Follow the Journey

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This week has been crazy hectic between jumping off a ten hour train to Ayutthaya, bicycling around the city, then heading to Bangkok for three days where we got to witness the people’s reactions to the king’s death firsthand. Every single citizen in the city is dressed in black to show they are mourning. We stumbled upon a mourning ceremony devoted to making sure the citizens are okay that included free food, free health check ups, and even free haircuts, which you might notice we took part in. Ten out of the twelve in our group decided to be brave and went under the razor, with some of us getting the king’s symbol shaved upon our heads. The locals treated us with nothing but kindness, even though we are foreigners, and seemed to appreciate us being there in support of their mourning. We have never seen one person make as much of an impact as the king of Thailand has upon his people, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to show that we care and treat them with the kindness we have been given over the past six weeks.

Tomorrow we are heading to Plum Village, a Dharma center, where we will learn about meditation and spirituality. Following this brief update, we will post a more detailed blog on how we are adjusting as we have reached the halfway point of this trip.

See you soon,

The Dynamic Duo of Anika and Siena

Photo Credits go to Anika and Katie.