Jonathan Freilich
I'm taking a 4 month trip through Japan, Thailand, India, Kenya, South Africa, and Israel.jfreilich
Travel Blog Posts
April 19th 2006
Shalom everybody, My trip to Israel has been great. Full of amazing history, cultures, new people, and surprises. However, it's been a bit of a mess from the beginning. My last night in Cape Town my friend Aaron and I painted the town whatever color the alcohol we were drinking was. I was out until 3:30 in the morning and managed to wake up just 2 minutes before my ride to the airport left. So I tossed all my stuff into my backpack and left. I spent the next 24 hours on planes and in airports without having had a shower and being extremely hungover. When I finally got to Jerusalem I couldn't check into my hostel for another 6 hours. So I left my backpack there and went for walk. After walking a block I ... read more
April 7th 2006
My first day in Cape Town some kid tried to rob me at knife point. So I looked at him straight in the eyes and I said, "Do you have any idea who I am?" To which he replied, "No." So then I said, "I'm Chuck Norris". The name alone put the fear of God in his eyes and he ran away. No, in actuality I just ran across the street and ducked into the first restaurant that I found. Not a very good start to a new city. Things got better after that though. I spent most of the first day just walking around the city and getting a feel for things. It's an awesome city with lots to do. There's lots of hip young people sitting outside at cafes. But what really makes the ... read more
March 28th 2006
Hey everybody, It's been a while. I have been volunteering at the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa for the last month. It has been quite an experience. The foundation is located in the bush about a half hour away from the nearest town, Tzaneen. Tzaneen is about a 7 hour bus ride from Johannesburg. I lived in a tented village. The tents were the cheapest you can find though and they were constantly getting flooded and infested with frogs. The weather was really strange there. It would be cold and rainy for 4 days straight, and my tent would constantly be flooded during this time. Then for the next four days it would be incredibly hot and sunny. There are over 700 vervet monkeys on the foundation. They are brought in generally because their mother's ... read more
March 1st 2006
Jambo everybody! My Plane arrived in Nairobi just in time for me to see my first African sunrise. It was gorgeous. I found Jill's smiling face waiting for me at the baggage claim and we hopped in our cab heading for the Boulevard Hotel. We were both exhausted from our night flights and spent the entire day just eating and sleeping. This is the only part of my trip that hasn't exactly been budget traveling. The hotel felt luxurious to me. The next morning we bought a bunch of water to last us the next 7 days and we headed out on our safari. There were 5 other people on our safari. There was a Czech couple, a British girl, and a guy from Hong Kong. All were about our age, and everybody was really friendly. ... read more
You say Mumbai, I say Bombay, let's call the whole thing off.
Published: February 16th 2006Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai
February 16th 2006
I arrived in Udaipur at 6:00 am after taking a night bus. I was exhausted and my rickshaw driver ended up taking me to a different hotel than I had booked. I was so tired that I just ended up staying at the one he took me to. It turned out to be great. I had a balcony with an amazing view of the city. Udaipur has some beautiful views, but like most of the places I've been in India, it looks and smells like shit on the street. I went to see the City Palace and museum, which was alright. Then I took a boat ride in the lake to see all of the fancy hotels that are actually their own islands in the lake. It's funny, all of the big sight seeing stuff in ... read more
February 9th 2006
Sorry it's been so long since my last blog, but I've been constantly on the move and it's been hard to find the time to write one. So this one covers Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Pushkar. I walked out of the Delhi airport and was immediately bombarded by tons of people pushing and jabbering and a haze of smog covering the city. It was quite a shock. The drive from the airport to the hotel was ridiculous. Tons of cars just fighting to get through and nobody can really move. I saw some crazy looking wagons with huge loads in the back chugging along while other cars are speeding by and stopping just short of slamming into somebody. All this is going on and then out of nowhere I see a horse galloping through the highway ... read more
January 31st 2006
I've just spent the last 10 days relaxing on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I decided to just group them all together into one blog because, frankly, I haven't been doing that much. Most of my days consist of taking dips in the Andaman Sea, laying out in the sun on the white sand beaches while eating fresh pineapple and staring at European women's exposed breasts. Nice life! I started out in Krabi and stayed on Hat Rai Lei beach. It's actaully not that great of a beach. It's filled with cheap resorts and empty bottles and garbage litter the waterfront. But it's just a short walk to Pranang beach which is incredible The water is an amazing clear blue color and there are these limestone cliffs that jut out into the ... read more
January 19th 2006
I arrived at Khao Sok National Park in the late afternoon, so I didn't really have time to explore the rainforest before it got dark. I wanted to stay at these tree house hotels that they have but they were way too expensive. Also, I saw some and they weren't that special. So instead I stayed at the Garden and Herb Resort. It is far from a resort though, let me tell you. It's owned by this husband and wife and only the wife speaks English, but she barely speaks English. The husband pretty much only knows the word "yes", in English. So it was difficult to tell them if something was wrong with my room when the woman was not there. The toilet in my room doesn't work. "Yes?" The fan is broken. "Yes?" The ... read more
January 17th 2006
So I left Bangkok and got on a bus to go to Kanchanaburi. I met this Dutch couple, Bram and Karen, on the bus who were my age and we ended up staying at the same place. They were on a round-the-world trip as well but they had already been traveling for 6 months. There trip sounded amazing and made me jealous. But they're not going to Africa, so ha. Our guest house in Kanchanburi was perfect. It was sitting in the River Kwai so you had to take a boat to it. It was really secluded and peaceful. It was just me, the Dutch couple and this gigantic Polish guy. Bram, Karen and I went to see the sites together. The first day we went to see a bunch of museums and tours about the ... read more
January 13th 2006
So I arrived in Bangkok late Sunday night. It was kind of scary going to my guest house because it felt deserted since it was so late. Also, the staff wasn't very welcoming and the place is as we say in America, a shit hole. I felt like I was in the beginning of Apocolypse Now. But I guess that's what I get for paying 5 dollars a night. The next day I felt much better though and decided to just spend the day walking around and adjusting to the atmosphere. I headed for Khaosan Road which is basically a street in Bangkok that is filled entirely with backpackers and Thai people trying to sell them fake designer clothes and other souvenires. It's much more than that though. There are people that offer to put your ... read more
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