Welcome to week thirty-five 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-five of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first thirty-four 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 239: Monday 11th November 2024
Location: Boracay, Philippines
Dear travel diary,
Our first morning waking up in Boracay! We opened the balcony doors to hear the waves crashing on the beach and to let some heat into the room.
The beach was quiet except for the locals selling boating experiences and snorkelling adventures.
We grabbed a quick breakfast downstairs and headed for a walk along the beach to find a cafe to work from for the day.
There was a Sunny Side Up cafe not that far away from us that did a great coffee, had air-conditioning and a great view of the beach. So we parked ourselves there for the morning.
Since we were staying at Mandarin White Sands, they kindly provided us with a lunch meal at Don Vito Italian Restaurant at one of their sister hotels.
After filling up on pizza and pasta, we headed back along the beach to the hotel to enjoy more of the suite and watch the sunset from the room.
Our dinner this evening was a buffet at La Fiesta, part of Mandarin Bay Resort & Spa Hotel. We were able to try some Indian food, Japanese sushi, Chinese food and of course, local Filipino food.
It was a feast for sure, but so enjoyable!
Day 240: Tuesday 12th November 2024
Location: Boracay, Philippines
Dear travel diary,
It was our last morning in Mandarin White Sands Hotel and we were headed to a new location, further along near to Station 2 in Boracay.
We started off with a final breakfast at Mandarin White Sands and a juice on the beachfront before having to pack up and head on our way.
We were checking into the Feliz Hotel which is centrally located in D’Mall, the shopping area of Boracay. It’s also the biggest hotel on the island with 80 rooms and has a really cool Latin-American inspired interior.
The hotel also has a beautiful rooftop pool, but it was 30-something degrees with no cloud cover, so definitely not the best place for me to be.
We enjoyed the bar area for a short while and the games, before we headed to find the popular dessert spot called Coco Mama that we’d been dying to try.
Safe to say, it was delicious! Fresh coconut ice cream, inside a coconut with coconut shavings, bits of mango, sticky rice and some nuts on top. So beautiful and refreshing.
We walked around the D’Mall area and browsed a few shops before stopping in a coffee shop within the D’Mall area to jump on our laptops.
We didn’t last too long here as they didn’t have air-conditioning and it was super hot. So we headed on to another Sunny Side Up cafe location, further towards Station 1 of Boracay beach.
This was a better spot to catch sunset as it had unobstructed views of the beach. And the sunsets in Boracay are next level. I’ve never seen sunsets quite like it.
We took a long walk along the beach to soak in our final Boracay sunset before heading on to dinner at Jollibee, a must-do if you’re in the Philippines.
And that was our final day and night in Boracay!
Day 241: Wednesday 13th November 2024
Location: Boracay, Philippines & Singapore
Dear travel diary,
After two weeks or so, our time in the Philippines is finally over! We had an insanely early morning, with our pick-up downstairs at 6am to take us to the boat that would take us across to the airport.
Thankfully there was a Starbucks in Boracay Airport which was well needed and I also had my first Christmas cup of the season!
Which is the strangest feeling since we’re in such hot temperatures and I’m sipping a hot mocha from a Christmas Starbucks cup. Definitely not something I’m used to.
And where are we flying to, I’m sure you’re wondering. Well, firstly we flew to Manila which was a very short flight. And then we transferred in Manila Airport to catch a flight to Singapore!
Country number 13 of our backpacking travels and a city that I have been wanting to visit for a very long time because I’ve only ever heard good things.
However, it was at this point that I was starting to feel under the weather. If you remember, Steff had been feeling poorly and had a cold since Darocotan Island in the Philippines, so it was finally time for me to catch the bug.
Plus, it seemed like most people on the tour had come down with something, which is pretty normal after all spending so much time together.
We arrived in Singapore and it was the smoothest airport experience I think I’ve ever had. I wasn’t pleased that I didn’t get a stamp in my passport, but we were through immigration in less than two minutes and collecting our bags and on our way.
We arrived to our very nice hotel around 7pm and were starving, so headed straight out for dinner at Newton Food Centre. This is the market from the movie Crazy Rich Asians and as soon as I saw the dumpling stall, I was sorted.
We had 12 dumplings to share which were delicious, before himself went off to get us some famous local food that we had to try including the chicken satay and stingray. Yes, stingray, really. It was actually quite tasty too!
From here we took the metro to Marina Bay Sands to see it for the first time and all lit up at nighttime. The marina area around it was such a pleasant walk and I can see why people move to Singapore to live, it seems like a really clean and well-run place.
Then it was back to the hotel because I was feeling more and more crap and almost kissed the ground when I found not one, but two Lemsip in my toiletry bag when I thought I had used them all months ago.
After a Lemsip I was feeling so much better and a little rejuvenated. Just in time to get a good night’s sleep.
We only have tomorrow to explore Singapore so it’s going to be a chaotic day with lots of walking I’m sure.
Day 242: Thursday 14th November 2024
Location: Singapore
Dear travel diary,
We were up bright and early today to attack our one day in Singapore head on. I started with a quick Lemsip in bed to help myself feel better.
Our first stop was a breakfast place that served a local delicacy of Kaya Toast. It’s basically toast dripping in sweet butter that’s served with soft boiled eggs that you crack yourself and add some soy sauce into.
It was actually really tasty but I couldn’t see myself eating this every day as the sweetness of the toast seemed quite calorific.
