My friend left during the night to catch her flight home.

Now I’m solo.

As much as its great to have a friend out here for a holiday,

I do enjoy travelling solo. It’s a chance to see, do, explore and meet new people on your own terms.

So where’s next for me ?

I’ve decided I want to go to Chiang Mai. One of the reasons I didn’t book anything before I came out was because, I knew I would change my mind in terms of places I wanted to visit and the order I wanted to see and do them during my trip.

After a couple of days to think about everything and look at different options, I’ve decided that I want to go to Chiang Mai and actually make this my base for a while.

I’ve read a lot of blogs about living in Chiang Mai and even a couple of months ago before I decided to travel, it was also on the top of my list with places to go.

I kind of want to integrate into some sort of community and whilst I know the whole idea was originally to backpack around and hostel it, I don’t think I really enjoy all the long journeys, endless moving and sharing dorm rooms with a million others. I would prefer to be settled in one place for a while and use it as a base and get to know people who are staying in that location, have some kind of routine and still be able to get some work done! And from what I gather, Chiang Mai is one of the best places for this.

Unfortunately there is no direct flight from Bali to Chiang Mai, so I will be stopping at Kuala Lumpur and staying there for a couple of days first. I am really looking forward to exploring KL as there is so much to see and do in the city, the Petronas Twin towers being top on my list!

It’s funny travelling, as it gives you time to think and put things into perspective. I am now a very social person (I never used to be) but after spending 24/7 with friends on holiday, I actually I feel I need a couple of days of mindfulness and me time. Before I left I had a lot of things going on; moving out of my house, leaving my job, my fitness model competition, saying goodbye to all my friends and then getting things ready to go travelling. Mentally the combination of everything felt quite stressful. So now I just need a bit of time to adjust to being in a different environment.

Below pics of Ubud