8th month: Let’s travel to Asia!

 November 13th / 14th: skipped one day?!

Yeah, I know it looks confusing but because of the different time zones, I basically skipped the whole Sunday! I’m in Manila now after a 15 hour flight! Waiting 10 hours to go to Bangkok… Pfff….

At 3 Pm local time I finally had my last flight to Bangkok. Jees. I made it! Soooo excited to see my best friend after 7 months again! YAY! Finally together! And FINALLY our dream trip is gonna start! At 5:30 I arrived in Bangkok and waited for my luggage. Unfortunately this took a while and an hour and a half later I finally found Danee! Together we took a bus to our stay in Bangkok and there we checked in.. And then the hell began for me when I realized I didn’t have my wallet when I wanted to pay. I knew I must have left it on the bus and we were the last people on the bus but I couldn’t reach out to anyone.. office was closed. Airport lost and found service didn’t find anything… But we had to sleep… So we’ll try again tomorrow.. luckily Danee had enough cash!

November 15th: Day 1 here we go!

This morning I woke up early and went for a run while Danee was still sleeping. I explored the city, saw some beautiful temples I wanted to go to later and people stared at me like I was an alien, but who cares! I enjoyed my morning workout and even found a free outdoor gym and then I went back to our stay (private room in a guesthouse). Right before I got back I bought a simcard and tried calling different numbers from the airport again to ask about my wallet but unfortunately without any result. I thought Danee would be awake by now as it was 8:30, but woops… I knocked on the door and a monster opened it… she just woke up. Sorry girl!!! we got dressed and I took a shower and then we checked out l, dropped our bags and we left! Let’s go dat 1! We walked towards the Wat Pho temple and on our way we found a nice breakfast spot. Then I bought a dress because I didn’t have a long one which is required in the temples (or long pants but that’s too hot!). Then we went to the temple and the Grand Palace. Both absolutely gorgeous!! I’m in love with this country already!! Later we walked to the bus stop from last night but of course no bus so we walked back to pick up our backpacks and leave to the bus at the bus terminal which would take us to Chiang Mai tonight. On our way there I tried calling all the numbers one last time. A guy from lost and found services at the airport answered and he was very kind! He said he’d walk to the bus office for me and call me back. Not even one minute later he called me back: They found your wallet!!. I couldn’t believe my ears! I was SOOOOOOO HAPPPYYYY! YAY! We had dinner at the bus terminal and then it was time to go… 12 hours on the bus! Ayyyu! Wish us luck!

November 16th: Day 2 Chiang Mai here we are!

After a long 11 hour bus ride we finally made it to Chiang Mai at 6:00 AM Yay! One our earlier than scheduled so nothing was opened yet and we went to our stay (guesthouse) but we didn’t feel good / safe about it so we booked a nice private room in a hostel which my Argentinian friend from Ibiza recommended who was also there! We took a taxi there and got a very nice welcome from the owner and left our bags there. I went for a run as I needed to stretch my legs and then I took a shower and we left to the city. We had an amazing vegan breakfast; smoothie bowl with granola and fruit!😍 After that we walked around the city and went to a few temples which were nice. Later we went to a cute cafe and had a waffle with ice cream and I had frozen watermelon juice! Yum! On our way to a park we passed a tourist information point and saw folders about cooking classes again. We thought it would be too late as it was already 3 but the lady called one of the companies and told us we could do an evening class from 5 till 8::30 so that was perfect! An hour later we got picked up with some other people and we went to the local market to learn something about the spices they use. Thai food always consists all flavors: sweet, spicy, sour, salty and bitter. We got a nice welcome snack called and then started cooking Pad Thai, coconut soup, curry with home made curry paste and spring rolls. All super delicious!! Later I met my friend Juansi from Ibiza and that was so much fun! Hope to see him again in the south!!

November 17th: Busy tour day!🐘

Today was a very full and busy day! We had a tour day to Doi Inthanon National park, the elephant sanctuary and a trekking trail in Kew Mae Pan. We started with far way the best out of all: the elephant sanctuary. Man. I literally don’t have any words for this experience! Such wonderful animals! We got a whole bag of food (banana and sugar cane) which they loved and we could feed them. So cute! Later we were allowed to splash them with water (shower them). Of course we took many pictures and made friends with some elephants and one even hugged me! Haha so funny! After this we went to the national park and went to the view point. After this it was time for the last part of the day: the Hike. We hiked along the coffee plantations and the rice fields to get to an amazing water fall. Once we got bay we walked down a hill to get to the local coffee cafe. It was a very studious and beautiful day!

