Welcome to week thirty of the backpacking diaries. I’ll be updating you weekly on where I’ve been, what I’ve been getting up to, and most importantly, how I’m really feeling about this insane decision I’ve made.
As you probably know, I’m currently backpacking through Asia after quitting my job and leaving London for good.
I want to remember every moment of this experience, and document as much of it as I can, just like I’ve documented everything else in my life post-18 on this website.
You can keep up to date with my travels on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube but for now, enjoy week thirty of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first twenty-nine weeks of backpacking diaries, you can catch up here.
Top tip: for mobile data around Asia, we used the Jetpac eSim. This was super handy and easily installed onto our phones as soon as we arrived in Japan! Get $5 off your eSIM package when you use my referral code: ORLZRLN2.
Day 204: Monday 7th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
I couldn’t wake up this morning. We were supposed to go in and work from Central Embassy again, but I couldn’t face getting the boat and being among the hustle and bustle.
So we decided to work from the cafe downstairs instead. Plus, it’s much cheaper than working at the coffee shops in Central Embassy, as you can imagine.
We set up camp at 9am and didn’t leave until 5.30pm. We did manage to get through a lot of emails, blog posts, and newsletter content so it was highly productive, thankfully.
For dinner, we ordered our usual healthy dinner again and had it quite early as we hadn’t eaten much throughout the day.
We watched more of the Mendenez documentary but I still can’t really get into it or see how the public want them to be released. At least, from the first two episodes it’s so clear that they did it?!
Maybe I need to keep watching to find out what really happens.
I spent the rest of the evening working on an informative Instagram Reel about Mount Fuji which was 3 minutes in total and received a total of 300 views. Lol.
But it’s informative for anyone that wants to climb Mount Fuji in the future.
The rest of the night was spent watching three (!!) episodes of Revenge in bed, because it was very much needed.
Day 205: Tuesday 8th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a productive work from home day.
Instead of staying in the flat, we headed downstairs to work in the cafe again. As soon as we walked in, the barista said, ‘iced latte and hot mocha?’.
Are we that predictable? But also, I like that we have a local here already.
Although, saying that, it’s so weird that we’ll be spending so much time in this one cafe that they’ll know our faces, know our coffee order and then in a few weeks, they’ll never see us again.
Life is weird, eh?
I was working on blogs this morning and then had some calls in the afternoon with brands I’m hoping to work with soon. We’ll see how things progress there!
My first email newsletter went out today for the first time in months. I’ve added in lots of flight deals now, so if you want to sign up, you can do so here.
The afternoon was spent working on my Krabi YouTube video which took me a lot less time than I thought it would, so it should be live tomorrow.
I actually ventured to the gym today for the first time! I only went on the treadmill and got steps in, but it’s better than nothing.
Day 206: Wednesday 9th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
My body clock is a little all over the place today.
Our alarms went off at the ungodly time of 4.45am and no, I wasn’t doing a sunrise hike or climbing Mount Fuji. I was awake to buy concert tickets, once again.
This time, for Australia.
Yes, we’ve finally settled on a moving date and this is the one concrete thing we have booked in for Sydney, so there’s no backing out now.
I grabbed some concert tickets for Dermot Kennedy around St. Patrick’s Day, and this will be my fifth time seeing him live. (You can read reviews of the previous times I saw him here).
Once tickets were secured, we were awake. So we had some cereal and watched an episode of TV. And then I fell asleep again.
Himself went downstairs to work in the cafe and I slept until around 9am. Then it was up and out and down to join him in the cafe.
We stayed here until around 11am and then headed into Central Embassy to get more work done. I was feeling a bit disorientated and sick when we arrived in the centre of Bangkok, so (not so) ashamedly had a McDonalds for lunch.
I was out of whack.
We spent the rest of the day in Central Embassy working and I finished another YouTube video which I’ll add below – the first of the Thailand vlogs!
I’m so behind on vlogs that to get to my plan of where I should be by the end of the year, I’ll need to post four videos per week until December 31st.
Let’s see how that goes.
Day 207: Thursday 10th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
It was another day at home today, trying to save those pennies.
I also had a work call during the day, so thought it best to stay at home for secure internet connection and no loud background noise.
