After an unexpectedly lengthened stay at home, today I booked my flight to Thailand. I fly out from London on May 8th, stop over briefly in Delhi, and then finally touch down in Bangkok the day after. Woo.
I anticipate this part of the trip being more difficult for a variety of reasons.
For a start, I wasn’t too intimidated by Europe or (obviously) America and the potential language barriers because English is pretty prevalent in Europe wherever you go, and somewhat prevalent depending on where you go in the US… Anyway. This is not the case in SE Asia so much. I can point and, you know, speak loudly and stuff, but that’ll only get you so far.
Secondly, this is a much more alien and less developed part of the world than Europe and the US, for the most part. Now that doesn’t really bother me, as such, but it adds to the intimidation when being thrown into that alone. I actually knew an acquaintance who’s been out there for a little while who I was going to meet up with for a day or two to act as a buffer, kinda, but that’s fallen through as they have to move on elsewhere. A friend from school who I previously travelled the US with was gonna be coming out on holiday and meeting up for a brief amount of time too, but other commitments have led that to fall through also. Neither of these were remotely solid plans, outlines and sketches of ideas at best, and I wasn’t relying on them, so it looks like I’ll be travelling alone again. Cool.
And C, I actually have people (other than family) at home that I’m going to be sad to leave behind and miss an awful lot this time.
I repacked my backpack today, and managed to cut out a whole load of stuff from the packing list that I took last time. The benefit of experience and being able to confidently say “I never used that!” while throwing a roll of duct tape over my shoulder (though I’m actually still taking that because, well, you never know.) My pack can now be comfortably lifted with one arm, rather than being the two-hand-requiring monstrosity that it was before. I am aiming to get it down to airport carry-on luggage size if I can, but I reckon I’m aiming a bit off the mark with that, sadly.
There are no solid plans other than “land in Bangkok” so far. There are lots of interesting little counties sprinkled around Thailand in easy reach, so I’m going to try and add to my collection of one-for-each-country bracelets (left to right: Croatia, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Tunisia, France, Slovenia, and America).
And on that note, I’m going to head to bed. Expect more updates soon. Oh, and I’ll still be keeping up with my duties over at Two Photos a Day, so do keep checking for awesome pictures every day!
Long Road to Nowhere 
SE Asia is the EASIEST place in the world to travel in. Thousands of times easier than Europe. Everybody is doing the same thing, going to the same places, and you can get minivans to pretty much anywhere. You don’t have to think about anything! It’s made me lazy and I’m not looking forward to going back to Europe!
I haven’t experienced a language barrier everywhere. The enormous amount of tourists means that nearly everyone can speak English. The only times this wasn’t the case was when I did my road trip through northern Thailand as we were staying in towns that rarely ever saw a white person.
But I can only speak for Thailand right now, and that’s going to be the most developed :)
As for where to go: if you decide on the islands then Koh Chang is amazing. Lonely beach in a real hippie, chilled out area where they play Bob Marley on repeat and you’ll sit around sunbathing and drinking beer all day. Koh Phi Phi was also a LOT nicer than I was expecting once you get away from the main strip. Koh Lanta is nice too.
Bangkok and Chiang Mai are great! If you get to Chiang Mai then it’s worth taking the trip to Pai and Chiang Dao, which are two small hippie towns in the mountains and ROCK.
Also, I know as soon as I get back to London I am going to take half the things out from my backpack! Why dd we take so much?!
And you will so fill up those arms with bracelets, haha! I have 10 so far!
ALSO. I’ll be in BKK on the 13th for my final day in Asia! So if you’re still kicking around that area…. :)
Hey Lauren, thanks for reading. And thanks very much for all the advice – I’ll definitely keep it in mind. I’m glad to hear the language thing shouldn’t be too much of a problem!