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 seven of the travel diaries!
If you missed the first six 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 43: Monday 29th April 2024
Location: Phi Phi to Phuket, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
It was our last day on Phi Phi and time to leave to head to Phuket. We took the ferry rather than the speedboat as we were in no rush and this saved us a few pounds of our budget too.
Top tip: for all of our travel around Asia, we book with 12Go Asia – the best we’ve found!
I had high hopes for Phuket as I follow an Irish blogger that’s been living there for the past five years. This part of Thailand seemed very big, and to see anything we needed to taxi everywhere as the traffic was far too chaotic to rent a scooter.
We headed to a coffee shop to hop on our laptops and check out the area of Rawai for a little while, before heading to one of the live fish markets for dinner which is what Phuket is quite well-known for.
Basically, on one side of the street you’ll find boxes and water tanks full of live fish. On the other side of the street is a row of restaurants.
You go to the fish seller, select the fish you want so they can weigh it, and then you take it to a restaurant across the street for them to cook it for you.
A wild concept and one I wasn’t keen on getting involved in, but I enjoyed walking around the fish markets all the same.
Day 44: Tuesday 30th April 2024
Location: Phuket, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a blissful day in Phuket. We woke up and headed straight to Ton Mai Spa where we spent the entire day. We had come across this on the Irish blogger’s Instagram that I mentioned above (@markandnadine).
The spa had great WiFi, so we spent the morning in their cafe working and drinking iced coffees. Then for the rest of the afternoon we lounged by the pool, hopped in the ice bath (my first ever time), sat in the steam room and baked in the sauna. And repeated this for a few hours.
Then it was into the massage parlour for the second massage of my life. I had a neck and shoulders massage for an hour and it was somewhat painful, but also semi-relaxing.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t enjoyed enough massages in my life, but I can never seem to relax when receiving one. I feel awkward, like I don’t know what I’m supposed to do and I’m also tensed up waiting for the pain to come.
Maybe I need to have a few more massages while I’m in Asia to start getting used to them and seeing the benefit.
Day 45: Wednesday 1st May 2024
Location: Phuket, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a momentous day in our 40-odd days of being on the road. It was time to get my hair done.
I haven’t spoken about this ever on my social media or on this blog. Which is strange considering I divulge my life online (even my severe acne-covered face). But, since I was 18 I’ve been going grey.
Yep. My friends used to sit behind me in Maths class and pull out the odd one or two full-length grey hairs they’d find and we’d laugh about it.
But as I started at university, the greys became more prominent. Especially with my dark brown (almost black) hair, there wasn’t much I could do to hide them. So I dyed my hair platinum blonde, because why not?
That lasted for a few years before I came to my senses and had to chop my hair off because it was so dry and dead from the bleach, so we were back to dark brown again. I was box dying my roots during my final years of university, and once I’d graduated.
I used to hide the fact that I’d dyed my hair, saying ‘Oh it’s just freshly washed,’ or ‘It must just be the lighting making it a different colour.’ My favourite excuse was always, ‘My hair still comes up orange/blonde at the ends so I have to dye over it’.
Almost 10 years later and I’m more comfortable with sharing the fact that my hair starts to go grey every few weeks. And so, it was time to visit the hairdresser because the greys were showing.
I’m very particular with hairdressers so this was a challenge. But I found A-Day Salon in Phuket which had high ratings and reviews that looked modern and professional and off I went on this Wednesday morning with nothing to lose but my grey hair.
And I had the best hair wash of my life. Oh my word, it was a head massage and wash all-in-one that lasted around 20 minutes and it was amazing. I would go back again for this part alone.
Given that we were in Thailand, the root dye and blow-dry cost me £40, which wasn’t that much of a reduction from the £70 I usually spend in London. But I was happy with it and that’s what mattered most.
I think the next time I visit a hairdresser will be in Bangkok, so if you happen to have any recommendations, do send them my way.
We headed to Patong Beach afterwards, to see the famous strip. It was exactly what I expected: Magaluf in Thailand. By this point, I wasn’t really vibing with Thailand in general. It was a lot of seedy bars, bright lights and I hate to say, tackiness.
I miss Sri Lanka a lot.
Day 46: Thursday 2nd May 2024
Location: Phuket to Khao Sok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
It was time for us to say goodbye to Phuket. Somewhere I don’t think I’ll miss or rush to return back to. A Grab taxi took us three hours away to the Khao Sok area in the middle of south Thailand.
We were staying here for one night before heading to Khao Sok National Park early the next morning.
