First stop as a backpacker: Bangkok

After talking about it for what feels like forever, I’ve finally done it, I’ve flown away from my home, job, family and friends without a return ticket and with nothing to my name other than just one small bag and one slightly mad boyfriend.

I’m officially a backpacker! It feels slightly surreal and I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty emotional in the airport and during take off! We had an epic leaving party two nights before and accidentally stayed up drinking with my parents the night before our flight, so my hungover state made me particularly fragile. But once I had a nap on the plane I started to relax and get excited about what’s in store for us.

We flew from London to Bali with a 20 hour stop over in Bangkok, which made it cheaper to get to Bali from the UK as Air Asia flights are amazingly cheap. Our Eurowings flight to Bangkok was also pretty cheap, but that meant we had to stop in Germany for four hours to change flights, which was a bit of a pain.

Arriving in Bangkok was quite a shock to the system after 16 hours travelling, little sleep, and a very poor recovery from my hangover, but being in a new part of the world for the first time was exhilirating. I’d been told that Bangkok is an assault on your senses, and it certainly was! It was hotter and more humid than I could ever have imagined, the traffic was nuts, and it reeked of a mixture of delicious smelling street food and disgusting amounts of fuel exhausts.

We didn’t have long so we decided to just get the sky train down to the river and have a nosey around. We then caught the Chao Phraya express boat from Saphan Taksin pier down to stop N8 where we could see the famously wonderful Wat Arun temple. Sadly it was covered in scaffolding so wasn’t as impressive as usual, so we headed to nearby temple Wat Pho – the temple of the reclining buddha – which was amazing.

Sticky with sweat, the only thing we could really do in our jet lagged state was head to a bar! We went for Ta-Ling Bar in Wang Lang where we could enjoy an ice cold beer and listen to reggae whilst overlooking the river & Wat Arun.

It took about half a beer before I was tipsy so we headed back to bed at the very, very basic (you get what you paid for) Home Hug Hostel ready for our early flight on to Bali.

We weren’t there long enough to understand the place fully, but first impressions of Bangkok are of a city that has become quite westernised and commercial, but still has the Thai charm you picture with loads of crazy markets, delicous street food and hundreds of step ladder/fruit basket/water cooler carrying moped drivers! I’ll definitely be heading back there when we do Thailand properly!