My favourite travel days of 2023.

My favourite travel days of 2023.

Friday, 15 December 2023

Travel is such a huge and very important part of my life; and 2023 has been full of incredible adventures. Here are some snippets of my favourite days from each.

Tenerife

In January, I was fortunate enough to escape the cold on a last minute trip to Tenerife. 

One of my favorite moments was lounging by the pool with a frozen cocktail in hand. We stayed in an amazing suite with a rooftop jacuzzi so my time was mostly split between there, the spa or eating iberico ham at the beach bar.

Morocco

I had been desperate to go back to Marrakesh ever since my press trip in 2017, so this was a real treat.

The whole city is just magical and reminds me of Aladdin so I especially enjoyed having more time to wander around the souks and the Medina this time.

My favourite part of this trip was our afternoon at the La Sultana; where I had my first hamam experience and an awesome massage. After that we went to a Moroccan restaurant and ate traditional food whilst the belly dancers weaved around us.

Amalfi Coast

My driving holiday along the Amalfi Coast was unforgettable. Cruising along the twisting roads in a Fiat 500 while watching the sunset was magical. However, my favorite day was our boat trip to Capri. We made friends on the boat and spent the afternoon sipping sparkling cocktails with them on the island before heading back to the mainland for dinner in Positano.

Thailand

In May, I took my first solo trip since before lock down and it was full of great days.

Maybe the five star hotel spa day, the day I spent surfing on the flow rider; or maybe an accumulation of the lazy days spent at the pool at my jungle hotel.

Every day was special in its own way on this trip. I was really struggling with life at home in May and needed some time away to reflect and process what had happened. I spent a lot of time journalling by the pool, speaking to my therapist and getting into bed early and came back feeling much better.

Ibiza

I had been wanting to see Ushuaïa for as long as I can remember so whilst I'm not a big party girl, this is what my trip to Ibiza was about. Another bucket list item, done

Lagos

Our biggest girls trip yet - we some how managed to find a date where everyone could come which was great. Still doing a lot of reflecting, I spent a lot of time of my own by the beach but my favourite memory from this trip was getting afternoon drunk on frozen strawberry daiquiris by the pool.

Seville 

I haven't got a lot to say about this trip because I spent the majority of it in bed sick. I did manage one morning of adventure though which involved a food tour around the city and I enjoyed that very much.  

Barcelona

This trip was booked totally last minute when I won a ticket to see Blink 182 play there. It turned out to be one of my favourite memories from the whole year. Not only was I super excited to see one of my favourite bands which I'd not been about to get a ticket for in Lodnon, but I also took my skates along with me and spent the afternoon skating up and down the beach in the sun. I ate tapas in the street, wandered about on my own and fell in love with around a city I'd previously written off.

Indonesia

Having already flown to Asia earlier in the year I was looking for another excuse to go back so when I saw that another favourite band of mine, Bring me the horizon were playing in Jakarta it was the perfect excuse. 

Jakarta was another place I had no interest in visiting, I was only there to see the band but funnily enough, this was another place I ended up really loving. 

Bali I know well and with a mix of luxury hostels and private treetop villas, it was a wonderfully varied trip. I made friends and went to beach clubs some days and jumped between delivery food by my private plunge pool and the spa on others.  

This trip was less reflective and more grounding. I looked at it as a healing trip and wanted it to be about getting back to myself and being happy - and that's exactly what happened. 

I am very grateful I was able to travel so much this year and after a couple of quieter years due to covid, it reminded me just how happy travel makes me. I look forward to whatever adventures 2024 brings!

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Going to a gig in a foreign country

Going to a gig in a foreign country

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

I've already spent a whole load of time in Thailand but once I found out that Bring Me The Horizon were playing in Bangkok during the dates I wanted to travel, there was no question about the destination of my very last minute holiday! Flying across the world to see my favourite band play live is now something I will always be proud of myself for doing, by myself.

Being in a country where English isn't their Mother Tongue, (that was a bring me the horizon pun guys sorry haha) it wasn't quite so simple; but I wouldn't exactly say it was hard either so I wanted to share my experience for anyone nervous to do the same!



No one in Bangkok center had heard of the venue and a lot of the local taxi drivers refused to even acknowledge me when I asked. Google was also not much help so in the end, I just put the address into Grab and hoped for the best.

We went about half hour out of town but I knew I was in the right place when I spotted a humongous line of people queuing along a road, totally dressed in black. I didn't realise they had such a big Thai following.



