A wonderful man by the name of Jim Hagen has worked with many athletes in the beach volleyball community- taking incredible photos both on and off the court. We were fortunate to have met him in Thailand, and spent one morning on the beautiful shoreline of Karon Beach to take some photo’s. Please visit his website to see his work:
http://www.jhagenphotography.com/Jhagenphotography/Feature.html
I don’t think I can do justice to my trip to Thailand in a blog post, nor do the pictures even remotely capture the the beauty of everything I saw. Caleigh and I trained untill Wednesday of that week , had some great practices with other countries and then lost our match against China in a close third set. We both agree there were things we could have done much better, but overall we learnt so many lessons from our playing, and watching the best in the world. The weather was in the high 30’s , and I am doing everything in my willpower to preserve the tan I brought back to Toronto. CHEAP, is the only word to describe life in Thailand as a tourist. My hotel was 9 canadian dollars a night, and was perfect for sleeping. It was above what some may call a brothel..but i like to use the phrase ” a local bar for single women to hang out”. Yes, there was noise at all hours of the night, and we witnessed some unusual happenings- but that is the beauty of traveling. After being knocked out of the tournament we took out our “To Do” list and headed for the local tourist booth to arrange some day stuff. This was my first time I have ever been a real tourist in any country that I have travelled too, because like I said in a previous post, when you are playing in another country, you fortunately/unfortunately are playing for the most part and any down time you have you are hiding in your room and recovering. By the end of the week we managed to elephant ride, see the Buddha Temple, kayak in caves, travel the islands , and witness nightlife in Patong- which is a circus filled of ladyboy’s, chicken fights, and ping pong shows past 10 o clock. Please google Ladyboy if you are unfamiliar with the term, or refer to the Hangover 2 for visuals. We are now back to training for the next few months at our brand new facility @ Downsview Park. I haven’t seen it yet, but everyone on Team Canada is soooo excited for these new courts.
(Source: happy---ending)
(Source: namashco, via manequinmonster-deactivated2012)
