Thailand 2016
(Written in 2016 - note to self that I apparently at this point in my life I never shot portrait and now in 2024 I barely shoot landscape!)
Two and a half months travelling around South East Asia is over and although I know I'm going to miss the good weather, the cheap food, the endless excitement of meeting and seeing so many news faces everyday, I have to say I am happy to be home. This week has been full of all the mundane back off holiday tasks like washing all your clothes, opening post, catching up on life admin, but also nice things like drinking Yorkshire tea and eating home cooked British food, which we've missed so much.
I've loved documenting my trip through the lens of my Fuji XT1 camera, shooting documentary street photography just for myself, and exploring using a much lighter and smaller camera too. Lots of places I've visited have been busy and touristy (I can't complain as I contribute to that too!) so its also been working out angles and ideas to take a different photo to the one straight in front of me, and the one everyone else will be taking for their holiday albums.
Although we technically kicked off our trip in Bangkok, I'm skipping that for the time being as we headed out of the city pretty quick and straight up to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. The 11 hour train journey (actually made 9 hours by in ineptitude of a) not leaving enough time to get to the station with crazy Bangkok traffic and having to race it to the next station and then b) getting on the wrong train altogether and having to catch it up later on) was actually pretty wonderful despite what we were thinking. The views are incredible out of the window - rice paddy fields, rural villages with tiny train stations, and huge hills of jungle land.
Immediately after arriving in Chiang Mai we knew this would be more of our kind of place - less busy, a little less hot, but still full of beautiful places, wonderful food and of course the very friendly local Thais. There are of course a lot of tourists here, but it really doesn't take a genius to work out why so many people flock to this northern city. We knew coming to Thailand would be a bit of a tourist fest, I don't think it's fair to be anti-that given that we're tourists too! The main reason for staying somewhere so long was that we really wanted a good amount of time at the start to immerse ourself in a new place and try and get to grips with culture, language, food and weather before travelling everywhere else. Plus try and get a sense of routine while Nick was still working.
We spent the first few days just exploring, wandering down new streets, tasting new foods, and seeing new things. I always find it so hard to sleep the first few nights in a new country that is totally different to the UK, not just due to jet lag but because my senses are just assaulted with new things and my brain has a hard time processing it all. The food really is amazing here, and of course so cheap compared to England. We are eating mostly at Thai places, side of the road cafes, street stalls and sometimes a slightly more upmarket restaurant. Lots of spicy soups, stir fries, vegetables, and so, so much gyoza (my favourite).
I'm enjoying some down time (something anyone who knows me knows I find notoriously hard!) which consists of reading, writing letters, listening to music & audio books, drinking beer (of which I've found a newly acquired taste, unfortunately my beloved wine isn't abundant out here!) and of course photography. This week I also went on a trek, and a day retreat at Monk Chat, both which were fantastic and a great break from the routine of 'chilling' and meandering around the city. The night markets here are a marvel too - the street food really comes into its own and there are so many stalls selling everything from souvenirs to clothes to food massages.
Next stop was Koh Phangan for Christmas, three days of beach time and exploring the island. Koh Phangan has a rep for a party island but we steered well clear of this and chose to relax on the quieter side of the island!
Next we headed to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam on boxing day, and spent a week here in the city. Two of our friends flew out to join us for what was definitely the most memorable new year to date! I didn't take a whole load of photos in Vietnam, we did A LOT of eating though...
Then Nick flew back to Thailand, and me and my good friend travelled by bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Bus journeys in Cambodia are something of a experience. The roads are often not well build or non existent, the drivers go WAY faster than they should and they stop often (sometimes for seemingly no reason) and it always takes double the time it says it will. Our first trip by mini bus was in the dark too which did nothing to help the nerves.. We spent two nights at Otres Beach and then headed over to Koh Ta Kiev, a beautiful, quiet island about an hours boat journey away. One of the best things about this place was there was no wi-fi which meant i was enforced to not check my emails for 4 days. I'm slightly ashamed to say I can't remember the time I haven't checked them for 24 hours so this was quite a shock for me, but it's definitely made me realise I need to do it more. After Otres we had to head back to Phnom Penh for a night, before getting a bus to Battembang - a quieter town a few hour south of Siem Reap. We were treated to a horrendous bus journey with an almighty hangover as we left here, and headed up to see the famous temples at Siem Reap.
From here I Flew back to Thailand to meet back up with Nick on Koh Samui where we enjoyed a week of nothingness which felt like true honeymoon time. I barely picked up my camera the whole week hence the lack of photos!
The end of our trip was much more off the tourist route; we'd done the big cities like Bangkok and Chiang Mai and the islands too so wanted to explore all the bits in the middle that can get missed. We started in Prachuap Khiri Khan staying at a homestay - it was one of our favourite places the whole trip. A quiet, authentic respite after the busy islands and our host was a lovely lady called Ying. We cycled around the beautiful coastal areas and samples some of the best food we've eaten the whole time. We then headed to Sam Roi Yot, an area which boasts a huge national park with some extremely treacherous caves (definitely below the English level of health and safety!) and some long hikes. We rented a little side car and explored for a few days, and the landscape was truly breathtaking. At the end of our trip our plans took a bit of a change as we went somewhere we weren't so keen on, so ended up staying in the suburbs of Bangkok for our last 5 days, squeezing the most out of our trip with some sun & pool time. The area we stayed in had some of the best street food we've had and we were spoilt for choice most dinner times...
It's been a whirlwind and such an experience. We've met so many wonderful Thai people and other travellers, and experienced such truly incredible things.
