Here is the recap of the 26 monetized posts of Kylea G Weight loss Journey.
"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present." Lao Tzu
Disclaimers: I am not affiliated with Royal Caribbean or WW. I am not a mental health professional. These opinions are my own based on social media content, medical sources, and internet searches used primarily to estimate/locate prices on actual or potential purchases. I wish no harm to Kylea or Joseph "Joe" Gomez.
📢 Please speak with a medical professional about any questions or concerns you have about your health.
⚠️ Trigger Warning: Alcohol, Death, Disordered Eating, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy Loss, and Religion will be discussed.
Mayo Clinic: Metabolism & Weight Loss https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508
🤔 When you post approx. 30 new images of yourself in 48 hours, what point are you trying to prove? What is the lesson? 🤔

1. "Rested and ready to find breakfast." - We did not need this update.
   
2. "Joseph Loves Breakfast" - 🚨 Joe is pictured with a large glass of OJ, large bowl of buttebrown sugar oatmeal, a plate of pancakes with syrup, and a plate of biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, and sausage. If THIS is the type of breakfast he prefers, why is he eating cold, leftover overnight oats (5 days per week) that Kylea will not eat? 😒 P.S. This is triggering content for those trying to lose weight.
   
3. "Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day" - This post is redundant and the photo from the 2nd post was cropped to hide the majority of his food. 🤔
   
4. ⚠️ Grief, Pregnancy Loss, and Religion - Kylea shows an image of herself squeezing music artist Gary LeVox 1 year ago. "He comforted me over the loss of our boy and I'll never be able to put in to words what this moment meant to me. Love you G ❤️" Kylea lives in the past. I am sorry to Kylea and Joe for their early pregnancy loss in Sept 2022. 🙏
   
5. ⚠️ Disordered Eating at Breakfast - She plans to use her Premier Protein in coffee throughout the day = 2WW points if she uses the entire shake. She ate 0WW points worth of food.
   
6. ⚠️ Gaslighting about coffee - Surprise! Kylea feels she has cut back on coffee and has been having more tea. Please ignore all evidence that she consumes large quantities of "coffee" concoctions daily. She prefers Starbucks tea.
   
7. ⚠️ Alcohol- Joe is inebriated at 11:21am and "needs a ride home". Why did 136k internet strangers need to know this? 🤔
   
8. Tattoo Speech - When you heavily edit/modify a photo of your legs, stretch your tattoo and leg length, you don't get to preach about how hard you have worked, how much you have overcome, healed from the inside, and you are proud of yourself. What do I think about weight loss influencers modifying their photos for monetary gain? 👎 👎
   
9. "Life is really good today." Kylea is sitting alone. What about the activities on the cruise?
   
10. ⚠️ Disordered Eating - More Starbucks tea and fruit. She has consumed approx. 1 WW point today.
    
11. ⚠️ Disordered Eating - She had a 0WW point lunch because, "I do primarily stick to 0 point items on vacay to account for the things like butter, oil, and things they may use that I don't use at home."
    🚨 This is classic disordered eating.
    

Harmony of the Seas boasts about their 20 different dining options and ability to accommodate diverse palates and dietary needs. Living in fear of butteoil (without a medical justification) is disordered.
📢 Please speak with a medical professional before emulating this lifestyle.

1. ⚠️ Gaslighting about size/scale - Kylea would like you to believe she fit in zero chairs with arm rests when she weighed 348lbs. She cries when she sits in chairs now. Please ignore all references to her losing 208lbs, it is not about that.
   
2. In her "Tea Era"... this is redundant.
   
3. She jokes about the live pianist playing in the elevator. (Yes, there is live music in the elevator on Harmony of the Seas.)
   
4. "Letting Go" Speech - When you constantly remind followers of how you let go of criticism, turn around and obsess ovepost about criticism, your speeches lose impact and your words are dishonest. ✌️
   
5. Ready for a Nap - She is tired from sitting today and needs a nap. Mirror selfie required.
   
6. 30 min to find her room - Although she does not track steps or distance walked, she takes 30 min to get to her room. Someone who has walked daily since 07/05/21 should have adequate endurance for a casual walk on a cruise ship. This task should not wear them out.
   
7. Joe going to Grease alone - Kylea needs time to get ready. Joe appears very slim/trim in his outfit. 👀
   
8. Blue Dress Part 1 - The full outfit reveal coming soon...
   
9. Blue Dress Part 2 - "Feelin' a lot like that Reba song 💙" I know the meaning behind "Fancy." Does she???
   
10. ⚠️ Pregnancy Loss & Religion aka Blue Dress Part 3 - A comparison photo is shared. She wants to remind you again how far she has come and references her son going to heaven. She does not specify it was an early pregnancy loss. I would suggest she honor the living and be present with her family.
    
11. Blue Dress Part 4 - She and Joe are heading to dinner. We do not need a play by play.
    
12. ⚠️ Disordered Eating - Kylea consumed 6 WW points of food at dinner (the same one from last night). She consumed 7 out of 23 WW points today.
    

🚨 Please do not mimic this style of eating. It is not healthy or adheres to the WW plan. This is not living as your best, most alive self. This is fear of food. Please follow your medical providers guidance on nutrition that best fits your needs. I hope Kylea seeks medical care and wish her well.

1. ⚠️ Death/Grief aka Blue Dress Part 5 - Kylea feels, "Grams would've wanted this one in a frame." Kylea & Joe are posed on stairs. Joe has gained significant weight during dinner. (NO body shaming intended. This is the down side of modifying vs not modifying images.)
   
2. Blue Dress Part 6 - "Happy heart 💙 🦋"
   
3. Blue Dress Part 7 - "Married to the sweetest man." Why so many 📸?
   

*cruise expenses being tallied
Kylea is an aspiring travel blogger. Do you feel motivated to book this cruise based on her content?
All info from Reddit. ✌️

