11 Days in London Town

Despite having had mixed reviews about London from various people, it didn't take long after arriving there for me to form my own opinion of the city and it was without doubt a positive one. I couldn't put my love for the city down to any one thing but the combination of amazing architecture, fantastic shopping, wide variety of people and the tube system are all major contributers toward me being so easily wooed by this city.

I spent 11 days in London after Thailand and I have to say I didn't actually do a lot aside from eat, shop, catch up with friends, shop and shop some more. I did manage to fit in a few of the sights like Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, the London Tower and Tower Bridge but considering how long I was there it was quite a pitiful effort really, especially in comparison to the amount of time I spent shopping. It got to the point where I avoided leaving the house as every time I'd end up coming home with a new item of clothing. But hey, what could I do, it wasn't my fault my wardrobe needed to have some additions in order to protect me from the cold.

Over 300 languages are spoken within the city which makes it a rare occurrence to actually hear an English accent whilst wandering the bustling streets. With such a wide variety of people, it is a fantastic place to people watch and during my watching and shopping I realised why London is one of the fashion capitals of the world. A vast majority of Londoners are dressed fantastically and so they should be as there is no excuse to be dressed badly with the massive selection of clothing stores available to them.

The architecture is truly amazing. No matter how many photos or movies you see of the place prior to arriving, nothing can really prepare you for the magnificence of the city when you're standing amongst all the buildings. I think coming from such a "new" country like New Zealand makes it all the more amazing, with many of the buildings in London being older than our home country.

I made use of the tubes as soon as I stepped off the plane, getting the express into Paddington. Being from NZ, where the public transport is in all honesty, piss poor, going on the tube was a real novelty and it being so easy to use made it all the more fun. I loved blending into the crowds on the underground by being able to swipe my oyster card, keeping to the right of the escalators (or looking like I had somewhere important to be and racing up on the left!) and getting on at the front or back in order to avoid the hordes of tourists that jump on in the middle. What a loser I am.

Obviously catching up with friends was a major highlight of my time in London. I was lucky enough to be able to spread myself between three friends houses and was very grateful of my gracious hosts. As much as I love my month of solo travel, it was nice to be able to hang out with people who actually knew me so I didn't have to do the whole spell out my name thing or get the usual blank look when telling people I was a Loans Analyst or listen to any "I have an Aunty that lives in NZ" stories.

So all in all, I loved London and I'm really looking forward to moving there in a few months. Not that I'm wanting to rush my time in Scotland or Spain of course, but I do think I'm going to enjoy immersing myself into London life, provided I don't find it too difficult to find a perfectly romantic location for a flat, you know right by Hyde Park.. and of course a job that will sponsor so me I can stay in the UK for longer than my 2 year visa. Easy peasy, right?

Thailand Sum Up

People were always quite shocked to discover I was travelling around Thailand on my own. The most common response being "Wow, you're brave!" The thing is though, there was never really a moment where I felt unsafe. I admit, I was fairly cautious in making sue I was never in situations in which my safety could be at risk but it wasn't at all as difficult as you'd think to ensure this.

Although there were definitely moments where loneliness would rear its head, I'd say that 90% of the time I was more than happy being on my own. Travelling on your own has the main advantage of being able to do whatever the hell you want, and that is just what I did. Most of the highlights of my trip were admittedly when I was with other people I'd met, but I think if I'd not been on my own I'd not have been anywhere near as likely to have met those people and therefore made those memories.

Some of my highlights were:

• Trekking in Chang Mai with a great bunch of people and excellent guides. It was a very interesting experience being able to see how the hill tribes live by experiencing their living arrangements, eating their food, watching them make their crafts and seeing them tend to their animals etc.

• Mountain biking in Chang Mai, which was a completely different experience to at home. The tracks were steeper, drier, slipperier (from leaves) and the brakes were back to front, but good fun all the same.

• Living in luxury at Merlin Beach Resort, Phuket. Meeting up with my grandparents there who were staying with my Nana's four sisters and their partners was a right hoot and quite a contrast to my travels in Thailand up to that point.