November 18th: last day in Chiang Mai!🥲

Totdat was a relaxt day! Last night I actually wanted tof o out with my friend Juansi, but Danee was pretty tired and apparently I fell asleep while she was brushing her teeth! Then I got changed and fell asleep again with my phone in my hands😂 So no night out for me… This morning I went for a run and after that the other monster was also awake. We packed our stuff and walked in the direction of the old town. W head breakfast here and walked towards Central Chiang Mai. Very nice local markets here! Later we took a grab (Uber) for the last part as it was still pretty far! We walked around the central mall the rest of the afternoon which was fun and tried lots of good foods again. Later we waited there till the Japanese festival started with a food market and bartender competition. We enjoyed a nice curry and a coconut pancake here! Then it was time to go to the bus station to go back to Bangkok. Let’s go 12 hours on the bus again….! Luckily a more luxury bus this time! More comfortable!

November 19th: Let’s go to Krabi!

This morning we arrived in Bangkok at 6:00 AM. Very early so nothing was opened yet, so we decided to take our time to get ready and change in the bathrooms. After that we took a taxi to the center where we had breakfast and afterwards dropped our big backpacks at a luggage storage place for the coming week as we only wanted to bring a small backpack to Krabi. It was a bit of a challenge as we still needed clothes for a week, but we made it! It’s cheaper than paying extra for luggage on the plane so it makes sense! We scored a great smoothie and crêpe on the way and then walked around the city for a bit. We took the ferry to the Wat Arun temple which was nice. Unfortunately there was a lady being mad at us cause we were wearing shorts which is not allowed in the temples but we weren’t even in the temple and just wanted to go to the souvenir shop… anyway.. we took one of the sharongs and wrapped it around our waist to make sure the lady won’t get mad again but it was so hot! We took a tuk tuk back to the Grand palace and walked to Khao San (the Main Street in Bangkok). We walked around a bit and then decided to take the bus to the airport but unfortunately this took forever as the bus didn’t come. We ended up booking a taxi and got to the airport way later than planned. Then I had to pick up my wallet which I lost on the bus the first day we got to Bangkok but also this took way too long and they didn’t have it they said now whereas a man on the phone told me they had it… I was so upset. Then also a woman told us we needed a printed boarding pass so we had to go all the way back. We ended up catching our flight 10 minutes prior to the last boarding call… JEES…. so glad we made it! When we got to krabi we grabbed some food and went to the hotel. So tired!

November 20th: Nature Time!

Today I woke up early and went for a run again. I ran along the boardwalk in Krabi town and followed the coast line and then ran back and did a little workout. I knocked on the door but apparently Danee was taking a shower so I waited till she opened the door. Then we packed our stuff and got ready to walk towards the bus which would take us to Khao Sok where we were gonna do the jungle tour. On the way we stopped for breakfast and that was a delicious waffle with banana. After that our walk continued and we made a quick stop at a store to buy a mosquito net and some snacks. Then we finally got picked up half an hour late. The bus was meant for 14 people but we were with 18 as they just stuffed in some stools. Insane! Around 8:30 we finally arrived at our stay for one night and tomorrow the jungle tour is gonna start! Super excited!! 

November 21st: Jungle tour!😍🐘

Yaas! Finally our jungle trip! We got picked up at 8:30 and drove to the Main jungle camp. From there we had a shuttle bus to the pier and there a long tail boat was waiting for us to board to go to the raft houses. So exciting cause I’ve never slept in a raft house on the water like that! The boat journey took us about an hour and then we got to the beautiful Khao Sok area! We had a nice lunch and explored the area a bit and then it was time for the actual tour. We started off with a nice hike in the jungle and spotted some monkeys! So cool! Then we went to a cave on bamboo rafts and that was so much fun! We did an evening safari before dinner and to our big surprise we saw wild elephants! Insane! No words for this! This made my day!! Then we headed back for a nice dinner and chatted with a lovely couple from Israel.

