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 nine of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first eight 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 Thailand!
Day 57: Monday 13th May 2024
Location: Koh Samui, Surat Thani & Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a full travel day, so nothing too exciting to report. However, the most exciting thing was that we were taking our first ever overnight, sleeper train!
We left our final Thai island of Koh Samui and were making our way to Bangkok. I’ve never been to Bangkok before, but I’m very excited to be in a bustling city again. Plus, I’ve heard so much about Bangkok that I’m excited to see it for myself.
We grabbed one last breakfast at The Hub in Koh Samui and spent a few hours on our laptops as our ferry wasn’t until 1.30pm.
The ferry took around 90 minutes and was definitely the most luxury ferry we had taken with leather seats, lotsss of leg room and reclining chairs.
Once we docked, our bus was waiting to take us to Surat Thani train station. The bus took around an hour, so we arrived into Surat Thani at 5pm.
We thought we’d be able to explore the area for a while as our train wasn’t until 8.30pm. However, there was nothing to see or do in Surat Thani. We were even lucky to find a place to have dinner before the sleeper train.
After a quick Google, we found one restaurant near the station and headed there. It was full of locals and had a quirky smell, but we had some chicken and rice and passed a few hours playing card games.
We spent a while on the platform waiting for our train and mentally preparing ourselves for the night ahead. The train was a little delayed, arriving closer to 9pm.
Once it pulled in, the conductor already knew what seats (beds) were ours and directed us onto the right carriage. The beds were already made up and we were both on top bunks, so we found space for our luggage, climbed up and got ready to sleep.
The carriage was very quiet so we tried to nod off to sleep as early as we could, since we didn’t know how much sleep we would actually get.
It definitely wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve had in my life, but it was so much better than a night flight, and we were woken up around 6.30am before arriving into Bangkok. The conductor started to unmake the beds and turn them back into normal train seats for the last part of the journey.
We actually felt quite refreshed arriving into Bangkok and like we’d had a decent night’s sleep. After that first experience, I’d definitely be up for taking another sleeper train.
Day 58: Tuesday 14th May 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Once we arrived into Bangkok train station, we made our way to our hotel to dump our bags. We didn’t take into account that it would be rush hour on a weekday morning and the metro was jam packed. We finally made it to the hotel around 9am and were told that we could probably check into our room at 11am.
So we headed to a coffee shop nearby to get some caffeine into us (Starbucks, because when reunited in a big city) and then grabbed brunch at Breakfast Story (the portions here are huge!).
We headed back to our hotel and checked in so we could shower and freshen up before heading out to explore the capital of Thailand.
Like in Kuala Lumpur, my excitement for taking photos came back so strong. I don’t want to sound cringey, but you could say I was very much inspired by everything I could see. There was so much going on, and so many street corners and shops and people to capture. I knew I was going to love it here.
We were in a quieter part of the city and stumbled upon a local shopfront selling dumplings, so had to make a stop here. After 10,000 steps and 10,000 photos later, we explored Chinatown and found a cute bookstore.
Another 10,000 steps later, we headed to a Michelin-famous spot for fried noodles and wonton soup for dinner.
Day 59: Wednesday 15th May 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
It was our last full day in Bangkok but we decided to take a more relaxed approach and stick to the area that we were staying in. We’ve actually booked to come back to Bangkok later this year and spend a whole month (!!) here, so we have plenty of time to fully check out the city.
We visited a few bookstores near to our hotel, grabbed a 7-eleven toastie and walked 45 minutes to Bangkok’s Central Embassy.
This is a very luxury shopping mall with every designer store you can think of. But on the top floor, you’ll find a large open space bookstore with coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Basically, a very upscale food court with a bookstore in the middle.
There’s also a luxury cinema on this floor that we want to visit when we’re back. The seats are like beds and they even give you a duvet! I fall asleep ten minutes into any movie these days, so I’m not sure I’ll stay awake five minutes into whatever movie we choose to see.
We picked a coffee shop here and spent the day on our laptops. They also have a co-working space that you can pay for, but the WiFi in the building itself is super quick.
We spent all day here before heading to dinner at Terminal 21 which was on our way back to our hotel. On the top floor of this shopping mall is a very busy food court. It was full of local Thai people and we sampled around six different stalls.
I cannot wait to come back to Bangkok for a month soon!!
Day 60: Thursday 16th May 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand & Siem Reap, Cambodia
Dear travel diary,
Today we left Bangkok, and Thailand behind. After four weeks travelling the south of Thailand, it was time to head on to country number six of our backpacking travels.
We were taking a bus across the border into Cambodia, which was to be an exciting and different experience.
Our bus left Bangkok at 9am, stopping at the Cambodian birder at 1.30pm. It was an easy experience, checking out of Thailand in one building, then walking across to the Cambodian building and getting our passports stamped there.
The bus journey on the Thailand side was very smooth, but it was noticeably different when we crossed into Cambodia.
The roads were much worse and the buildings and houses much less developed. The bus driver also honked his horn every two seconds which should give you an idea of the traffic situation.
We arrived into Siem Reap at 5pm and it was chaos. Once you step off the bus, there are around twenty taxi drivers trying to hoard you into their tuk tuk to take you to your hotel.
We found a quiet man called Tommy to take us to our hotel and he was our driver for the whole weekend.
