It started on the 5th of April with a direct 13 hour flight from Manchester to Shanghai, China accompanied by my wonderful father. It was great to check into a really fancy hotel and would be the last time I’d be in such nice accommodation for the rest of the trip.

The first thing we noticed was that no one spoke a word of English, so most interactions were filled with pointing and confusion but also kindness and respect. However, when we ordered a hot pot (where you basically cook your own food) we definitely embarrassed ourselves with our complete lack of knowledge what to do. They nearly had to feed us.

Shanghai is the 3rd biggest city in the world and it most definitely felt like it. Seeing the bund (A district of very tall buildings, all on one side of the river. On the other side you can see them all lined up, it’s a very impressive show of modern architecture.) and all the lights of the city at night, particularly near people’s square, I finally understood what it was that drew people to cities like NYC or Dubai. The tall buildings and the bright neon lights are like nothing you’ll see in the UK or even Europe, it can really feel like you’ve stepped into another world.

Along with the modern city aspects of Shanghai, the culture and nature of the city was breathtaking and fascinating. Seeing the traditional curved roofs on the buildings in the old town was surreal because it’s something I’ve only ever seen pictures or tacky replicas of. There’s lots of open green spaces throughout the city and towns just a short journey from the city that are surrounded by canals and beautiful nature.

One of the last things we did in Shanghai was go to Disneyland. Of course, I can’t go as far as to say this is a “cultural experience” but I will say I could definitely see a difference between the Disneyland in say America or Paris.

Shanghai in general was such an eye opener as it was nothing like I expected. A beautiful mixture of city scape, nature and culture. I felt extremely safe there, even with the massive language barrier.

I’d love to return to China and see more of the sights, there are so many places in China that have now made it to my bucket list.

On the 18th of April, I left my dad and my nice comfortable hotel in Shanghai to set off on my own.

All by myself:

The day before I set off to Shanghai, I made the last minute decision not to come home. Instead I chose to go to two of my dream countries: South Korea and Japan. The flights weren’t too expensive, plus I had no classes to go back to.

South Korea felt like such a breath of fresh air. I’ve done lots of little solo trips before but never one for this long or this far away from home. Luckily I felt very safe the whole time, which is something that came up in most of the countries I went to. After travelling to so many places I can confidently tell you that the place that’s felt the most unsafe is the UK.

I had two days in Seoul, also managing to meet up with a friend. Seoul is a really cool city to explore, there are some amazing palace gardens where people dress up in the traditional hanbok dresses and it feels like you’re part of a romantic historical fiction novel. It was also surrounded by hills and nature, with a stream that ran through the city. My favourite part about Seoul, and South Korea in general, was how many communal spaces there were. Walk along the street, there’s a public space for friends to hangout around every corner. Not to mention that the food culture is all about sharing and eating with friends. I might be a new person after getting to experience a Korean barbecue.

Hands in Gangnam district South Korea - dedicated to the famous song

I then spent two days in Busan. The journey there was about 5 hours but so pretty. I remember looking out of the window in awe and the lady sat next to me said “don’t you have these sort of views where you’re from?” and I said “we have some beautiful countryside in the UK but it’s different to this. The colours are different, the foliage is different, the shapes of the rocks and the trees are different. I didn’t know how much them small things would make such a difference to how I view it.”

Busan was a lot more of a city than I thought it would be. Like Seoul, there were huge buildings and signs and lights but it had a different type of charm to it. While I was there I went to Gamcheon culture village, which is a colourful mountain village on the outskirts. Being hungover, I got a taxi to the top of the mountain, drank a ton of coffee and looked at how cute it was then got a taxi straight to my next place. Busan is quite famous for these little sky pods that drive above the coast. I had a very cutesie time sat in my own skypod listening to music and looking at the coastal views. Unfortunately it started raining by the time I got off, so I only got a small glimpse of the area and the beach and got another taxi back to my room to sleep 😴

Back up to Seoul I went for my last two days before flying to Japan. This is when I got to see the gangnam style hands (I literally walked an hour and a half to see them) the famous Starfield library and tried the karaoke for the first time. The karaoke over there is not like the karaoke in the uk. You would go with a group of your friends, you can go with just one or two or a huge group, and you get a private room and a karaoke machine to just sing your heart out. The vibes in these places are immaculate and always a great icebreaker and way to meet new people. As someone who loves karaoke in the uk, it’s safe to say I became unhealthily obsessed with this style of karaoke.

My weeb dream come true:

Back when I was 16, and an avid anime fan and I remember getting asked in an interview where my dream place to go would be and I immediately, without a second thought, said Japan.