November 22nd: Waking up in the jungle🤩

This morning Danee and I woke up very early as we wanted to jump in the River before the program was starting at 7. What’s a better way to start the day than jumping in and refreshing completely? We had a morning safari and saw elephants again! Also a few monkeys. After that we had breakfast and then we had some free time and we decided to go kayaking. Lovely! We didn’t fall! Crazy! We were singing along the way and had so much fun! Unfortunately after this it was time to pack Everything again to go back to the main land! What an amazing experience! This afternoon a minivan picked us up to go to Ao Nang near Krabi where we will stay till we go back to Bangkok the 25th. The way there was pretty long (4 hours) and rainy… Tonight we sleep in a bamboo hut. It looked very nice but it was not very comfortable so we are gonna stay somewhere else tomorrow and the day after that I think! We had dinner in an amazing vegan restaurant and then headed back to the hotel as we weee both very tired!

November 23rd: Adventure on the boat🥶

Wednesday the day started pretty relaxed and I did my morning workout and took a shower and then we packed everything and had breakfast at the resort. Not very fancy but it was a buffet and we could take whatever we wanted. Then we took the shuttle to the beach and from there we walked to our hotel for tonight. Yes! Finally a hotel! Super excited for that! We dropped our stuff and then we walked around the beach for a bit and asked some things we could do at an information point. We decided we wanted to do a 7 islands sunset boat tour tomorrow and booked this. Then we took the ferry to Railay beach. A very nice beach near Krabi, Ao Nang. We met a Belgian girl on the way and talked a bit and once we got to the beach we had lunch. Very nice mushroom soup and salad. Later we walked to the Phra Nang Beach where we met Amy, the Belgian girl again. She met another Dutch couple during her trip and they were here as well. After swimming in the sea for a while and spotting lots of wild monkeys, danee and I decided to go back as we also had to check in for the hotel and the e last boat was at 6. Thank goodness we took this boat cause the weather completely changed! A big storm flew over and Amy wasn’t able to get back to Ao Nang because of that… The way back on the boat was very rough for us and we got totally covered in sea water, but we made it and had an amazing shower in our hotel! Yay! After that we had dinner in an Indian/Thai restaurant and finally tried Pineapple fried rice and then we went out at a few bars which was fun!!

November 24th: 7 islands sunset tour!🏝🌊🚤

This morning I woke up at 7 and went for a run. It was very humid so it was pretty hard today. When I got back I took a shower and we got ready for the day. We brought our laundry next door as there was a laundry service and then we had breakfast at the hotel. The weather was not very promising as it was raining, and we called the boat company about the tour but they said it was a still happening so we wouldn’t be able to get a refund. Thank god the rain stopped as we got picked up! It was a lovely day! We’ve been so lucky with the weather on this trip so far! Not complaining! We started the tour on the long tail boat and went to Thale Weak. Here are 3 islands you can walk to only when tide is low. So cool! Ko Thap and chicken islands were the other two we could walk to. We saw many starfishes here! After that it was time to go snorkeling near chicken islands and we had so much fun doing this! We laughed our ass off! Many cool fishies and corals! Then we went to Ko Poda island where we had a nice bbq dinner and waited for the sun to set. We went back on the boat towards Railay beach and on the way we made a stop to see something very magical. Bioluminescence is what it’s called. It’s the plankton you see lighting up blue when you move in the water. Insane! Couldn’t believe my eyes! After this we went back to the hotel and showered and then we went to the beach to find a nice bar. We couldn’t resist the live music and dancing people at a Mexican restaurant we passed so we decided to go there and that was so much fun!!

November 25th: Back to Bangkok

Today was our last day in Ao Nang and at the same time our second last day in Thailand. What a fantastic country! This morning I couldn’t go for a run because my stomach was pretty bad unfortunately. I think it was from the banana smoothie as it might have had lots of milk in it which my stomach can’t really handle… We had a late breakfast and got changed at our hotel and then we went to the beach. After this we picked up our clean laundry and then we went back to the hotel. We took a taxi to the airport in Krabi to go to Bali. I got a little stress cause my app for Bali we needed to enter wasn’t working… but it all worked out fine and we had time enough for dinner. Now we’re back in Bangkok and tomorrow night we’ll go to Bali!