My dear Satan
The bringer of mass destruction
The bringer of light
The bringer of human freedom
The king of this world and the flies
The joker
Master of mind games.
The prince of darkness
Lucifer
The bringer of light
Lucifer and his off-springs all the devils all his cambions. The legend of king Arthur and Merlin.
King Arthur and the knights of the round table Merlin the cambion who was born through an incubus ( male demon ) and through a virgin nun and you would know him as Merlin the mage.
He was supposed to be the Anti Christ instead he showed his loyalty to king Arthur.
Don´t belive in this tale. (belive if you belive) I have voices in my head.
read between the lines.
This is a story about the muse the conductor of this earth. The orchestra of your room
The artist who does not speak or lose the Angel who you wish was was true.
The Black sabbath`s The Beatles, Johns Lennon, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, Carlos Santana, Snoop Dogg, Ozzy Osbourne Giuseppe Tartini who all bargained with the devil! And so many more who sacrificed
their lives and their souls for something bigger something magic called music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rxl5KsPjs
Dios and The misfits you should already know that every word a is true. Niccolò Paganini
the Foo fighters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y and the Mephistolees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qdQMFCfEGM
your deepest wish or your deepest secrets your biggest dreams or all your shallow nightmares.
door after the door. lies after lies split your wrist after wrist stomach after stomach still we will beat you up the the stars.
I´m a a soul from the war that we won. From the grave yards from the ravens eyes to the night
I have licked a vampyriez clitoriz and Satans cock I am Love and rainbows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNDOMa8jBlo
Let me tell you an story about the fallen angel the nobel price winner the oscars winner. The Dragon. let´s start fom me!
aI was born in Helsinki in 94 to explosions. My first memory is my father throwing me up in the air when we won the world cup in hockey 95.
I was a pretty curious child I wanted to look at the world through our window when my father grabbed my leg to save my life. This text is to my mom. who made me play the drums and pushed me to viloin lectures. Bought me drums after drums.
I took an overdose in barcelona 28.11.2019 do to benzowithdrawals. I will come back to this...
When I was 16 I got my first taste of mother nature. I ate some mushrooms i have never been the same.
I was an instution child who did not speak a word of my trip to anyone with mother nature. Try to explain the colors of the rainbow to an adult.
I never spent the nights at home I was with my older friends smoking weed. My best friend at the time called my mom about my weed smoking he hurt me a lot.
I was hiding from the police at my dads friend. untill eventually he had to let me go.
Never felt so alone and abondoned with my guitar. No idea how she came with me guitar are like women. I´ve seen a young woman at 13-16 years split her cheeks becouse she did not want to eat her meds.
I learned pretty quicly to keep to my own. Soon we were playing playstation and made our own food and had our own small apartment. Smoked some hash and listened to music- I had to do something so I started designing logos to companys with my rastas and my skateboard. By company I mean firms that wanted free labor. I have pissed a lot of drug tests by drinking water and citrus to hide thc and cbd from my urine. The only time I got caught was when the instution worker came to my home when I was on leave from the institution.
Don´t let me get started on the social workers.
Anyways I hated adults becouse they all lie. So my child if you read this don´t you be one.
When we had drug leactures in school one in particular warned if you smoke weed you will see a pike from your hand I wear one as a tattoo the jokes on me. Concidence probably...
The first dog I got close to bit me and the first cat clawed me.
Me and my friends are guys you would no want to to show to your mom exept me of course.
For an exemple after doing music the whole night we went for a cigarette and it was to damn cold so we order a taxi we wanted away. Imagine partying the whole night and you find yourself at the airport. Then bum a couple of beanzodiapines from a friend thats even more than this story.
Wake up by machine guns by the frankfurts police after getting a few ours of shut eye and telling them that we just want to get to the sun. My dear friend had weed leftowers in his pocket when we were supposed to fly to dubain where there is death penalty for marijuana so he threw hes jacket in the waiting lounge. And we were fine.
We woke up in bangcock and I called my mom. We had arrived. Then I fucked a transexual high on valium and on local alcohol. I was scarred shitless that I might have aids. I survived despite the ratio in Bangkok. the local hookers in bangkok has a ratio of 20% of aids that means 2 girls of 10 have aids and I fucked a man. I survived
After travelling for one month in thailand we went for cambodia.
We travelled to sihanoukville to beach otres 3. We went one night to a jungle party. After returing to otres during the sunrise I saw a man playing the guitar near him was cajun drum set. We started playing together we did not speak a word. It was blissful, We changed back and forth. He said to me follow your dreams. Then I saw a local drug dealer who sold me edibles. I hade one of the most meaningfull days of my life while I watched the cambodian ocean from dusk till dawn I realized there is nothing wrong with me and how beatiful mother nature.
Then we went by bus to the city were pepper grows. Kampot.
Next destination was Vietnam.
We arrived in Saigon Ho Chí Minh city. We bought crystal meth and heroin. And a own hotel room after we realized we can´t live our life in a hostel room with 10 other smelly britts.
I realized I need a guitar to be doing this journey.
When you smoke crystal What feels like 5 minutes is 5 hours when you try to get the perfect hit. Stay away from meth.
I had bought an guitar earlier so I went high as fuck to play the guitar.
People took videos of me and wanted to talk to me. I just played my new guitar.
My friend was in the hotel room still trying to get the pefect hit. Stay the fuck away from crystal meth.
Then I went back to my hotel room and started sniffing heroin like the rockstar I thought I was like all my idols before me. Just like magic I found davids magic chord hallelujuah.
The next day we we trying to get our next fix but the local police was doing a drug razzia. I know we had guardian angels on our our side. We were fine. Guardian angels was protecting us. So we left to to Phu Quoc to escape the city. We went snorkeling. While my friend was with his friends. I ate a ton of tramadols and I was swimming with dolphins.
Then we flew to Hanoi. We were high all the time as you might have guessed.
I ate a bunch of a benzodiazepines and some codeine and went for some tattoos. I now bare a black raven on my left hand.
It got me some pussy it took just a couple of months.
Then we went to Laos. First to Vientiane then to Vanvieng.
We took a hostel room. And started doing drugs. Vanvieng is sketchy they sell almost everything. So we started doing drugs.
When we got to our hostel my friend got in trouble first for smoking weed then for smoking opium. We should be sitting 7 years in a sweaty laos prison sell. Thanks to my brilliance I saved us from that hell.
We were on the balcony enjoying our night spliffs of opium when sudenlly there was 7 undercover cops trying to harras us.
We just pushed them away. They were small you know how asians are. I flushed all the drugs down the toilet. We knew we had to move on.
So we just went down the town and rented a pair of bungalows.
I got hooked up on opium pretty fast... Played one gig and tried to play an other but I got kicked out pretty fast beacouse had an opium spliff in my mouth and the guitar in my other hand. To explain to you my dear reader. in Laos there is a seven year jail sentence for opium, we are lucky to be charleen and still free.
In laos there grows a lot of magic mushrooms. So me and my dear friend ate some. After beign awake on the local methamphetamine called Yaba. We drank a couple of magic mushroom shakes. It took 15 minutes to hit. We had to leave everybody and get to our bungalows to our safe place.
At one poin of the trip I thought my friend had died. Thanks to our guardian angels he was just laying beside me.
Then I continued doing opium and playing my guitar.
One night when I was sleeping I got woken up by a britt by playing golden brown form the stranglers. We were going to harvest mushrooms for his trip to wherever he was going. My friend and he had stayed up all night probably smoking crystal. He told me stay away from opiates it will eat your soul.
Next to our bungalows there was a jungle full of mushrooms. We picked a lot of them for him... I hope he had a great trip where ever he may roam. May the force be with you.
I was already addicted to opium so my friend had to carry me to the bus away from Vanvieng to Vientiane. We did all the typical turist thing in Van vieng before you start to cry.
The Tubing the Jungle the caves and the springs.
We went back to Thailand there and then I made the promise to never travell sober again.
We arrived in Chang Mai and fast travelled to Pai. To Pai sircus school hostel. There were guys jamming all the time. I felt at home. We did the basic turist things borrowing scooters and watching waterfalls. Drank the local wine and had a hangover like nothing else.
We went to see the white buddha. I showed him the middle finger an took a selfie. I know I know I was ignorant child and if the customs see the pictures I have curfew to Thailand.
After seeign the white buddha we drank mushroom milkshakes. I was laying in my hammoc when I closed my eyes there he was Buddha. I asked him to be gentle on me and not to talk about my tattoos. He listened. He showed me his beatiful world while my friend was puking his garbage out and somehow managed to make a puppy dissapear after the puppy eat the vomit. I asked God what do you want from me why do I hurt this much, I don´t want bad to anybody show me a sign. I was enlightened but a young drug addict so the struggle contiunued to the next day the struggle continues to this day.
Then we travelled to Pattaya long story short my friend fucked a russian and I did drugs planning our trip to europe...
We took some tattoos. then we flew to Barcelona.
I had arrived I felt at home.
My friend knew a few guys who rented a place to stay so we stayed there.
One day we were sitting on in a bar on the terass and listening to live punk music. We got the splendid idea to just forget about the bill. And run away.
Then we asked a couple of police the way to see the champions league, that was going on on the same day that is when the trouble began.
We walked la rambla and a couple of swedish girls caught us asking us were are you going? we said the we are going to look at football.
They followed us. One of the girls acted as a terapeut so I spilled my whole life story to her. Of course she lied she was no terapeut just a horny swede. We kissed in a night club and she suddenly said to me let me sit on you in the bathroom go buy some condoms.
I was on my way to buy the condom when I met a heroine junkie who had a condom I wanted to try heroin so I went with him.
Bought some heroine and brought the condom but the nightclub was closed. I am lucky my friend was walking through la rambla against all odds.
we made it safley to our place...
Next morning I did speed balls In my room. I had bought cocaine earlier. My friend had tooth ache so I gave him so cocaine to ease the pain.
We had to move on...
So we took an hostel for our remaining days. I went to search more heroine. Like the curious junkie I was. Pretty fast I met some junkies either crack heads or heroine junkies. We went for an adventure they took me to lion's den an awful drug hole I bought some heroine. When I got out there they were the undercover cops. They searched me and found my bag of smack. I was honest to them and they promised nothing will happen to you. I love Barcelona.
I will come back to Barcelona I moved there couple of years later.
Then we travelled to Sweden and by bout to Turku Finland.
When we arrived in Turku we started drinking compulsively we almost got thrown out from our train to helsinki.
When we arrived we went to our friends apartment as usual we could not behave so we started wrestling and we got throwned out with my friend.
His neighbours had called the cops.
We went to jail to the lock up. The copps were probably jelous of our tan so I masturbated to their cam.
Then I stayed a couple of nights with my mom. Untill I needed to find an apartment a childhood friend called Ronja saved my ass I moved into her apartment in Helsinki where she let me live there for free. Bought some fentanyl first then started doing oxycontin and heroine and benzodiazapines I was a total mess.
After two months living there I moved with my guitar and amp to Kallio a suburb in helsinki. I was a total mess. I was seeign this beatiful girl named Natlaia she had a child and was a single parent I played the guitar a lot to her child and her I was hooked on opiates then. I remember one morning when I decided to quit drugs for good I woke up with withdrawals and saw her child on the floor. Then and there I quit opiates I wish it was last time I touched opiates.
I started smoking lots of marijuana to deal with the withdrawals it was not to bad. Thanks to the weed.
I had to figure out what to do with my life I was 21. I have friends in Sicily so I called one of them and decided to move to Palermo to work as an bartender.
Life in Palermo was hard but fun lot´s of drinking and live music in one of Sicilys best aperitivo/bars there is called Il siciliano.
My dear friend tattoo artist came to visit we played a lot of guitar. One day we took the train to Catania and walked from the train station almost all the way to Etna we hitchhiked the last kilometers. Made a fire and slept on the base of Etna. Then walked the whole way up we were companied by dogs. When we reached the top we drank a couple of beers like the kings we are. The workers were happy to see that two guys had walked the whole way instead of taking the car up.
My friend then moved to Barcelona I soon followed him there to live my dream to play the guitar. My drug use went from hand pretty fast. So I moved to Finland to escape it all. It went good for an while.
I lived with one of my best friend and he wanted us to go to Talinn so we went and we drank a lot. Went to the horehoes fucked hookers and drank some more. When we came back to Finland I had my seond encounter with a demon. We fucked and she slapped me and said don`t you ever fuck a hooker again. I love demons. They might hate me and I may die any second know.
Then I started doing oxycontins again. I went to seek help from the hospital. I pored my heart to them. I was ready to go to rehab. In Finland it is not the way it goes. You have to be sober when you are seeking for help. They gave me some pills and said go home and sleep and gave me a number to call.
I started doing even more oxycontins. I took my Fender Jaguar and flew back to beatifull Barcelona. With my opiate addiction.
I was doing telemarketing In swedish soon I was fucking my boss. She is still beatifull. I got hooked on the local opium. It`s a wonderful medicine if used correctly- Don`t you dare reader get this message wrong. There is nothing wrong with substances they are just molecules. I am the problem an I hope you don`t cary the same diseas as I.
I quit cold turkey opium thanks to weed. Instead was doing local amphetamines/meth mix 5 euro per gram.
The guy who I lived with in Kallio moved to Barcelona so I quit opium there and then. For an while...
I did speed and lsd and benzodiazapines instead.
Now is when things get out of hand.
I wanted to come down from the amphetamines after I had been playing guitar with my friend so I went to go buy some opiates.
I thought the cops were following me and that they were going to arrest me. So when I got home I cleaned my computer and ate the gram of opium shitt my pants and woke up in the hospital . My friend saved my life against all odds. I am alive thanks to him. And capable of writing this becouse of him. I should be dead. All my vitals was as good as gone. The first thing after the darkness I saw a bright light and my friends who were pissed of at me. And then a beatiful doctor who thought that I might be bi-polar I fell in love right away.
Most of the staff in Barcelonas hospital were women and they treated me like a prince, exept one who liked my in uter tattoo and said that you need to eat more. I masturbated to one of nurses she was super hot black hair and she drew some blood from me. I apologize for my honesty this is my life I´m Love and Rainbows.
Little did I know that my life would change for ever. My dear friend had at the same time arrived to come and visit me. So he came everyday to the hospital too bring me food and borrow his phone and his headphones. What a nice vacation. It was the most psychedlic experience of my life. I had a brain injury. My dear friend is a nurse so he knew right away that everything was not okey with me. Thanks to my looks him and a girl called Mia I got to stay in the hospital for as long as I did. Mia is an angel she came everyday to the hospital to keep me company. I owe her a lot. She is an aspiring actress. Very beatiful.
We flew with my friend to helsinki. No one knew yet that I had a traumatic brain injury everybody suspected something. Not me I thought I was fine. So when we arrived at the airport in helsinki we went with my mom and her man to the hospital once again. They said that I should seek help for my drug abuse. When I od:eed there was every single drug in my system expet alcohol.
I could not even get my pants on or shitt or piss correctly. So we went back to the hospital and they took an mri scan. And there thay found that I have holes in my brain.
So there started my 6 months rehabilitation.
I had to learn basic thing again like the clock and math every language I speak. I was a patient in the neurological part of the hospital. Do to the overdose i got bedsores and had to get a few operations. So lucky me I was high on opiates again. This time leagaly.
My dear friend brought me a guitar. I had to learn to play again. I´m pretty sure thats why recovered so quikly even listening to music does wonders for the brain so imagine playing it. My mother took my phone away she was scarred that my friends might bring me drugs. So she brought me a lot of books. She bought me Nirvanas Kurt Cobains biogarphi. Like to junkie I am I started to stash my leagal opiates. My other friend had brought me his playstaion and a tv. So I put my headphones in the tv and listened to Nirvana in my hopital bed in the middle of the room high on opiates. Then and there I decided that I most learn to play the guitar once more. Slowly but steadily I improved. I went to speech theray, neuropsychology therapy and played my guitar everyday. The hospital worker showed me how to take a shower. He liked to hold my hand while we walked. Thought me how to propely dose drugs and buy shitt from the grocery. A very fine and fine man.
I also read the book the power of now. It changed my life I started to meditate.
I went every evening around 10 pm to an isolated room to play guitar and trying so sing. It slowly got better and better. Then the doctor slowly but surely weaned me of the opiates.
I wanted help with my addictions so I started to see a drug rehab worker. She was amazing. We spoke a lot we had common intrests she had seen Nirvana live in Turku I´m jealous. She said to me one day that you have to read Petri Wallis and Kingston walls biography. Know you fucker who read this Biographi go to listen shine on you. They might be the best band Finland has ever produced. Thanks Jukka Jylli Sami Kuppamäkki and Petri Walli. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H\_tvqsENfUY
After I was realized from the hospital I was institutionalized going to the store was weird beign free was weird. I relapsed pretty fast.
Played my guitar too. Then I moved to east Helsingfors lived by my own trained pretty hard and played music during the weekends with my friends.
Then on the exact day when I should have died or be an vegetable a few years back I went and bought speed and subutex. That was a big mistake I got voices in my head attacking me and judging me. A doctor would call it a psychosis I call it stupidity and faith. I went to the hospital and saw a doctor. He asked me what´s going on. I said that I felt psychedelic that your the doctor know. He gave me diazepam and neuroleptics. I was fine the voices dissapeared.
I got hooked on benzodiazapines once again pretty quikly... I was hooked on the local xanax that was probably laced with fentaly. The withrawals were horrible.
Then I moved back to the city were I was born Tölö. On my birthday turning 27 I played my guitar in the heart of Helsinki were I live and was born. I guess I played good or so I remember. I was going through benzo-witharawal once again. Then I smoked weed felt like a king. Untill I went to bed the voices attacked me again. I still hear them to this day. Calling me disturbing things almost all the time. Exept when I play guitar. Not to be arrogant, reader if you happen to be a scizophrenic you are special. I dare to say a chosen one. There is succeful people with voices in their head. Like John frusciante who has had voices since he was 7 encouraging him to pick up the guitar. Anthony Hopkins voices doubting him before he is about to act. Socrates as well. Gandhi, Saint Joan of Arc
Winston Churchill, Brian Willson and of course a story of an artist Daniel Johnston. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKW2H0WBqW8
Demons home is our hell demons home or our hell?
I´m possessed by a demon who is never satified he lives in my head and learns me things like music and who I should trust.
He is a shapeshifter I think that´s pretty cool. He calls me a fraud. We are the same he is me so who is the fraud?
He is a fallen soldier. A fallen angel or so he says. He is also a demon. He loves rock n roll. We are nothing alike. We are alike Or so he says. Finally I met somebody who loves music as much as I. He comes from Hell I from Helsinki. He is starting to understand that I have no other fucking choice than to play my guitar untill I die. Do to my small deal with the king of this universe... Mr Satan
I walked to the crossroads playing the blues put my guitar down and sold my soul for exchange for fame and glory and the mastery of the guitar... I am love and rainbows
I see demons and vampires. I fell in love with a vampire she is something totaly diffrent she is a God damn vampire. She is also a Indian an Ballet dancer Shapeshifter and hot and beatiful there is not a way to describe her she is the most beatiful woman I have ever seen. She keeps dissapearing and returning all the time. She is good to me even though she could be evil so I hope I can trust her. I brought he a red rose once and she took it. Tha´ts magic. She returned it to me when I ordered food. I assume she does not like when I order kebab. She may eat me I love her. I owe everything to them my life they saved me against all the ods. The most difficult thing in my life is to choose sides between good and evil so I choose my own side follow or don`t!

1. Ichiban Kasuga: Hero/Knight

Equipment: Bat: Sword
Explanation: Was just a civilian until he was able to lift the hero bat when the others could not. and vows to protect the land of Yokohama

1. Koichi Adachi: Viking

Equipment: Baton: Hatchet axe, Enforcer Shield: Metal Shield

1. Yu Nanba: SorcereMage

Equipment: Umbrella: Magic Staff
Spells(Skills):
Positive: Healing and Resurrection
Negative: Flame Breath and Defense drop

1. Saeko Mukoda: Fairy,

Equipment: microphone: Magic wand
Spells(Skills):
Positive: Attack Raise, Defense Raise, Healing, Resurrection.
Negative: Attack Drop, Mind control( Charm Spell).

1. Joon-gi Han: Assassin

Equipment: Guns: Bow and Arrow, Arrows: Poison(Poison shot), Bleeding (Regular Bullets) Invisibility Cloak (Banshee Bayonet)

1. Tianyou Zhao: Weapon Master:

Equipment: Chinese Broadsword.

1. Eri Kamataki: Ninja:

Equipment: Ruler: Ninjato/Kodachi, Scissors: Kunai

1. Masumi Arakawa: Former Assassin and King(Patriarch)

Ichiban thinks he could possibly be a dragon in disguise.

1. Masato Arakawa: Former Prince and Evil king of the land. (Adoptive son of Arakawa and Governor of Tokyo)
   
2. Tendo: Former Gladiator (Heavyweight Champion Boxer) and Duke (Lieutenant). Dragon King and Emperor of Power (His strength), Fame (Boxing career) and the ryudo Family (Patriarch of Ryudo Family, Chairman, Dragon tattoo) (Patriarch of Ryudo Family, Chairman, Dragon tattoo).
   

