Chocolate Belt

 What should I say...

I kind of reached a point in my journey, brown belt it is.  
I received it from my teacher JB. He took my under his wings from the beginning and so far I'm very happy and grateful that he still takes care of me!
Now--> I'm off to new adventures with my swiss premium chocolate belt.










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The magic of Disney?

Orlando Florida, my last destination after 9 month in my travels around the world, I'm seeing the light on the end of the tunnel. The flight to here took me 27h around 23 of them I spend in the plane, yeah my body afterwards was crashed and the jetlag for the first days were pretty nice. 

Like always I already figured out which Bjj gym I will go to. It was Fabin Rosa’s Bjj gym, I met him two years ago in wonderful Rio de Janeiro, I just liked how playful his Jiu Jitsu was and his is such a friendly guy! The training in the gym was awesome, good rolls all the time and everyone was so relax and friendly, such a great vibe! 

I did a lot of Jiu but there were still some other activities, I spend some days in Disney World, for myself I couldn’t really grasp the magic. But on the other hand I found so much more magic when Gerardo took me out to the Everglades, an amazing National park, the sunrise, the stars and all the animals were truly fascinating! Thank you! And there were a lot more good spots in whole Orlando, besides the theme parks! 

One of the little highlights was the US UAJJF National Pros were I got third place and had the pleasure to fight one or the best purple belt in the world. 

I will miss my traveling lifestyle, I learned so much and all the experiences, cultures changed me a little bit. 

City of lights (Singapore)

It was the first time I saw my family since 8 months ago, so we had a lot to catch up, but nobody is interested in that. 

Anyway, I was impressed by the cleanness of Singapore after Cambodia, it was like day and night. If you throw your chewing gum to the ground you have to pay a fee and yeah fee for almost any form of littering, but it keeps the city pretty clean! It is a must to explore the city by nights, the have so many lightshows and light almost everything up so nicely, that your breath will be taken away. 

 But I am not into the big city life, I prefer it dirty, relaxed and not so developed, so my heart wanted to go back to a place like Cambodia. 

 

Places that I visit in Singapore: Gardens by the bay, Mount Faber, Sentosa, Martina Sands, Botanic Garden and more, but those are the best one’s so far.

Heart, Fame and Tomb Raider

Arriving on an airport with only about 9000 passengers a day is quit a nice change from the big airports, everything goes so fast no lines nothing in and out in about 5 minutes. 

If you do just a little research you will find out they want to take advantage of the “rich” tourists. So my first contact with a TukTuk driver was, when I told him I take the bus, he lied to me and said there was no bus, after I told him the line, he just smiled smirky. The other passenger starred at me, I think they are not used to have a tourist in a local bus, they even took pictures. My 5 minutes of fame. 

 

Cambodia is still a developing country, everything is simple, cheap and has his own charm. If you know a little bit about the story of the country you know why, it is the way it is. Only about 30 years ago 25% of the people died, most of them the educated ones, because of the dictatorship of the Khmer Rouge. You should visit the Genocide Museum and the Killing fields, it won’t be easy what you will see but it’s definitely an eye opener about cruelty of mankind. One other stop that is almost mandatory is Angkor Wat, one of the UNESCO world heritage sides. You may better know it as it is one of the temple in Tomb Raider. 

 

Like always a lot of my time doing what I love, BJJ. I went to the first and only real BJJ academy in Cambodia H/ART. What do I have to say about them, Vy the main instructor, is an excellent teacher, he breaks down the technique perfect and teaches in a way that every beginner can understand it and practice it easily. The BJJ scene isn’t that big mostly white belt with a lot of heart, but there are some very good blue and purple that want to challenge you, so you will have some fun rolls! And the best about all of it, everyone has such a big heart and you will feel comfortable from the get go, they even take you in as a part of the family! 

Thank you!