Just a Kidd

I'm making myself write this one post before we leave because I haven't posted in ages, which means I'm going to have a huge workload once I get home. We've just come back to Bangkok and we have 2 days here before flying home. I can't believe our 3 month adventure is coming to an end, but I'll be able to relive it all when I write my blogposts about each place we've been. Once we were finally able to leave Pai, we had to get a 3 hour very bendy bus journey back to Chiang Mai through the hills of Thailand. There were 9 people in this minibus, including the women in front of me who was experiencing very bad travel sickness and throwing up for most of the journey. Very fun. In Chaing Mai we had to wait a few hours until our next bus to Chiang Rai left, so we decided to get an uber back to our favourite cheap food spot 'Lucky Toos' before heading back to the bus station. A quiet morning in Chiang Rai We only stayed one night in Chiang Rai b...

I was nominated by the lovely Liz over at  nautralhazardsandmore  to answer her Liebster award questions. Just quickly for those who don't know, the Liebster award is similar to a 'get to know me' post, however the questions have come from the previous blogger. Then, once you have answered the questions, you must add 11 questions of your own and tag 11 more bloggers! (I don't have 11 but oh well) Lets get started shall we. 1. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I can be pretty hard on myself sometimes. Although I recognise it as being bad for my mental health and confidence, sometimes I get in a very negative headspace which is difficult to get out of. I wish I was a little better at believing in myself and being kinder to myself cos you're stuck with yourself for life, you should be your own best friend. 2. What do you think is the most important thing about blogging? To spread what you're passionate about! Blogging s...

Stepping back into my regular travel updates after the brief elephants diversion, this post is all about our time in Pai. Pai is a small town in Northern Thailand which is very popular with backpackers, seriously it's overrun with them. Lots of travellers visit Pai and then go to a similar town on the same route called Mae Hong Son. Our original plan was actually to visit the ancient town of Chiang Dao afterwards, before moving onto Chiang Rai. Soooo none of that went to plan, which I will get into a bit later. View from the lower level of the White Buddha We were only supposed to be spending a few days here, so I went VERY cheap on accommodation, something like £11 for 3 nights in an outdoor bungalow. The place had good reviews so we were pretty confident about it, worst mistake ever. We were about a 20 minute walk from town, which is fine because everyone just hires a motorcycle as their mode of transport. I'll admit, we considered having a lesson and hiring one...

Now my last blog post was pretty intense, but I'm so glad I posted it. 'Why You Should Never Ride and Elephant' now has over 100 views and that is so mind blowing to me. A huge thank you to everybody who has read and/or shared the post, I know for a fact it has reached people who were otherwise unaware of the treatment of Elephants. I can't believe one of my posts reached that big of an audience, especially one so important so THANK YOU! As promised, this post will be all about our experience at the Elephant Nature Park sanctuary, Just north of Chiang Mai. We purchased the overnight package, which meant we had two full days of seeing the elephants. The sanctuary is quite a drive out of the city, during which you are shown a short film about the environment and treatment the animals rescued have come from, and therefore how to behave around them. The video went into a lot of detail about the abuse the elephants have been through, this is where most of the infor...

WARNING: There are upsetting images in this post Now I must admit, although I knew elephant riding wasn't ethical before coming to Asia, it is since being out here and visiting an amazing elephant sanctuary, I have learnt all about what these beautiful animals go through when under the ownership of riding companies and circuses etc. I am not doing this post to be preachy, in fact I wasn't even planning on doing it at all, but I know a lot of people are unaware of the unfair life of an elephant forced to work in the tourism industry and this information needs to be shared. Elephant riding at Angkor Wat, 3 people per elephant (one being a large man) I am sad to say our recent trip to Angkor Wat was completely ruined for me when I saw the elephant rides being sold there. We had just sat down to eat our lunch, when one by one, about 6-7 elephants walked past us with their Mahout (trainer) on their heads. They stopped at a little fenced off area where they are made to ...