Ah, Travel Days

Travel days are often the most
stressful times of the World Race. It’s a large group trying to get
from one country to another with way too much stuff! We each only
have one large backpack and one small backpack, but still it adds up
to a lot of luggage when there are 54 people.

This past traveling experience was our
first time not going through an airport. That has advantages and
disadvantages. We didn’t have to worry about the weight of our packs,
but we had fun trying to fit them all in the buses we rode.

Here’s a brief look at my team’s travel
from Kampong Cham, Cambodia, to Bangkok, Thailand:

Friday, April 23

3:45 p.m. Our 3:30 bus has now arrived.
We load our bags in the bottom and find our seats.

6:30 p.m. Our bus arrives in Phnom
Penh. We get our bags off the bus and find three tuk tuks to take us
to the YWAM base. This also involves calling someone from the base to
explain to the driver how to get there.

7 p.m. Arrive at YWAM base, unload our
bags, negotiate with the tuk tuk drivers to come back at 11 p.m. to
pick us up again.

7:30 p.m. Walk about 10 minutes to the
mall for dinner.

9 p.m. Relax at the YWAM base and meet
up with two other teams.

11 p.m. Load our bags back on the tuk
tuks and travel to a different bus station.

11:30 p.m. Unload bags at bus station.

11:45 p.m. Load our bags on the bus and
find our seats.

Midnight Settle in the comfortable
seats of the overnight bus. This is probably the most comfortable bus
I’ve ever ridden on.

5:45 a.m. Arrive at a dirt lot where
the bus driver says “I hope you slept well. Now, get up and get
your stuff off the bus.” We look at him confused since we weren’t
supposed to arrive in Poipet until 7:30 a.m. Bill asks, “Where are
we?” Answer “Siem Reap.” What?!

6 a.m. Unload all our bags onto a tarp
in the dirt lot and wait for our next bus

6:30 a.m. Next bus arrives. Load our
bags and find our seats ready to leave for Poipet.

6:45 a.m. Stop on side of the road
(still in Siem Reap) and sit there for an hour. I took a 45-minute
nap. We assumed we were waiting for other passengers.

7:45 a.m. Bus finally starts moving
(OK, now we are going).

7:50 a.m. Bus stops (still in Siem
Reap) and we are told, “You are changing buses here.” Unload all
our bags onto sidewalk.

8 a.m. It starts raining so we move our
bags under a cover. Meet up with a couple other teams leaving from
Siem Reap on a different bus.

8:05 a.m. Our other bus arrives. Load
our bags in the rain and find seats.

8:15 a.m. Bus leaves Siem Reap and
heads to Poipet – finally!

10:30 a.m. Stop for rest stop where you
have to pay 300 riel (about 10 cents) to use a squatty potty (nice!)
Also meet all the other teams here. We are on three separate buses.

Noon Bus arrives at Poipet border
crossing (four hours later than when we thought we’d arrive). We
unload our bags, put them on our backs and get in line for customs.

12:30 p.m. Get my passport stamped as
leaving Cambodia. Meet Mark (squad leader), and he says “Welcome to
nowhere.” We still aren’t in Thailand.

12:45 p.m. After walking about a
quarter mile with our packs, we are now sweating profusely. We
get to the immigration building to fill out a form and wait in
another line.

1:30 p.m. Finally make it into
Thailand! Still carry our packs about another quarter mile to our
charter bus.

1:50 p.m. Walk back to get out some
Thailand money and grab something to eat.

2:45 p.m. Finally get all our bags and
people crammed into the bus. We literally had bags in every empty
space – including aisles.
I also found it interesting that our charter bus had a buddha statue at the very front.

3 p.m. Bus leaves for Bangkok

6 p.m. Arrive at YWAM base near
Bangkok. Unload bags and take them up four flights of stairs to where
I’m sleeping for the next few nights.

So, there you go. That’s a travel day
(or days) in the life of a World Racer. It was definitely an
adventure, but we made it safely with God’s provision. We definitely
can’t complain either. We were very fortunate to have nice buses with
air conditioning. I’m sure we’ll have many more travel experiences
that may not be so comfortable.

We’ve had a few days in Bangkok for
debrief and preparation for our ministry. The girls and guys are
splitting up this month. Most of us girls expected to be working with
women involved in sex trafficking; however, not all of us are. My
group of 15 girls is headed to Ubonratchathani (yeah, it’s a fun one
to say). We will be working with a church there possibly doing
prison, orphanage, youth and/or evangelism ministry.

One thing you learn on the World Race
is that things change. We definitely learn to be flexible and to go
with the flow. It’s best to just lay down your expectations and be
content with whatever situation God provides. I’m learning more and
more to do that.

Now it’s time for another travel
day! We leave sometime tomorrow for an approximately 8-hour bus ride to Ubonratchathani, a city
on the east side of Thailand near the Laos border. I’ll let you know
more when we get there!