The Original Characters Part 1:
Kazuma Kiryu: Former Soldier, Knight (Regular Yakuza member), Manager (of the orphanages), Hackney Coach(Taxi Driver) Duke(Lieutenant), Dragon King(Patriarch), Fourth Emperor (Fourth Chairman).
Explanation Story, (This basically Explains Kiryu's plot side in yakuza 0 in altered to medieval times) (Warning may include some Spoilers to yakuza 0): Kiryu was Just a Normal Soldier working under King Sohei Dojima (Patriarch of the dojima family) and the 3 Dukes (Lieutenants) Kuze, Awano, and Shibusawa, Along side Another Soldier Named Nishikiyama who was his sworn brother, They were Raised by the King of the Kazama royalty, Shintaro Kazama (Patriarch of the Kazama Family) who was Just Imprisoned in the dungeons for another crime, All under Emperor Makoto tojo otherwise called Takashi Nihara Of the Tojo Kingdom (Tojo Clan).
while kiryu was in the middle of a job, he ended up fighting a man and won later he was accused of murdering a man by the 3 Dukes but they found he was impaled by a sword, Kiryu claims he did not have a sword at the time.
King Dojima tries to dethrone the Imprisoned King Kazama by using Kiryu's incident as a reason, but Kiryu does not feel good about the situation due to his caring of his Beloved King and Adoptive Father.
He heads to the Dojima Castle to speak with Duke Kuze about his current problem, but Duke kuze is not too pleased about Kiryu's decision Kuze thought it was rebellion so he wanted executed but kiryu did not hold back, as Kuze walked out of the door he stopped and said "If you make it out alive then maybe we'll talk" he then walks out the door, as the Soldiers surrounded him all unarmed kiryu throws the first punch knocking a soldier into another the battle in the room begins, after kiryu is victorious he walks out of the throne room seeing more soldiers he fights his way all the way up to the throne room of the castle, where he meets up with Duke Kuze, Before their fight he warns kiryu "If you lose you will be put to execution, If you win I'll let you go" Kiryu acknowledges and they begin to dual, after Kiryu wins the dual, Kuze has to make up for what he has done and cuts of his pinkie finger, Kiryu is let go by King Dojima.
Afterwards he meets a Baronet named Jun Oda (Real estate agent) who is working under a baron named Tetsu Tachibana (President of Tachibana Real Estate), Tachibana and his squad were battling against the for a special land called "The Empty Land" ( The Empty Lot) which has yet to become something big. Tachibana welcomes Kiryu's into the squad, They tried to locate the owner of the Empty Lot , but the Dojima family got in their way. When they saw Kiryu, they were not pleased to see that he joined their rivals. They use Tactics to blackmail kiryu, but it does not bother kiryu.
As the situation escalates, he meets his sworn brother, who picks him up on a chariot, then brings him to a random place in the middle of nowhere, he intends to kill Kiryu with a flintstock gun to release him from his current problems afraid he might lose him, But Nishikiyama is hesitant, Kiryu convinces him not to kill him and tells him, "we are no longer sworn brothers" to keep him out of danger and then leaves in the chariot in which they came in, leaving Nishikiyama behind. At his return to his homeland, he sees the place he lived in burnt down and the kingdom flooded with Dojima soldiers.
On his way to Tachibana kiryu had to fight through armies of Dojima soldiers to survive meets duke kuze while fighting and the two dual once and Kiry victorious again is rescued by Tachibana on a horse, Tachibana appeals the Tojo Kingdom with promise of giving the deed to them for the safety of Kiryu.
To back up Tachibana's Plan they go to another kingdom call the Camellia land, there they meet a man called Masaru Sera who just so happens to be the leader of a organization called the Nikkyo squad who were under the Tojo Kingdom as their Black Ops squad. Who was holding Tachibana's sister, Makoto Makimura.
A spy told Duke Shibusawa about their whereabouts, and he sent a squad after them on their way back to the kingdom. Bullets were flying, but kiryu survived.
they rescued Makoto but she said Oda is not to be trusted which leads to Oda betraying them and holding her hostage, Makoto manages to escape his grasp with a concealed dagger in her pocket and stabs him in the leg, Kiryu punches him then he lands on the floor, Oda then tells kiryu the truth of the situation, Kiryu leaves he turns back to Oda and says "I trusted you" and walks away with Makoto. They head back to the home land and then go into hiding.
Tachibana found Kiryu and explained that Kazama was out of jail and him and Tachibana were working together to find the owner of the Empty Land. Kazama's army was battling against the Dojima army to stop them from gaining further power. Tachibana wishes to reunite with his sister.
Duke Shibusawa finds Oda and kills him. While Kiryu and Tachibana were talking, Tachibana see an arrow flying and dodges it, They see a hooded cloaked Assassin (Hitman) dressed in black named Lao Gui, as Kiryu tries to stop him he shoot Kiryu with a Flintstock but does not kill him.
Afterward, Tachibana surrenders to Lao gui, and they wander out of Kiryu sight in which he passes out. Kiryu wakes up in an underground city called Little Asia. And Nursed back to Health by an Elder Elf named Elder Chen. He explains where Tachibana was taken. On his way their he runs into Nishikiyama, who was sent to kill him for a promotion. He did not care for the promotion and decided not to kill him.
The Dojima family arrives. Realizing his choices, They pull out their swords and guns, feeling confident they remove their upper armor seeing Nishiki has an unfinished Koi fish tattoo while Kiryu does not have a Tattoo. They win once again against the Dojima army.
Along with Nishiki They head to Dojima Castle Dungeon were they Tortured Tachibana, seeing him extremely bruised and wounded, Kiryu throw a Punch at Duke Kuze which began the fight between Kiryu, Nishiki and Kuze and his men.
After the fight, before Tachibana dies, he explains that King Dojima was the true mastermind all along and who framed kiryu in an attempt to push Kazama into action.
In Tears, Kiryu tells Kuze that he will every last Dojima's men if Makoto comes to harm. Kiryu carries Tachibana's lifeless body to where Makoto is, Makoto is blind so kiryu had to tell her what happened to him.
While Kiryu was out again, he ran into Sera, who informed him that Duke Shibusawa had found Makoto and was awarded Kazama's position as Duke of the Dojima Castle (Captain of the Dojima Family).
Shibusawa has begun a purge of anyone of Kazama's Loyalists in the Kingdom.
Civilians running for their lives, Kiryu walks toward the disaster meeting and fighting Duke kuze one last time. After the fight Kuze reveals that Shibusawa intends to raid the Nikkyo squad HQ intending to kill Makoto who is Being held in a large Sail ship, Kiryu and Nishikiyama Rush there with only two horses but no chariot, as they arrive they see Bullets and blood flying and swords being swing
Upon their arrival, they met Kashiwagi, who was the Grand Duke of the Kazama Kingdom(Captain of the Kazama Family), He arrived with the rest of Kazama Family soldiers. As Kiryu and Nishiki are fighting their way up the ship, Nishiki tells Kiryu he got the rest of the the armed soldiers Nishiki said, "When I start shooting them you go", Nishiki as nishiki fires at will, Kiryu makes his way up the ship where Shibusawa is standing and so is the doctor with makoto in the hospital bed, Shibusawa tells them to leave.
Shibusawa explains his plan to prove himself better than Kazama by starting a war.
He reveals in his traumatic past that his committed suicide, That motivated him to climb the ranks and achieve glory at any cost. Kiryu is displeased with this reason and tells him that " Kazama does not compare to your father's suicide."
Shibusawa adds that Kazama worked against Dojima even though it was a Grand Duke of his royalty. But Kiryu told him that people like Tachibana and Makoto had to suffer.
Shibusawa tells Kiryu that instead of killing him with weapons, he is going to kill him with his bare hands.
Shibusawa takes off his upper armor, revealing a green Dragon Irezumi tattoo
Dialogue before fight:
Shibusawa: I'll kill you, surpass Kazama ... and become the Dragon of Dojima.
Kiryu: You can keep the cute nickname, but... there can only be one dragon.
Shibusawa: Yeah. I couldn't agree more.
Kiryu: I'll give you your fight, And I'll end your war!
As he finishes he Sentence Kiryu takes off his upper body armor, revealing a colorless forming Dragon Irezumi Tattoo
Shibusawa: KIRYU!!!
Getting ready to fight, they run at each clashing elbow.
From the skills Kiryu learned from a heroine, two fighting mentors, and believing in himself,he was able to with his style corresponding to Shibusawas Styles
The first phase was on top of the boat.They both used Speedy styles called rush styles, dodging each other's attacks, and exchanging quick punches.
Afterwards, the second phase began, Kiryu throws Shibusawa downstairs inside the ship, where they both switched to their slow but powerful styles called Beast styke, throw and hitting other with chairs and table and exchanging heavy blows.
After that, the 3rd and final Phase Began, they exchanged more blows, then Kiryu throws Shibusawa up the stairs where they switched to their balanced and powerful styles. Using different techniques against each other like special punches and kicks.
During the final phase, Shibusawa is on one of the rims of the ship and punching Shibusawa, then throws him to the Ground
As Shibusawa gets back up, a green mist forms around him, and then he becomes the Green Dragon he had on his tattoo.
Kiryu runs as Shibusawa chases after him, blowing fire kiryu picks up a sword and shield on the ground, blocks the fire with the shield slashes the Dragon causing him to transform back into a human, Kiryu drops the swords and shield.
Shibusawa says that he learned from kuze, "A real warrior never gives up." And says, "I'll kill Kiryu, Kazama, and Makoto, like I I killed Tachibana."
Kiryu Angrily beat him into a bloody pulp, On the verge of death, he tells kiryu to finish him off.
Kiryu grabs the sword from the ground and is about to impale Shibusawa with the sword, but before he could impale him, Nishikiyama stops him, convinces him not to kill Shibusawa
After the war, Shibusawa was arrested along with Kuze and were no longer Dukes of the tojo kingdom.
A year later, Kiryu is free of all charges and decides to return to the Dojima kingdom in order to find his way in Royalty.
While roaming a land, he meets a man who seems to already know his name
The Man: Yo... KIRYU-CHAN!
4 years later, Kiryu was kidnapped and tortured by The Emperor of a Kingdom called the Snake Flower Kingdom for interfering with their forging business but was saved by King Kazama
2 years later He goes to jail for a crime he covers for his sworn brother when he gets out 10 years later, the Empty Land Become The Land of Millennium, Other events start happening, even battling his sworn brother on the land, who betrayed kiryu. Nishikiyama has to sacrifice himself by blowing himself up alongside a Devious Mastermind.
Kiryu goes on to earn many places in Royalty (Yakuza Ranks), Jobs and fight many evil kings(antagonists) and creatures (The creatures they represent).
Especially the other man...
(To be Continued)

I'm looking for suggestion and design for a tattoo representing my daughters, I don't want the basic Name + Dates so i was thinking of a few ideas.

• Their Zodiac signs (Pisces and Libra) with their names.
• Chinese Zodiac signs (Rat and Rabbit)
• Design representing the country we are living in and its culture, which is Laos.

I'm open for any suggestion, Thanks.
​

1. Tazza Ghawa cafe in DSB Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4jQDDdY67MAaGgbUA

Sorry not BCD but went there yesterday and we loved their food 🥳 (coffee is meh tho sorry)
-nachos (finally sauce nga indi tamis 😂) -nutella sandwich (although too much chocolate for me, namit siya)
Planning to go back next week!

1. Lao Zheng resto (Singaporean dish i think) Cant find map In gaisano sa downtown area. Yummyyy! Chicken masala and braised pork I think.

I remember may branch pana sila sa 888 🙌

1. Ukiyo tattoo Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GHhiZ4yaDvEYvjvs9 in mercato finally went there after my friends recommendation and I am soooooo happy with my tattoos! huhuhu 🥹

Their place is so cozy, although medyo gamay lang siya, you will really feel at home, loved talking to the owners and loved my fineline tatts! Daw mapa schedule nako liwat sang next tatt ko huhu pero i need to save up! My friend got a piercing as well gali sang nag pa tattoo ko and she's very happy with her septum and navel pierce hihi +100 kay female ang piercer so mas comfy to be honest hehe

1. Mama doods lacson street siya in front of ribshack Lutong bahay Namit ang lumpia hehehe
   
2. Cozy coffee The one beside san agustin school/college Di ko personally happy sa service sang staffs specifically ang middle aged guy meh 😔 buuttt coffee is really good! ☕
   
3. Slurptea sa mercato when I was getting my tattoo
   
4. thai tea with cream cheese just mix it well and order the small size
   

Near ukiyo tattoo lang gid sa mercato, i think wala sila sa google maps pa.
Actually ging recommend lang sang owners sang ukiyo that's why I tried and wala gid nag hinulsol.
+100 for affordability 🤗

1. Spa natura in lacson https://maps.app.goo.gl/qB1VDvek7yvUPk7D7

THE BEST SPA I'VE EVER BEEN TO 💯 Must try gid!!!
Every time I get home to bacolod after traveling, this is my go to place gid to heal all the backaches and for foot massage hehehe
Try nyo lang di kami mag hinulsol HAHAHA

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦
To all our esteemed guests and musicians here with us tonight, welcome to the arrival ceremony for my dearest friend. It warms my heart immensely to see so many of you have accepted the invitation to celebrate with us, and I am eagerly awaiting every one of your performances.
In fact, I have another surprise for Clobantha – I have decided to host another grand event for her shortly, and the best thirty artists in our company will be invited back to perform once more! Six of these places are reserved for my own personal favourites, but I will leave the rest of our choices to our guests tonight. A little competition, of course, is always enjoyable.
Best wishes to you all,
Princess Libbythia
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Automatic qualifiers

Voting In	Country	User	Artist	Song	Link
1	Armenia	u/Fun6754	Baby Jane	"Hex"	Here
1	Norway	u/andherby	Cherry Ferrari	"Night Before"	Here
2	Marshall Islands	u/FreeCuddlesAnyone	After School	"Shh"	Here
2	Greenland	u/-mytearsricochet	Michelle Branch	"Goodbye To You"	Here
3	Libya	u/lissa_1111	Cherry Glazerr	"Big Bang"	Here
3	Tokelau	u/AwesomeJoshua	EFESIAN	"The Smoke"	Here

• Youtube playlist
• Spotify playlist (missing Marshall Islands)
• Recap

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Semi-final 1

Draw	Country	User	Artist	Song	Link
1	Australia	u/dankmemer8578	Arca, ROSALÍA	"KLK"	Here
2	Antigua and Barbuda	u/SergeyJorjaStan	BINA.	"Dopamine"	Here
3	Chad	u/slfkjia	HAAi	"Purple Jelly Disc"	Here
4	Timor-Leste	u/ZwissDa2nd	Slayyyter	"Out Of Time"	Here
5	Chile	u/FKA-Pieck	Sofia Kourtesis	"Madres"	Here
6	Bhutan	u/j0rdy000	Princess Ketamine, diana starshine, That Kid	"Cherry"	Here
7	Congo Republic	u/BebeLuigi	AYYBO	"RIZZ"	Here
8	Mexico	u/Woifeizz	Alaina Castillo	"éxtasis"	Here
9	Georgia	u/Georgie-M	Master Peace (ft. Georgia)	"I Might Be Fake"	Here
10	Belarus	u/-Stanley_yelnats-	Chanpan, Ladji Mouflet	"Jungle"	Here
11	South Korea	u/Lux_Archives	BROCKHOFF	"Sharks"	Here
12	Seychelles	u/Bowman3058	Ninajirachi	"Wayside"	Here
13	India	u/ZeRoyalSushi	JPEGMAFIA	"HAZARD DUTY PAY!"	Here
14	Ukraine	u/fatesconsequence	FROMTHEHEART (ft. brakence, VALENTINE, HOLIDAYKISS, patches)	"dragged"	Here
15	Cabo Verde	u/PhillipsBM	PAMÉ	"BULLET PUT DOWN"	Here
16	St. Barthélemy	u/george_kaito	Hundred Waters	"Firelight"	Here
17	San Marino	u/PercyYates	DJ_Dave	"Array"	Here
18	North Korea	u/curryraejepsen	Zheani	"Bring Wet Cunt"	Here
19	New Zealand	u/Flock-RSC	Labrinth	"Kill For Your Love"	Here
20	Turks and Caicos Islands	u/tehhammerz	dj nevykele	"aerobika"	Here

