Destination Unknown, Part 16: Paradise Found In Thailand & Beyond And Setting Sail For The UK

by | Jul 14, 2026 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

It’s the final day of my travels. I’m sitting in the reception of La Chronique Hotel in Phnom Penh with around four hours to go before I head to the airport.

I head to Abu Dhabi then on to Manchester and then onto a train headed for Sheffield to stay in my friend Mike’s spare room  for a few days when I’ll go to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games.

I’ve been processing it ever since my Glasgow contract was confirmed and then booked the flight home. I spent around nine days in Battambang in northwest Cambodia having a very chilled, relaxed time swimming, cycling and being a tourist.

My reaction to leaving shows me how much my mindset has changed. Previously I’d have looked at it as very final and been upset at closing the door on a transformative, fantastic time in my life. Now I know that life is fluid and there’s nothing final about it all – I’m just heading somewhere else.

Having said that, I just shed a few tears at the enormity of it all and I have no doubt there’ll be more later.

Paradise Found In Thailand

I haven’t updated the blog since leaving Malaysia and arriving in Thailand which was in January!

But Thailand was so special and really changed my outlook on life. I  booked four nights at Ing Aoon Farmstay and stayed for six weeks….I absolutely loved it there. It was a complete sanctuary, a paradise. There are four cabins – two of them bamboo – and a couple more rooms all nestled in the foothills near the village of Nang Lae Nai, about 20kms from Chiang Rai.

It was just beautiful. The hills were so green and resonant of the glorious technicolour on my Australia road trip. I hiked up to the rice fields and swam in the waterfall. Nick and Heral – who are from Bulgaria and India – were also there on a long-term stay and they found a couple of outdoor 50m pools where we’d go a few times a week. I fell into a routine of swimming, reading, writing and walking and just lived. I stopped worrying about work but instead looked for solutions. Whereas once I’d have said: “I really like the idea of doing x, y and z” I found myself thinking: “I really like the idea of doing x, y and z. How can I make it happen?” I stripped so many things away, one of them being a fear of failure that has dogged me since I was a child.

The farmstay was founded by Nan, who comes from Nang Lae Nai and lived in Bangkok for many years enjoying a successful career before returning to the north. She also has an art studio on site; she is a real do-er. She forms an idea and acts straightaway – a really lovely person who does so much for others.

I may write more about Ing Aoon in the future but it has made such a difference to me. Thank you, Nan!

Laos & Cambodia

Into Laos and a two-day cruise down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. It took me a few days to adjust after my Thailand idyll but I soon grew to really like it with the river threading through the city and country. The Library Boats delivering books to children in the villages alongside the river. What a fantastic programme that is….

Down to Champasak in the south with its green hills set against the backdrop of the deep blue sky. I’d sit on the balcony overlooking the Mekong River where the only sound was the fishermen casting their nets. Waterfalls. Unspoiled nature.

To Cambodia and Siem Reap. I went to Angkor Wat at sunrise, the day after the equinox, where the majesty and power took my breath away. There were thousands of fellow tourists which would normally make me feel quite anxious but it was like they melted away and disappeared.

A 10-hour minibus drive to Kep on the coast before heading to the island of Koh Rong Sanloem. Another sanctuary and one where again I acted on finding solutions rather than getting worried, mainly about work. It was so beautiful and so simple: just the beach, the sea and books.

To Phnom Penh where I met up with Nic, a former headteacher from Devon who was teaching there. We went to Choeung Ek, a Khmer Rouge extermination camp where skulls and human bones are piled high in a stupa. I visited the Tuol Sleng prison, which was chilling, harrowing.

Vietnam & The World Cup

From Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh city. I had no idea there were 12 million people there, it was just go, go, go all the time. I visited the War Remnants Museum which detailed the horror of the Vietnam War and its legacy. War crimes. Agent Orange. I went to Independence Palace where a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates to signal the end of the war.

I’ll detail my Vietnam trip in a separate blog or else it’s going to be a list of what I did but I started to struggle there. I didn’t sleep well and I was tense. I felt as though I was really pushing to keep going and I wanted to jump off the travelling wheel and settle for a bit, put down my anchor. It was while I was in Da Lat that my work in Glasgow was confirmed: I now had a date to work towards and it helped. I felt a bit better, a bit more relaxed.

I was able to watch the World Cup as well and I was overjoyed that some of the kick-off times were conducive to me being able to do that. Scotland v Haiti was the first game I saw and I loved just sitting there by myself in a nice hotel room, drinking coffee and watching the footie.

Back To Cambodia

I returned to Cambodia and spent a couple of days in Phnom Penh at galleries and museums. I feel so comfortable in Cambodia, I can’t yet put my finger on it but it’s a country I love. The horror of the Khmer Rouge is there for all to see and everyone has a story about how it affected them and their family and friends. I felt there was a real sense of sadness there and a real vulnerability.

I stayed up to watch England beat DR Congo in the World Cup and progress to the last 16 although it was a bit too close for comfort.

I went up to Battambang which was just so lovely, staying at Bamboora Sanctuary. There I watched England beat Mexico, exhausted after sitting through a backs-to-the-wall 10-man victory to move into the last eight.

Then a 4am kick-off as England enjoyed a slice of luck to beat Norway and head into the semis.

And here I am. Not long now until I head to the airport to start my journey to the UK and the World Cup semi against Argentina tomorrow.

I’ve learned so many good lessons, one of them being to shoot for the stars so that’s what I’m going to do. Stop complicating things. Stop the self-sabotage. Act rather than worry. Be grateful.

How lucky and privileged have I been this past 13 months? The places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, the kindness I’ve been shown, the history I’ve learned, nature’s beauty, living life in glorious technicolour. The list goes on and on. And it’s not going to stop: I’ll be off again but I am really looking forward to seeing people and catching up. It will take ages to process what I’ve done and seen – it may take me the rest of my life but that’s fine.

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