• Doing nothing on the beautiful beaches of Koh Lanta for four days. Up until Koh Lanta I'd not been to the beach and I'd been pretty flat out doing 'stuff' so it was nice to slow down the pace a notch or five and just work on my tan.

• Meeting up with fellow trekkers on Koh Phangan again. It was so nice seeing some familiar faces and being able to share lots of laughs together while cultivating our friendships over the next seven days spent staying with them.

• Buckets at Haad Rin, you can't go to Koh Phangan without experiencing this and it's well worth the sore head the next day. The fire activities are good to get the adrenaline going should you be feeling a bit weary. Music and dancing on the beach is one of the best ways to spend the night partying I'd say.

• Doing my PADI open water diving certificate. It was something I'd wanted to do since I was about 10 and I finally got to experience the underwater world. It's quite a surreal experience and easily my best money spent during my month in Thailand.

• Shopping in Bangkok at MBK and the weekend markets. Although the two different places were quite different from each other, both were well worth the look. They were nothing quite like I had seen before, the swarms of people, the sheer quantity and the vast range of goods for sale and the amazing food of offer made for an eye opening, exciting shopping experience.
  

Of course there were lowlights too but the highlights easily overshadowed them and so I can say with complete wholeheartedness that my time travelling solo in Thailand was an amazing experience and something I'd recommend to others 100% and I myself would do all over again in a flash.

Day 32 - Final Day

My final day in Thailand I wanted to do some more shopping so as to make the most of cheap asian shopping. I'd been told by a few people that the weekend markets were worth checking out so that's where I headed. Well, I thought MBK was overwhelming but this was a whole other world.

It was a stinking hot day which didn't help things being outside so not having the relief of air con making it very sticky to say the least. The stuff there was all quite funky handmade fashion so was awesome browsing through it all. Unfortunately most of the girls stuff wasn't really my style (or size!) but the guys tshirts were outstanding. I didn't really have anyone to buy them for though so I just spent most of my time admiring all the different designs. I did buy myself an awesome handmade necklace and some sunglasses but that was the extent of my purchases there really, not for lack of wanting anything but I just had to limit myself (or luggage I should say!)

Eventually I had to escape the suffocating heat so waved down a cab and headed back to Koh San Road for some final purchases before having a nice cold shower to wash Bangkok's filth off me. I had my final street vendor meal - unfortunately unable to be accompanied by a final Singha as it was election day so no alcohol was allowed to be served. Bummer!

I managed, with some difficulty, to find a taxi that would take me to the airport on the meter rather than charging me 400 baht which is what most drivers were asking for. It was nice to not be ripped off on my final leg of the journey although I guess it would have been appropriate to have been.

The taxi driver said I was going too early having three hours before my flight but it turned out I needed every minute of those three hours. The airport was absolute chaos. There were queues EVERYWHERE so it took the whole time to get to the departure lounge, having about two minutes to spare when I got there. Phew!

Day 31 - Shop, Shop, Shopping

Ali and I split a cab into the city where I got out at my hostel I'd booked just off Koh San Road. My room wasn't going to be ready till 11ish so I only had about six hours to kill! It went by surprisingly quickly after something to eat and some wandering about the surrounding area. I even managed to find a store that sold some white sandshoes exactly like I'd been wanting.

I also braved a hairdresser to recolour my regrowth. To my half horror, half amusement, after the woman had washed out the colour my roots were a nice orange colour. I pointed out to her that I didn't think it'd worked to which she said it was fine but after a few minutes she conceded that maybe yes it needed redoing. So another half an hour later my hair was finally all the same colour again.

Next was dentist time. There I got a checkup, a clean, four fillings and whitening done. The whitening was actually quite painful but was worth it in the end as you can definitely notice a difference afterwards, and being so cheap it was well worth it.

By this time my room was ready so I was able to dump my pack there and head to MBK for some serious shopping time. It took me a while to get into it as it was all a bit overwhelming to being with, the six levels of madness and all. But once I got into the swing of it I was away, in the end coming out with a jacket, bag, jeans and 4 shirts. Still not a load of stuff but a decent amount for a few hours of shopping.