• Youtube playlist
• Spotify playlist
• Recap
• Sorter

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Semi-final 2

Draw	Country	User	Artist	Song	Link
1	Vanuatu	u/mac1oo	FREE.99	"TRANS RIOT MUSIC"	Here
2	Bahrain	u/-MaxK-	Nunu, Sagi Kariv	"Cute Boy"	Here
3	Croatia	u/Shes_In_Partys	Lagoona Bloo	"Elle Woods"	Here
4	Turkey	u/dies-IRS	Sezen Aksu	"Şinanay"	Here
5	The Gambia	u/fuerteesc	BESTie	"Excuse Me"	Here
6	Namibia	u/XalionN	Joya Mooi	"Remember"	Here
7	Yemen	u/SaltyPopcorn02	grouptherapy.	"FUNKFEST"	Here
8	Bangladesh	u/DylanSlayChallenge	fromis_9	"#menow"	Here
9	Wallis and Futuna	u/hubbernd	Allie X	"Black Eye"	Here
10	North Macedonia	u/eurokev00	Großstadtgeflüster	"Ich kündige"	Here
11	Aruba	u/qyzxf	Jane Remover	"misplace"	Here
12	Ethiopia	u/AlexandraAlt_1	akiaura, LONOWN, STM	"Sleepwalker"	Here
13	Tanzania	u/bvsil	Ayra Starr	"Rhythm & Blues"	Here
14	Lithuania	u/Muzaxe14	Ghita	"Garden"	Here
15	Netherlands	u/stardust112	Nonô	"Domingo"	Here
16	Moldova	u/OkAssistance3220	Eva Timush	"Tattoo"	Here
17	Latvia	u/SandHannahtiser	Lucy Rose	"Could You Help Me"	Here
18	China	u/reetuss1	Peach PRC	"Like A Girl Does"	Here
19	United States	u/Azzbestos	SOPHIE	"Ponyboy"	Here
20	Curaçao	u/boapessoa	Daniela Pes	"Làira"	Here

• Youtube playlist
• Spotify playlist (missing Vanuatu)
• Recap
• Sorter

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Semi-final 3

Draw	Country	User	Artist	Song	Link
1	Belize	u/kazamagram	Smerz	"Believer"	Here
2	The Bahamas	u/Kaylaboe	Julie London	"I'm Glad There Is You"	Here
3	Niue	u/SoupearJ	Juçara Marçal	"Sem Cais"	Here
4	Belgium	u/Opha23	Jenna Bennett	"Don't Care"	Here
5	Falkland Islands	u/shoyoh_	millennium parade	"lost and found"	Here
6	Saint Lucia	u/Spooky_Squid	FLO (ft. Missy Elliott)	"Fly Girl"	Here
7	Bolivia	u/boliveee	Kelela	"Contact"	Here
8	Laos	u/Chimlin	Thérèse	"Toujours Trop"	Here
9	Philippines	u/zorkle22	Vagabon	"Lexicon"	Here
10	Denmark	u/Foobibby	The Last Dinner Party	"Nothing Matters"	Here
11	DR Congo	u/BiPolarBear17	Kllo	"Maybe We Could"	Here
12	Faroe Islands	u/BFerdinand_	FELIVAND	"Where Were You"	Here
13	Kyrgyzstan	u/Chickflopia	Asiya Ospanova	"MSQ"	Here
14	Malawi	u/swelldoestheskull	body/negative (ft. Midwife)	"everett"	Here
15	Canada	u/estoniass	Kristina Maria, Corneille	"Copilot"	Here
16	Comoros	u/Zeiskyte	VIVIZ	"Untie"	Here
17	Andorra	u/Cholien99	all diese gewalt	"ANDERE"	Here
18	Maldives	u/chaoticciolina	Tamera	"Wickedest"	Here
19	Oman	u/_xSyracuse	Mai Davika	"Sunset Sensory"	Here
20	Equatorial Guinea	u/jakub_chyl	Dead Can Dance	"The Carnival Is Over"	Here

• Youtube playlist
• Spotify playlist
• Recap
• Sorter

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A Spotify playlist of all songs can be found here.
You will send in your votes and crossvotes to u/RedditvisionHost using forms only. The forms will be attached below and in the comments of this post.
Voting in your own semi-final: You will vote by sending in your 12, 10, 8 through 1 points as well as your 11th to 15th place. Voting in your own semi-final is mandatory, and failure to do so will result in a disqualification and you will be barred from entering the next edition. Voting is through this form only.
Voting in other semi-finals: If you wish, you may voluntarily vote in the semi-finals that you are not allocated to vote in. The process is the same as above. Crossvoting is through this form only.
The deadline to vote for your favourite performances is 29 January at 23:59 CET. Good luck!!

I am now almost 4 months into my first solo backpacking trip and wow has it been incredible. I have already seen and experienced so much more than I ever could have imagined. Met so many more people than I anticipated, laughed, cried and marveled (sometimes all at the same time). It’s hard to believe that it has only (and at the same time already) been 4 months.
Disclaimer: the text is rather long and English is my second language, so I apologize in advance for any awkward phrasing or misspelling! This is also my first time posting on Reddit so if there are any formatting errors, etc. please let me know and I will try to fix it ASAP!
With that out of the way, please enjoy a recap of my last 4 months:
My journey started in Bangkok, Thailand. I wanted to start my travels here, since this is the city where I was born but haven’t been to since my family moved away when I was 2 years old. My first impression of Bangkok was that is pure chaos. There are scooters everywhere, so many people, some cars, crazy Tuk-tuks and an incredible mix of history but also modernity. Over the days I spend in Bangkok, I came to realize that the city can’t be described in just one sentence or word. Bangkok is Khao San Road (backpacker party street) just as much as it is the thousands of temples, busy shopping malls, delicious street food and so much more. I completely fell in love with the city and it was the perfect start for me. My route took me into the north of Thailand, with a stop in Ayutthaya followed by a ride in 3rd class of the sleeper train up to Chiang Mai.
It was better than expected but still not great. I got to Chiang Mai a little sleep deprived but all that was quickly forgotten and the city won me over in a heartbeat. There is just so much to do! From hikes to exploring temples, to day trips to the ethical elephant camps, to cooking classes and the sticky waterfalls. I spend a couple days here before heading to Pai.
Pai is often described as backpacker heaven and I still haven’t decided if I liked the city or not. It is located in the mountains so there is plenty to explore but the city itself feels more “western” than anything else. It is home to a vibrant hippie scene with lots of drugs (if one is into that, I am not and still found plenty to do) and a lot of live music and bars. Pai to me is one of those places that you have to experience to understand and decide if you like it or not.
Up next was another quick pit stop in Chiang Mai before heading to Chiang Rai for a couple days. Looking back, one day definitely would have been enough to explore the major tourist highlights of the city (white temple, blue temple, black house). But I also enjoyed taking a breather after a hectic first 20 or so days.
From Chiang Rai, I made my way to the Laos border and crossed into country nr. 2 of this trip. I decided to take the slow boat to Luang Prabang. Everyone I saw online was raving about this experience and the landscape you will see over the two-day journey. Well, I was underwhelmed. The slow boat is no longer used by the locals to get from the border to Luang Prabang but instead draws lots of tourists. On my boat it was mostly drunk guys yelling and getting more and more drunk as the day went on. This quickly ruined the illusion of this being a peaceful and calm journey. It was still nice but definitely not what I expected. After that start, I was a bit scared about how I would like Laos but those fears quickly evaporated over the next couple days. I explored Luang Prabang for a bit before heading north to Nong Khiaw and went on a couple of hikes which allowed me to watch a stunning sunrise on top of the mountains as well as some beautiful sunsets.
After Nong Khiaw, it was time to make my way south and the next stop was Vang Vieng, also known as the adventure capital of Laos. Among other things, Vang Vieng offers the cheapest hot air balloon ride in the world (did it for a sunrise and it was worth it!), tipsy tubing (sitting in an inflatable tube sipping beers as you glide down a river and stop at 3 bars), relaxing by the lagoons, some hiking, paramotoring and so much more. Vang Vieng was so much fun! Up next was a quick stop in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), I only spend one night here since I didn’t hear anyone actually enjoy the city.
After that, it was time to take on the Thakhek Loop. This has been one of my highlights of the trip so far! The loop takes 3-4 days and takes you through stunning vistas, to caves, a zipline, local kids running up to your bike waving and wanting high fives and just shows you more of the country than you would see by simply sitting in a bus.
At last, it was time to relax a little in the 4000 islands of the Mekong Delta. I headed to Don Det and was able to enjoy the island for a couple days before making my way down to Vietnam and meeting up with some friends I met in Bangkok and got along with amazingly.
Due to being German, I get a free 45-day visa for Vietnam, this allowed me more time in the country than others often have and I took full advantage of it. The trip started in HCMC, which I really enjoyed as a city (more so than Hanoi). It’s big and hectic but still felt comfortable. The war remnants museum was impressive!
We headed to the sand dunes of Mui Ne, followed by Da Lat (where we stayed at a hostel for 1 euro per night) and then Nha Trang. Sadly, the weather started to turn bad here and it started to rain lots but we still made the most of it and I ended up getting my first tattoo. We took a night bus to get to Hoi An and got some tailored clothes while we were there. Hoi An was amazing and I really enjoyed the time we spend there. After Hoi An, we spend a couple nights in Da Nang. We didn’t realize how close the two are to each other. Looking back, it is def possible to spend some time in one or the other and then take a day trip to the other.
From Da Nang, I rented a motorbike and drove the Hai Van Pass. I got lucky with the weather and had so many great views along the way! It took me around 5h to get to Hue.
Once I arrived, I quickly dropped my bag of in the hostel and then drove to the abandoned water park. This one is seen all over social media and is one of those spots that is worth the hype and was very fun to explore.
From Hue I took a night bus to Ninh Binh (well Tam Coc technically) and wow! The nature surrounding the city is breathtaking. Up next was Hanoi and with it the attractions of northern Vietnam. While the south was pretty, the north was simply breathtaking! We ended up doing the Ha Giang Loop, trekking in Sapa, visiting the beaches of Cat Ba and did a cruise in Ha Long Bay over Christmas. All of which were simply breathtaking! The Loop is definitely crowded and sees a lot of tourism but to me was one of the most impressive things I have done so far.
After 40 days, it was time for me to say goodbye to Vietnam and make my way to Cambodia. I rushed down to Koh Rong Samloem to spend new year’s here and my Birthday there. In total I stayed 7 days and was blown away by the island! It was incredible to just sleep in, relax by the beach and read after the last adventure filled months. I was also lucky enough to go and see the bioluminescent plankton multiple times. Swimming with them and starring up into a sky filled with stars was simply surreal.
After being properly rested, I had back to Phnom Penh for 3 nights. Phnom Penh had two very different emotions for me: disbelief and euphoric joy. During the day I went and explored S21 Prison and the Killing fields. Both of these deal with the rule of the Khmer Rogue and if you do not already know about this, please read up on it. It is unfathomable to think that this happened roughly 50 years ago and yet it is barely talked about. In the evenings I ended up going out and seeing the other side of Phnom Penh, a very happy and open night life.
Eventually I made my way to Siam Reap and was blown away once more. I knew that I wanted to see Angkor Wat and all the other temples but I did not expect to be as impressed as I was. I ended up buying a 3-day pass (if you buy at after 16.40 you can head to Angkor Wat for free on that day and your pass does not start until the next day!) So, I did just that and the sunset was magical. I ended up going back for sunrise the next morning and was the third person in, the sunrise was even more spectacular. I rented a motorbike and drove around to most of the close temples and enjoyed almost all of them!
After Siam Reap, it was back to Bangkok for a couple nights before making my way south with a sleeper bus. I got to Surat Thani and took a ferry to Koh Samui right away. I only spend a day here before heading to Koh Pha-Ngan for 2 nights and then making my way to Koh Tao. I enjoyed the first two islands but was very excited for Koh Tao. I started getting my diving license yesterday and so far, absolutely love this island.
Well, this got a lot longer than I had planned… if you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading! In general, I have found that traveling in South East Asia is relatively easy if you bring a smile and are not stressed about time. Sometimes the buses and trains are on time but more often than not, they are running on “Asia time” and show up/ depart whenever they do. A lot of the locals speak some basic form of English or are happy to communicate with pointing and hand signals but they always appreciate any effort you put into using their language even if it is simply to say “hello” and “thank you”. I was a little worried at first about feeling lonely because I am solo backpacking but the only times I was really alone were when I chose to be. It is so easy to meet other travelers in hostels, on the buses or during activities. I really don’t have too many complaints so far other than traveling being a bit harder when you are tall. I am 6’3 and often can’t fit my legs into the sleeper buses or assigned seats, so leg cramps and lower backpain have become a constant part of travel days.
I can't wait to see what the next weeks/ months hold for me!

A bit late but it's time for the annual /milwaukee Best Of thread! Our yearly place to identify the all best things our great city has using the power of reddit voting.
As always, please keep top level comments to new category suggestions (in the format of "Best [category]?") and direct child comments as a single nominee for that category. Comments not following this format, or duplicate nominees in a category, will be removed.
Previous years: 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015

