And so it begins...

First of all, just in case this works and someone stumbles across this and actually reads it, disclaimer: I have no real idea how blogs work. All I know is

a) I love reading travel blogs and always use them as my go-tos when I travel

b) Usually, when I travel for a month or two, I write a daily diary. If I had to write every day for 8 months, I think I might refuse to ever see pen and paper again (which would be a problem for a girl who plans to go back to her teaching career...) And so I figured a blog would be easier. Just like my instagram account though, it’s more a diary for me than anything else, but if people enjoy reading it, that’s cool too.

It’s not going to be an indefinite blog though- I’m not a travel blogger or live my life on the road, it’s going to last pretty much exactly 8 months. I’ve just taken a career break- I was a teacher, a job I love, but ever since my first long haul trip to Australia in my gap year, the travel bug has hit me hard. Luckily, because teaching gives you such good summer holidays, I’ve always been able to explore the world 6 weeks at a time, but the dream was always to save up enough to go for longer. This year the dream was finally realised (with a little push to take the leap of faith from my mum) and when I broke the news to my boyfriend and my best friend, they both said they’d tag along for the ride! (Get yourself people in your life mad enough to join your journey and you’re winning) I can’t wait to meet them along the way, but for now, it’s just me.

I’m 8 hours into my 11 hour flight from London to Bangkok, and can’t sleep- and so the blog is born! I left my parents, boyfriend and French Bulldog sidekick named Pepper this morning (see photo at the bottom for how cute she is)- which was traumatic, at least you can explain to humans you love them and you’ll be back, what if she thinks I’ve left forever?! (Anyone else get this with their furry family when they leave?)

Several hours later and I’ve managed to shower, nap, find a local SIM, get dinner and (most importantly) find snake skin fruit at the supermarket- they’re a favourite from my time in Indonesia and they don’t sell them in England so I was thrilled to find them here. Thailand day one done! Tomorrow I move to the Wildlife Friends Foundation to volunteer for a month. I can’t wait to find out more about the amazing work they do, and hopefully contribute to it myself too.