Dinner with Joy.

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Bangkok, early evening. It's getting close to 18.00 h. and time for my appointment with Joy, Nong's daughter. We meet in front of the Lumpini Stadium, the famous Muay Thai boxing stadium. Through the crowd of locals and farangs I can see her well before reaching the place. It has been a year on the day since last I saw her, she looks even more beautifull now as she did then. She is happy and overjoyed to see me, we wai each other and while we walk down the busy Rama 4 road to our favourite food stall on Chilom Road, she babbles to me about her job, her mom - "she is on Kho Samui now, she has Norway boyfriend now" - and her brother Jay, the stories of the day ect. Her english is near perfect, it should be, I paid for her english classes when she was still a kid. I hardly get a single word in but that is okay. The food stall we choose is very popular but we get a place in no time. I take my old favourite, noodle soup with pork while Joy goes for fried chicken with sticky rice and lots of chili. We order big condensed bottles of Kloster beer and while she eats I tell her about Amsterdam and my work at the animal farm in Westerpark, I tell her about my travel plans and how my year has been. It's slowly getting later and we order more beer, our conversation has turned to Thai which I speak haltingly. When the time for her has come to go home I bring her to a TUT-TUK, I still see her waving when the TUK-TUK drives off. I know it'll be another year before I'll see her again. When she was still a kid I would take her and her brother to the Bangkok zoo, now she is a well educated young woman having a good job and a small appartment. I feel happy for her.

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Photos

Thai procession
near the Royal Palace In krung Thep/Bangkok

feeding the pigeon in....
Bangkok.