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For context: I'm an American, but I've spent roughly half of the past four years in other countries for the express purpose of training martial arts: China, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and (of course) Thailand. There have been a lot of recent posts on MuayThai about training in Thailand, and I wanted to create a single document where I can share my experiences, compare and contrast the training cultures in different countries, and hopefully offer insight for other westerners who are interested in training abroad. I'm ordering these by the amount of time I've spent in each country.
Thailand: I've spent about 10 cumulative months in Thailand. I was here from March 2020 to August 2020 (right at the beginning of Covid, that was fun), came back for three months last year as part of a grand tour of SE Asia, and am currently about 2 months into a ten month extended traincation. There's a lot of information already about training in Thailand, so I'll keep it relatively short: it's very good, and I'm going to use it as my baseline of comparison. There are gyms everywhere, especially in tourist-heavy areas. There are many camps which provide food, housing, and training as part of a package, though it's usually cheaper to just find a short term rental near a gym you want to train at. I've trained at roughly half a dozen gyms here; while some gyms are more intense than others, even the worst Muay Thai in Thailand is above-average by US standards. It's hard to go wrong. I would say the biggest difference between Muay Thai here and Western Muay Thai/kickboxing is teacher-student ratio and overall attitude. Whereas most western kickboxing gyms have a single coach directing many students, here you usually have several trainers per gym, especially larger ones. This gets you more personalized training, and pad rounds are almost always conducted by a trainer rather students holding pads for each other like in the US. Trainers are usually active or retired professional fighters with jaw-dropping numbers of fights under their belt. The other big difference is attitude; while the training here is very intense, the trainers tend to be much -less- self-serious than American coaches. Most of the MT coaches in America I've met are Very Serious Men with beard and shin tattoos who never smile or crack jokes. Here, the trainers are much more likely goof around with students, even as their putting you through super intense workouts. Thailand is a popular destination for martial arts tourism with good reason, and if you're thinking coming here, I recommend it.
China: I spent six months in China, from September 2019 to March 2020. I was there when the initial covid outbreak happened, and boy howdy, that was an experience. I trained at two training camps while I was there: Kunyushan academy outside the city of Yantai, and Yu Kung Fu outside the city of Tengzhou. Both were "Shaolin Schools" that taught a mixture of performance wushu and Sanda (Chinese kickboxing). Kunyushan is the single worst experience I've ever had with martial arts, and that includes the multiple martial arts cults that tried to recruit me when I was in college. While the training was decent, the social atmosphere was absolutely toxic. There was an incident where a student was late to class too many times, so he was publicly beaten. They made him lie in a plank position while a coach yelled at him in Chinese, and a staffer dead-pan translated into English. Then they beat him on the back of the legs with a bamboo rod. When I talked to other students about it, I found that I was the only one upset by the incident: the other students actively enjoyed, and expressed a desire for more public beatings. It was like the lord of the fucking flies. I left the school shortly after.
My second training camp, Yu Kung Fu, was much better. It was smaller school, the teacher was easygoing, and there were no public beatings. I stayed for six months, before covid got in the way. We would train wushu in the morning and Sanda in the afternoon; and while wushu isn't the most fighting-oriented art, it is a hell of a workout, akin to doing gymnastics.
I know Chinese martial arts don't have the most sterling reputation, but the training in China is actually quite intense. Maybe a bit too intense, really. China is, broadly speaking, a very serious and very competitive place, and that manifests in the martial arts training. This often leads to pressuring athletes to train through injuries and not giving them proper recovery time (my teacher spent 4 years with a broken foot because he was never given time to let it heal). Additionally, China is a much harder place to be a foreigner than Thailand; there's lots of air pollution, little greenery, not many people speak English. Even the beds are hard.
I don't really recommend training in China, unless you have a very specific reason to there instead of somewhere else.
Cambodia: I spent two months in Cambodia last year as part of my SE Asia tour. I was in Siam Reap the entire time, training Kun Khmer at a gym called Mr Ly. Since I only trained at the one gym, I can really only review my experience there rather than trying to paint a broad picture of the country. Kun Khmer is the Cambodian equivalent of Muay Thai, and it is a -very- similar. Like, Muay Thai in Thailand and Muay Thai in the west are way more stylistically different than Muay Thai in Thailand and Kun Khmer in Cambodia. I also visted a Kun Bokator school once or twice, but didn't like it as much; if Kun Khmer felt like Muay Thai, then Kun Bokator felt like karate. That said, Mr Ly is maybe my favorite place I've ever trained at. They had several professional fighters there, who were the toughest human beings I've ever met. Sparring was every day, for three ten-minute rounds. If someone had a fight coming up, maybe four. This was usually followed by one or two ten-minute rounds of clinch fighting. It was very intense, and I grew a lot in my time there. Siem Reap is extremely tourist-friendly, with a high rate of English proficiency and a massive hospitality industry. It's the city that surrounds Angkor Wat, which is indeed gob-smackingly impressive.
I would primarily recommend Cambodia and Kun Khmer as an additional destination for people training Muay Thai in Thailand. If you're planning on being in the region for more than two months, that usually means either finding an educational visa or border bouncing. So while you border bounce, why not train as well?
Laos: I spent one month in Laos as part of my SE Asia tour. I was in Vientiane (the capital) the whole time, as it was the only place in the country I was able to find public Muay Lao gyms. Muay Lao is exactly what you think it is: The Lao version of Muay Thai. Training was more or less identical to Muay Thai and Kun Khmer. I was able to find four gyms in Vientiane (Infinity, Lane Xang, Safa, and MKP), and I trained at all of them. MKP was the most intense, but also the hardest to get to (it's on the outskirts of the city), and where I did the most of my training. The only thing that stood out to me was the high rate of female trainers there: of those of four gyms, MKP and Safa both had female pro fighters who worked as trainers, and Infinity was owned by a woman who was also the head coach. I'm not sure if that offers some insight into the gender politics of Laos, or was just a coincidence.
As I understand it, Vang Vieng and Luo Probang are the main tourist destinations in Laos, and had I been able to find a place to train there, I would've gone there instead. Vientiane was.... fine, I guess, but not particularly inspiring as a place to return to. It's also a common border bounce destination for travelers in Thailand, and if you find yourself in that boat, I'd recommend checking out Infinity or MKP.
Vietnam: I spent three weeks in Vietnam as part of my SE Asia tour, primarily in the city of Da Lat. There, I was both training Muay Thai at the Da Lat Muay Thai Temple and Viet Vo Dao with the Da Lat University club. I also spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh city, where I also did a little bit of Muay Thai and Viet Vo Dao.
Muay Thai in Vietnam felt much closer to Muay Thai in America than the Thai style. Both gyms had a single coach rather than a team of trainers, and students tended to be locals trying to get in shape rather than a mixture of professional fighters and tourists.
Training Viet Vo Dao (aka Vovinam) was a neat experience, but probably not one I'm itching to repeat. It's Vietnam's national martial art, and is somewhat similar to wushu or taekwondo; very acrobatic and performance-oriented. It's primarily trained via community centers and student clubs rather than commercial gyms, so getting access to it can be difficult as well. The Da Lat university club was surprised, confused, and ultimately delighted that a random American wanted to train with them. They even asked to be part of a performance at their school, but unfortunately I had to leave the country before it was scheduled.
Japan: I spent three weeks in Japan, though primarily as a tourist rather than a budo bum. I trained at three gyms while I was there: Daido Juku HQ in Tokyo, Imanari Jiujitsu in Tokyo, a Muay Thai gym in Osaka I can't recall the name of, and Groundcore MMA in Kyoto. I would say Japan was one of the hardest places to train. A lot of the gyms didn't have a policy for drop-ins. They would either let me train for free, but only once, or just refuse me entrance. I was also there shortly after they lifted their COVID travel restrictions, so foreign tourism was just starting up again. The place that stood out most in memory was Groundcore in Kyoto. Japanese MMA has a long legacy of producing unique and eccentric fighters; Every person I sparred with was the weirdest person I had ever fought in a completely different way. One older fellow constantly pressured in. Another would stay way out of range, then dash in like he was doing a driveby. Another through almost nothing but jumping head kicks. Another guy, swear to god, fought in slow motion like he was doing tai chi (and landed things consistently, because his fight IQ was through the roof). Loved that place.
The other big downside of Japan it's way more expensive than any of the other countries I visited. so if you are going to go train there, expect to spend 3-4 times what you would in Thailand. I might go back someday, but only if I find myself with deeper pockets.
Thanks for bearing with me! I've been wanting to write up my experiences for a while, and this seemed like the most productive place to do it. Happy training. ;)

