Thailand

At the beginning of May this year, me and my best friend Ruby began our trip of a lifetime. We had both made the decision to take a gap year after studying A-levels, and decided that during this time we had to travel.

After weeks of planning, we finally booked our trip: beginning in Thailand and ending in Bali. We organised it all through a brilliant website called Gap360, which lead us to a company called IntroTravel.

IntroTravel is an amazing site which helped us to tailor our trip to our personal wants and needs. Once booked we had our flights, accommodation and itinerary for the whole 3 weeks all organised for us - what a dream!

After a long 12 hour flight, we arrived in the bustling streets of Bangkok. Despite being extremely tired due to arriving at 5am in the morning, we couldn't resist exploring the city after checking into our hotel: the Wild Orchid Villa.

We headed straight out onto Khao San Road, a road which has become infamous for its partying.

The street during the day is full of stalls selling food, clothes and souvenirs. Naturally we were drawn to the clothing stalls and managed to haggle a few deals on some cool cheap clothes!

That night we were introduced to our group which we would be spending our time in Thailand with, and after having a huge meal in our hotel we headed to the Sky Bar for some drinks.

The Sky Bar is the world's highest open-air bar on the 64th floor of the State Tower, the second tallest building in Thailand. The view from the top was incredible, and it was an amazing way to spend our first night in the city.

The next day we visited a temple where we were blessed by a monk! We were also given a lotus flower as sign of purity, and were told to light incenses as a gesture of respect to the Buddha.

After this little ritual we were each given a gold foil square and told to stick it to our foreheads so that it would bring good luck!

I have extremely oily skin so the foil was firmly stuck to my forehead (lucky me).

Shortly after, we hopped onto a tiny canoe boat and went for a cruise down the river where we saw the floating market.

The lady in the picture above was loving life with her boat full of souvenirs and we all bought a little keyring from her.

The relaxing cruise then took us to Wat Pho: one of the largest temple complexes in the city, and famous for its giant reclining Buddha.

The picture doesn't do it justice, because the Buddha was absolutely huge - 46 meters long and covered in gold. It was an amazing sight to see!

Each temple we visited was so beautiful and individually different in their own way. We had to take off our shoes each time we entered as a sign of respect.

In Thailand, the belief is that because the feet are the furthest body part from the head (which is considered to be the home of the spirit), they are therefore the lowest part of the body physically and spiritually.

It was actually incredibly interesting learning about the Thai culture, and understanding the meanings behind their beliefs and traditions. Discovering the temples was definitely the best way to experience this.

We left the temples on a Tuk Tuk, which was one of the funniest experiences of my life. The drivers are absolutely ruthless and you just have to sit in the back and hold on for dear life!

They say that if you scream they go even faster and we were screaming so much it was hilarious as we weaved in and out of traffic. It's such a fun way to get around Bangkok, although not the most relaxing.

After a jam packed day in Bangkok we were more than ready for our first night out in the crazy city. Firstly we hit Khao San Road, and it was mad to see how different it looked at night.

The daytime stalls were nowhere to be seen and the road was completely transformed into a huge street party, literally. Everyone was dancing in the middle of the road outside bars and clubs, drinking from buckets and eating scorpions on sticks. See? Crazy.

After drinking as many buckets as possible, we then hit a club called The Club...original. It was hands down one of the craziest nights ever.

I feel like I'm using the word crazy a little too much, but it's really the only way to describe a night out in Bangkok.

As Ruby and I are both blonde, literally everyone wanted a picture with us... or just to take our picture. It was as if we were aliens to them or something.

But lets just say, the Thai know how to party.

The day after we took an overnight train to the South of Thailand, which was such cool experience.

There were beds on the train and after a long nights sleep we woke up in the South of Thailand, ready to visit the floating bungalows!

We hopped onto a tiny canoe boat which took us to the floating bungalows in Khao Sok National Park...but not before stopping for a swim along the way in the most amazing location with crystal clear waters and unbelievable scenery.

In the picture above you can see our view as we approached the floating bungalows. It was the most unique accommodation I've ever stayed in!

There was no wifi, limited electricity for only a few hours of the day... but wow did the scenery make up for it.

You felt completely isolated from the world and yet entirely surrounded by nature and beauty. The only way to truly experience the breathtaking views of Khao Sok National Park!

We had the whole day to relax at the beautiful National Park, floating about drinking Thai beer in rubber rings, taking in the most amazing scenery and thinking how lucky we were to be there.

After an early start, we left the beautiful National Park by boat and headed to the Sarana Bungalows, where we would be staying in huts on the beach!

Luckily for us when we arrived there had been a mix up with accommodation and we got upgraded to an amazing hotel next door!

We couldn't believe our luck.

Then, to celebrate on our first night we got all painted up and headed straight to the Pre Full Moon party down on the beach.

It was so much fun.

There was music and drink and a skipping rope on fire where some people brave enough would attempt to skip over it without getting burnt (I say attempt because most weren't successful and left with a pretty bad burn).

The next morning we experienced a Thai massage (much needed after our pre-full moon party) which was amazingly relaxing until the end, where the masseuses used a little too much pressure than we were expecting - ruby's face in the picture above pretty much sums it up!

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring the beaches surrounding the Sarana Bungalows in Koh Phangan!

The evenings spent on Koh Phangan beach were incredible, as every night we watched the sunset over the sea, a view which will never be forgotten!

After a chilled night on the beach, we awoke early the next morning to visit the an elephant sanctuary! I had been looking forward to this for so long, and the elephants did not disappoint.

Rather than riding them (which is extremely dangerous but sadly common for tourism in Thailand), we fed them bananas, and bathed them with water!

This turned into a huge water fight, where we were all chucking buckets of water over the elephants and they responded by spraying it back at us through their trunk, making us absolutely drenched! It was such a funny experience, and one that I shall never forget.

'Lets get a selfie with the elephant'

Our final night with the group was spent at the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan, and it was definitely a night to remember.

We got painted up once again and headed down to the beach to experience the event; famous for its all night partying, drinking, and celebrating in the night of the full moon.

It was crazy to see the same remote looking beach we had partied on a few nights ago, transformed into a dancing frenzy and absolutely swarmed with thousands of people partying the night away under the beaming full moon.

The beach was booming with all different types of music, from multiple DJ bars along the strip. It was such a surreal location to party in, surrounded by the gulf of Thailand.

Although at this point I think everyone was too drunk to notice the scenery, and was instead using the sea as a perfect place to be sick and have a wee amongst all the partying... only in Thailand.

Unluckily for us, the morning after the Full Moon Party we had to get a ferry at 9am to an island called Koh Samui.

I remember everyone sitting on the boat in silence, just concentrating on not throwing up.

Most people on the boat had been to the Full Moon Party, and mainly everyone was asleep looking worse for wear.

45 minutes later we arrived at Koh Samui, where we had to say goodbye to some our friends, but not before having a night of luxury in a beautiful hotel called the Nora Beach Resort and Spa.

The hotel was so amazing (especially in comparison to some of the accommodation we had previously stayed in) that we were genuinely screaming with happiness as we were shown round.

So our last day in Thailand was spent relaxing by the hotel pool, soaking up the sun and taking in the beautiful views, followed by a farewell dinner with our friends that night. A perfect end to our incredible Thai travels.

It was such an adventure. I already felt like I had seen and learnt so much during our time in Thailand, yet we were only half way through our travels.

Meeting amazing friends was certainly a highlight and it felt like we couldn't top our experiences, yet in the back of my mind I knew that the next day we would arrive to Bali, ready to engage and experience every aspect of a new culture all over again.

How exciting?

To be continued...

Bella x