After a weekend of lots of tears and goodbyes (and leaving drinks with all my lovely friends) I was finally ready to leave, once I had sorted out my packing. I had limited myself to what I thought were my essential items and even Mum could not suggest what to take out, so after taking a items of clothing out and my laptop, I decided that I could not take anything more out and I would have to put up with the weight.

The tears started when I said goodbye to my brother at home and then a quiet journey to Heathrow followed with Mum and Dad. After checking my bag in (which luckily was under weight) Mum, Dad and I went for dinner, I was unable to eat much though as I felt so sick. Then the moment that I was dreading - saying goodbye! After more tears and a lot of hugs I left Mum and Dad at the departure gate without looking back. Once through security I found out my flight was delayed by two hours!!

Once on the plane I had a whole row to myself which meant I could lie down and get some decent sleep, although it did mean that I missed all the films I had planned to watch.

On arrival in Bangkok I turned my phone on to find a lovely message from Mum and Dad wishing me all the luck with my adventure, but I could not get distracted I needed to find Lucie and Delilah in the arrivals hall. Luckily Lucie is quite tall in comparison to Thai people so it was not long till I found her and it was such a relief to see a friendly face so far from home.

Over the next couple of days it took a while to get used to the heat (thank god for air conditioning) and to get my sleeping pattern in line with the time zone, but was lovely to catch up with Lucie. I got to meet some of Lucie's new friends, visit her local market where we found an amazing spice shop, see Delilah's nursery, go on the sky train, visit and eat in the Food Loft (Yvette's favourite), eat lots of lovely Thai food, drink wine and catch up - perfect! Was so lovely to start my trip seeing a friendly face, but before I knew it my few days were over and it was time to go and before I knew it we were on the way to the airport again for me to start the next part of my trip, I had a flight to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to catch!!