For context, I’m (23m) and my father is (64). Only recently, as I’m an adult has he started to open up about his past and the things he went through. Never could I have imagined the hardships and things that happened to him. It has honestly blown my mind. So I started to write down his story with his permission to share. Anyways, I will detail here what I know about him without revealing any names or specific locations. This is a very long post, sorry for that. Please let me know if this is something worth pursuing, along with any tips you may have.
My father grew up as one of 24 children in his family, born in Laos in 1959 during the civil war between communist Pathet Lao, who was backed by northern Vietnam, and the Royal Lao Government. The US backed the Royal Lao Government and engaged in what is known as the “Laos Secret War” and dropped more than 270 million cluster bombs on Laos in a 9-year period, making Laos the most bombed country per capita. During which my dad went to Catholic school in the morning and then to public school in the afternoon. Many families sent their children to Catholic schools so they could be fed due to the overwhelming poverty at the time. France had integrated Laos into French Indochina many decades prior, building many Catholic churches and schools. Thus converting a portion of the country from Buddhism to Catholicism. The school my father went to also taught the children Muay Thai as part of the curriculum for some reason. As my father studied and trained for a few years, the conflict was starting to spread closer to his village and tension was building with the people there. (My dad was around 10 at this time)
I should also mention that my grandfather was a horrifying and abusive man. He was short and stocky, covered in tattoos of the Naga from head to toe. (The Naga is a demi-god sea serpent that is worshipped in Lao culture, said to reside in the Mekong River.) All 24 of the children were his but split between 3 wives, which was sort of the norm at the time in Laos. My grandfather was seen as a powerful man in the village because of his abundance of sons. At the time you could just go and claim land with manpower alone, so my grandfather and his sons would go and claim rice fields for themselves. If any of his children didn't obey his orders he would punish them very severely, as well as punish the respective child's mother. Intense beatings were the norm.
As well as being farmers, my family were renowned water buffalo tamers. People would come to buy water buffalo and their meat, it was profitable. Once the conflict grew closer, buyers for the rice and buffalo stopped coming. This led my grandfather to turn to crime, crossing the Mekong River to Thailand to sell his goods, where he also began selling opium. Which was all explicitly outlawed. He forced his older sons to accompany him in the cover of night, risking all their lives in the process due to the nearby communist camps that would patrol the river at night looking to execute any who tried to escape across the river, and freedom fighters crossing into the country to fight the communists.
During this time, my uncle, a pilot in the Lao military, decided to escape the country. He was about 15 years older than my father and was married to my aunt, who is my father's older sibling. (sorry if that was confusing) They had a two-year-old son and did not want to bring him up in the middle of this conflict. At the time my uncle was stationed in Thailand because the communists were gathering up all the stray Lao government officials and members of the military to send them to work camps. My uncle hatched a plan to sneak back into Laos across the river at night and retrieve his wife and child. Initially, things went well and he was able to cross into the country without being spotted and retrieve his family, but by the time they returned to the river the boat that was waiting for them was gone, chased away by communist soldiers. So my uncle waited while hiding in a bush with his wife and their small child for days until finally, another boat arrived to rescue them. This act inspired more people in the village to try and rebel or escape, causing many unfortunate deaths. My grandfather was explicitly against any of his other children attempting to do anything similar despite his frequent trips across the river. (I guess he had a sort of "nobody can endanger my children but me" mindset.)
A few years went by with nothing major happening in the village, though the conflict was still going strong. My dad was around 13 at this time, and my grandfather became increasingly abusive due to the lack of money and food around, which led him to do one of the worst things I have had the displeasure of hearing to this day. My father had been tending the fields and herding buffalo. During that time he had made his first real friend, a stray dog that he would often see on the edge of the village. He began to feed the dog with the little scraps he was able to sneak away from home, and the dog began accompanying him to the fields every morning while he did his work. (The way my father described this dog and their relationship made me understand how much it meant to him.) The dog became his best friend. They did everything together, and my father was happy for the first time in his life. Then one day, an unspecified amount of time later. My father woke up and was not able to find his buddy, he went out to the fields and the dog never came, he tended to the buffalo and the dog was nowhere to be seen. He finished his work and returned home to find the most horrifying thing a child could see. My grandfather had the top half of his dog strung up on a meat hook to dry, while he sat and ate the other portion right in front of my father. My dad began to break down and cry asking him why he would do this, his father told him that he had seen him walking around the fields with this dog. He said that all animals are to him is meat and he was hungry, knowing that this was my father's only friend and that taking him away would break my father's heart. This event is what would make my father start to truly hate his father.
At this point, my dad had completely renounced any type of relationship he had with his father and decided that he would take revenge. My father spoke to his brothers and was able to convince a handful of them to help him take revenge for the beatings they'd all received and for the abuse of their mothers. Sometime later they decided the time was right, they waited for their father to come home from a trip into town. When he did, they surrounded him. Ready to take out all their frustrations on him. It was at this point that a few of the brothers started to get scared and back down, but my father was so enraged that he rushed at his father with a farming tool and the intent to seriously harm him. Only my father was a 13-year-old boy, and his father was a grown man, strong from working the fields his entire life. My father proceeded to get the worst beating of his life, right there in front of his brothers. Everyone was too petrified to move and just let my father be beaten within an inch of his life. (To this day my father still has resentment toward those brothers that he feels betrayed him that day.)
From then forward, the mistreatment toward my father only got worse and finally reached a boiling point. My father realized that the only way he could get away from this abuse was to escape the country. This time he made sure only to tell the people he trusted. That being just two friends from the village who were a few years older than him. There were only 2 problems, they had no canoe to cross the river, and my father knew his siblings and mother would be punished for him leaving. Despite this, they still decided to go through with their plan. They spent the time they had after work going up and down the river scouting for the narrowest part of the river, and the parts with the weakest current so they could cross. (The Mekong can be over a mile wide, or 1.5km in some areas. The soldiers also only patrolled the river at night, as during the day it was sort of a no man's land, and people were allowed to continue fishing and working on the river.) At the same time, they were slowly gathering supplies for their journey.
At some point, my grandmother started to put together what they were up to and offered to help them. She pulled my father aside and told him that she knew what they were up to and told them where to cross the river, as well as when my grandfather would be away and that they should steal his canoe and leave at that time. They had a long conversation about what would happen after they left. (Much of this conversation my dad skimmed over when telling me.) My grandmother assured my father that she would be okay and that this was his opportunity for a better life. She gave him what little money she could without anyone noticing, and a handful of jewelry she had been stashing. With that the plan was complete.
Some time later my father and his friends decided that the time was right. They gathered the little belongings they could carry on their backs and said their goodbyes. They left for the river in the middle of the night while my grandfather was in the woods foraging for mushrooms. It was lightly raining, they made their way to the canoe and sat for a while to gather the courage to actually get in. Once they were in they were almost immediately spotted by a nearby patrol of communist soldiers. At this point, the fight or flight response kicked in, and they all chose flight. Knowing that turning around and surrendering would lead to being sent to a work camp or worse. So they all paddled as hard as they could away from the Lao shore and toward the Thai shore. The soldiers made their way to the edge of the embankment and began firing their guns into the water. Sadly, one friend was struck in the back of the head and died instantly, falling into the water. They had no time to process what just happened and continued to paddle for their lives. That was until my father's other friend was also hit, it pierced his upper back and he was paralyzed. My father started to panic and dropped the paddle only to be shot in his right shoulder as well, but more soldiers were coming up the river in a boat and they had no time. Nearby Thai soldiers heard the gunfire and rushed to the shore on their side, returning fire to give my dad enough time to reach the shore. He touched the soil and knew that he had made it. Once they touched Thai soil, the soldiers no longer pursued them as they did want to start an all-out battle with the Thai soldiers at this time. The Thai soldiers began to escort my father and carry his paralyzed friend inland, but my dad decided to stop for a moment to look back. He saw the communist soldiers picking his dead friend up out of the water and placing him in the boat. (My father still suffers from survivors guilt to this day, which is what led him to do what he did next.)
The Thai soldiers told them about a few large refugee camps on the border in Thailand, so my father decided to head towards one. On their way, they had to stop at an immigration center so my father could register as a refugee and get some medical attention. Once completed, my dad, filled with anger, changed his mind and decided to head towards a group of Lao refugees he had heard about who had decided to form a resistance group to fight back against the communists. So my father said goodbye to his friend who had been paralyzed and started traveling to this camp alone. This camp was run by a Lao man who was previously in the Lao military until his entire unit was rounded up and sent to work camps or executed. This man was the only one to escape. When my dad arrived at this place there were many young Lao men just like him, around 100, and many of them my dad knew from around his village. After feeding my father the man in charge explained that he was forming a resistance group, funded by the Thai military secretly, to go back and reclaim their villages from the communists and that my father could either join or be on his way to the refugee camp. (At this time my father is around 14)
My dad joined this camp and began his training as a child soldier of sorts. (This is one of the things I only learned about my father very recently, so I don't have many details about this time of his life yet.) My dad started by training with firearms and digging trenches around their base, should the communists ever come to the Thai side. Part of the schedule was patrols during the day and night, my dad was stationed on night patrol where he admitted to messing around with an M16 and accidentally firing off about 15 rounds into the night sky, which awoke the whole camp, who scolded him and nearly kicked him out. My dad was at this resistance camp for little more than six months, during this time they orchestrated several surprise attacks against groups of communist soldiers, My dad detailed his feelings about what happened, saying that he always had severe anxiety every time they got into a boat to go back into Laos, probably due to the trauma he suffered crossing the river the day he escaped. He would close his eyes the entire boat ride and only open them once he knew they had made it across. Once back in the country, usually, groups of 3 men would sneak around small villages, looking for patrols they could follow back to the main camps to map out where all their bases were. When they had identified all the camps in a given area, they would leave and gather more men to come back and wait to ambush patrols in quieter, more secluded areas, taking away a lot of manpower the communists had. Doing this allowed them to sneak people out of Laos much easier, and they were even able to rid a few small villages of soldiers altogether. Despite going on more than a few of these missions, my dad is not sure if he ever killed anyone. In the same way that he closed his eyes when he was in the boat, he closed his eyes as they shot into groups of enemy soldiers, probably trying to save himself from the trauma of knowing, or just from being scared.
This all culminated when my dad was sent out on one of the scouting missions, only this time they were scouting his village and the surrounding area. They arrived on the Lao shore, and this time my father was more angry than anxious. They entered the outskirts of the village and hid, having been here not long ago, my dad knew where a few of the enemy camps were nearby, and also where they usually patrolled. When they stepped foot in the village, my dad was filled with rage and hatred. For the first time since joining, he wanted to end someone's life. They continued further into the village until they were basically on my grandfather's property, which only pissed my dad off more. They ducked down into the bushes and waited. Eventually, a patrol came into view, and as they got closer, my dad started to lose his composure. This mission was intended to be a scouting mission as they were only a group of three, but my dad was so furious that he stood up and pointed his rifle at the approaching soldiers, ready to end them. Just when he was about to start firing, his comrades pulled him down into the bushes, thankfully before they were spotted. My father fought for them to let go, but they held him down until the soldiers passed. They then explained to my dad that he wasn’t thinking clearly. There was a nearby camp they already knew about, within distance to hear any commotion happening in the village, and that if my dad fired, they might have been able to kill the patrolling soldiers and get away uninjured, but there would soon be reinforcements coming and they would most likely slaughter my dad and his comrades, as well as the people of the village. Now coming to his senses, my dad agreed with them and they finished their scouting and then returned to Thailand.
On December 2nd, 1975 Laos had officially been seized by the communist Pathet Lao. Though it was over, the communists were still very hostile, making return to Laos for refugees impossible. My dad was distraught, the people in the resistance camp started to notice his reluctance to go out and fight, and he soon started to refuse. This was against the rules, as my dad had signed a contract to fight with them until they accomplished their goal, or died trying. My dad was on track to being punished when an older man who was in charge of some of the men approached him. My father had seen this man in camp several times and always thought he looked familiar. It turns out that this older man was a relative of my fathers, he had married one of my dad's distant aunts some time ago and they moved to a village far away enough that they hardly ever saw each other, and after the conflict got close they weren't able to come back at all. This older man told my father that he didn’t recognize him either until he heard his name. They talked for a while and he proceeded to tell my dad that he knew fighting wasn’t for him, he would surely die in vain and make the escape his mother created for him pointless. He offered to rip up the contract my dad signed and help him leave the resistance camp. After some thought my dad agreed to this and his days as a freedom fighter were over.
Once he was out of the camp, the only option was to head to a refugee camp for shelter. When my dad got there, he said it was the most depressing environment he had been in. At least in the resistance camp, they had a purpose, a goal to strive for and keep them from falling apart. Here, the people had nothing. No hope of ever returning to their villages, or seeing the families they left behind again. They woke up in the morning and lined up with the bowls the camp provided them, and cows with small trailers in tow were led into the camp hauling barrels of food mush. You handed your bowl to the person in charge and they would dish out your food for the whole day, you had to make that small bowl of food last for all 3 meals every day. At some point, my dad became tired of this monotonous life he was living and started looking for things to do, or ways to get more food. There was a bit of a trade market going on between the refugees, as some of them came with livestock or bundles of rice and different vegetables. My dad quickly burned through the little money his mother had given him to buy extra food, and the jewelry was of no use, as no one would trade precious food for them.
A few months passed like this and my dad started to make some friends, as well as re-connect with people he had known from home. His new friends were not the best influences, they inducted him into a sort of gang that would steal money and food from other refugees, as the Thai soldiers didn’t care about what they did to each other. The word started to spread that my dad and his friends were bad news, and people stopped associating with them. The only other place they could go was a nearby Thai village, but the rules forbid anyone from leaving the camp without permission and a written pass. There were a few problems with this system, one was that there was only a certain amount of passes to be given out each day, and there were thousands of refugees in the camp. You would need to sign up for a pass ahead of time and be put on a waiting list, but with the amount of people in the camp it could be months before you were able to get one. The other problem being that there were people who had befriended, or bribed the guards and got to skip the whole process to get a pass, making the waiting game take even longer for other people. My dad and his friends decided to go the faster route and tried befriending the guards, they started by buying alcohol for them and staying up late to hang out with them. At some point, one of the guards developed a crush on the little sister of one of the friends. They found this out and used it as leverage, telling the guard that they would for sure get her to go on a date with him, and he agreed to let them out whenever he was stationed at the entrance.
From there things became much easier for them, being able to go into town and get supplies as well as just having fun. Eventually, they found out about this Muay Thai fighting ring where they could earn some money. You had to have a sponsor or someone to vouch for you to be able to fight in these things, so my dad kept showing up and sparring with people hoping to get noticed, and eventually did. He made a deal with this guy who said he would get my dad fights, and if he won they would split the money, but if he lost, my dad would have to pay him. Shitty deal, but my dad took it. He said he fought 4 times and won every time, which is very believable if you have ever actually met my father. Every time he fought, he was able to pay for at least one week's worth of food, two if he made it last. So it was worth it for him.
After about a year of being in the refugee camp, word spread about a humanitarian aid organization called Compassion International. They had a sponsorship system in which a family from somewhere in the world would send money to kids and adults up to 22 years old in countries in need. They would send some for food, education, and necessities, and sometimes, in the case of people like my father, get the person out of the country. My dad heard about this and signed up through the refugee camp. It took a while but around 1978 my dad became sponsored by a family of five from France. They sent him money for all his daily needs and my dad began to do better. Not hanging out with the same friends anymore and beginning to go to church. He would be sponsored by this family until he was 20 when they offered to buy him a plane ticket to anywhere in the world. My dad chose to go to San Francisco. He packed up what little he had said his goodbyes, and left for the US.
He arrived in 1980, and once there he had to go through a sort of vetting process to be eligible for immigrant status in the US. Fun fact, the immigration agent that processed his arrival was in charge of taking down all my dad's information and submitting the forms. When my dad told him our last name, the agent misspelled it and when my dad tried to correct him, the agent just brushed him off. My dad never bothered to change it back so my last name is legally different than what it should be. He stayed in San Francisco for 2 months until he was granted immigrant status and able to travel elsewhere in the United States. By this time he had already decided that he hated San Francisco and that it was not for him. After remembering his sister who escaped all those years before was also in the US, the same sister detailed earlier. He tracked her down to Utah and got in contact with her. She told him the story about how her family got to the US after they escaped from Laos. My uncle being a pilot for the Lao military, knew some soldiers stationed at a refugee camp near where they were and knew that they had a helicopter. My uncle, along with some of the soldiers he convinced to flee, stole the helicopter and took his family to a safer part of the country where they would then leave for the US. Once there, they would go through the same process my father did and end up in Utah. My aunt agreed to take in my dad for a while until he figured something out. He slept on her couch for a few weeks until he knew they couldn't afford to feed him anymore, as they were struggling to raise a child in a new country where they didn't know the language, and didn't have a proper education. Not to mention the racism toward Asians at the time immediately following the Vietnam and Laos wars.
So my dad decided to go to Job Corps. While there he would learn enough English to get by and studied to be a machinist. Two years passed and he left Job Corps and became a full-time machinist. After getting a place to stay and saving up some money, my dad decided to buy a car. He went to a small dealership where he bought a car and drove it off the lot. Not even 5 minutes into his drive, the car broke down and my dad went back to the dealership. He tried to return the car but the salesman took advantage of his poor English and told my father there was nothing he could do. My dad didn’t realize how things worked and couldn’t read or write well enough to know that he was entitled to a refund if he wanted. So my dad took the loss and kept the car. He became angry not at the salesman, but at himself for not knowing the language well enough. My dad enrolled himself in ESL classes to bridge the gap and hopefully get some more respect. During this time my dad became intrigued by bodybuilders like Lou Ferrigno and Arnold, and he envied the respect they demanded with their presence. So he began lifting in his free time and soon became obsessed with it, spending an absurd amount of time at the gym. He would meet a lot of people at the gym in the 80s, a few of them becoming lifelong friends. One of them was a man who was almost 20 years older than my dad. He was from Indonesia and shared a lot in common with my father so they bonded and he became a father figure to my dad. He also met a man about the same age as him who introduced him to the world of powerlifting. Over the course of 10 years, my father took a lot of steroids and got absolutely massive, around 220lbs at 5’8 in his early thirties with a pr 5 plate bench press, or 495lbs/224kg. He also met a woman and briefly married her to get his US citizenship. Not really marriage fraud, just a mutual agreement between them. Things just didn’t work so they split up. At some point, my dad had figured out how to get in contact with his family back home and found out most of them were doing okay, though he didn’t talk to anyone very often except his mother, and the only thing his father ever said to him was to send him money. In those 10 years, my dad transitioned to working in real estate and owned a few houses and a couple of cars. He was finally prospering and doing better than he ever could have imagined he would all those years ago when he was a farmer in the war-torn jungle.
It was now the 90s, my dad had a lot of friends, and things were looking good. My dad spent a lot of years partying and just enjoying his life. The man from Indonesia brought my dad in as a member of his family, so he would spend all holidays split between that family and his sister's family. My father decided to quit his job as a real estate agent and work with the man from Indonesia, who owned a successful auto recovery company, so my dad became a tow truck driver. I know, a crazy career change, but my dad ended up buying the company and turned it from just successful to thriving. More years went by and through mutual friends, my dad befriended a woman who he would know for many more years as she went through a failed marriage and had two boys. My dad ended up helping her out as she was essentially homeless with two kids and nowhere to go. He gave her money to rent an apartment for the time being and she promised to pay him back eventually. Well eventually turned into her moving in with my dad and them starting a relationship. She would become my mother, and my dad would become a stepdad and a father at the same time. She found out she was pregnant with me and my dad bought a home for his new family in late 1999. By 2000 they were all settled in and I was born.
Then my dad got a call from his mother letting him know his father had died. My dad got on a flight back to Laos to attend his funeral, and this would be the first time he had been back to Laos in 20 years. When he arrived he immediately felt out of place, gone for so long not speaking his native tongue, he lost a lot of his vocabulary. He came back to Laos to see his family and help them with the expenses, but deep down he had some unfinished business with his father that he felt he couldn't resolve without returning to say goodbye. My dad spent only one short week there, seeing all the family he left behind, attending the funeral ceremonies, and spending time with his mother. He found out that the friend who was paralyzed in the escape attempt was still alive and living in France with some family. After everything, my father felt there was nothing left there for him, and returned to the US and his family.
That concludes everything I know about my dad, other than the him that I knew growing up, and the parts he either left out, forgot, or just weren't important. Overall I think that my dad had a very intense life growing up and that his story deserves to be told. If you made it this far, please tell me what you think about it, and whether this is something you would consider interesting enough to be adapted into a larger, more detailed work. Thank you for reading!

