Thailand | The Beginning

After plodding through Suvarnabhurmi Airport, Bangkok and dragging with me my gigantic, heavy, overpacked, dark pink backpack I found the representative I was meeting holding a flimsy sign with the company name sprawled neatly in black biro pen. Little did I know, at this point, that this girl, slouching against the entrance to Boots, waiting for me to arrive, was to become one of my best friends on the trail. I smiled nervously and uttered a shy: "Hi, I'm Hannah..." to my relief she recognised the name and introduced herself promptly as Miri, taking me swiftly under her wing. Haaaa!
We made our way through the airport, making general chit chat... How was the flight? Hope it wasn't too many hours ... Not too bad, there weren't any delays ... Where was your transfer? ... Don't worry, it's not too far to travel from where we're staying; your'll be able to put you rucksack down in a minute ... Has anyone else arrived yet? ... I can't wait to shower and get into different clothes! ... etc.

After copious amounts of winding our way down escalators and taking a wrong turn, we arrived at the Skytrain which would take us to the correct district and from there, after a quick stroll along a bridge overlooking a busy road below, we took a short tuk tuk ride to the infamous Khao San road where we'd be spending our first few days.

As I sat chatting in the back of the Tuk Tuk to Miri; clinging desperately to my bags and hoping I wouldn't fly out, but also being mesmerised by the 'STAR WARS' notebook Miri was writing in and explaining the itinery for the next two and a half months; the heat of the City struck me almost instantaneously! Foolish I'd obted for a fleece jacket and long trousers (never again) which I promptly fried in. Unfortunately for me, and my overheated self, the Tuk Tuk driver had crafterly dropped us off a few minutes away from the correct road; yet still demanding a few extra baht. Cheeky, cheeky! Slouched, and plodding along after Miri
we made our way to a Hostel along Rambuttri, where I met one of the girls straight away (Catherine). As we, and another girl (Emma), were to be sharing a room. At the time, I remember feeling conscious of the way I must have looked in both their eyes (and perhaps smelt?! Eek, who knows..!?) after my 13 and a bit hour flight to get there.

Soon after the much needed shower, I met another two trail members that I'd be travelling alongside for the next ten weeks. Alex and Nick, both of which seemed lovely and echoed similar feelings of excitement and nervousness! We were introduced to a variety of street food vendors and tried their local dishes for dinner; I opted for the Padthai, which was so good! And, after our first meal together we wandered down Khao San Road and hit up the nightlife....