Welcome to week nineteen 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 nineteen of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first eighteen 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 arrived in Bangkok!
Day 127: Monday 22nd July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a very productive day.
We were up bright and early and headed straight to Central Embassy to work on our laptops for the day.
We finally after months of working on them, set our travel guides live for Dubai, Bucharest, Kuala Lumpur and Sri Lanka.
You can find the travel guide e-Books here and we’re still working on so many more to bring you soon!
When we set out to work on these guides, I don’t think we realised just how much work would be involved in creating them. But oh my word, the hours we have put into these is crazy.
So, I’m very glad we’re finally able to set them live and make them available!
That was basically what our entire day entailed – working on the guides in the coffee shops all day before heading back to the apartment to work on more content and order some dinner.
Day 128: Tuesday 23rd July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a work from home day.
I’ve been drinking 7-Eleven coffee for the past two weeks and finally, enough was enough. I couldn’t put myself through drinking it anymore and keep pretending that it was good coffee.
Even though it’s ridiculously cheap, it’s not worth it.
So I took it upon myself to find a new coffee shop close to us that would serve good coffee. And I hit the jackpot!
Tucked away down the side street next to our building and behind Bang Na temple, is this tiny hut hidden amongst the trees that houses a trendy coffee shop called Shelterhood.
They serve incredible for coffee for a very cheap price, but even better than that – they have two cats on site that you can pet and play with. Heaven.
We’ve definitely found our new local coffee shop and even better that it’s only a five minute walk away.
No more 7-Eleven coffee for me, thank God.
Fuelled by my new favourite coffee, I was flat out working on blog posts and my next YouTube video of our time in Sigiriya.
That’s basically how the rest of the day went, until we went to the gym in the evening and I started watching vlogs set in Australia to get myself excited/prepared about our future move.
Our move to Australia still seems so far away, but depending on how our budget looks after our next travel leg and month in Bangkok, we could be there by October.
Which isn’t far away at all.
So I’m currently looking for some Australian content creators to follow and digest all of their Aussie content.
Day 129: Wednesday 24th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
We were sticking to the local area today again, but I had found another coffee shop near us that also looked like a good place to work from.
So we set off for the fifteen minute walk and arrived at La Mesca, which would fit in perfectly in Bali. The design was very industrial yet also had pink walls (photo opportunities) and incredible coffee.
However, the incredible coffee was around £7.50, so felt like we were back in London, not in Thailand.
Although it was a nice place to work, it wasn’t within the budget so will probably be the last time we come to work here.
I finished editing my Sigiriya YouTube video and got that live, and also worked on some more blog posts as we’re heading to the immigration offices tomorrow and will more than likely be spending all day there.
Day 130: Thursday 25th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a long day. But we knew what we were in for when we set off at 7.30am this morning.
It was visa extension day for us, so we can stay in Bangkok until August.
When we arrived into Thailand a few weeks ago, it was after July 1st and we hoped the new visa rules would have come into place where tourists arriving were now granted 60-days in the country.
Unfortunately, we all received a 30-day visa again so would have to go to the immigration office to get this extended.
Reading about it online, we knew we would be spending a full day waiting around until our number was called, so we left early in the morning, calling an Uber at 7.30am, but with Bangkok traffic, we arrived around 9am.
The office opened at 8.30am, and even though we arrived around 9am, the place was already packed full.
We tried to work out what to do, where to find the forms to fill out, figure out what to write on the forms, get our passport photos and documents ready, and then wait in a queue for two hours to have our documents checked.
Thankfully we passed this first part at 11:40am before the office closed for lunch. Those that were in the queue come 12pm would have to wait here for a full hour until the officers came back, so as not to lose their place.
Once we had passed this part, we were given a number (267) and had to wait for another few hours to be seen by an immigration officer where we’d have our documents checked again and passports taken from us to have them stamped with an updated visa.
Around 2.30pm we were seen and then had to wait for another hour or so before we received our passports back.
Leaving the immigration office 3.30pm. A lovely six and a half hours later.
Even though we hadn’t done anything all day except lounge around, we were exhausted. So headed home, ordered a Subway for dinner and watched TV.
Around 8pm himself started to feel very unwell. And this continued into the night with a bout of food poisoning that he thinks he picked up from a KFC wrap he’d had in the immigration building.
Day 131: Friday 26th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a write-off day. We were due to go into the city to explore, but himself was bed-ridden with food poisoning.
I headed out in the morning to grab myself a coffee and came back to lounge in bed with him all day watching Love Island, starting to watch Revenge and watching When Harry Met Sally.
I ordered in both lunch and dinner and didn’t open my laptop once.
Just what the doctor ordered.
Day 132: Saturday 27th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Himself was feeling a little better. So we ventured into Central Embassy for a few hours to have coffee and get some work done.
And to also leave the apartment for a few hours instead of staring at the same four walls for another day.
It got to around 2pm when we called it a day. Himself had zero energy due to not eating anything and also expelling everything over the last 48 hours.
We had another chilled rest of the day back at home, working and watching some more TV.
Day 133: Sunday 28th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was pretty hilarious.
We booked into a spa as we’d been talking about going to a spa before getting to Bangkok. So we finally picked a day to go.
Plus, it was a nice way to end the week after himself’s bout of food poisoning.
We pictured relaxing in and out of a pool all day. Reading, getting massages, nibbling on some food and drinking a little refreshing drink.
What we got instead was a few hours of separation, being surrounded by completely nude strangers, having to get completely nude ourselves in front of said strangers and then getting a painful all-over massage side by side.
Basically, we booked into a Japanese Onsen here in Bangkok, not knowing what a Japanese Onsen is.
When we got to the changing rooms, we went our separate ways. I was in the women’s area with different thermal baths, steam rooms, whirlpools and saunas. But to enter any of these, you had to be completely in the nip.
So I spent a few hours with around seven other naked women in Bangkok in silence. Alone with our thoughts and trying not to make eye contact.
Meanwhile, himself was in the men’s area doing the exact same. It was definitely an experience to say the least!
Then in the afternoon we had feet, hands and neck/shoulder massages side by side. And my masseuse did not go easy. I felt more tense afterwards if anything.
But we had some free mango sticky rice afterwards which made it worthwhile.
Then it was back home to the apartment to start stressing about the All-Ireland Football final as Armagh are playing Galway.
Everyone back home was either at the game or watching it in one of the local pubs. To say I was experiencing both FOMO and homesickness would be an understatement.
Then they only went and won the game in extra time. The second time Armagh have won the All-Ireland, the last time being in 2002 when I was 5 years old. I still remember when that happened. So to be in Bangkok when they won it this time was a little strange.
I went to bed after the game ended around 11.30pm Thailand-time. Knowing the whole town and county would be out celebrating for days to come. I miss home.
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