November 26th: Last day in Thailand🥲

Today was our last day already in the beautiful Thailand. What a beautiful place and gorgeous nature! I’m very sad to leave Thailand but also excited to go to Bali! We’ve had a wonderful 2 weeks in Thailand from hugging elephants till staying in a raft house or snorkeling near chicken island! It was beautiful! I went for my last run in Thailand and then we went for breakfast and picked up our big backpacks as we left them in Bangkok at a storage place so we didn’t have to carry them to Krabi and then national park. Now we’re the real backpackers again! We bought some souvenirs and then it was time to head to the airport and eat something there and now we’re off to Bali!

November 27th: Welcome to Bali!

Welcome to Bali yeah! We arrived at 1:00 AM totally exhausted. We arrived at our stay around 2:00 AM and fell asleep right away. We got a 4 person room as the room we were supposed to have had a broken door so nice and spacious tonight. When I woke up I went for a run and after that I took a shower an we had a very nice smoothie bowl. Later we went to the beach and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The little puppy at our stay is so cute! I just couldn’t resist petting him!😍 Later we walked to some souvenir shops and had dinner and then we were soo tired we decided to go back.

November 28th: Day 2 in Bali!

Today I went for a run again and then we had breakfast in the same restaurant as last night as they gave us a voucher. I had dragon fruit pancakes and juice but the healthy juice wasn’t really as I hoped as the ginger was too strong in it. After that we decided to walk back and go to Ubud. On our way our driver told us lots of things we could see and do in Ubud. The best way to get around there without a motorcycle would probably be by having a private driver who you would pay for a full day and then you can go anywhere you’d like. Our driver to Ubud even stopped to buy water for us. So nice! Once we got to Ubud the weather completely changed unfortunately! It was pouring as hell outside and we didn’t know what to do or where to go as our driver couldn’t totally get to our stay. We hid under a roof and then little kids were selling rain ponchos so we bought 2 and then ran to our stay. Completely soaked we arrived there. We got a nice welcome from the lady who runs the place and we had a nice warm shower. Then we had lunch and walked over the Ubud market. We walked back to our stay and chilled a bit until it was dinner time and we had dinner in a Warung. This is a local food place which is way cheaper than the restaurants but there food is delicious!

November 29th: Hello Monkeys!🐒

Today was our 2nd day in Ubud. We had a nice breakfast at our stay in the morning and then went for a morning hike immediately. It was called the Campuhan ridge walk. Just 2.5 km but with a very stunning view near rice fields, temples and cafes. We had a drink at the Bamboo Kitchen and then walked back. We had lunch and went to the monkey forest afterwards. So much fun! They’re crazy but very smart animals. They stole Danee’s water bottle twice! And the babies were so cute! Unfortunately I slipped right at the exit of the park on a steep hill down the road and had to go to the first aid to clean the little marks on my leg. Nothing serious but I was mainly worried about rabies but these monkeys get checked every year and never had that! Later we had dinner and then we went to our room as tonight we’ll have to wake up very early t for our Mount  Batur volcano hike! 

November 30th: Active Volcano hike 🌋😍

This morning we had to wake up at 1:00 AM. The only reason for this was because we were gonna do the Mount Batur Hike and the main goal is to be able to see the sunre from there. A shuttle bus came to pick us up and there was only one other Polish couple so we would hike with the 4 of us only and 2 tour guides. Once we got to the volcano we met Kedak, the happy crazy one with his guitar who will sing mot l of he time. I’m so happy Danee found him because of a YouTube video! Otherwise it’s hard to find him! He and his energy are just insane! We made it to the top end the view was absolutely stunning! The sunrise was just insane! It started cloudy and the last bit we hiked through the big clouds but when they moved away it was beautiful! Felt so great to be on top! We went back down a bit to the place we put some vegetables and fruit in the ground as. The lava from the inside of the volcano releases the hot air so we had a nice breakfast. Then it was down for the fun part: sliding down the black sand. Omg this was so much fun! Pretty scary as it was so steep but we made it. After that we went to the hot springs which was very nice and we went to a coffee plantation and tried lots of different coffees and teas which was nice! In the evening we had dinner and later we went out together with our tour guides which was soooo much fun!

