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On Langkawi, I rented a scooter for the day and visited Tanjung Rhu beach. I just wanted to read until sunset, take a few pictures, and then scooter home. But as it happened I arrived during happy hour. I took advantage, but compromised my ability to read. I walked around looking for a chat. I walked near this kid who was about 8 years old with a soccer ball. He motioned towards the ball and then towards me and I nodded my head. We passed the ball back and forth across the sand. His friend soon joined. We set up a goal with two shoes. We marked a penalty spot area. The only word that we both understood was "Ronaldo". Isn't it cool that they couldn't understand a word of English, but knew Ronaldo? We then started imitating his penalty kicks. I held up well in goal until the kid fired one past me. He completed the imitation by taking off his shirt and parading around the beach. When another one of their friends showed up we played a 2v2 game. I was maybe twice the size of them. The game kind of turned into a "Can we slide tackle the giant down?" My team won! But no one cared. They've probably never played soccer with a white person and I've never been slide tackled by an eight year old. Afterwards, we watched the sunset together pictured above.

A post shared by Kamil (@kamil.skwarek) on Jan 24, 2020 at 7:22am PST