, along a hiking trail that follows the falls, and we made it up to the top, then returned to the fourth step for swimming -- the fourth step has a natural rock water slide that falls into an aquamarine pool - fun!

After that we were off to take an elephant ride in the woods, and when we got to the river bank, we went into the river for elephant bathing. We had scrub brushes and soap and would lather up the elephant and then he'd dunk us under, rinsing himself. It was such a riot -- we all loved it. Oh, and something I learned -- Asian elephants are a bit smaller than African elephants, and the Asians elephants' ears are much smaller than the enormous flapping wings that frame the African elephants' heads. Also, Asian elephants are less aggressive and easier to tame.

After the elephants, we took a ride back to the bridge over River Kwai on "The Death Train," so named because the WWII Japanese invaders forced the Thais to build the railway under ridiculous deadlines, killing over 100,000 Thai men in the process. From there we took a minivan back to Bangkok, and the boys invited me to dinner -- they knew another spot owned by an Israeli, and sure enough, it was another nice spot full of tourists speaking Hebrew that had I been alone I would have entered & eaten at without ever noticing!

Shalom!
Mere