Our hotel was stunning. The front is a restaurant, but it’s very modern with working areas, a swimming pool and a cold drink and cold towels on arrival.
We headed out for dinner before it got dark so we could scope out the area we were staying in. Siem Reap may have been a city, but it definitely wasn’t a city in comparison to Bangkok. It felt more like a little town, but had quite a few shops and restaurants.
Day 61: Friday 17th May 2024
Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Dear travel diary,
We woke up in Siem Reap and had a lie-in at the hotel. We were spending the day in the area, wandering around to see what was happening and working on our laptops.
For breakfast we headed to Sister Srey Cafe where I had some very nice avocado on toast. We then stumbled upon a Welsh bar, believe it or not.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Welsh-themed bar outside of Wales, and definitely didn’t expect to find one in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was too early to be open, so we made note to come back later.
After wandering the alleyways and temples, we found a coffee shop with fast WiFi called The Little Red Fox Espresso.
It was on a dirt-road of sorts, but the road was lined with boutique shops, cafes and restaurants. Quite unassuming, but with lots of places to check out.
At 5pm we walked around some more and found the famous Pub Street, lined with bars and nightclubs. We dropped our laptops and bags off at the hotel and then headed out for dinner.
One thing we really liked about Siem Reap was how relatively small it is. We could walk everywhere, and our hotel was in a great spot that all the top restaurants were only a five minute walk away at most.
We had an early dinner as we were up at 4.30am tomorrow to see sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Day 62: Saturday 18th May 2024
Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Dear travel diary,
Did I see the sun rise at Angkor Wat temple? No.
Do I wish I’d stayed in bed this morning? Yes.
We woke up at 4.30am this morning and our driver Tommy collected us from our hotel at 5am. We made it to Angkor Wat along with many other tourists to watch the sunrise over the famous temple.
However, because of the rainy season and the storm the night before, it was very cloudy. So we didn’t actually see the sun at all. The sky just got lighter.
All in all, wouldn’t recommend. However, you can never predict these things. I guess it’s very much pot luck if you’re going to see a good sunrise.
It’s like that time we went to the Empire State viewing platform when we lived in New York. We picked a random day and headed up for sunset. It turned out to be one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life. But again, pot luck.
We explored the famous temple and then headed back to Tommy’s tuk tuk and he took us around many temples today, including the one where they filmed the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie.
But after the fifth temple, we felt like we’d seen them all. Plus, at one of the temples there were huge spiders on the ground, running around everywhere. Which freaked me out a little, so I was ready to head back into Siem Reap.
One thing that was very evident during our time in Siem Reap and Cambodia so far is the poverty here. It’s very clear that most people don’t have a lot of money. We overheard a tour guide in Angkor Wat say that pre-Covid they used to have 6,000 visitors per day at the temple, but now it’s only 2,000.
Our driver Tommy also told us that even though the religion of Angkor Wat isn’t reflective of the most-practiced religion of Cambodia, the people of Cambodia are so thankful for its existence. Because it brings tourists to Cambodia. And if they didn’t have tourists, they wouldn’t have any money or income.
We made it back into Siem Reap around 2pm. Then headed to The Little Red Fox Espresso with our laptops to have lunch and do some work.
Before dinner, we made our way to the Welsh pub to have a (soft) drink and wander around the Welsh memorabilia they had on display. A very strange pub to have in the middle of Cambodia.
Day 63: Sunday 19th May 2024
Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Dear travel diary,
We headed to a different coffee shop this morning. A place called Quinn that was super modern and had stunning yet minimalistic interiors.
They were playing a Westlife album which was strange to hear all the way in Cambodia. But was a little slice of home for an hour or so.
We worked here for a few hours before our driver Tommy picked us up and took us to a nearby Floating Village.
Due to it being the end of the hot season and only the start of the rainy season, the river here was very low so we wouldn’t be able to see much of the floating village. But could drive through parts of it and see how the houses are built on stilts for when the rainy season does come.
The roads here are incredibly dusty, so we were given masks to wear for the journey. Tommy got a flat tire just outside the floating village. So me and himself ended up on the back of a motorbike with no helmets for ten minutes or so which was quite the experience.
It almost didn’t feel right taking photos and videos around here. It was clear that this was a very poor area, but to see how these people lived was incredibly insightful.
These people had next to nothing and their houses were built on wooden stilts and one room. But every child we passed was so happy, smiling and waving at us.
There were also so many tourist boats empty and docked up that we passed. Yet we were the only tourists visiting that day. It really did feel like an area that had so little and that used to have a lot of visitors, but didn’t any more.
Once we got out into the larger part of the river, it was incredible to see floating restaurants and shops in the middle of the river. We stopped off at one restaurant that had alligators and snakes. Terrifying.
Once we were back on Tommy’s tuk tuk, he drove us slowly around the village itself to see more of the houses and the way people lived.
I felt very conflicted after visiting. Part of it felt like poverty tourism. Taking photos of these people who clearly had little to no money and their way of life. But on the other hand, visiting them and seeing their way of life is both educational and also a way to give them money and support them.
After this, it was back to the main area of Siem Reap for our final night. We had dinner and headed to see Pub Street lit up in the dark.
Stay tuned for week ten of the travels! We head to Battambang and Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, before leaving for country number seven!
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