It didn't take long to remember why I love Thailand so much!!

My arrival in Chiang Mai this afternoon instantly reignited my deep love for this amazing country. This place is so just so easy to love! ♥

Here's a breakdown of some amazing things that happened within just a couple of hours of arriving...

- uber cheap and convenient tuk tuk ride from the airport
- a lovely welcome at my less-than-£3-a-night-hostel
- chillaxing with a Chang beer
- stumbling across a pretty, but closed, little temple and chatting to a monk and some younger boys in training who opened up the temple for me! Gob smacked! One of the sweetest encounters of my life ♥
- a spontaneous and oh-so-amazing foot massage at a random little place on my walk back to the hostel
- scrummy Pad Thai for dinner

LOVE LOVE LOVE this country! Thailand, I'm so pleased to be with you once again! ♥♥♥

Southeast Asian Food Challenge

I have set myself a little challenge whilst I'm on my travels around Southeast Asia and that challenge is to only eat the food of the country that I'm visiting while I'm there. Although I don't know much about Laos or Cambodia cuisine, I do know about, and am very familiar with, Thai and Vietnamese food and therefore I think that I should make the most of these amazing foods while I can in the places that they will be the best. I can eat western foods till my heart's content at home but this is a great chance for me to maximise my experience by fully indulging in and appreciating the diversity and deliciousness of the cuisine from this part of the world. And not only will it give me a more complete and true experience of these countries, it is sure to save me some money too. Happy days. I say "challenge" but it should be quite easy really if my love for Pad Thai and Pho are anything to go by.

But before the challenge commenced it was time for one 'last supper' type meals at Bangkok Airport (because the airport doesn't really count!) ...a Burger King meal in all its disgustingly delicious glory. And oh boy, did I enjoy it.

But it's local food all the way from now! (..with the exception of breakfast each day which I forgot to mention. Because rice or noodles THREE times a day and first thing in the morning? No. Just no.) So here goes. Can I do it? We'll soon find out...

Lots of love for HK ♥

I could not have had a more perfect start to my travels than HK if I tried. My few days there were the perfect mixture of meeting new people and socialising, seeing the sights, drinking and relaxation. It was amazing. Staying with my friend Sally meant I could begin my trip with a friendly face and lots more company in the form of her family and friends, a lovely place to stay (air con, English things like teabags and Ribena, and a decent sized towel- I treasured all those things!) someone to help me out with directions and first hand knowledge on what to see and how to see it and lastly a massive saving money wise and a very happy purse. I really can't thank her enough for welcoming me into her home the way she did and giving me such a splendid experience of a really great country! It really was the greatest start to my trip and more than I could have ever hoped for. I hope this is a sign of things to come... :)

What. A. Day

Wow. What a day. On Friday morning, after very little sleep, 2.5hrs to be precise, I said my very emotional goodbyes to my apartment and Sinjeong-dong- the area of Seoul that has been "home" for the past two years and I headed to Incheon International Airport for the penultimate time. (This was my practise trial in preparation for when I really leave next time.) Of course nothing ever seems to go smoothly for me so I arrived in my already highly emotional and sleep-deprived state to find yet another nightmare awaiting me. Come on, have I not been put through the ringer enough in the last two weeks?! Apparently not. *sigh*

I'd accidentally forgotten to print out my flight ticket out of HK and the airline wouldn't let me fly without it. So I ended up going on a wild goose chase around the airport to try and print out said ticket which left me with only five minutes to make the flight in the end which, after such little sleep the night before and and lots of sleepless nights for the week and a half leading up to my departure, seemed like the longest flight I have ever experienced despite it only being three and a half hours.

Luckily everything after that was plain sailing. I arrived and went through the procedures at Hong Kong International Airpot without problems, I managed to purchase my Octopus travel card, take the airport express train to central station, meet up and have lunch and coffees with Wendy and afterwards make my way to Sally's school to meet her before making our way back to her apartment for a lovely little dinner party with her friends and lots of wine.

After a very tiring, stressful and emotional start to my day where I closed the door on one part of my life, it progressed nicely into a great first day of the big adventure and the beginning of an exciting new chapter of my life. A sign, I think, of the amazing couple of months I have ahead of me. :)

안녕히계세요, 감사합니다, 사랑해요!

After two amazing, life changing years in Korea it's finally time to bid this country farewell. I'll be back for a short visit in mid October right after my seven weeks of travel and just before embarking on the next chapter of my life at HOME but this is goodbye to my life here as I know it. Goodbye to my apartment, goodbye to Sinjeong, goodbye to my job, goodbye to all the friends I've made along the way and goodbye to the best two years of my life.

I'm going to keep this very short and sweet as I only a few hours remaining and a million and one things still left to do! But thank you, Korea, for EVERYTHING. The good and the bad. For two incredible years, for all the little adventures, the opportunities I've had to travel, for all the amazing people I've met and the lifelong friends I have made and for every single challenge you have thrown at me. I got through it all and I'm leaving with my head held high. And thank you, Korea, for being the time and place in my life where I finally learned how to love myself. What I've learned throughout this experience will be with me forever now no matter where I am or what I may be doing. This country will always hold a dear place in my heart. How could it not after everything it has done for me.

Thank you for the time of my life, Korea. I love you.

TATTOO!!!

No biggie but yesterday I got a tattoo.

A TATTOO!! Yes, ME! Despite wanting it and being adamant on getting it for a year or so now I still can't believe that I actually went through with it. I did come close to running away a couple of times though while I was waiting and Seolhee had to calm me down on more than one occasion. She was the perfect person to have with me. She kept so calm and dealt with me and my all my freaking out extremely well. I'm sure anyone who actually knows me will agree that the poor girl deserves a medal for firstly volunteering to come with me and secondly getting through it. She let me squeeze her hand throughout and kept talking to me about a whole manner of things trying to take my mind off the pain.