For context, I’m (23m) and my father is (64). Only recently, as I’m an adult has he started to open up about his past and the things he went through. Never could I have imagined the hardships and things that happened to him. It has honestly blown my mind. So I started to write down his story with his permission to share. I just have no idea the process that goes along with this as I have never written anything other than for school projects. (My grammar is also bad.) Anyways, I will detail here what I know about him without revealing any names or specific locations. This is a very long post, sorry for that. Please let me know if this is something worth pursuing, along with any tips you may have.
My father grew up as one of 24 children in his family, born in Laos in 1959 during the civil war between communist Pathet Lao, who was backed by northern Vietnam, and the Royal Lao Government. The US backed the Royal Lao Government and engaged in what is known as the “Laos Secret War” and dropped more than 270 million cluster bombs on Laos in a 9-year period, making Laos the most bombed country per capita. During which my dad went to Catholic school in the morning and then to public school in the afternoon. Many families sent their children to Catholic schools so they could be fed due to the overwhelming poverty at the time. France had integrated Laos into French Indochina many decades prior, building many Catholic churches and schools. Thus converting a portion of the country from Buddhism to Catholicism. The school my father went to also taught the children Muay Thai as part of the curriculum for some reason. As my father studied and trained for a few years, the conflict was starting to spread closer to his village and tension was building with the people there. (My dad was around 10 at this time)
I should also mention that my grandfather was a horrifying and abusive man. He was short and stocky, covered in tattoos of the Naga from head to toe. (The Naga is a demi-god sea serpent that is worshipped in Lao culture, said to reside in the Mekong River.) All 24 of the children were his but split between 3 wives, which was sort of the norm at the time in Laos. My grandfather was seen as a powerful man in the village because of his abundance of sons. At the time you could just go and claim land with manpower alone, so my grandfather and his sons would go and claim rice fields for themselves. If any of his children didn't obey his orders he would punish them very severely, as well as punish the respective child's mother. Intense beatings were the norm.
As well as being farmers, my family were renowned water buffalo tamers. People would come to buy water buffalo and their meat, it was profitable. Once the conflict grew closer, buyers for the rice and buffalo stopped coming. This led my grandfather to turn to crime, crossing the Mekong River to Thailand to sell his goods, where he also began selling opium. Which was all explicitly outlawed. He forced his older sons to accompany him in the cover of night, risking all their lives in the process due to the nearby communist camps that would patrol the river at night looking to execute any who tried to escape across the river, and freedom fighters crossing into the country to fight the communists.
During this time, my uncle, a pilot in the Lao military, decided to escape the country. He was about 15 years older than my father and was married to my aunt, who is my father's older sibling. (sorry if that was confusing) They had a two-year-old son and did not want to bring him up in the middle of this conflict. At the time my uncle was stationed in Thailand because the communists were gathering up all the stray Lao government officials and members of the military to send them to work camps. My uncle hatched a plan to sneak back into Laos across the river at night and retrieve his wife and child. Initially, things went well and he was able to cross into the country without being spotted and retrieve his family, but by the time they returned to the river the boat that was waiting for them was gone, chased away by communist soldiers. So my uncle waited while hiding in a bush with his wife and their small child for days until finally, another boat arrived to rescue them. This act inspired more people in the village to try and rebel or escape, causing many unfortunate deaths. My grandfather was explicitly against any of his other children attempting to do anything similar despite his frequent trips across the river. (I guess he had a sort of "nobody can endanger my children but me" mindset.)
A few years went by with nothing major happening in the village, though the conflict was still going strong. My dad was around 13 at this time, and my grandfather became increasingly abusive due to the lack of money and food around, which led him to do one of the worst things I have had the displeasure of hearing to this day. My father had been tending the fields and herding buffalo. During that time he had made his first real friend, a stray dog that he would often see on the edge of the village. He began to feed the dog with the little scraps he was able to sneak away from home, and the dog began accompanying him to the fields every morning while he did his work. (The way my father described this dog and their relationship made me understand how much it meant to him.) The dog became his best friend. They did everything together, and my father was happy for the first time in his life. Then one day, an unspecified amount of time later. My father woke up and was not able to find his buddy, he went out to the fields and the dog never came, he tended to the buffalo and the dog was nowhere to be seen. He finished his work and returned home to find the most horrifying thing a child could see. My grandfather had the top half of his dog strung up on a meat hook to dry, while he sat and ate the other portion right in front of my father. My dad began to break down and cry asking him why he would do this, his father told him that he had seen him walking around the fields with this dog. He said that all animals are to him is meat and he was hungry, knowing that this was my father's only friend and that taking him away would break my father's heart. This event is what would make my father start to truly hate his father.
At this point, my dad had completely renounced any type of relationship he had with his father and decided that he would take revenge. My father spoke to his brothers and was able to convince a handful of them to help him take revenge for the beatings they'd all received and for the abuse of their mothers. Sometime later they decided the time was right, they waited for their father to come home from a trip into town. When he did, they surrounded him. Ready to take out all their frustrations on him. It was at this point that a few of the brothers started to get scared and back down, but my father was so enraged that he rushed at his father with a farming tool and the intent to seriously harm him. Only my father was a 13-year-old boy, and his father was a grown man, strong from working the fields his entire life. My father proceeded to get the worst beating of his life, right there in front of his brothers. Everyone was too petrified to move and just let my father be beaten within an inch of his life. (To this day my father still has resentment toward those brothers that he feels betrayed him that day.)
From then forward, the mistreatment toward my father only got worse and finally reached a boiling point. My father realized that the only way he could get away from this abuse was to escape the country. This time he made sure only to tell the people he trusted. That being just two friends from the village who were a few years older than him. There were only 2 problems, they had no canoe to cross the river, and my father knew his siblings and mother would be punished for him leaving. Despite this, they still decided to go through with their plan. They spent the time they had after work going up and down the river scouting for the narrowest part of the river, and the parts with the weakest current so they could cross. (The Mekong can be over a mile wide, or 1.5km in some areas. The soldiers also only patrolled the river at night, as during the day it was sort of a no man's land, and people were allowed to continue fishing and working on the river.) At the same time, they were slowly gathering supplies for their journey.
At some point, my grandmother started to put together what they were up to and offered to help them. She pulled my father aside and told him that she knew what they were up to and told them where to cross the river, as well as when my grandfather would be away and that they should steal his canoe and leave at that time. They had a long conversation about what would happen after they left. (Much of this conversation my dad skimmed over when telling me.) My grandmother assured my father that she would be okay and that this was his opportunity for a better life. She gave him what little money she could without anyone noticing, and a handful of jewelry she had been stashing. With that the plan was complete.
Some time later my father and his friends decided that the time was right. They gathered the little belongings they could carry on their backs and said their goodbyes. They left for the river in the middle of the night while my grandfather was in the woods foraging for mushrooms. It was lightly raining, they made their way to the canoe and sat for a while to gather the courage to actually get in. Once they were in they were almost immediately spotted by a nearby patrol of communist soldiers. At this point, the fight or flight response kicked in, and they all chose flight. Knowing that turning around and surrendering would lead to being sent to a work camp or worse. So they all paddled as hard as they could away from the Lao shore and toward the Thai shore. The soldiers made their way to the edge of the embankment and began firing their guns into the water. Sadly, one friend was struck in the back of the head and died instantly, falling into the water. They had no time to process what just happened and continued to paddle for their lives. That was until my father's other friend was also hit, it pierced his upper back and he was paralyzed. My father started to panic and dropped the paddle only to be shot in his right shoulder as well, but more soldiers were coming up the river in a boat and they had no time. Nearby Thai soldiers heard the gunfire and rushed to the shore on their side, returning fire to give my dad enough time to reach the shore. He touched the soil and knew that he had made it. Once they touched Thai soil, the soldiers no longer pursued them as they did want to start an all-out battle with the Thai soldiers at this time. The Thai soldiers began to escort my father and carry his paralyzed friend inland, but my dad decided to stop for a moment to look back. He saw the communist soldiers picking his dead friend up out of the water and placing him in the boat. (My father still suffers from survivors guilt to this day, which is what led him to do what he did next.)
The Thai soldiers told them about a few large refugee camps on the border in Thailand, so my father decided to head towards one. On their way, they had to stop at an immigration center so my father could register as a refugee and get some medical attention. Once completed, my dad, filled with anger, changed his mind and decided to head towards a group of Lao refugees he had heard about who had decided to form a resistance group to fight back against the communists. So my father said goodbye to his friend who had been paralyzed and started traveling to this camp alone. This camp was run by a Lao man who was previously in the Lao military until his entire unit was rounded up and sent to work camps or executed. This man was the only one to escape. When my dad arrived at this place there were many young Lao men just like him, around 100, and many of them my dad knew from around his village. After feeding my father the man in charge explained that he was forming a resistance group, funded by the Thai military secretly, to go back and reclaim their villages from the communists and that my father could either join or be on his way to the refugee camp. (At this time my father is around 14)
My dad joined this camp and began his training as a child soldier of sorts. (This is one of the things I only learned about my father very recently, so I don't have many details about this time of his life yet.) My dad started by training with firearms and digging trenches around their base, should the communists ever come to the Thai side. Part of the schedule was patrols during the day and night, my dad was stationed on night patrol where he admitted to messing around with an M16 and accidentally firing off about 15 rounds into the night sky, which awoke the whole camp, who scolded him and nearly kicked him out. My dad was at this resistance camp for little more than six months, during this time they orchestrated several surprise attacks against groups of communist soldiers, My dad detailed his feelings about what happened, saying that he always had severe anxiety every time they got into a boat to go back into Laos, probably due to the trauma he suffered crossing the river the day he escaped. He would close his eyes the entire boat ride and only open them once he knew they had made it across. Once back in the country, usually, groups of 3 men would sneak around small villages, looking for patrols they could follow back to the main camps to map out where all their bases were. When they had identified all the camps in a given area, they would leave and gather more men to come back and wait to ambush patrols in quieter, more secluded areas, taking away a lot of manpower the communists had. Doing this allowed them to sneak people out of Laos much easier, and they were even able to rid a few small villages of soldiers altogether. Despite going on more than a few of these missions, my dad is not sure if he ever killed anyone. In the same way that he closed his eyes when he was in the boat, he closed his eyes as they shot into groups of enemy soldiers, probably trying to save himself from the trauma of knowing, or just from being scared.
This all culminated when my dad was sent out on one of the scouting missions, only this time they were scouting his village and the surrounding area. They arrived on the Lao shore, and this time my father was more angry than anxious. They entered the outskirts of the village and hid, having been here not long ago, my dad knew where a few of the enemy camps were nearby, and also where they usually patrolled. When they stepped foot in the village, my dad was filled with rage and hatred. For the first time since joining, he wanted to end someone's life. They continued further into the village until they were basically on my grandfather's property, which only pissed my dad off more. They ducked down into the bushes and waited. Eventually, a patrol came into view, and as they got closer, my dad started to lose his composure. This mission was intended to be a scouting mission as they were only a group of three, but my dad was so furious that he stood up and pointed his rifle at the approaching soldiers, ready to end them. Just when he was about to start firing, his comrades pulled him down into the bushes, thankfully before they were spotted. My father fought for them to let go, but they held him down until the soldiers passed. They then explained to my dad that he wasn’t thinking clearly. There was a nearby camp they already knew about, within distance to hear any commotion happening in the village, and that if my dad fired, they might have been able to kill the patrolling soldiers and get away uninjured, but there would soon be reinforcements coming and they would most likely slaughter my dad and his comrades, as well as the people of the village. Now coming to his senses, my dad agreed with them and they finished their scouting and then returned to Thailand.
On December 2nd, 1975 Laos had officially been seized by the communist Pathet Lao. Though it was over, the communists were still very hostile, making return to Laos for refugees impossible. My dad was distraught, the people in the resistance camp started to notice his reluctance to go out and fight, and he soon started to refuse. This was against the rules, as my dad had signed a contract to fight with them until they accomplished their goal, or died trying. My dad was on track to being punished when an older man who was in charge of some of the men approached him. My father had seen this man in camp several times and always thought he looked familiar. It turns out that this older man was a relative of my fathers, he had married one of my dad's distant aunts some time ago and they moved to a village far away enough that they hardly ever saw each other, and after the conflict got close they weren't able to come back at all. This older man told my father that he didn’t recognize him either until he heard his name. They talked for a while and he proceeded to tell my dad that he knew fighting wasn’t for him, he would surely die in vain and make the escape his mother created for him pointless. He offered to rip up the contract my dad signed and help him leave the resistance camp. After some thought my dad agreed to this and his days as a freedom fighter were over.
Once he was out of the camp, the only option was to head to a refugee camp for shelter. When my dad got there, he said it was the most depressing environment he had been in. At least in the resistance camp, they had a purpose, a goal to strive for and keep them from falling apart. Here, the people had nothing. No hope of ever returning to their villages, or seeing the families they left behind again. They woke up in the morning and lined up with the bowls the camp provided them, and cows with small trailers in tow were led into the camp hauling barrels of food mush. You handed your bowl to the person in charge and they would dish out your food for the whole day, you had to make that small bowl of food last for all 3 meals every day. At some point, my dad became tired of this monotonous life he was living and started looking for things to do, or ways to get more food. There was a bit of a trade market going on between the refugees, as some of them came with livestock or bundles of rice and different vegetables. My dad quickly burned through the little money his mother had given him to buy extra food, and the jewelry was of no use, as no one would trade precious food for them.
A few months passed like this and my dad started to make some friends, as well as re-connect with people he had known from home. His new friends were not the best influences, they inducted him into a sort of gang that would steal money and food from other refugees, as the Thai soldiers didn’t care about what they did to each other. The word started to spread that my dad and his friends were bad news, and people stopped associating with them. The only other place they could go was a nearby Thai village, but the rules forbid anyone from leaving the camp without permission and a written pass. There were a few problems with this system, one was that there was only a certain amount of passes to be given out each day, and there were thousands of refugees in the camp. You would need to sign up for a pass ahead of time and be put on a waiting list, but with the amount of people in the camp it could be months before you were able to get one. The other problem being that there were people who had befriended, or bribed the guards and got to skip the whole process to get a pass, making the waiting game take even longer for other people. My dad and his friends decided to go the faster route and tried befriending the guards, they started by buying alcohol for them and staying up late to hang out with them. At some point, one of the guards developed a crush on the little sister of one of the friends. They found this out and used it as leverage, telling the guard that they would for sure get her to go on a date with him, and he agreed to let them out whenever he was stationed at the entrance.
From there things became much easier for them, being able to go into town and get supplies as well as just having fun. Eventually, they found out about this Muay Thai fighting ring where they could earn some money. You had to have a sponsor or someone to vouch for you to be able to fight in these things, so my dad kept showing up and sparring with people hoping to get noticed, and eventually did. He made a deal with this guy who said he would get my dad fights, and if he won they would split the money, but if he lost, my dad would have to pay him. Shitty deal, but my dad took it. He said he fought 4 times and won every time, which is very believable if you have ever actually met my father. Every time he fought, he was able to pay for at least one week's worth of food, two if he made it last. So it was worth it for him.
After about a year of being in the refugee camp, word spread about a humanitarian aid organization called Compassion International. They had a sponsorship system in which a family from somewhere in the world would send money to kids and adults up to 22 years old in countries in need. They would send some for food, education, and necessities, and sometimes, in the case of people like my father, get the person out of the country. My dad heard about this and signed up through the refugee camp. It took a while but around 1978 my dad became sponsored by a family of five from France. They sent him money for all his daily needs and my dad began to do better. Not hanging out with the same friends anymore and beginning to go to church. He would be sponsored by this family until he was 20 when they offered to buy him a plane ticket to anywhere in the world. My dad chose to go to San Francisco. He packed up what little he had said his goodbyes, and left for the US.
He arrived in 1980, and once there he had to go through a sort of vetting process to be eligible for immigrant status in the US. Fun fact, the immigration agent that processed his arrival was in charge of taking down all my dad's information and submitting the forms. When my dad told him our last name, the agent misspelled it and when my dad tried to correct him, the agent just brushed him off. My dad never bothered to change it back so my last name is legally different than what it should be. He stayed in San Francisco for 2 months until he was granted immigrant status and able to travel elsewhere in the United States. By this time he had already decided that he hated San Francisco and that it was not for him. After remembering his sister who escaped all those years before was also in the US, the same sister detailed earlier. He tracked her down to Utah and got in contact with her. She told him the story about how her family got to the US after they escaped from Laos. My uncle being a pilot for the Lao military, knew some soldiers stationed at a refugee camp near where they were and knew that they had a helicopter. My uncle, along with some of the soldiers he convinced to flee, stole the helicopter and took his family to a safer part of the country where they would then leave for the US. Once there, they would go through the same process my father did and end up in Utah. My aunt agreed to take in my dad for a while until he figured something out. He slept on her couch for a few weeks until he knew they couldn't afford to feed him anymore, as they were struggling to raise a child in a new country where they didn't know the language, and didn't have a proper education. Not to mention the racism toward Asians at the time immediately following the Vietnam and Laos wars.
So my dad decided to go to Job Corps. While there he would learn enough English to get by and studied to be a machinist. Two years passed and he left Job Corps and became a full-time machinist. After getting a place to stay and saving up some money, my dad decided to buy a car. He went to a small dealership where he bought a car and drove it off the lot. Not even 5 minutes into his drive, the car broke down and my dad went back to the dealership. He tried to return the car but the salesman took advantage of his poor English and told my father there was nothing he could do. My dad didn’t realize how things worked and couldn’t read or write well enough to know that he was entitled to a refund if he wanted. So my dad took the loss and kept the car. He became angry not at the salesman, but at himself for not knowing the language well enough. My dad enrolled himself in ESL classes to bridge the gap and hopefully get some more respect. During this time my dad became intrigued by bodybuilders like Lou Ferrigno and Arnold, and he envied the respect they demanded with their presence. So he began lifting in his free time and soon became obsessed with it, spending an absurd amount of time at the gym. He would meet a lot of people at the gym in the 80s, a few of them becoming lifelong friends. One of them was a man who was almost 20 years older than my dad. He was from Indonesia and shared a lot in common with my father so they bonded and he became a father figure to my dad. He also met a man about the same age as him who introduced him to the world of powerlifting. Over the course of 10 years, my father took a lot of steroids and got absolutely massive, around 220lbs at 5’8 in his early thirties with a pr 5 plate bench press, or 495lbs/224kg. He also met a woman and briefly married her to get his US citizenship. Not really marriage fraud, just a mutual agreement between them. Things just didn’t work so they split up. At some point, my dad had figured out how to get in contact with his family back home and found out most of them were doing okay, though he didn’t talk to anyone very often except his mother, and the only thing his father ever said to him was to send him money. In those 10 years, my dad transitioned to working in real estate and owned a few houses and a couple of cars. He was finally prospering and doing better than he ever could have imagined he would all those years ago when he was a farmer in the war-torn jungle.
It was now the 90s, my dad had a lot of friends, and things were looking good. My dad spent a lot of years partying and just enjoying his life. The man from Indonesia brought my dad in as a member of his family, so he would spend all holidays split between that family and his sister's family. My father decided to quit his job as a real estate agent and work with the man from Indonesia, who owned a successful auto recovery company, so my dad became a tow truck driver. I know, a crazy career change, but my dad ended up buying the company and turned it from just successful to thriving. More years went by and through mutual friends, my dad befriended a woman who he would know for many more years as she went through a failed marriage and had two boys. My dad ended up helping her out as she was essentially homeless with two kids and nowhere to go. He gave her money to rent an apartment for the time being and she promised to pay him back eventually. Well eventually turned into her moving in with my dad and them starting a relationship. She would become my mother, and my dad would become a stepdad and a father at the same time. She found out she was pregnant with me and my dad bought a home for his new family in late 1999. By 2000 they were all settled in and I was born.
Then my dad got a call from his mother letting him know his father had died. My dad got on a flight back to Laos to attend his funeral, and this would be the first time he had been back to Laos in 20 years. When he arrived he immediately felt out of place, gone for so long not speaking his native tongue, he lost a lot of his vocabulary. He came back to Laos to see his family and help them with the expenses, but deep down he had some unfinished business with his father that he felt he couldn't resolve without returning to say goodbye. My dad spent only one short week there, seeing all the family he left behind, attending the funeral ceremonies, and spending time with his mother. He found out that the friend who was paralyzed in the escape attempt was still alive and living in France with some family. After everything, my father felt there was nothing left there for him, and returned to the US and his family.
That concludes everything I know about my dad, other than the him that I knew growing up, and the parts he either left out, forgot, or just weren't important. Overall I think that my dad had a very intense life growing up and that his story deserves to be told. If you made it this far, please tell me what you think about it, and whether this is something you would consider interesting enough to be adapted into a larger, more detailed work. Thank you for reading!