December 1st: Busy bees day!🐝

What an adventure today again! We came home pretty late last night around 1:30 AM but today we had another busy day as we wanted to explore Ubud and the surrounding areas with our personal driver. He picked us up at 9 AM and we started at the Nung Nung waterfall which was about an hour away. Lots of stairs to climax down and back up (509) so that was a good workout but the waterfall was very stunning! After that we made a stop at the swing Parc where people get all their pictures but we thought it’s a waste of money as it was quite expensive and there would be way more free or cheap swings. So we went to Cretya which is a very nice hotel with restaurant and pools with an amazing view over the rice fields. I had a great salmon pizza there. We took loads of pictures and then went to the real rice field called Tegallalang rice fields and they are soooo big!! Insane! It was great walking around there for a bit and then we went to Tegenunang waterfall on the way to Sanur where we are gonna sleep tonight to go to Nusa penida tomorrow. At this waterfall we could swim and so we jumped in but the stream was very strong so you could hardly swim against the flow. But it was amazing! After that the driver brought us to our stay in Sanur. We had dinner there and looked for a tour for tomorrow which was pretty hard. Very last minute we got a message from our drive that he knew some one and this guy helped us out! Tomorrow we’ll go to Penida Island! YAY! So we packed our stuff for tomorrow and went to sleep!

December 2nd: Nusa Penida Island😍

This morning was an early morning again. We got picked up at 6:45 for our trip to Penida, but then we had to wait 1,5 hour before going to the harbor with the rest of all the people from different tours. Lol? We could’ve slept a little longer… Aeound 8:30 we had the fast boat to the island. Lots of high waves on the way but the boat ride went pretty smooth and took about an hour. Once we got there I saw drivers holding up papers with names and I saw mine upside down and told Danee but she thought I was making a joke. So apparently we had our personal driver the whole day again! Woohoo!! He couldn’t speak English so we had no idea where we were going but we started off with our snorkeling trip. This was sooo pretty! We saw heaps of fishies and even a sea turtle! So beautiful and the water was crystal clear! Just some trash every now and then which is kinda normal here in Bali unfortunately… then we headed to some nice beaches: the famous Kelingking beach, broken beach and another one. Our driver just wanted to make pictures of us which we didn’t really want. We really wanted to enjoy the place but there was no time for that unfortunately… And I realized I knew someone from The Netherlands who lives here.. If I had realized this before… ughh.. so dumb!Such a nice day! We had dinner once we got back and that was the end of our Penida trip!

December 3rd: Relax day!

Today we finally had a relax day! Even though we still woke up early, we went to sleep a bit longer and at 7:30 I woke up and decided to go for a run walk and buy some breakfast as our breakfast here wasn’t any good. I tried to be quiet but the door didn’t want to unlock. Apparently the owner heard that and helped me. But unfortunately all this noise obviously woke up Danee… Crossed the busy road after waiting 15 mins and walked to the store which was still closed.. so I ended up finding a random roll at the bakery and u bought two lattes at the Dunkin’ Donuts as there wasn’t anything else around. When I got back we had breakfast and packed our stuff to go to Uluwatu beach. Then we went to our next stay in Uluwatu and chilled a bit at the little pool there. They have a really cute little kitten! Love it! Later we walked to a rooftop restaurant and saw one of the best sunsets ever! So cool!

December 4th: First Yoga class 🧘🏼‍♀️

Today I woke up early again and walked to the beach to have a little ‘me time’. Especially cause no one was there. We brought our laundry to a laundry service yesterday so that’s why I couldn’t go running this morning. When I got back we got ready for the day and walked to our next stay about 10 mins away. After that we walked back as we wanted to do a yoga class. There were still plenty of spots so we decided to do the one at 10 AM. It was very nice! Sometimes a bit painful and I fell asleep at the end cause we needed to lay down and close our eyes. Woops!😂 After that we sat on the beach for a while and waited till we could check in. Unfortunately there were some problems in our room and the toilet wasn’t flushing and the airconditioner was broken. Nice! But we’ll, we only stayed here one night and they fixed the toilet luckily. Then my iPhone cable gave up and didn’t work anymore! Great! That was a little too much for today.. I got nuts and decided to go for a walk as I felt bad Danee. Later we went to the Kecak dance in Uluwatu temple and this was really cool. We were sooo lucky we could still get in as there weren’t anymore tickets but our driver fixed 2!

