Welcome to the backpacking diaries, where 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 five of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first four weeks of backpacking diaries, you can catch up here.
Top tip: for mobile data around Asia, we used the Airalo eSim which was super handy and easily installed onto our phones as soon as we landed in Colombo Airport!
Day 29: Monday 15th April 2024
Location: Negombo, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
Our first morning waking up in Negombo again and it was incredible to be back. Negombo has become our home away from home here in Sri Lanka and I doubt this will be the last time we return to our villa. If flights are cheap enough when we’re on our travels and need a bit of respite, we might make a return here to catch up on some rest and laptop work.
Saying that, this is exactly what we were back in Negombo to do: catch up on work and catch up on rest before we embark on our tour of South East Asia.
Most of our days here involved lying in, working on our laptops, going to Boho Cafe for lunch and working on our laptops here until around 4pm, heading back to the villa and getting ready to go out for dinner before coming back and catching up on the next episode of Married At First Sight Australia.
Day 30: Tuesday 16th April 2024
Location: Negombo, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
Another day in paradise. I woke up early this morning to journal because I had so many thoughts floating around my head that I needed to get on paper. We’ve been travelling for 30 days now and I have so many thoughts.
Is this what I thought it would be? Is travelling what I expected? Do I regret quitting my job and life in London to do this? Is being a digital nomad/travelling full-time something I see myself doing? Of all the places I’ve visited and called home, where is calling me back? So many thoughts swimming around my brain that I’ll save for another day.
It was another working day in Negombo that went exactly like yesterday, so I won’t bore you with the repeated details.
Day 31: Wednesday 17th April 2024
Location: Negombo, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
These days in Negombo have been some of my favourite of our trip. Chilling out, working on our laptops in our villa, then moving to the local cafe for a change of scenery to do more work, watching the sunset on the beach, heading for dinner and then chilling in the villa again before bed.
It might sound monotonous, but it’s bliss and it’s what I wish everyday life looked like.
Is that in Sri Lanka you ask? Probably not, but I’ll let you know when I find it.
Day 32: Thursday 18th April 2024
Location: Negombo, Sri Lanka
Dear travel diary,
Our final day in Negombo! We savoured every second of our villa and checked out a few minutes after check-out time as we really didn’t want to leave, plus our flight to our next destination wasn’t until 11pm, so we had a full day to kill in Negombo first.
We spent all day in Boho Cafe, which had become our third home after our Negombo villa. But with good wifi, plug sockets and air conditioning (and the best mocha I’ve had while travelling), it was the best spot to set up camp for the day until we had to leave for our flight.
In the evening we grabbed a PickMe taxi to the airport, and had to wait around an hour before we could check in and go through to departures. We had our second night flight of the trip, and we’re starting to wonder if night flights are worth skipping on a hotel for the night because we had zero sleep on our flight to Malaysia.
Day 33: Friday 19th April 2024
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Dear travel diary,
We landed in Malaysia at around 5am local time, and had no sleep on the flight so were pretty much walking zombies. We grabbed our bags and headed straight for our hostel to drop off our bags and see if there was the slightest chance our room might be ready. But no luck.
We dropped off our bags and headed straight for Batu Caves, a religious site outside of the city that has around 300 steps to climb up into the cave where the ceremonies take place.
Even at 9am it was ridiculously hot and there were monkies running around everywhere. The stairs were tough, but I’m glad I made it to the top, and would highly recommend this as something to do in Kuala Lumpur.
The rest of the day involved me falling asleep any time I sat down, running into air conditioning at any available moment, eating beef noodles three times and sweating. Kuala Lumpur is so hot!
Around 4pm I could hardly keep my eyes open, so we headed back to check into our hostel room and take a nap before heading back out for dinner on the famous night market street, Jalan Alor.
Day 34: Saturday 20th April 2024
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Dear travel diary,
We had a deserving lie-in this morning and fully caught up on lost sleep from our night flight. Plus, the 30,000 steps we did around Kuala Lumpur yesterday definitely added to how tired we were last night.
We had more walking to do today, heading out to see Independence Square, a Chinese temple, the Petronas Towers, watch the fountain show, eat more beef noodles and do more laps of Suria Mall to cool down from the outside heat.
It was pretty strange to be in a city again after so long in Sri Lanka, but I do (unashamedly) love the hustle and bustle of cities and being reunited with Dunkin’ coffee and Starbucks. There, I said it.
I really enjoyed my time in Kuala Lumpur and especially loved the food options. Somewhere I’d recommend checking out for 48 hours.
Day 35: Sunday 21st April 2024
Location: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia & Ao Nang, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
After our quick two days in Malaysia, it was time to head to country number five of our backpacking trip, Thailand.
I had so many preconceptions coming to Thailand since I know so many people that have been here and since it’s such a tourist hot spot in Asia. Personally, I’ve always known it to be a two week holiday for university students and somewhere to come and get drunk every night. Which, for us on our backpacking trip having only drank on two nights out of these 35, isn’t what we were here to do.
And when we arrived in Ao Nang, that’s exactly the picture I was met with. It felt like walking down the Magaluf Strip with the bright lights, drinks offers, seedy bars and people on the street trying to entice you into their establishment.
So far, my first impression of Thailand wasn’t a great one and I don’t know if coming here was the right call for us, even though it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to see with my own eyes.
However, I landed in the evening and have only seen it in the nighttime, so maybe I’m too quick to judge. We’ll see what it’s like in the morning and if my perception changes.
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