On the move
Kiki and I went to New York to raise money for the school. It is our first time in the States, ever. It speaks for itself that we were thrilled with the invitation! We flew over to JFK and stayed with Ian and Danielle, two great people you will also get to know soon.
Before we left, we said goodbye to our friends in Siem Reap. Grant invited us for an all-you-can-eat breakfast. He and I really went all out. I swear, I ate more that morning than during the previous week. Of course, it was hard to part from the school. We told our students that we would come back as soon as possible, and we made sure that our team in Cambodia knew how to proceed during the time we were out of the country. When everything was said and done, we left the school and Cambodia. We flew to Bangkok on Wednesday, August 28.
3 days in Bangkok
Bangkok is a huge and amazing city. It is very chaotic, containing various city parts. You can find nearly everything - if you know where to look. This wasn't our first trip to Bangkok. We stayed at Varmtel Hostel close by IconSiam - a huge mall with restaurants, a floating village, and even a cinema. We have visited IconSiam a couple of times before during previous trips. We explored the area around MBK instead. MBK is a different mall, a bit further from our hostel, and a lot smaller than IconSiam. We went there to shop at local markets around the shopping center and to see a Muay Thai boxing match that evening. Since Kiki and I have been doing Khun Khmer - a similar fighting style - we were very eager to watch the fight. It was an amazing experience, recognizing the moves, feeling the thrill of the fighters, and rooting for the fighters. We have seen a couple of K.O.'s unfortunately one of them was a Cambodian fighter.
The next day, we walked and explored some more malls. Bangkok sometimes feels like a huge city of malls. We ended up in malls inside malls, we tried VR glasses, saw people dancing on the streets, drank a funky frozen yogurt drink, and slept like a log afterward. Window shopping can be so tiring!
Friday finally came, the day that we would fly to the States! We packed our bags and relaxed for most of the day. Since we flew from BKK at 3 in the morning, we still had a full day in Bangkok. We hung around IconSiam and stocked up on snacks for the flights.
In the evening we left for the airport. The flights were tiring and loud. For the two flights - we flew for around 20 hours in total with a layover in Dubai - we were surrounded by playing toddlers during both flights. When we finally arrived at JFK airport I was soooo tired!
When you get off the plane at JFK, everybody needs to go through immigration. They check your passport and ask a lot of questions. After a long, sleepless flight it was very intimidating. Don't worry, we made it through!
Dagny picked us up from the airport with Andre, and after a lot of big hugs, we decided to get some food 'American Style'. We bought snacks and fries at Popeyes, an American fast-food chain. The cups were enormous, the dishes were huge. It is true what they say about the food in America, everything is bigger. We ate in the car, very American, and drove for nearly two hours to Philip's house - where Dagny and Andre stayed - to pick up their dogs Finn and LeBron. Without sleep, we went to Daniel's birthday party, and that is also the place where we were going to stay for a little more than a week.