Unexpected
Door: Bob Roth
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Els
06 Januari 2013 | Thailand, Chon Buri
Today we had just two things to do: watch a volleyball match in Chonburi and find a hotel to sleep, simple as that. Well, we thought it would be simple. It went a little different though...
We start the day with traveling. Just a one and a half hour bus trip from Bangkok to Chonburi. the bus left at 2:00 pm and we arrived at 3:30 pm in Chonburi. All perfectly scheduled. We took the motorcycle to the Chonburi stadium where the game should take place at 4:00 pm, that's what we thought Facebook told us. After arrival we noticed nobody knew anything about a volleyball match which was quiet scary. We searched and searched but we couldn't find anything until I talked with some Thai men with my Thai language skills, which are formidable (of course). After some intensive half Thai, half English speaking I found out that the match was somewhere else. Somewhere close to where the bus stopped.. Anyway, we took the bus back to town and after again some intensive language skills we arrived at the stadium by motorcycle. And that was just the travel.
When we walked towards the stadium we could hear the crowd scream already, and we weren't even in the building yet. We got into the building and the fans gave us a seat next to the diehard Chonburi fan base part. They were dancing, screaming, singing and jumping nonstop. It was one big and extremely loud party. The match was simply awesome and we soon forgot our stressing travel to get here. The opponents were better and won with 3-1 after an exciting match. We wanted them to win to be honest because one guy in their team was very good and made quiet an impression. It was interesting to see how the players made a show and what their style of volleyball was.
After the game we went down to te field to make some pictures with some players. There we met a man from the US that trained with the Chonburi team. We talked for not even 5 minutes and some random Thai staff guy asked to the man: "you have new friends?" "yes, I have new friends" answered the man. "Really new friends?" "yes really new friends" "new new friends?" "yes, new new friends" "how new new friends?" "we met 5 minutes ago" "aah, 5-minutes-new-friends!" "yes!" "new friends join dinner?" wait what? Yes, indeed, he asked us to come eat dinner with the team in town! And of course we said yes. So we ate in a private room in a restaurant somewhere in Chonburi with all the team- and staff members, which was awesome! At the end of the dinner we still had to find a hotel but of course some staff guy knew one and brought us to it by car.
What should have been a simple day ended up very different than expected. All the stress and travel issues, it was all worth it. Because at the end of the day we can say that we had a personal, free, useful and most of all an unexpected meet & greet with one of the best professional volleyball teams in Thailand!
We start the day with traveling. Just a one and a half hour bus trip from Bangkok to Chonburi. the bus left at 2:00 pm and we arrived at 3:30 pm in Chonburi. All perfectly scheduled. We took the motorcycle to the Chonburi stadium where the game should take place at 4:00 pm, that's what we thought Facebook told us. After arrival we noticed nobody knew anything about a volleyball match which was quiet scary. We searched and searched but we couldn't find anything until I talked with some Thai men with my Thai language skills, which are formidable (of course). After some intensive half Thai, half English speaking I found out that the match was somewhere else. Somewhere close to where the bus stopped.. Anyway, we took the bus back to town and after again some intensive language skills we arrived at the stadium by motorcycle. And that was just the travel.
When we walked towards the stadium we could hear the crowd scream already, and we weren't even in the building yet. We got into the building and the fans gave us a seat next to the diehard Chonburi fan base part. They were dancing, screaming, singing and jumping nonstop. It was one big and extremely loud party. The match was simply awesome and we soon forgot our stressing travel to get here. The opponents were better and won with 3-1 after an exciting match. We wanted them to win to be honest because one guy in their team was very good and made quiet an impression. It was interesting to see how the players made a show and what their style of volleyball was.
After the game we went down to te field to make some pictures with some players. There we met a man from the US that trained with the Chonburi team. We talked for not even 5 minutes and some random Thai staff guy asked to the man: "you have new friends?" "yes, I have new friends" answered the man. "Really new friends?" "yes really new friends" "new new friends?" "yes, new new friends" "how new new friends?" "we met 5 minutes ago" "aah, 5-minutes-new-friends!" "yes!" "new friends join dinner?" wait what? Yes, indeed, he asked us to come eat dinner with the team in town! And of course we said yes. So we ate in a private room in a restaurant somewhere in Chonburi with all the team- and staff members, which was awesome! At the end of the dinner we still had to find a hotel but of course some staff guy knew one and brought us to it by car.
What should have been a simple day ended up very different than expected. All the stress and travel issues, it was all worth it. Because at the end of the day we can say that we had a personal, free, useful and most of all an unexpected meet & greet with one of the best professional volleyball teams in Thailand!
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