The venue itself was awesome. An open air arena; just off of the motorway by the side of a big mall I think. I was just glad that it even existed by the time I got there.

I guess I took it for granted that most of places in Thailand are well catered for English speakers but what I hadn't planned for was the fact that everything was in Thai - I mean I was one of about 5 white people there so it made sense - there was no need for English. I soon realised that if I wanted to know what was going on I was just going to have to ask people - which I did. New found confidence that came with solo travel definitely helped.

This lead me to meet Aida, another girl wandering around alone, also as confused as me - but she was Thai, which was a real help, at least she could understand what was going on. We stuck together for the rest of the night.



I had no idea what was happening when one of the staff ushered us from the back of the very long queue to the ticket pick up point but obviously I wasn't going to stop her. I did have a mini panic when I got to the front of the queue and they asked for ID, which I didn't have but they were happy with a photo of my passport so it was short lived.

We got our tickets and since somehow skipping about a 3000 people in that queue, ran straight up to the front gates of our zone. I was worried about getting stuck in a mosh pit so being right at the front of the zone definitely helped me feel safer - turns out that the Thai crowd are nowhere near as rowdy as Londoners so it wasn't a problem anyway.



For BMTH fans, it wasn't part of the Amo tour so they played a whole load of songs from different albums which was amazing because their new stuff sounds SO different from the older songs. They opened with their new song, Ludens which means I was there for its first live performance. Pretty cool.

Afterwards, Aida and I swapped Instagram's and followed the crowd outside. She took me to the taxi rank and made sure I found a cab before she got a train home which was really sweet.

Getting back to the city center was much easier. After haggling with the driver to less than half of what he wanted, he dropped me off back to Khao San Road and then locked me in the car since I didn't have the right change. Not quite as terrifying as it sounds - he took my 1000 baht note and ran into 711 to get change, smiling and waving at me from the counter.

After giving him some cash, I took the rest of my money for noodles and bubble tea as I walked back to my hostel.

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5 Highlights from my recent solo adventure in Thailand

5 Highlights from my recent solo adventure in Thailand

Tuesday, 14 January 2020

My recent trip to Thailand was short; but very sweet. With limited days this time around, I felt like I made the most of each one where as I'll admit in the past, sometimes I took my privileged situation of long term travel for granted. Every day had something fun going on but here were some of my favourite parts.

Seeing One Of My Best Friends 

James was the first person I ever met when I went backpacking and one of the few I still speak to today,. Three years later, like me, he's been forwards and backwards all over the place but we always seem to miss each. He's currently settled in Pai, working at a hostel so I made time to go and hang out with him for a few days.



Thai Festivities

Doing this the first time around was one of my all time favourite travel highlights so having to opportunity to go back and experience it again was a blessing. It was just as magical as the first time. I wrote a whole post about it here.

Pool Day

I'm a big city girl when so I don't spend much of my time travelling, relaxing in a bikini; although a few days into my trip, I started to feel like I was doing too much and burning out a little bit so I took some time off.

I snuck into a hotel and used their gym and then their pool and honestly it was so refreshing just to pretend I was on a normal, relaxing holiday for a few hours. I had the best afternoon and went back to hostel feeling refreshed and ready for the next adventure.



Making New Friends

Meeting people is one of the best parts of backpacking and my favourite night out on this trip was with 4 total strangers who I met during my trip! Three of them I found at my hostel in Bangkok but one of them, August, I met on my first night in Pai so it was awesome to reunite before he flew home.




BMTH Live in Bangkok

Definite highlight, not just of this trip, but of my life. My favourite band, live, on the other side of the world; plus going on my own meant I made a couple of new Thai friends who I plan to see next time I'm in Bangkok.


What are some of your travel highlights?

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The most magical time to visit Chaing Mai

The most magical time to visit Chaing Mai

Thursday, 19 December 2019

Within days of arriving, Chiang Mai fast became my favourite destination in Southeast Asia. It's less crazy than Bangkok, the food is cheap and delicious and there is so much to do, making it an awesome destination year round; but having done this a few times now I can tell you will full confidence that plan your visit at the right time and you will experience this cultural town in northern Thailand at it's most magical.

Thailand has lots of festivals throughout the year and at the beginning of November, the country celebrates Loy Krathong. This is an enchanting festival by its own standard but celebrate it in Chiang Mai and you'll get to experience the wonders of Yi Peng the following day.

This year, the Loy Krathong celebrations started on the 10th November and Yi Peng, on 11th and 12th.

