Nakhon Ratchasima

 Backdated: 27th June 2012

We arrived in Korat at 3pm, after being ripped off by taxi who managed to convince me my research was wrong, the bus station wasn’t ten minutes away it was half hour away.. When, in fact, we just ended up paying over the odds. Advice: always try to get a taxi willing to go on meter if you’re not sure how much it should be – they know the city better than you and will always get the better of you when bartering if you’re not local. 

Lambert family house

3 hours on a bus and we were there – a much shorter journey than we had anticipated. Although on the bus we started to encounter our first communication issues with the conductor lady. Once we were off the bus we called up Hughi, the local guy that had agreed to pick us up from the bus station and take us to the house. When we arrived at the house, and said an awkward hello and introduction to Len’s half-sister - both of us knowing we don’t really speak the other persons language well enough for it to be anything but slightly awkward. 

Admittedly, Nakhon Ratchasima isn't much of a tourist attraction and there isn't much to do but as mentioned before this was more of a social visit to see Len's family and take advantage of a couple quiet days rest. 

So the next day, we relaxed for a while and had a lie-in which was lovely for a change and then headed into the city for a wander around the mall – much like all the other malls I’ve experienced in Asia. We bought Len’s sister some presents and nephew some ps2 games, ate and then headed back home for the evening. A little while after we arrived home, a confused conversation happened in which we finally understood that Len’s sister was inviting us out for dinner. 

Out for dinner

She told us it wasn’t far and we would go on motorbikes – me on the back of her bike and Len on the back of her boyfriends. This was my first time on a scooter thing at all, and to say I was nervous would be a massive understatement. I kept reminding myself, this is how she gets around all the time so it’s a good chance to take note of how to ride them sensibly. We arrived in one piece and my fear of the bikes disappeared. We had a lovely dinner. You have a bucket of hot coals on your table and they put the pan thing on top in a similar shape to a large lemon squeezer. It is designed so that you put the soup around the bottom and the meat on the middle pointy bit to cook. It was delicious and a unique way to eat out. 

Be good..or else..

Just as we were enjoying our meal, we were disrupted by a huge gust of wind and the staff hurriedly started moving the outdoor tables, inside. Sand was blowing in from outside and one of our Thai friends warned me to cover my glasses. As we were nearly at the end of our meal, my immediate thought was that of how are we supposed to ride bikes home in this! We paid the bill and waited for the wind to die down a bit then set off. I wasn’t too nervous until the other Thai girl who ate with us, the only one of 6 people to bring a helmet, insisted that I wore it… although when halfway home, a rock or something hard flew into the helmet making a loud bang, I was extremely thankful that she had. Luckily, all 6 of us arrived home safely, with only one gust of wind pushing us off course. 

They see me rollin..

This morning, we woke up with only one intention which was to head to the local tesco and buy small items with big notes purely because local smaller shops hadn’t enough notes to give us change. When we had eaten breakfast, yet another confused conversation (at first we thought we were going shopping in the city) we finally established we were going somewhere outside the city, it would take 30 minutes to get there for a look around. We pulled up and I could see lots of familiar looking caricatures. For anyone who had watched Karl Pilkington’s An Idiot Abroad 2, these would appear familiar. It is a sort of theme park with huge brightly colours animated statues depicting what will happen to you if you do bad things and then die… their depiction of hell if you like. The gruesome statues show a man having his manhood axed in half, a man with the snake up his backside and coming out of his mouth and many other similar scenes. We got blessed by a monk again at the temple there and then rode in the back of the van to tesco for us to change our notes. 

Me and Foy

It wasn’t until we jumped out of the van there that my lobster red skin began to attract our attention. Therefore, we chose to break our notes by buying aloe vera to help heal me.. Then we went home and relaxed for the rest of the day playing with the cute puppy, Foy, and playing GTA and burnout on the playstation.

My First Trip to Singapore

Backdated:14th June 2010

Before my first trip to visit my Dad and his family in Singapore, I had rarely travelled out of the UK - and the few times I had gone further, I was too young to remember. So nervous doesn’t begin to sum up how I felt about the flight. My boyfriend at the time may have thought I was panicking over nothing, but I bought myself a tiny blue notebook and wrote every single detail I may have needed in it. Having a desperate need to have every detail organised, I had also gone through online check-in on the Qatar Airways site. As we were waiting for the only check in man to finish sorting all the non-online-check-iners to come and swap our online check-in passes, we realised we would probably have been quicker just showing up. Anyway let’s not go into boring detail about flights.. Qatar were brilliant, great service, great food and great entertainment. I’d recommend them to anyone! 

Merlion

Singapore Flyer

My very first impression of Singapore was on the plane when we were handed a leaflet that stated in huge red letters that drug trafficking was punishable by death. Strict eh! When we arrived in Singapore, initially, I was disappointed by the lack of culture shock. As an inexperienced traveller/holiday-maker, I had done absolutely no research and had no idea what to expect when I got out. The only thing I had ever heard about Singapore how clean it was, and I must say it definitely lived up to the hype. 

Breakfast with Orangutans in Singapore Zoo

My highlights of Singapore were the Zoo. The most gorgeous zoo I have ever visited. I must admit I don’t think I’ll ever feel the urge to visit a different zoo again. It is famous for being very open plan, using few cages, opting for moats and barriers instead. It makes for a completely different experience to any Zoo in the UK. Having watched YouTube videos of tiger attacks, I wasn’t 100% sure that the moat was exactly big enough, so walked past that area rather quickly. We had breakfast with the orang-utans, a bit over priced if you ask me and the only real benefit is a photo opportunity in front of some totally disinterested monkeys. My sister and I fed the elephants after watching them wash and the giraffes. My dad and boyfriend wouldn’t let me live down the moment when I got scared of the male giraffe who was leaning over right in my face and sniffing me. I highly recommend any animal fan passing through Singapore to visit the zoo! 

As far as shopping is concerned, we couldn’t afford to even look in half the shops of Orchard Road, but for younger generations I highly recommend Bugis Village. My absolute favourite. It’s definitely the place I’ll revisit when we go this year. Also we got completely lost in the underground connections of the malls (which naturally was Stephen’s fault.. not mine!) but stopped trying to find our way out as soon as we found a McDonalds (our first of the holiday) and discovered that unlike the UK who took the salt out of everything in an attempt to force us into good health, Singapore nuggets still taste FAB with all the salt left in! 

If there’s one thing I could bring home from Singapore and implement here in the UK its the food courts! I love them. Such a variety of different foods. I love the idea that I could eat Chinese food while Stephen ate English food, and both sit together to enjoy it - not have to compromise!