We worked in the cafe all morning before my call at 3pm with a very exciting brand that I’m hoping to be able to work with early next year. I’ll keep you posted on that one.
Afterwards, it was more work from the flat with Love is Blind UK playing in the background before ordering dinner and watching more of the Menendez documentary on Netflix which is proving to be a very hard watch.
Day 208: Friday 11th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
I had more work calls scheduled in today, but they weren’t until late in the evening. Still, we decided to stay around the apartment and work from home for the day.
We’re all about balancing the budget, and the coffees by our apartment are much cheaper than the ones in Central Embassy. But we get a lot more work done in Central Embassy, so we need to make both work.
We worked all day in the coffee shop downstairs before calling it a day around 5pm. My calls weren’t until 9.30pm and 10pm (on a Friday!) so we had dinner and watched more Netflix.
I don’t know who I’ve become taking work calls this late on a Friday night, but I guess that’s my own fault being based in Bangkok and also working with brands that are located around the world.
The life of a digital nomad, eh?
After 90 minutes of intense calls, my brain was fried and it was time to call it a night. My Friday nights look extremely different to those of a few years ago when I lived in Liverpool.
Day 209: Saturday 12th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a mixed bag. I was heading first thing to the hospital to see if I could see a doctor.
Long-story-short, back when I was around 14 or 15, I developed a cyst on my tailbone that then turned very nastily into an abscess.
I was misdiagnosed with a fractured tailbone and sent home to rest, so it developed into a very bad infection that could have ruptured and caused sepsis (and death).
Thankfully a family friend told me to go to A&E very quick and it was lanced, drained and packed. It was probably the most traumatic and painful thing I’ve ever went through as I’ve never been in an accident and haven’t broken a bone before.
From time to time, my tailbone can flare up with some swelling and a little bump. On every occasion that this has happened, I ignore it and hope that it goes down by itself. Which it usually does.
This time just seemed to be bigger and more sore than normal, so I knew I needed to get it checked out, especially with so many travel plans coming up.
Plus, Bangkok has some of the best hospitals in the world, so I was in a good spot.
Trying to get to the point quicker, sorry.
I got myself a little worried and upset because I did not want to go through that ordeal again, especially the packing part as that means visiting the nurse every day for four weeks and going through pain.
But I headed to the hospital, registered – there was a Starbucks inside the hospital right beside the registration area?! – grabbed a coffee, was seen, given antibiotics and sent on my way in around 45 minutes total.
Incredible, would highly recommend the hospital to a friend.
Thankfully the doctor knew straight away what it was I had and gave me strong antibiotics to take for the next five days and see if it goes away. No lancing – thank God.
After this, we headed to Central Embassy as normal to get some work done before our dentist appointments in the afternoon.
What a day, eh?
I had a check up and then opted for a deep clean and polish. That took around an hour and was invasive and painful to say the least.
But it did get rid of my coffee stains and made my teeth look a lot better, so I was pleased. Plus, it only cost around £40 which seemed a bit of a steal.
Afterwards we headed home and I had a well deserved evening on the sofa starting the new series of Outerbanks.
Day 210: Sunday 13th October 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
It was another day at the (home) office today. Looking back at these diary entries, I haven’t spent one day apart from my laptop since leaving the digital detox retreat.
That’s 13 consecutive days. I mean, it really doesn’t feel like work, I won’t lie.
I love making content. Whether that’s writing blog posts, editing YouTube videos, writing email newsletters or making content for Instagram and TikTok. It’s fun, and it’s creative.
This day next week we’ll be packing up our Bangkok flat, which is hard to believe. We’ll be heading on to a new (but old) location that we visited at the start of our backpacking travels.
I’ll still be working, but it will be a much nicer backdrop than the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.
Since it’s our last week in Bangkok coming up, we’ve planned to take a few days off to explore more of the city.
My boyfriend’s brother is also arriving this week, so we’ll be out exploring and being tourists with him too.
You’ll be glad to know the upcoming diary entries won’t just be a variation of ‘worked from the cafe downstairs’ and ‘worked from Central Embassy’.
We’ll be back to being actual backpackers and explorers next week, I promise!
Make sure to check back in next week to see where we’re off to next and what we see and do around Bangkok during our final days in the city.
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