The whole city gets involved but as a backpacker, my favourite place to be is at Stamps backpacker hostel. I've stayed in 4 or 5 different hostels during my time in Chiang Mai and it is by far the best in terms for almost everything! Great location, comfortable accommodation but most importantly for me, the people who work there are the people who stay.



Loy Krathong loosely translates to 'to float a basket' and the festivities involve building an offering and floating it along the river to pay respect to the water spirits - and that's just what we did. Stamps organised all the bits and pieces we'd need and taught us how to create a traditional krathongs using a slice of tree trunk, folded banana leaves with toothpicks to keep them in place and flowers for decoration.

We walked down to the river as a big group, added a candle and three incense sticks to our krathongs and set them off along the river to join the hundreds of others floating downstream; there was something very Disney-esqu about the whole experience.



The next evening was the first night of Yi Peng, the lantern festival. The big celebrations happen on this day at the Mae Jo university which is about 15km out of town but to go to the actual ceremony, it costs hundreds of dollars so many people, including us gather by the river just outside. Stamps booked up coaches to take us there from Chiang Mai center and upon arriving, we bought lanterns and noodles at the street market and headed to the river bank to set them off by the water.

After writing our hopes and dreams on them, we lit the ring inside and waited for them to fill up with hot air. They're quite tricky to get right and require a few hands but it's a lot of fun to do together and it was great for group bonding.



By 8pm, the official ceremony started and all of a sudden, the sky opposite from where we were standing was full with thousands of lanterns; all launched into the sky at once. We all just stood there in awe, it was an absolutely magical sight.

And once they were far enough away, the fireworks started too.


This year, I missed last night of the festivities because I had plans in Bangkok but from my experience the first time around, this night is best spent in the city. With a big parade and the usual street market madness, there are people literally everywhere. Excited children and tourists who don't really know what they're mean that most of the lanterns got caught up in trees and fell to the ground in a big ball of flames so be wary if you do go out.

It was utter chaos if I'm honest but I loved every second!

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How to stay fit whilst traveling

How to stay fit whilst traveling

Thursday, 31 October 2019

You leave your eating routine and normal food behind and are thrown into something totally unfamiliar in every way when you go travelling. In Thailand and Vietnam especially, the streets are filled with the noises and smells of freshly cooked food and I just couldn't resist it.

Although to counteract that, you're no longer sat at a desk 9 hours a day. You've got to lug your backpack around and explore your new surroundings in the blistering heat so your weight and wellbeing could go either way.

I however took a carry on case - so there was no lugging to be done (tactical) plus I'm not a big nature lover so there wasn't much intensity to my exploring. As such, it wasn't exactly a surprise that  I put on over a stone in three months; food was such a huge part of my experience that it was inevitable. 

Once I realised what was happening, I decided to take a little bit more care of my body whilst I was out having fun. Here are some simple ways that I kept myself healthy:

Cycling 

I wasn't a confident cyclist when I was in in Asia, but 8 months of Uber eats in Australia changed that. My bike was my life when I lived in Surfers Paradise, not only earning me money but giving me freedom as well as keeping me fit. I fell in love with cycling there and aspire to be like these incredible people and continue my new hobby for years to come.

I will always regret not taking a cycle tour in Hoi An because I was scared so I'd love to go back and do that one day now.

Gym

Surprisingly enough, I started my gym habit whilst I was in Vietnam. I was waiting for my NZ visa to come through and had exhausted everything else so I decided to go to the gym for entertainment. It cost me £3 per session and I actually felt great when I left so I popped in every time I was bored after that and have been going ever since.

Walking

Arriving somewhere totally foreign can be very overwhelming but I always enjoy exploring a new city by foot. With a local SIM in my phone, the quickest way to get to know my new surrounding was put in the location of what I wanted to get to and walk there. I love being able to stop off to look at things on the way.

 

Fruit

Being abroad really made me realise how terrible the fruit is back home in the UK so as well as stuffing my face with noodles and ice cream, I took full advantage of all the delicious fruit on offer too.  The street vendors will slice it up making it super easy to eat on the go. I usually go for mango or pineapple.

Resistance Bands 

When I got home, I ordered a few resistant bands (just on ebay) which I then put in my backpack and took with me when I left again. If I went to the gym, I would always take them with but the good thing about resistance bands is that they can be used anywhere. I would often use them at home when I couldn't be bothered to get dressed properly and go out.

Adding these simple things, didn't take up much time but always made me feel much better whilst I was abroad. So much so that I have brought my new habits home with me and try to practice them as often as possible!

*Collaborative Content

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