December 5th: Sint Nicolas with 32 degrees!?🌞

Today we woke up in the insanely humid room. Man I was sweaty. Yaks… The water wasn’t working again so we decided to leave as quick as we could! We took a taxi to Seminyak to our stay and we could leave our stuff there already. The room was great! We even had a little kitchen and a bath tub! Yay! We dropped our stuff and got changed and then we walked around to find a nice breakfast spot. I ended up finding a buffet and the at was amazing! After that we walked to the beach and chilled there for a while. I got sunburn because I was too stubborn and wanted to lay in the sun.. so dumb.. Later when we went back to the beach we watched the sunset and had a small pizza as a ‘snack’ and there were puppies running around! So cute! Later we had dinner at an amazing Greek Restaurant! Sooo delish!

December 6th: First Surf lesson! 🏄🏼‍♀️ 

Today the day started slowly as we didn’t sleep well. The airconditioning was broken and we were so hot again. It seemed to be so much better than our last stay but later in the night we woke up as we were sooooo hot. I turned on the bath tub and filled it with cold water. That’s how warm I was. After sitting in there for half an hour I could finally sleep a bit. I woke up at 7:30 and decided to run on the beach for a bit. This was very nice! After that I took a shower and we got ready for the day. The owned told us our they called someone to come and fix the airconditioning! So nice! We had breakfast and walked to the beach to think about what we wanted to do. We thought about surfing but we weren’t sure about the weather. So we decided to rent boogie boards first. We had so much fun with this! The man who rented these had to drag us out of the sea as we didn’t realize how bay the current was! Hahaha! Later when the storm was over we were ready for the real board. Our first surf lesson. It always looks so easy but damn it’s so freaking hard! I was the first one to be able to stand but after that it didn’t work for me anymore. The waves were too high and I wanted to stand too fast so that didn’t work. Danee was able to stand up quite often! So good! But it was fun! I just didn’t like it that the instructor didn’t really help.. But we did it! I can’t believe tomorrow is our last full day of the dream trip! I don’t want to think about it! Can’t danee just come to Australia with me? Please?! I already told her I would pay the flight, but she didn’t want it…🥲

December 7th: Last day!😭

Noooooooo! Our last day! Not only the last day in Bali but also the last day of our amazing trip! I can’t believe it! So may things we’ve done and seen. Nobody can ever take this away from us! This will be part of our lives forever and I’m so damn thankful I could do this trip with my best friend! My morning started a little less relaxed when I came back to the place on the beach I left my shoes when I went running. They were gone… HOW. Only workers were here… I put them behind a wall where normally people won’t even walk. I was so mad. My new shoes… I only had them for a month… nice! So I had to walk back to the guesthouse barefoot for 2 km. Are you kidding me? My feet hurt so bad but I had to keep on walking. Later we had breakfast and I bought some new shoes. We packed our stuff and booked our last hotel. We wanted a more luxury hotel with a pool so that was really nice! We chilled at the pool and bought a last souvenir which was a small wooden surfboard with a turtle and beach on it. I asked the man if he could make a personalized one and he was ok with that so we picked them up in the afternoon! So happy with them! Later we packed all our stuff for tomorrow and we had dinner in a great Indian restaurant! Yum! We wanted to go out but the clubs were not that busy so we ended up at a live music bar. An Australian couple started talking with us and that was so fun! That’s how we ended the night!

December 8th: End of our trip in Asia!😭

Can’t believe it! A month flew by like two minutes. What an amazing trip we’ve had together! Can’t describe how thankful I am for every single moment! From hugging elephants and cooking Thai food till having our first surf lesson and water bottles getting stolen by  wild monkeys! I enjoyed it so much! Thank you so much for everything Danee! I’m gonna miss you so much! When I realized she was leaving this morning I couldn’t help crying! I’m so sad to leave her! I offered to book her a flight to Darwin but she was ready to go home. I understand that! I chilled at the pool and the beach the rest of the day and waited till it was time to get to the airport. I took my chance to try the motorcycle to the airport and this was so scary but so fun!! Now I’m waiting to board the plane to Darwin tonight!