I finally got to live that dream and it absolutely did not disappoint. Since my teen years, a lot had changed about myself and what I liked. What didn’t change, however was that Japan was still the top of my bucket list.

My first 5 days in Tokyo were insane. If I thought Shanghai was big, I was in for it with Tokyo. Tokyo is the biggest city in the world. I’d say Japan is where I met some of the best people on my trip. Maybe because we’re all massive nerds and could just freak out together but it made it all the more special.

Busiest street in the world, Shibuya crossing

I got to go to the Pokémon cafe, explore the major famous districts like Akihabara, Harajuku and Shabuya and visit some beautiful temples and parks.

However there were 3 main highlights during my time in Tokyo.

1.) TeamLab planets interactive exhibit. This was fantastic. There was so many different rooms which absolutely blew me away. You had to take your shoes and socks off and walk through different sensory rooms. There was a room that used lights and mirrors to make it look like you’d been transported to another galaxy and I remember stepping into it and just standing there for about 10 minutes just in awe. It’s the closest I imagine I will feel to floating around in space.

2.) Disneyland. Yes, I went to Disneyland again because apparently I’m the Disney adult I always feared. This time was really special. First of all, I went with a girl I’d literally met that morning while brushing my teeth and asked If she wanted to join me. Second, they are obsessed with Donald Duck. Obsessed. The morning parade was all about Donald Duck, the dancers were dressed like him, the song was going “oh oh we love Donald Duck” and they kept calling him a hero and saviour. Third, there was a couple rides and events there that aren’t at any of the other parks. The beauty and the beast ride was so cute and the light parade was absolutely breathtaking.

3.) Going to see Mount Fuji 🗻. Wow. What an amazing bucketlist sight. At first, it wasn’t visible but after a few hours the clouds all parted and we could see the entire thing in all its glory. When you see something so glaring and big, it’s a feeling like no other. We went to two viewing points to see it. We had to climb a lot of stairs for one but it was behind a temple so it was nice to see it with the temple in the forefront. The second one was even more beautiful and was at a lake surrounded by even more beautiful scenery everywhere you looked.

After Tokyo, I spent 3 days in Osaka and had a flight booked to Bangkok. My original plan was to go and see my friends from home, who were out in south east Asia, then return to Manchester. There was this niggling feeling inside me like that wasn’t the right thing to do. Why would I go home now when there’s so much to explore? So I didn’t book my flight home. But I still had a flight to Bangkok booked. While I was in Tokyo I’d had so many people tell me about all the amazing villages and places to go in Japan that I definitely didn’t have enough time for. So I had to miss out on them. It’s a strange feeling. I’m so grateful that I got to see these amazing things but I have to get on a plane knowing I’m missing out on some vital places? Then I realised that it’s just not possible to see everything, so I just need to appreciate what we’re seeing right now.

Osaka was nice, like a mini Tokyo but with a different type of charm. It’s from here that I did a day trip to Nara park, a park known for being surrounded by deer, who will bow when you feed them. There’s also one of the largest wooden temples in the world.

On the 4th of May, I flew over from Osaka to Bangkok.

This is where it gets hot:

Stepping off the flight, at 1am in the morning, I felt a type of heat I’d honestly never felt in my life. Driving through the city to get to my hotel was amazing. The temples and statues glittered as I passed them and I saw grand structures around every corner. I went on a visit to Wat Arun and the grand palace and both took my breath away with the structure, the detailing and the cultural presence. I also have to say it was really interesting at night to walk down Khao san road and.. well you’ll only understand if you’ve been. To put it into a word it’s chaos. All the clubs are next to each other blasting different music, there’s massage places in the middle of the street, street vendors are offering you scorpion on a stick.

Then I took a 12 hour overnight train to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai was a really beautiful place in the mountains offering lots of cool activities and sights. This is where I went to the sticky waterfalls (I didn’t get any videos because I was busy fearing for my life) where you scale a waterfall but the ground doesn’t feel too slippy, just like you’re walking on rock. This is also where I went to the elephant sanctuary and got the amazing opportunity to feed some elephants, which I cannot describe to you in words how amazing it was to see them so close.

I booked my flight over to Hanoi in Vietnam which is where I’d planned to see my friends for a few days and then go home. This is when I decided: I wasn’t going home.

Reunited with some old friends:

Seeing Katie and Dan in the airport was so nice (if you’re reading this, I miss you guys) and I was so excited to share a part of the trip with them. In fact I decided I was going to do the whole north of Vietnam with them including the Ha Giang loop, which I’ll get to later.