And that brings me to my next point. The pain. Oh, the pain. It hurt like hell. I'm not going to lie. It felt like the guy was slicing my wrist open although he did keep reassuring us he was going as slowly and gently as he possibly could. I spent the whole time half crying half yelping and screaming while biting on my other hand to try and relieve the pain. It was quite horrific. However it certainly could have been worse. I think I psyched myself up for worse and it was over quite quickly too. One of the big benefits of having such a small design.

So you're probably wondering what I got, right? Well it's a Korean word pronounced 'heng-bok' meaning 'HAPPINESS' which I decided on after a considerable about of thought.

This tattoo perfectly sums up my time in Korea and what has been the most incredible two years of my life. It will always remind me of what I have achieved here and what I have learned about myself. Happiness comes from within and may I never forget it. ♥

"HAPPINESS"

 ♥

Korean rainy season without any rain!

After experiencing last year's rainy season I think it's fair to say that us foreign folk were a little apprehensive about its return this year. Last year brought with it day long torrential showers, soaking wet mornings at work and that's not to mention the horrific floods it caused throughout Seoul and other parts of the country.

So this year I was all prepared. I knew what to expect AND I had my brand-spanking-new, and beautiful I might add, Hunter wellies all ready to go. But it just never seemed to happen. Of course we did have some rain but not much and practically nothing compared to last year! And for some reason, I was really lucky this year, and seemed to avoid it almost entirely. I say 'lucky' refusing to acknowledge that it was actually Mother Nature's way of laughing at the fact I spent almost £100 on a pair of rain boots I've worn three times. And required only once. Marvellous. When it did rain, it seemed to rain through the night or during the hours I was at work staying dry for my walks to and from school making it the best rainy season in the history of all rainy seasons.

Of course that did not keep the soaring temperatures at bay and it's been just as hot as the previous two summers I've been here. It's next to impossible to walk five minutes down the street without breaking out into a sweat and I'm finding that I'm spending my time looking forward to getting home and 'back under my precious air con.' Thank the Lord for the invention of that. Life would be pretty damn unbearable now without it! If only I could pack it up and take in on my SE Asian adventure with me. Hmm..

I won't be seeing temperatures like this once I'm back in England!

London 2012 Olympics

So the London 2012 Olympics have begun and much to my disappointment no miracle took place to transport me home to keep me from missing it. Drat. It's ridiculous how many big British events have occurred while I've been living over here. First the 2011 Royal wedding of Wills and Kate (yes, I'm on first name terms with all the Royals) then Liz's 60th Diamond Jubilee a couple of months back and now this. Nothing good will happen again for years when I get back. You mark my words.

Although I feel very sad to missing my home country host these wonderful games for the rest of the world, it's nice to see another country's reaction to it and many non Brits (Korean and North American friends alike) praise how well the UK have handled it all, particularly the opening Ceremony, which I must agree was absolutely spectacular and had me in tears throughout! I can't go anywhere in Korea without seeing Union Jack flags plastered before my eyes and that's been really nice to see. Although I can't be there I do feel connected in some way and I feel immensely proud that it's MY country that everyone is buzzing about.

Now if only I could see any of the damn thing. Damn not having a TV. Damn not being able to stream any of it on line. And damn any little bit that I have seen in restaurants or shops being footage of Koreans doing well and nothing else. Grr.

Good luck Team GB! Rooting for you all the way from Korea! Do me proud! :)

Jisan Rock Festival, the kindness of an unknown family and a weekend I'll never forget! ♥

The experience of Jisan Valley Rock Festival in itself- AWESOME.
The experience Ruth and I ended up having- OUT OF THIS WORLD AWESOME.

Last Friday afternoon Ruth and I rocked up (...sorry.. must try harder!) to Jisan Valley just outside of Seoul (although it took us over two hours on the hottest bus in existence to get there! I think the whole of Seoul was on the road in front of us!) for what we hoped was going to be a brilliant weekend only to be faced on arrival with the mother of all dilemmas... we couldn't get a tent! Kind of an issue as we had the entire weekend ahead of us. We just stood there looking at each other like, "What the hell are we going to do?!" when out of nowhere our angel, a Korean girl called Sunghwa who was working at the tent desk, came and saved us and offered to put us up for the weekend in her family's home!! And thank heavens for that girl and her family!! They are some of the most wonderful people I have ever come across in my life! The kindness of that family went far beyond any kindness I've ever been shown by any stranger before. It was beyond anything that anyone would ever expect from a stranger ever. And it really does prove the capacity for love and kindness of the human heart. Just thinking about it almost brings me to tears.

Not only did her family welcome us into their home with open arms but they took us to and from the festival each day, let us take multiple showers, provided us with a wonderful home-cooked breakfast on the Saturday, took us out for and paid for a big Korean meal on the Sunday and Sunghwa took us on a tour of their farm (who coincidentally happen to provide my school with some of its vegetables! Small world or what?!) and the surrounding area.

All of this, on top of what was a brilliant music festival, (you can read about the actual festival here on Ruth's blog- 3 Reasons Not To See Radiohead and 5 Reasons Why Madchester Rocks) made so much better because I was spared having to sleep in a tent and go without showers all weekend in the blazing heat, made for one of my best, if not the best, weekends in Korea/ life in general. And not only do we have these fantastic memories we have also have a brand new friend who will hopefully be visiting us in England sometime soon.