Ok... I've been bad with writing but have an excuse!

So here I am, at home, in England and yes, I have been to Tesco to do my shopping and yes, it was expensive! I have a good excuse for not writing though which I will explain...

Anyway, last time I updated I was in Pai. Well, Pai was brilliant actually. The night we got there we got friendly with an Ozzie couple, a Kiwi couple and a lady from London and decided we'd hire scooters the next day and whizz round the mountains and see some of the sights which turned out to be a mega fun day. I rode on the back as I wasn't feeling brave enough to get my own scooter and actually felt pretty comfortable the whole time (except for a numb bum in the evening). We visited a couple of waterfalls, temples and some natural hot springs. These were amazing, when we got there they were steaming and depending on which part of the water you go in, depends on how hot the water is. So the hottest parts are 80 degrees and obviously not for dipping your toes in whereas the nicer ones to lounge in are about 40 degrees. I'd never seen anything like that before all completely natural so we stayed there for a few hours just soaking ourselves!

From Pai the trip for me turned for the worse really. We had the 3hour windy journey back to Chaing Mai and then a 12 hour bus to Bangkok and I don't think I recovered. I was pretty sick for the last 4 days of our trip and didn't have much energy so spent an awful lot of time in our hotel room. I did however manage an organised day trip to Kanchanaburri where the Bridge over the River Kwai lies along with memorial grounds for the prisoners of war that died whilst building the 'death railway' between Burma and Thailand throughout WW2. I was dreading the trip to be a cheesy tourist day but we actually had a real good time. We were the only english on the trip with a bus load of Koreans who were really friendly. For some reason all the women wanted photos with me which I think might be due to my natural paleness???

Well asides from the River Kwai sightseeing we managed to squeeze in a quick bamboo raft along the river and an elephant trek. This was actually quite scary and I didn't feel that safe perched on a chair on the poor elephants back. I know it's what they do all day but I felt a bit bad for it having to carry round annoying tourists all day so we bought her some bananas for her efforts!!!

So that was pretty much it for our Thailand trip. We spent the last 3 days in and around Bangkok just hanging about really and me having Bangkok Fever (as I liked to call my sickness) until we got to the airport...

This is a really long story and hard to explain in writing but I shall try and believe me I am not exaggerating. As we were on our way to the airport my neck started to feel funny and was slightly hanging to one side and feeling very heavy which I thought was strange but put it down to lying funny on it. However, my neck got worse and worse as we arrived at Bangkok International airport it actually started sinking into my right shoulder and cramping right up. This carried on for 5 hours with my neck spasming into several different and uncomfortable positions. At one point, imagine the top of your head trying to reach the bottom of your spine without any control over it - I looked like I'd been possessed.

Well by the time we got onto the plane I'd calmed down a bit and just slept for the rest of the trip thinking that whole 'spasm' experience was over. Well, was I wrong... Monday night, the second evening back in England, the same thing happened again but much worse. I was by myself and couldn't stop shaking. I tried lying on the floor but my neck and back had a mind of their own and were moving about in all ways. After speaking to a doctor James' Dad drove me to A & E while my cramps and shakes were getting worse. I was given a bed straight away and soon developed lock jaw and was biting the inside of my cheek off without my own consent; parts of my body had just developed a mind of their own.

To cut this very long story short, after another 4 hours of severe discomfort the doctor made the link between my symptoms and the side effects of an anti-sickness tablet I'd been taking in Bangkok. I was given an injection and within 10 minutes felt almost normal except for a very stiff neck. It turns out that spasms, cramps and lock jaw are a known but not common side effect of the anti-nausea pills I'd been prescribed in Bangkok when I wasn't feeling well - it didn't take me long to flush those tablets down the toilet after that!

So there's my excuse for not updating my blog on the last day of our trip like I had planned - I was not really in a good position (literally) to do so.

So that's it - the end of my 7 months around Dubai, Sri Lanka, Australia and Thailand and I feel like I have seen so much. Just looking through my photos I can hardly believe that we drove 27,000 kms in Australia, that Sri Lanka really was 6 months ago or that one little pill can make your body react so badly.

The whole trip is probably still too fresh in my mind for me to know how it has changed me but it definately has. I feel like I know so much more, I may have lost a few academic brain cells along the way but have gained so many new ones by talking to interesting people, seeing different cultures and experiencing totally new things. I feel like I have 'done' Australia as far as being a traveller is concerned. I am happy with what we managed to see there and do not feel the need to go back in a backpacker mindset. I now want to try it out from a living perspective which is why both me and James will be going back there soon on a 1 year working holiday visa.

My opinion on Thailand is that there really is so much more to see. I could easily go back there (just maybe not to Bangkok) and visit other islands and other areas of the country. Sri Lanka is the same really, another country where there is so much more to see but for another time. I obviously enjoyed every country we visited but it was Sri Lanka and Thailand that really made me appreciate what I have here in England and actually how lucky I am. Australia is brilliant to travel around but you never step out of your comfort zone - it's very similar to England but with nicer weather. There aren't large areas of poverty or places where people don't speak a word of English or new religions and cultures to take in.

I decided that I hated England and probably never wanted to live there before I left for my trip but on hindsight, the opposite is probably true. I'm not saying that I definately want to live in England forever but I am saying that it isn't as bad as I thought. In Australia the threat of skin cancer looms over you on every billboard and in huge advertising campaigns, in Sri Lanka, people do not always have a choice of where they want to visit or live and in Thailand a lot of things are quite corrupt and the country lacks consistency leaving you unsure of where you stand.

Overall, my trip to these countries has made me realise how big the world really is and how having travelling as a hobby is a good idea as you will never run out of places to see. It has only pushed my urge to visit more countries and take in new experiences with the knowledge that home isn't too bad.

So for now I'll leave you with my thoughts until my next big adventure...

Tina :)