Welcome to week twenty 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 nineteen 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 134: Monday 29th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a day off from work, so we set off to explore some of Bangkok which we haven’t really done much of so far.
We grabbed some ice coffees and headed to Lumphini Park to get some steps in and to finally see this famous park that Bangkok is quite known for.
It was rather cloudy all day but it was super hot. I (of course) got very sunburnt because I thought I could fight the sun without it and win. Obviously not.
For lunch, we headed to a famous chicken spot near the park that has many Michelin Guide stickers on the window. We ordered a half chicken between us and it was tasty and incredibly filling.
Afterwards we took a long walk to the river to take our first water taxi which was chaotic. We were only going a very short distance but the boat went so fast and crashed into the dock when it was pulling up to the next stop.
We were going to Icon Siam, the most famous shopping mall in Bangkok. One thing I can’t get over about Bangkok is the amount of shopping malls and number of shops there are. It’s insane!
We headed to a coffee shop on the top floor with a great view of the city and river. To cool down for a while, we sipped on some coffees and people watched outside the mall below.
Surprisingly, going to the cinema has been high on our list of things to do in Bangkok since they have luxury cinemas with beds, unlimited buffets and more here. There was a cinema in Icon Siam and they were showing Twisters around 5pm, so we decided to hang around and have our first Thailand cinema experience.
And what an experience it was. We were able to share a double-seated sofa, had the biggest bag of popcorn each, an jumbo-size Diet Coke and a small ice cream.
Just as the trailers were starting, the employees came around with blankets and pillows for us to relax with. The most comfortable cinema experience I’ve ever had, for sure!
I was a huge fan of the original Twisters movie when I was younger, so had high expectations for this one. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but probably enjoyed the soundtrack most of all. It was full of country music that I love and I came straight home and listened to the soundtrack afterwards.
Day 135: Tuesday 30th July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a work from home day that involved a morning coffee from our local Shelter Hood cafe, then to the co-working space to work for the morning.
At 11am, it was a quick gym session before nipping to 7-Eleven for a cheap lunch of noodles and dumplings.
Another walk to the coffee shop, before spending the afternoon and evening editing and doing more work before ordering dinner and sitting down to watch Revenge.
I sat up until 2am waiting for my YouTube vlog to upload, before I could go to sleep. We’re heading into Central Embassy in the morning so I’ll be able to edit my thumbnail and subtitles etc. then, but the upload part always takes the longest.
A late night of working for myself for no money. I love my ‘job’. I love my ‘job’.
Day 136: Wednesday 31st July 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
We headed into Central Embassy for a working day today. As usual, we made it for the doors opening at 10am and clocked into work at our usual coffee shop for 10.01am.
After a few hours of hard work, we rewarded ourselves with some Din Tai Fung for a late lunch on the floor below.
We’ve only ate at Din Tai Fung once in our lives before and that was for my birthday meal while in Las Vegas. We kept meaning to go in London, but never got around to it.
When I say I’ve been dreaming about their soup dumplings ever since I had them in Las Vegas, I’m not exaggerating.
And since we’re in Asia, we had to sample Din Tai Fung on this side of the world too. And it exceeded all expectations. I was so glad to be reunited with these delicious soup dumplings.
Then it was back upstairs to our second coffee shop that we like to work from in the afternoon which has huge windows to help avoid the afternoon slump.
Day 137: Thursday 1st August 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Another work from home day today, so not much to report I’m afraid.
As usual, a morning trip to the coffee shop then sit down to work for a few hours. A break for the gym and lunch and then back to the coffee shop for another caffeine-fix before sitting down to work for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
We’re taking another day off tomorrow, so wanted to tie up as much as possible today work-wise to not have to think about emails or content tomorrow.
Day 138: Friday 2nd August 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
I had a day off today. I’ve been working long hours this week, not finishing content until around 11pm each night. So I wanted a day away from my screen.
The day started with a lie-in and scrolling through my phone for pleasure (not work) for a change and seeing what the world was up to.
I fancied some brunch as it’s been quite a while since we’ve dined out for brunch. And haven’t had any since being in Bangkok. It felt like time.
We headed into Toby’s in Thong Lor and it didn’t disappoint. I had some avocado toast with incredible scrambled eggs and himself had some baked eggs. It was definitely an aesthetically pleasing cafe, perfect for taking pictures of your breakfast.
It was probably a good thing this has been our only brunch in Bangkok as it came to £33. Around as much as we’d usually pay in London for breakfast. So not as cheap as our brunches have been in Sri Lanka and the islands of Thailand, that’s for sure.
We also realised today that we leave Thailand this day next week. So only seven more days left in the city before we head onto the next leg of our travels next Friday!
The storm clouds were rolling in this morning. So we decided to head to a huge vintage shopping mall that we’d seen on Instagram. This place is six floors of vintage clothes, jewellery, shoes, antiques, cameras… basically anything you can think of, they’ll probably have a vendor selling it.
We spent hours here and didn’t get through half of what was inside. There was so much that it was quite overwhelming. Plus we unfortunately have no room in our backpacks to buy any new clothes.
But I did buy some new jewellery, including a necklace for 99 Baht (£2.19), two bangles and a vintage watch that doesn’t actually work but it’s for fashion, not practicality. A good day of thrifting I would say!
Then we headed back to the apartment at around 5pm to have a night in, order McDonald’s and watch more episodes of Revenge.
I also ended up working a little bit as I received a very exciting email about working with a dream brand that I’ve been a customer of for years, so here’s hoping I get to create some content for them!!
Day 139: Saturday 3rd August 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
Today was a working day. Himself was up at the crack of dawn (6am) working on his laptop, but I was fast asleep, struggling to wake up at 9am.
But we headed into Central Embassy to work from there, at least to get out of the apartment and see something different than 7-Eleven.
We spent the full day here working, eating and going back to work again. We left around 6pm and headed back to the apartment to have a movie night which again turned into a ‘ok it’s 11pm so it’s too late to start a movie’ night.
A wild Saturday in Bangkok!
Day 140: Sunday 4th August 2024
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Dear travel diary,
We’re in full work mode before we go to Hong Kong next week. So it was up to edit my YouTube vlog in bed and record some voice overs first. Before heading into Central Embassy to work from there for the remainder of the day.
My Yala Safari YouTube vlog went live today which I’ll insert below:
I made the most of the faster WiFi in the embassy to upload my YouTube vlog. Which I should have made more use of over the past few weeks. But at least I know for when I come back in six weeks’ or so.
Since my YouTube was uploading, we could’t leave the cafe and I hadn’t eaten anything all day. We ordered from the cafe around 2pm and had grilled cheese sandwiches with a side of tomato miso soup. The cafe is Japanese if I haven’t previously mentioned that.
Now, I haven’t had many grilled cheeses in my life considering I don’t like cheese (unless it’s well toasted/melted). But I have had many bowls of tomato soup.
When I say this was the best grilled cheese with tomato soup combo that I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not embellishing.
I don’t know what they laced the cheese, soup or bread with. But oh my word we have been missing out this entire time by only ordering for the first time today.
I’m not sure why, but grilled cheeses with tomato soup always remind me of New York. So as I sat in the cafe with the view of Bangkok out the window to my right, I was transported back to a cosy New York hotel by an open fire. Bliss.
After working here all day, we left around 5.30pm and headed back to our apartment. We both called home and caught up with our parents, before ordering dinner around 9pm and sitting down to watch some TV.
That’s another end to another week in Bangkok. Our last full week in the city for a while. But make sure to come back next week as we’re back in travel mode again and exploring Hong Kong!!
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