Bangkok

Bangkok

Friday 

The flight wasn't so bad, my extreme lack of sleep over the past few days helped me to have a wee nap on the plane which made time go by quicker! After landing and finding my luggage (thank goodness!) I went to go and check Emma's arrival time. Her flight wasn't on the board. She was at a different airport... bloody typical!!! Not the sort of thing we thought to check when we presumed Emily at STA travel was going to give us as similar flights as she could! So then I pottered around a bit trying to make sense of where to go, realised I needed help and so asked at the info desk and they told me to get on the a4 bus. I honestly have no idea where I'm going to get off but I'm just going to hope for the best! Life is a lot harder without data on my phone! Although luckily google maps was working offline (thank god) so I managed to work out where to get off and it was only a 5 minute walk from the 'bus stop' which was good! I checked in, the receptionist told me that Emma had already been here but I have no idea where she has gone! I went for a wee wander around the immediate area but I don't understand the currency yet so there's not all that much point in me buying anything yet! I then just chilled out in the lobby for 15 mins hoping emma would come back anytime soon! It wasn't long before I checked in and omg he room was soooo nice compared to all the hostels we have been in! The shower was honest to God the best shower I have had for a very long time and I got out feeling fresh as! I was just wondering what Emma was doing when there was a knock at the door and in came Emma rocking her new mani- pedi! We decided to get some washing done and then grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant.  I then decided to have a Thai massage, as it was the equivalent of about a fiver (absolute bargain). I was expecting a nice relaxing massage to prepare me for the nap I was going to take afterwards, however this couldn't have been further from the truth! I think I should've read up about Thai massages before

getting one as it says that they combine acupuncture and helping into yoga poses. Anyone that knows me know show extremely inflexible I am and I honestly could not stop laughing about it... shit out to the masseuse though she got my legs in places I never thought they would go! And I think she cracked just about every bone in my body including my whole spine a fair few times! She was the cutest and even asked me if I felt ok at the end of it! Afterwards I went back to the hotel room, I thought at that point I didn't need a nap but after reading a massive 2 pages I fell asleep for a couple of hours. Unfortunately it was a bad nap and I woke up feeling sicky but I ignored it and went for a swim in the rooftop pool before coming back, ordering room service and watching greys anatomy until going to sleep! All in all a great first day! Very excited to start the Contiki tomorrow and meet the people we will be travelling with! 

Saturday 

We had planned to have a nice long lie in today, which went to pot when we were both wide awake at 7am again! Honestly I can't believe my body clock is still so messed up! We went to grab breakfast and on the way asked about our room for Contiki, luckily they said we could stay in the room we were already in which is amazing!! After breakfast we had a wander around, and then for a bikini wax which was an... interesting experience! Feeling fresh now though! We went back to the hotel and chilled out by the pool, and also bumped into a couple of girls on our Contiki so we went and got lunch with them later on in the day. After lunch, we went back to the pool for a bit before chilling in the room before our meeting at 6. We went through all the classic bits of information and stuff we needed to know, also had to decide what extra activities we want to do... I decided to do most of them as a mostly everyone else was and in total it came to around £260 which is less than a quarter of the amount I spent on extras on the Big Tiki! I'm super excited for the elephant park.. especially as it's an actual legit one that treats the elephants well. We then all went out for dinner and I really wanted to try mango sticky rice but unfortunately they had sold out! So I panic ordered fries and regretted it as usual! I felt like crap so Emma and I and a few others headed back but I believe mostly everyone else stayed out! 

Sunday

Still didn't feel to good this morning, and woke up with no appetite which was worrying! (Luckily it came back by lunch time!) I forced myself to eat, I wish I was hungry as there was a whole spread of food for breakfast! The pineapple was super yummy and very sweet, just like the pineapple in Fiji which makes me so happy. Afterwards we headed out to the Grand Palace which is absolutely beautiful! We also fed fish outside of another temple on the river before heading back to the hotel to pack, sort out money for the excursions and get ready to leave Bangkok! 

Singapore

Monday 4th - Friday 8th September 2017

Monday
So my flights went super smoothly, that is until I arrived in Singapore and waited for my bag for a particularly long time... the last bags were out and, along with a dozen or so other people, my bag was nowhere to be seen. I waited around the airport for a bit and filled in some forms before heading out into the city to find the hostel. It was actually a blessing in disguise as I didn't have to lug it around on the train! Eventually I got to the hostel and then went out to find a maccys for dinner a si wasn't all that hungry and that was the only thing I fancied! I had an iced milo and I can't believe I haven't had one before! So delicious! I then finished rereading 'the girl with the dragon tattoo' whilst I waited for Emma to get here at around 1am.

Tuesday
Luckily I had a spare outfit in my bag so I had something different to wear today and fresh underwear thank god! Emma and I grabbed breakfast as the free breakfast at the hostel was literally just toast and marmalade and didn't look overly appetisingly. I got a maccys breakfast again (supersize me hehe) and then we had a wander around the shops before meeting Jillian. It was so good to see her, I haven't seen her since she graduated a couple of years ago! She gave us a guided tour of Singapore, pointing out different buildings and taking us to a couple of cool places for lunch and dinner. We also went to the gardens and checkout out the cloud forest and flower gardens which was pretty cool! When we got back to the hostel my bag was waiting for me which was such a relief!

Wednesday

We had a wander around a few more of the shopping malls today but the weather was pretty rubbish so we ended up coming back to the hostel and chilling there in the afternoon. We went back to Zam Zams for dinner as it was so good... Indian noodles are delicious! 