Afterwards, we headed on a walk to tick off some things on our list like the famous coloured houses, Kampong Glam which is a Muslim neighbourhood with a beautiful Mosque and then onwards to Little India for a few minutes before the heavens opened and we had to call it quits to the walking tour and head for a drink.
We headed to the famous Raffles Hotel to have the iconic Singapore Sling in the bar where it originates. The queue wasn’t too bad and we waited for around 20 minutes to get in.
It was a very cool experience, especially as they give you a bag of monkey nuts to eat and you can discard the shells directly onto the floor.
The cocktail itself was really tasty, but also $42 of tasty. So it was over $100 including tip for our two drinks. Basically two days’ budget in one sitting, but it was definitely worth the experience and to say I’ve had the original Singapore Sling in Singapore.
Lord knows when I’ll be back again, or if I’ll ever be?
The rain had thankfully stopped by the time we had finished our drinks, so we headed over to Gardens by the Bay, next to Marina Bay Sands to see the famous trees and take a walk through the gardens.
They were already decorating for Christmas which still felt a bit strange with the hot temperatures, but was quite festive.
By this point, we were feeling hungry and headed for dinner at another famous food centre, this time Maxwell Food Centre. However, I’ll say that we definitely preferred Newtown Food Centre over Maxwell, even though Maxwell is the most popular and famous for tourists.
After this, I was feeling horrendous, so headed back to the hotel and called our time in Singapore to an end. We got around to almost everything, but this gives us an excuse to come back again and explore more when I’m in full health.
We had another flight to catch tomorrow!
Day 243: Friday 15th November 2024
Location: Singapore & Canggu, Bali, Indonesia
Dear travel diary,
Today we were flying from the famous Singapore Airport.
However, what we didn’t know is that the famous waterfall is actually in the shopping centre connected to the airport, not in the departures area that you’d think it is.
Steff’s former colleague that’s based in Singapore actually picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the airport so they could catch up for half an hour, which was very kind of him.
We arrived super early so we could make the most of the airport, but again little did we know that the fountain doesn’t even turn on until 10am!
So we sat in Starbucks for a while until we could see the famous waterfall and then grabbed a shuttle bus to our terminal to catch our flight to Bali!!
Yes, we’re heading back to Bali after two years!! I am sooo excited to be back here and going back to some of our favourite brunch spots, dinner spots, cafes and more and also seeing more of Indonesia too.
It was quite a hectic day as we arrived into Bali around 3pm and took a taxi (Gojek) to Canggu. We were in traffic for two hours to get to our guest house. Two hours!!
Bali traffic is no joke and it only seems to have gotten worse, not better.
When we finally arrived to our guest house, himself was for passing out with hunger, so we headed straight out for dinner at our favourite dumpling spot that we had discovered last time. And again, it was as tasty as we remembered.
But also, the strangest thing happened. A friend I made at the Cambodia Yoga Retreat walked into the dumpling spot while we were eating.
I knew she was in Bali and I was going to message her the next day to catch up over a coffee, but how crazy that I literally arrived and of all the places, we were in the same one! Fate works in crazy ways.
What a start to my time in Canggu, eh?!
Day 244: Saturday 16th November 2024
Location: Canggu, Bali, Indonesia
Dear travel diary,
My first stop in Bali this morning was with a hair dresser. I’ve talked in my diary entries before about the issues I’ve had with my hair on this backpacking trip and that I’ve noticed a lot of hair loss especially around Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
Well, I’ve heard the water in Bali is meant to be even worse for hair loss, with one girl on TikTok shaving her whole head after her hair started falling out rapidly after living in Bali.
So, I wanted to avoid this and headed to a hairdresser to have my hair washed and blow-dried. For £20, it was well worth it.
Then it was time for our first Bali brunch! Bali is quite iconic for its great brunch scene, and I’m here to try as many as I can and thoroughly enjoy some cheap avocado on toast before I’m met with $50 brunches in Australia.
We headed to Milk & Madu which was actually our first ever brunch in Bali two years ago. This was a different branch, only a few streets behind us but just as good as we remembered.
Afterwards, we sat here and worked on our laptops for a while to get caught up on work we’d missed while exploring Singapore. We worked here all day until it was time for sunset and headed to La Brisa Beach Club just down the street.
The sky was too hazy to enjoy much of a sunset, but we still enjoyed the vibes and a poke bowl which I hadn’t shut up about since the first time I had it two years ago. It was good, but strangely not as life-changing as the first time I had it.
Perhaps because I’ve had some really good ones in London from Poke Island that I really miss.
Day 245: Sunday 17th November 2024
Location: Canggu, Bali, Indonesia
Dear travel diary,
Good morning and happy Sunday from Canggu.
Ok, I’m fully back in the Bali bubble and I’m going to find it very hard to leave.
We had a lie in this morning and then headed to a new coffee shop to work from called Miel. It was really bright and spacious here with a lot of people working from their laptops.
It was raining quite a bit outside, so we didn’t feel too guilty for working from our laptops inside for most of the day.
We had a really tasty brunch here and almost started to float away when the rain came in and flooded the floor.
A friend of ours that was on the same program in New York as us was actually currently living and working in Bali, so we met him for a coffee in the afternoon and caught up on life for the past four years.
For dinner, we actually headed back to Milk & Madu as they were having a Sunday deal of 2-for-1 pizzas and who are we to say no to something that will help our budget and also equals good food?
Another lovely and relaxing day in Bali, but that all changes next week as we head to a surf camp!
Make sure to check back next week to hear about how we get on at our first surf camp, and explore more of Canggu’s brunch scene!
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