Musings of an Architecture Graduate: South East Asia: 16 stops in 8 weeks

This summer my best friend Estelle and I set out on a 2 month adventure across South East Asia. Starting in Bangkok, we travelled north via Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai and then onto Pai. Taking the slow boat into Laos from Chiang Kong, our only stop there was Luang Prabang. From there we flew via Hanoi in Danang in Vietnam, working our down the south coast (Hoi An, Nha Trang, Saigon) before crossing into Cambodia. There we started in Sihanoukville in the south and travelled north into Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Our last two weeks were spent on the Thai Islands of Koh Phangan, Koh Tao and Koh Phi Phi.

I can honestly say that it was one of the most fantastic things that I have ever done and I truly had an amazing time. We also met so many cool people along the way, which made the trip even better. One of my favourite places that we visited was Pai in Northern Thailand, where we had the best time staying in a hostel called 'Spicy Pai' and where we made friends who we then travelled with for a lot of the trip. It was a very chilled place surrounded by picturesque mountains and just planted fresh rice fields. The town itself was backpacker heaven, filled with the most gorgeous food and book shops and market stalls selling some of the coolest jewellery and bags that I have seen! We had a great few days renting scooters and driving from waterfall to waterfall, exploring the scenic countryside. It was my first proper time on the back of a scooter and it was just so exhilarating; I felt so free riding along, watching elephants go by with the cool breeze from the wind blowing my hair from side to side. At night we made our own party with our new friends from the hostel, pretended we were at full moon with bright neon face paint and then danced the night away at a wonderful Bamboo club where the floor felt like you were on a trampoline. We were so sad to leave after the 3 nights we spent there, but they were some of the best days of our entire trip.