Thursday

We went back down to the gardens at the bay this morning but it was super ridiculously hot and neither of us had slept much as there is one stupid girl in the dorm who leaves her lights on all flipping night and everyone was just so noisy... can't wait to be living in hotels for the next month! Due to this, we decided to go back to the hostel chill out and pack our bags before going out this evening to grab dinner and go back to see the gardens at night. 

Friday

Honestly had the worst nights sleep, tried to get an eary night but a guy kept talking to us about how we seem to be asleep all the time haha! Eventually Emma stopped the conversation (by that point I was pretending to be asleep) and I slowly drifted off... except he girl underneath me kept turning her light on and off and chatting away to her friend who was quite clearly asleep! Eventually at 2am I decided to not bother trying to go back to sleep as my alarm was going off at 2:50am to catch out early flight! I was not happy haha!

Ubud & Kuta Beach

Thursday 31st August - Monday 4th September

Thursday

So the boat ride from Gili T to Bali was horrific. I have never been so scared in my life, my life actually flashed before my eyes. I had visions of us sinking like the titanic every single time the boat rocked enough to make my heart plummet to my stomach. Thank god for my iPad... if I hadn't been watching greys anatomy I would've had to actively think about that for the whole journey... and fast boat my ass that took 3 hours and it sucked the whole time, I'd rather make a day of it on the slow boat... actually scrap that I'd rather fork out they extra dollar and fly! Never again I swear!! Although we had a better time than the family in front of us, one of their kids puked the whole way and the window started leaking on the dad! Their mum was sitting next to us though and she was pretty smug as the Dad had refused to swap seats with her! Next it was time for our long shuttle bus journey back to Kuta beach. It was so nice to get back to pop hotel and just chill out, all I had to eat for dinner was a pot noodle and Oreos we grabbed on the way to the hotel. We just crashed we were so tired!

Friday

Check out wasn't until 12, so we had a nice leisurely morning (even though I still woke up before 7) and grabbed breakfast at the same place we had breakfast on our first morning in Bali. Afterwards, we got a private car to go to Ubud. It took longer than first thought as the traffic was super bad! We got there at around lunch time, so, after checking in, we grabbed a bite to eat and did a bit of shopping before grabbing a taxi to the Teggalalang rice terraces. They are so cool! So much better in real life than in the photos, although it was super hot and there was a lot of walking so we got mega sweaty! It took us a while to realise there were no bluebird taxis allowed in this area, so we grabbed a drink and then got a private taxi back to ubud town. It was a classic pot noodle for dinner again today and we just had another night in to save money before the Contiki. 

Saturday

It was banana pancakes for breakfast again this morning, but this time we had watermelon on the side and chocolate sauce! Super delish! We then headed down to the monkey forest, Emma still pretty nervous after the monkeys attacked her in China! I reassured her and forced her into going... and it worked! She was a bit nervy at first... but to be fair so was I when they came a bit too close for comfort! We paid 10,000 rupiah extra to have a photo taken with one and afterwards Emma said she was so happy I made her do it as she feels a lot more at ease than before which is awesome! It was a pretty cool forest too, not as big as the one in GuiYang though. We were in and out within an hour so we then had the rest of the day to fill up. We dropped in at a cafe where they gave me a sour coconut and tried to fob me off saying they were supposed to be like that. There was no way they were gonna swap it so I just paid for it (ok it was all of £2 but it's the principal!) despite not really touching it... I feel like I'll stay away from coconuts as I never seem to get the tasty ones! We then shopped around a bit and I finally got some grey elephant pants!! I've been after some for so long and these cost me the equivalent of just under £4 so win win! After lunch we went back to the hostel and chilled out by the pool. The people who work here brought us out some traditional Indonesian snacks, and I pretty much liked all of them but the others weren't too keen on a few! 

Sunday

Had the delicious pancakes again this morning, and then emma and I headed to a cafe (Kafe)-for some chill out time before needing to check out from our hostel... I will miss this hostel it's been so good! It was hen time to part with Emma as her flight was a few hours after mine so I hopped in the taxi, went to the airport and got all checked in ready for my journey to Singapore! 

Bali - Kuta Beach

Thursday 24th August -

Thursday
I was on a pretty basic plane with no in flight meal sadly, but this was all a ok as I had a whole aisle to myself which meant I got some great napping time in! Unfortunately, it took frigging ages to get my bags and I was getting more and more hungry, tired and grumpy as the time ticked on. Eventually I got out and went to look for Emma, it proved difficult as I had about a trillion men shouting TAXI TAXI in my face haha! She had already got us a taxi driver so we hopped in and went to our hotel, pop hotel Kuta beach. It's a pretty cool hotel, reminds me of the one we stayed in on the Contiki in Christchurch! (Just no cool lights) it was pretty late by the time we got there so it was straight to bed for us!

                 
                                             

Friday
First I woke up at 2am, then 3:30, then 5, then 6 and finally I got up at 7am. Probably shouldn't have napped on the plane! I was absolutely starving as all I had to eat last night was a couple of tim tams. We went straight on out after getting dressed and, thinking we had an included breakfast, went to go and grab some but we were then told it was not included! (I mean we're paying £11 a night so can't really complain!) somwe decided to head down to the beach and grab something from somewhere. We found a cute little restaurant and got a delicious smashed avo on toast brekkie! After chilling out for a bit, we decided to hitch a cab to a local market to do a spot of shopping. It was a bit strange getting back into the swing of haggling but eventually I managed to pick up some cute shorts and an elephant singlet for about £3 each! Bargain! We spent a couple of hours wandering before heading back to the hotel to chill in the air con/ have a nap. After a while we decided we were too hungry so we went out for dinner. I had some delicious noodles, the best thing about the restaurant however was that they had a soingebob themed kids menu!

After dinner we had a lovely little beach walk before going back to the hotel for an early night.