A good start to a great experience is being stopped as I enter the departure lounge of Heathrow because apparently I look like a druggie. Meeting strangers for the first time that you’re going to spend the next six months half way round the world with is never exactly easy, but when it’s such an awesome group of people, as they are, it makes it a lot easier. As I write this I have already been here for a week and it’s like we've all known each other for a lot longer. just as it is when you first start uni, it must be the fact that you learn a lot more about people when you live with them.
The weekend of travelling from the glorious big smoke to the paradise island that is Koh Lipe was an experience in its self. Having never been outside of Europe myself, I had never been on a flight lasting more than 4 hours. So the idea of 15 hours flying was quite daunting, but turned out to be a good time. As soon as I sat in my seat I was like a little kid with a new toy on Christmas day, I had my own TV screen. Not only were there movies available on my personal screen but also games. I felt like a commoner having never flied in a plane like this, but it meant I had more fun so it was all good. The food was just as amazing; being a flight to Mumbai the food was a proper curry, unfortunately though there was only vegetarian but the air steward manage to find a separate little meat dish for me which I was very grateful for as I'm not a fan of rabbit food, however the meal was very nice. Arriving in Mumbai airport wasn’t a major cultural shock as I expected, but that was probably due to the fact that I was stuck in the airport for the 2 hours I was there. This gave me time to meet more of the people that I would be spending a lot of time with. The second plane was nowhere near as nice as the first one, but I still had my own little personal screen so i was contempt with that. Unfortunately I couldn’t eat the meal that was provided as the thought of eating made me queasy. Which if you know me, is definitely not like me. When we arrived in Bangkok we had 12 hours to explore the city, which we didn’t quite use as well as we could have. I did eat something from a street vendor who said it was chicken but definitely was not chicken, but tasted quite like it. From people saying that strange food tastes like chicken I guessed It was dog which in hindsight is actually quite tasty. When we decided to split into smaller groups we decided to head to the local shopping centre which meant that the only difference from home was that the prices were a lot cheaper and there were a lot more Thai people around. In this shopping centre we had McDonald's and then went to the pub and had a few drinks, so I feel I fully experienced the Thai culture while in Bangkok. We then returned to Bangkok airport where I had my first proper Thai meal, Pad Thai, which is extremely tasty. We then had an hour flight to Hat Yai where everyone was out cold before the plane had even taken off, we were all woken up by the stewardess' just before landing. When we got to Hat Yai,where we would finally get to relax and rest overnight, which was well needed, me and Mike decided to find somewhere where we could watch the footy, we were unable to find anywhere so we decided to go for a few drinks. Your probably imagining a little pub, or bar. well that's not quite right, this place was a shop which was also the blokes house where he was chilling having a few beverages with his mates, he set up a table for the 5 of us which we had now turned to from the original 2. then the rest of the group turned up, making it about 15 of us, this is where it turned into a proper session. But this meant we finally got to meet everyone properly, and now me and mike have a reputation as the party people as we had an after party in our room and ended up missing the bus in the morning.
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