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.