My departure from Uruguay and my firsts impressions when I arrived in Thailand

Hello everyone! I have just arrived in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, where the next best, unique and unforgettable 365 days of my life will be taking place.

For starters, I have planned a full year of helping children in all sort of difficulties, sightseeing and unexpected adventures and experiences all over Thailand. It was a long time ago when the idea popped into my head, and since, I couldn’t stop thinking about it; and I just can’t believe it is happening right now.
So, you must be wondering why am I writing this blog? Well, in fact, I have decided to create this so as, when the gap year has ended, a way to remember some moments of it; and to let people know what’s my life like while I’m away in this trip as well.

When I was leaving my home town, Montevideo, I was sad and cheerful at the same time: I was leaving my daily routine, which involved seeing my friends and family everyday, and heading towards a totally different one that was the complete opposite of my regular routine. Broadly speaking, the departure was kind of hard, because I had to say goodbye to my relatives and understand that I won’t see them for the following year, however, the fact that the time of leaving had arrived, kept me “alive” per say.

Thus, I flew to Sao Paolo, then to Zurich, and afterwards, I took a fifteen-hour flight to Bangkok. I must say, it was an exhausting journey, but thanks to its length, I was able to get to know the people I would be seeing for the next moths.

Right after the plane landed in the capital city, even though I was tired after the long flight, I could feel the sensations of being in a place that was off my normal routine: it was an amazing and unique feeling.

Once we got out of the airport, me and my fellow volunteers got a short tour of the city, Bangkok: what an incredible, ancient and modern, cosmopolitan, historical and multicultural city! I have never truly seen anything like it before. Then, we were driven to the place where we were staying for this year. It was a tall building that hosted people that came from different walks of life: like Japan, United States, New Zealand, Australia, France, among others!

All in all, the beginning was more than great, I would say it was incredible, and so, it was a great way to start this once-in-a-lifetime and mind-blowing experience.

I will write soon,

So, till next “entry”!

Iaron

P.S.: I had been filming short videos of some parts of our journey from Zurich to Bangkok, and now I have make one whole video made out of all the videos I had filmed, here it is joined by some pictures I took when we were given the short tour in Bangkok, enjoy!

My short video of the journey from Zurich to Bangkok.

A picture I took while having the short tour of the city: in this picture we can see both the ancient (in the foreground) and the modern part of the city (in the background).

This is another sight we spotted while having the tour, it's the Grand Palace of Bangkok, a beautiful, colourful and unique place.