I had a delicious dinner from a street vendor that night then was in bed fairly early after the last few nights lack of sleep having caught up with me.

Day 30 - Bye, Bye Koh Tao

My last morning on Koh Tao was spent soaking up some sun since it'd finally decided to show its face after the last four days having been overcast. Not really enough sun to top up my tan to be back to Koh Lanta standard though.

I'd ended up having to go on the slow ferry as the faster one was fully booked but it ended up being quite pleasant as I just lay out on the bow of the boat and slept/read/listened to my ipod/took photos. It was a lovely afternoon/evening so was a beautiful way to end my time on the islands.

Our bus transfer from the pier to the bus station was quite amusing as they packed us into a rickety windowless bus like sardines with three benches down the length of it so everyone was very much in each others personal space, needless to say there were a lot of averted eyes for the journey.

We had a three hour wait at the station so myself and two brits went and found an interesting little retro type cafe and had a meal before wandering the markets next door trying out some delicious mini sweet roti sort of things. At about 9 we took another bus to our big bus which turned out to be quite luxurious with fold out leg rests, blankets, TV's and food and drink delivered around to us all. My journey was fairly painless as I had a sleeping pill after an hour or two which knocked me out till about an hour out of Bangkok.

Day 28 - Open Water Dive 1 & 2

As predicted being hungover and going diving wasn't really the best idea. Even a substantial breakfast with the Norwegians couldn't shake the feeling of having minimum sleep and too much to drink.

That all changed once we had kitted up and hit the open water for the first time. Our first drive was only to a depth of about 7.5m but those 7.5m were pretty damn amazing. We didn't really do any skills on this dive, just had a bit of a cruise around getting used to being amongst the fish. I was feeling pretty pleased with having finally made it into the underwater world that's for sure!

Our second dive for the day was mostly spent doing skill which was all pretty straight forward since we'd mastered them all the day before in the pool.

Everyone was on quite the high after coming out of the second dive but we were also pretty knackered so everyone went their separate ways once back on land, myself having a nice quiet meal on the beach before hitting the hay. Boy was I looking forward to dive 3 and 4 though!

Day 27 - 5 Hours of Being a Fish

More videos were first on the menu and then we all sat the exam which is all pretty simple stuff really. Next up we were to go in the water but no scuba gear just yet, first off a 200m swim out to a buoy and back and then a 10 minute float which we all did no worries. Finally it was time for some underwater action so in the pool we all went and that is where we spent the next 5 hours mastering all the different dive skills and techniques needed. I was a complete prune by the time we got out of the water at about 7pm.

A bunch of us from the group went out for dinner on Sai Ree beach before heading to 'the' bar of Sai Ree, Lotus Bar. As usual the buckets were the end of us, all of us going completely overboard, myself not making it to sleep till 4am ish. Not the wisest thing to do the night before your first ever open water dive.

I also managed to lose my jandals at some point, possibly while one of the Norwegian guys Richard twirled me about on the sand as we danced to the live Australian guitarist. I was pretty gutted to lose them as they'd been my faithfulls for a year or so and I'd been so proud of myself to have kept mine while the Irish guys were forever coming back from a night out jandalless or with a different pair to what they left with. Oh well, an excuse to buy something new I guess!

Day 26 - Back to School

The rain was still pattering away when I awoke and it pretty much stuck around the whole day. Thankfully 90% of the day was spent in the classroom with 11 other PADI students watching videos and doing knowledge reviews.

The rain had eased when I got home so thought it'd be a good time to go for a walk. Sadly though that wasn't the end of the rain and I got caught in a torrential downpour halfway down the beach. It was quite amusing seeing all the beachfront diners having to rush for cover.

The rain was about the excitement of my evening however as I had a solo quiet meal then an early night so I'd be feeling fresh for the rest of the classroom work in the morning. An odd feeling it was being back in "school" mode after four years!