Pwede naman natin mahalin ang isa't isa nang walang tayo.
I can love you from a distance. Hanggang sa makapag heal tayo.
Ewan ko pero hindi ko nakikita na mahal mo'ko and gusto mo ko makasama habambuhay. Ang nakikita ko lang, gusto mo lang ng commitment kasi dun ka sanay. Nasanay ka na may kachat, may ka update pero for what?! Nireason out mo s'ken noon na kaya ka nag gf para may katuwang ka financially. Tapos ano? Pano kung wala yun. Tapos na? Hanap na lang ulit ng iba?
Hindi ba dapat kung alam mong may problema ka single ka pa lang, hindi ka nag hanap ng partner kasi for sure another problema na naman yun. Nag dagdag ka pa ng problema eh may kinakaharap ka na ngang problema na kelangan mo muna masolusyunan. Papano naman yung inalok mo ng commitment na okay naman sana, magiging taga absorb mo ng problema mo na lang? Sana kinoconsider mo yun. Iniisip mo muna sana na problemado ka pa sa buhay bakit ka maghahanap ng partner eh sarili mo ngang problema di mo pa masolusyunan. Kaya ang mentality mo is kaya ka nga naghanap ng partner para may katuwang ka financially. Lalaki ka pa naman tapos ikaw ang naghahanap ng katuwang financially.
Pabayaan mo na lang ako. Wag ka mag offer ng help s'ken. Wag mo na'ko kumustahin. Wag mo nang alamin kung ano nangyayari s'ken... That way, makita mo on your own, habang walang tayo kung mahal mo nga ba talaga ako or nasanay ka lang. Baka sakali marealize mo kung mahal mo ba talaga ako dahil kelangan moko. Or kelangan mo ako dahil mahal mo ako. Then saka ka bumalik kung sigurado ka sa nararamdaman mo. Dun ka bumalik kung kaya mo'ko panindigan. Pero kung habang nagkocontemplate ka at kumakausap ka na ng iba, wag mo na'ko balikan ever. Sa ngayon kasi, feeling ko nasanay ka lang na andito lang ako. Nasanay ka lang na may partner ka.
Let's heal in our own ways. Nadamage mo'ko. Nadamage kita. Hindi mo'ko mahiheal dahil ikaw ang nakadamage s'ken. Hindi kita mahiheal kasi nadamage na rin kita. Hindi rin ibang tao maghiheal sten. Sarili lang mismo natin. Pero ikaw kung plano mong humanap ng magpapamper sa'yo, nasasayo yun. Basta wag na wag mo na'ko babalikan once na tumingin ka na sa iba.
Marami akong thoughts pa rin kasi na feeling ko hindi ko deserve mga nangyari s'ken... But they happened. Naexperience ko murahin, bastusin at idisrespect at ilalaglag sa mismong angkan mo not by other people kundi lahat ng yan, ikaw ang may kagagawan. Masaklap, intentional. Masaklap, tinitwist mo mga pangyayari. Pinalalabas mo na ako ang masama.
I turned into someone I was not... Ginantihan kita sa mga pagmumura mo, pambabastos, panlalait, pangdidisrespect. I turned into a bad person.
Ang tanging bagay na nagawa mo s'ken na di ko ginantihan is ang ipa contact ang ex ko para magkausap kami.
Bottomline, ikaw ang nag trigger s'ken para lumabas yung bad side ko. And kelangan ko maiayos yun. Ayokong maka feel ng sama ng loob every time naaalala ko mga pinagdaanan ko sa'yo. Gusto kong maging okay na lang in case maalala ko mga toxic na nangyari sten. And wala pa ako dun sa stage na yun. Andun pa lang ako sa acceptance. Andun pa lang ako sa proseso na ini embrace ko yung mga negative na nangyari na. And then kelangan ko pa mag heal. Para in time na magkasalubong man tayo, in time na matrigger mo man ako, wala na yung effect nung traumatic na experience ko from you.
Hindi ko naman makakalimutan na may mga mabubuti kang nagawa s'ken. Pero hindi kasi sa sweet nothing lang ang relasyon. Hindi sa efforts lang. There's more than that on a serious note. Hindi yun sa financial support lang. It's about : 1. TRUST, 2. RESPECT 3. LOYALTY & FAITHFULNESS. 4. LOVE And, LOVE lang meron sa relationship natin. Wala sa relasyon natin yung tatlo dyan. TRUST - Puro duda, pagbibintang, at tamang hinala. RESPECT - Puro mura, pambabastos, panlalait. FAITHFULNESS - Nagka interest ka pa rin sa ex mo nang ipa chat mo sa tropa mo para tawagan ka. Hindi man ikaw natawagan dahil busy daw, NAGKA INTEREST KA PA RIN. And there's this feeling na alam ko na naglandian kayo ng kamag anak mong may angking kati sa katawan dahil dinelete mo convo n'yo. Kung magkamag anak turingan n'yo, bakit may deleted convo? Kamo deserve ko mga ginawa mo s'ken. Then so be it. Kung yan ang paniniwala mo, nasasayo na yun. Diyos na lang ang bahala sa'yo.
Ayan yung mga aspect na nag cause ng lamat. Ni ang pag usapan nga relasyon natin ayaw mo. Drama kamo. December inaatake mo pa'ko nun kapag may binibring up ako about sa relasyon natin. And alam ko during that time, pinapamper ka ng haliparot mong kadugo. Oh well... Malayo n'yong kamag anak yun kaya nakipaglandian ka.
Kapag bumabalik sa isip ko mga yan, natitrigger talaga ako e. Kasi pinag katiwalaan kita pero sinira mo yung tiwala ko. Hindi mo inisip mararamdaman ko. Tinawag mo pa nga akong pangit, kulubot na kasi, matanda na, laos na samantalang kamo yung ex mo mukhang masarap pa. Samantalang kamo yung kamag anak mong malandi, masarap, cute pa. And kung bakit in the first place, alam mo palang pangit ako, matanda na bakit mo ko pinatulan. Bakit moko inalok ng commitment. Para sa katuwang financially na inaasam mo?!
Kaya sa atake mo s'ken na selfish ako, ikaw yun. Dahil umpisa pa lang nag sinungaling ka na s'ken. Hindi mo'ko binigyan ng chance na kung okay lang ba na maging tayo kahit name ng ex mo in Japanese font ang naka tattoo sa braso mo. Kamo kasi di kamo ako papayag kaya ka nag sinungaling. Ibig sabihin, makasarili ka. Ikaw ang selfish hindi ako.
Hirap na hirap na kalooban ko kasi alam ko hindi ko deserve ang murahin mo, bastusin, ipahiya sa social media, ipahiya sa angkan mo.
Mukhang hindi ka na nga magbabago. Nakilala kitang ganyan pero paulit ulit ka lang. Papahinga ka lang ng 24hrs, mumurahin mo na naman ako. Tapos s'ken mo isisisi kung bakit ka nag mumura kahit dati ka nang ganyan.

I was raised in isolated countries (North Korea, Laos) during the 80s and my mother had her way with me with no one to stop her or call on her abuse, which was both physical and mental. The mental abuse was a lot worse:

• I swear I will crush his brains out (I was homeschooled by her and had a hard time concentrating)
• God, what did I do to you to deserve such a child
• You are always complaining about nothing
• Why can't you be more like (insert sistebest friend/girlfriend)
• I will be a better mother to you than her own mother (Seeing my baby daughter for the first time)
• If the fridge is full, and you are clothed, than I consider having done my job as a mother.
• You are being extremely violent (After I calmly set a boundary asking her not to call me names in front of my wife and my child)
• I dyed my hair blue, not talking to me for many many weeks until it returned to its normal color
• Your girlfriend is a whore (because she had a navel tattoo and a piercing on her brow)

Hello all. Im travelling to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia this winter and Im looking to find solid traditional tattoo artists. Do you know of any?

Keep it on the simpler side if you can. My tattoo artist struggles with detail. I want an elephant face intermingled with/ surrounded by Khun flowers. It'd be a piece on my chest. Haven't designed whether it's going on the left or right side. I'd appreciate this a lot as I can't even find a template.
I'm part Laotian so that's why I'd like to get it. I'm only a quarter but I've always been fascinated by Laos. It's culture and history. If that sounds corny I understand.

1. Liu Kang, he was fine if not boring, found him kind of dull though he's never been a personal favorites of mine.
2. Raiden, very similar thoughts with liu kang, he's just kinda there for me.
3. Scorpion, I have no problems with the swap for Hanzo to Kuai only thing that bugs me is the hatred/demon voice when he uses his Get over here move, feels very forced and not in character. (i love it gameplay wise)
4. Sub-zero, found his plotline far too predictable, and his voice acting was too gruff throughout for me to take him seriously.
5. Johnny Cage, love him he was so funny in almost every scene, just wished he actually contributed more to the story besides giving sento to kenshi.
6. Kung Lao, story wise he left no imprint for me, found him exceptionally dull after the "tournament" if you can call it that.
7. Kitana, She was really dull at first but her interactions with johnny and loyalty to her family made me like her a lot more in this game.
8. Mileena, biggest surprise for me, i love the good version of mileena in this game and her entire plotline was very well done imo.
9. Kenshi, same thoughts as Liu he's cool and i love his hand tattoos but he doesn't contribute a whole lot to the story as a whole, he has been a personal fav of mine since mortal kombat deception though.
10. Smoke, quite possibly the biggest let down story wise, i don't even think he got a chapter let alone do ANYTHING productive in the story despite getting Yuri Lowenthal as his voice actor.
11. Rain, no thought's never been a rain fan personally.
12. Li mei, she's fine her character arc wasn't the worse but i didn't really like her.
13. tanya, same with li mei but i found her romance with mileena interesting.
14. baraka, very well done rewrite of baraka and the tarkat as a disease in general, don't see how he'll return in general if the tarkat kills him though.
15. geras, i was bored to death with his character no thoughts, he's basically a robot anyway.
16. reptile, The best redesign by far imo, loved his origin is still connected to shang like in his original being a 2nd in command to him. story wise he was decent, and i enjoyed watching his interactions.
17. Ashrah, not given enough to do for me to personally care.
18. Havik, same as ashrah, it is nice to see him again but i didn't LOVE him in the story.
19. Sindel, very well written i loved her asserting dominance over shao, and overall being less hostile to Liu and group, although it did affect the tournament.
20. General Shao, my main from mk11 so yes i'm biased, got jobbered too hard in the story IMO, never won a battle on screen, his new backstory had the perfect set-up to have him being much more intellectual like in his original design, instead he's again just a brutish warlord.
21. Nitara, i loved megan fox in transformers, and i WANTED to like her as nitara, but holy shit megan fox can't voice act at all, all of her lines are so flat and dead i can't believe NRS let this go through.
22. Reiko, this guys basically the new kano, he will never win a fight, always over confident and his design was kinda boring IMO.

overall i disliked the "Tournament" aspect of the story it was hardly a tournament at all, only 1 earthrealmer fought in it, and Shao, shang, and Quan Chi were all FAR too jobbered to come off as menacing.