We were in the literal middle of nowhere. Our hotel room was very kindly upgraded, and we were staying in a little lodge looking onto a river with large glass windows. The room also came with a set of bunk beds so we had lots of room to spread out, which was a good thing as we spent all day in the room.
We watched the latest episode of Race Across the World before heading out to find the only restaurant nearby in the area.
There were also four dogs at the hotel/lodge that were friendly enough, but intimidating as when we tried to walk anywhere, they would always follow.
Day 47: Friday 3rd May 2024
Location: Khao Sok National Park, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was one of the coolest days we’ve had on our travels so far. We were up early for our taxi that took us to Khao Sok National Park.
Once there, we were boarded onto a long boat that took us out onto the lake and to the raft house where we would be staying. Yes, we were staying on the lake. And I mean that literally.
In a floating raft house, out in the middle of the water.
It was the coolest experience. The little raft house had beds on the floor, a front door that opened onto the lake and that was basically it.
We kayaked, swam and baked in the sun all day. Food was provided at certain times and the portions were huge, so you were never hungry. There was also food and drinks in a little shop too if you did get peckish.
The bathrooms were shared, but this was fine. The electric only worked from 7pm – 7am, meaning you could sleep with a fan on at nighttime. We were able to fully switch off for the day, and it was one of the coolest experiences I think I’ve ever had.
I’ll be doing a full blog post on this later and will also have a YouTube vlog coming!
Day 48: Saturday 4th May 2024
Location: Khao Sok to Koh Tao, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
What a chaotic day.
We checked out of our little raft house at 9am and were taken back to the pier where we waited for our bus to take us to Surat Thani.
A van rocked up and the driver pointed at us both, saying ‘Surat Thani’ so we assumed he was our driver. We were wrong.
After a few minutes of being in the van (we were also the only ones in the van) we noticed he was acting very strangely with his hand gestures.
When we made it out of the park, he pulled over to the side of the road and went into a shop. He came out and took a drink from what looked to be a tiny, shot-size bottle of alcohol. Then he got into the drivers seat and sprayed some body spray on himself.
We started driving again and he was going super slow, hitting the steering wheel, driving with no hands, covering one eye and then the other.
We had a two hour drive to get to Surat Thani and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it there in one piece.
When we came to a junction, he took the opposite direction to the way we should have been going, so we asked where we were going but we were picking up other passengers.
We stopped outside of a building and thankfully a woman and child got into the van as well. We picked up another passenger a few minutes later, but still the driver was acting so weird. It was obvious by then that we’d definitely got onto the wrong bus.
The driver stopped again a few minutes later at a random location to chat to some friends and started having a cigarette. We knew this was our chance, so ordered a Grab taxi, got our bags and left.
His friend started demanding money from us for how far we’d driven already. But we didn’t give him any and got in the taxi and headed on our way. I’m so glad we went with our gut instinct and got out of the van. Either the driver was drunk or high, I wasn’t sure. But it wasn’t worth the risk of being in the van with him.
We made our way directly to Surat Thani pier and grabbed some coffees to calm down. Waiting three hours for our speed boat to take us to the island of Koh Tao.
We were taken to our hotel in the back of a pick-up truck which was fun. It was very clear that this was a very busy and bustling island with a lot of scooters and traffic.
Day 49: Sunday 5th May 2024
Location: Koh Tao, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Ok, I love Koh Tao. It’s busy but it’s stunning. It’s not seedy and it’s not trashy.
This is one of the most popular places to come diving and to get your PADI certificate. I have absolutely no interest in scuba diving or being that deep underwater. And himself had already been scuba diving in Australia in his past life, so we gave that a miss.
There are so many stunning cafes here to work from which suited us perfectly. The beach is also gorgeous with no waves, so lots of people were just lounging in the calm waters.
It was super busy with so many scooters and the traffic is definitely chaotic. So we didn’t opt to rent scooters and stayed on our side of the island for the duration.
We went for brunch at Factory Cafe, a popular little spot. And then headed to Cactus, a bigger cafe with the most amazing view of the beach from inside. We spent the day working here. Then walked 10,000 steps (which isn’t usual for island life) along a quieter and shaded road we found.
For dinner, we walked to a spot called Gemini Noodles and Dumplings. We had an assortment of dumplings and a bowl of beef noodles. Incredible!!
Part of me wishes we had skipped some of the other islands and came straight here. But we wouldn’t know what the others were like if we’d done this – hindsight, eh?
What I do know is that I will definitely be back in Koh Tao in the future.
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