47 hours ish.

47 hours ago ish.

I walk into a 7/11 to buy snacks for a journey ahead. We are about to leave for Thailand in the morning.

46 hours ago ish.

Snacks have been acquired. I am currently in the AIM base in Siem Riep. We left our hostel that morning, and 90 percent of the squad are sleeping in one house tonight.

44 hours ago ish.

I found a place to sleep. It was a wooden bench beside an open window, and I used my laundry bag as a pillow. On the floor, there were many people everywhere, some lying on bags, others had pulled out sleeping mats.

43 hours ago ish.

I can’t sleep.

42 hours ago ish.

It starts raining. I get wet. The window was still open.

41 hours ago ish.

I finally fall asleep.

38.5 hours ago ish.

We wake up.

38 hours ago ish.

I brush my teeth. Throw some deodorant on. And then I stare blankly at a wall because I am so tired.

37.5 hours ago ish.

We grab all our crap (which side note is incredibly heavy. This will be relevant later.) and chuck it on the bus.

33.5 hours ago ish.

We get to the Thai-Cambodian border and are told to haul all our crap and walk a mile to get to the border control office. And so we do.

33 hours ago ish.

We get to the said office quite tired and sore.

32 hours ago ish.

We are still in this office, even more tired and sore.

31 hours ago ish.

We have started a line to get through border control. We are about halfway through. We were miserable.

30.5 hours ago ish.

A lady behind us tells us we should be going faster and we shouldn’t have such big bags. This made us very happy.

30 hours ago ish.

We survived. We all made it out alive. We are told to walk about half a mile more with all our stuff, and another bus awaits us.

29.5 hours ago ish.

We did it. And there was a KFC right there, so we were rewarded with fried chicken.

28.5 hours ago ish.

We rock up to 7/11 again, and I buy Kleenex and a sim card.

27 hours ago ish.

We get on the bus again. This is where the fun begins. It is about three in the afternoon, and we have 12.75 hours in this van. Our arrival time is roughly 4 in the morning.

24 hours ago ish.

I watch the sunset.

23 hours ago ish.

I watch a movie.

20 hours ago ish.

I sleep for like 30 minutes.

19 hours ago ish.

We stop at 7/11 again. I get yogurt. Yum.

14.25 hours ago ish.

We get to our hostel in Chaing Mai. It is 4 in the morning, and we must be ready to go to our ministry base at 9.

9.5 hours ago ish.

*ALARM BLARING*

9.45 hours ago ish.

*ALARM BLARING*

9.4 hours ago ish.

*ALARM STILL BLARING*

9.3 hours ago ish.

I groan and kill my alarm. My shoulders are very sore from carrying my bags. Malachi comes to my bed and tells me we have like 20 minutes till we leave.

9 hours ago ish.

We were told we had to walk more to a public bus station. So we picked up our bags and hit the road.

8 hours ago ish.

We get on a bus headed to a village in which who knows what we will do.

 

I know I said last time I did this; it was super confusing, and maybe it still is, but I think it is a cool way to capture the chaos of travel days. I am currently operating on about 6 hours of sleep. Ya, boy, is TIRED. But the moral of the story is that we are in Thailand now with one of the girl’s teams. We still don’t really know what we are doing, but we will find out tomorrow. We live in a village but less of a village then in Cambodia. I am currently in a coffee shop decorated for Christmas, which is weird because it is like 89 degrees.

Your prayers are always appreciated. Thanks for keeping up with me.

– Drew McKinney