I wanted to blog about my winter travels in January and February since the last entry was about my travels during the fall. This time, I traveled out of China and was amazed by how much there is to see out there. On January 16, Shaun and I hopped on a plane and headed to beautiful Thailand. We visited Bangkok, Chiang Mai and a little island called Koh Tao over two weeks.
I thought the shopping was amazing in China, until I visited Bangkok, Thailand. It was breathtaking! It was too bad I only brought a backpack with me on the trip.Bangkok also had a cool sky train that took us across the city. The one thing I didn't like about Bangkok was how ‘touristy’ everything was. It seemed like there were more foreigners than locals.
Chiang Mai is a city in the northern parts of Thailand. We headed up there after spending a night in Bangkok. Chiang Mai is popular for its trekking adventures and its elephants! We ended up taking a Thai cooking class, going on a trekking adventure, visiting an elephant farm, going to a snake farm and petting some tigers.
From Chiang Mai we headed south, back into Bangkok to take a train, a bus and then a boat into Koh Tao Island. Koh Tao was spectacular! We met great people, got our scuba diving licenses, almost rode motorcycles and ate fresh seafood. Altogether I absolutely fell in love with Thailand!
Next stop on our trip was Cambodia. I visited Phnom Penh (the capital), Siem reap, Kompot, Kep and relaxed on a private Island called ‘rabbit island’ for two days. Cambodia was a life-changing experience for me. I had no idea they had just come out of a war and seeing the state the country was in, shocked me. They achieved freedom about 30 years ago, but with that freedom came poverty, lack of education and zero industrialization. Cambodia has the potential to make tourism the biggest contributor to it’s economy (like Thailand), so I definitely think things will turn around. Irrespective of some of the other things I saw, Cambodia is beautiful, has great food, amazing locals (nicer than Thailand) and just a calming atmosphere.
While in Cambodia, Shaun and I parted ways and I stayed in Cambodia for two weeks. Then I got on a flight to Singapore. I was only there for one night and then headed back to China. Instead of heading back home to Nanjing, I headed to Guangzhou, my favourite city in China. I was there for another two weeks and went ice-skating, enjoyed the night life and hung out with close friends. It was the perfect ending to an amazing trip. In total I traveled for about six weeks. As thankful as I am for the opportunity to do all that traveling, I do know that there are still so many countries I’d like to visit before I return home. I’d like to visit Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong too, but we'll see what happens. After coming back to Nanjing, I definitely have a new appreciation for life and this experience. I absolutely love being a BIBer and I wouldn't have it any other way !