Julia was chosen for the China Club Football U12 team, to go play in a tournament in Bangkok, Thailand. There were about 50 teams, from ages U8 to U18, from all over Asia competing in this International soccer tournament. She was the only girl in her age division and as a matter of fact, we only saw 3 other littler girls playing.
It was incredibly hot and humid in Bangkok. About 95 degrees with 95% humidity. It was a drastic climate change from the practices here in Beijing where it was 35 and freezing cold. We left Beijing on Friday afternoon and got to fly first class on Air China. Julia enjoyed all the complimentary snacks and I enjoyed some mimosas. It was about a 4 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok.
We made it to our hotel where the team was staying and checked into out room. It literally took me 15 minutes to find the light controller for the room. I finally had to ask one of the coaches where the H-E double hockey sticks the lights were. After they laughed for a good 5 minutes they told me it was on the night stand. Well that was all well and good but it was pitch black in my room so who knew there was even a nightstand in there. Once I figured out the light situation I decided to check out the window at the view of Bangkok. Well......it was a view all right....of a damn white brick wall. No wonder it was so dark in our room! And there was this sound that we decided was coming from the bathroom that can only be described as sounding like a baby goat. Yep, definitely in Bangkok! I was waiting for Mr Chow to jump out of the ice machine. (For the Hangover fans out there) Oh well, we were hungry so we met up with some other people from the team and found an amazing little shanty of a restaurant. I got some Thai soup and Pad Thai noodles. It was delish and then the fire started raging in my mouth. I was literally sweating more than I do at cross fit. Julia's pizza was even spicy!
We finish our dinner and a few gallons of water and were ready to hit the sack. So we jumped into bed and hit a sack alright........of bricks. Talk about a firm mattress. The hotel must be in cahoots with all of the massage places that there are on every street corner. I am pretty sure that everyone that sleeps on those beds is in need of a good deep tissue massage the next day!!!
Saturday kicked off around 6:00AM when we had breakfast and all the Club Football teams piled onto the most pimped out charter buses that I have ever seen, sans 1 stripper pole (picture enclosed) . Traveling the streets of Bangkok is an experience in itself. There are motorcycles, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, shrines for Buddha, shrines and signs showing the love of their King of Thailand, street vendors, strange food and strange smells everywhere.....it was awesome!
We arrived at the soccer venue and the fields were amazing. They played 5 matches the first day and it all kicked of with Julia scoring the first goal of the day! They played so good and I really enjoyed watching kids from all over the world play "the worlds sport" together. When the matches were done for the day we piled back into the party buses and headed back to the hotel. The kids were wiped out after playing in the heat so it was an early night! Then, we woke up and did it all again! Sunday we only had 2 games before we returned to the airport to hang out for 6 hours until our 11:59PM flight back to Beijing. Thank goodness for great shopping, food and a massage parlor in the Bangkok airport. To be continued...................................
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