Hanoi as a city was very pretty, the roads were so chaotic but once you get used to them you love them because you just walk across and cars and bikes swerve around you and they go around each other. It feels safe though. Like organised chaos. But we did a bit of sightseeing, went on an open top bus, saw train street, did a Vietnamese cooking class and even went to a water puppet show.

Whilst I was there I went on a day trip to Halong bay which is known for its limestone island and rock formations in the water.

On the 16th of May we started the Ha Giang loop which is a 3 night and 4 day motorbike loop through the Ha Giang mountains. It was such a great experience to do with my buddies and even though the first day I was gripping on to the back of the motorbike for dear life and shaking in fear (why did I decide to do a 4 day motorbike tour after only being on the back of one a small handful of times?) by the end I started to love the feeling of driving through the mountains. The views were some of the best in the entire world and it was so interesting to see the local life of people living in the mountains.

Viewpoint in the Ha Giang mountains, Vietnam

Then we went to Sapa, where we got to wake up and step outside to again see a beautiful view of mountains. I took a cable car to the top of mount fansipan which is the tallest mountain in Vietnam.

Finally, we took a bus back to Hanoi and had to say goodbye to each other again… but maybe not for long.

I think I’m alone now (but not for long):

After Dan and Katie left Hanoi, I decided it was my time to go to a hostel with a pool and lie next to it and do nothing for 2-3 days. This hostel was where I met Mia, who would go on to be my travel buddy for most of Vietnam. Her plan was to holiday in Vietnam then fly to Taiwan to start working there.

From here we went to Ninh Binh (where there was karaoke busses, beautiful rock formations and I had the worst hangover of the trip) and then Phong Nha (where I embarrassed myself at a waterpark, looked at the beautiful scenery and was unfortunately too sick to do any of the cool activities).

We spent a night in Hue and did the beautiful Hai van pass, very similar to the Ha Giang loop except it only lasts a day and it’s coastal so there are also views of the sea. At the beginning of the journey I had a rather unexpected nosebleed and had to tap my driver on the shoulder and ask him to stop in the middle of the road. Unfortunately this ruined my beloved shirt that I’d bought in Japan 😞

This took us into the famous city of Hoi An. Hoi an is known for its tailor made clothing shops and its famous street of lanterns. Our hostel was also next to the beach and had a pool so we had lots of chill time and sunbathing to do.

It was coming up to the time when my travel buddy was due to go to Taiwan. For context. Taiwan is a country I’ve wanted to go to for a long time and I was rather jealous of her going. I had a flight booked from Ho Chi Minh to Phuket on the 16th but at the very very last minute I decided to make a detour trip to Taiwan. So on the 9th of June I booked a flight from Danang to Taipei, to then fly to Ho Chi Minh on the 14th.

An unexpected week in Taipei:

Taiwan was probably one of my favourite places of the trip. The things to do, the perfect mixture of nature, city, atmosphere and culture. It also came at just the right time, as beautiful as Vietnam is, I felt like I needed a change of environment. Though Taiwan was still hot and humid it definitely didn’t compare to the 24/7 steam room that was Vietnam.

It turned out the day after I arrived was the last day of the dragon boat festival, where everyone gathered to watch experienced dragon boat riders race through the river.

There’s a town outside the main city called shifen which has the widest waterfall in Taiwan. The main town is all on a railway station, the famous thing to do is write your wishes on a lantern and send it up into the sky. Then I went to Jiufen which is known for looking like the town in “spirited away” which was really beautiful to walk through.

The last thing I did in Taiwan was going to Heping island Geopark which had some of the coolest rock formations I’ve ever seen.

The week of a thousand flights:

On the 14th I flew from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh. This was such a cool flight to be in the window seat for. I could look up and see a clear sky of stars, I’d look forward and see lightning in the distant clouds and I’d look down and see all of the lights of the city.

After 2 nights of doing nothing in Ho Chi Minh, I woke up at 5am for my 8am flight to Phuket. My plan was to spend a night in Phuket then make my way to koh samui to meet again with Katie and Dan. After arriving in Phuket though, I book my taxi to what I thought would be my hostel for the night and finally realised the flight prices had gone up a ton for the next day, so I had to book the cheaper flight which was later that day. I had time to have a 20 minute lunch in Phuket then head straight back to the airport to fly to Koh Samui.

Reuinited with some old friends (again):

After a day of flights I finally met up with Katie and Dan again. We spent the next two days chilling out in Koh Samui before getting the ferry over to Koh Pha-ngan for two very famous parties: the jungle experience and the full moon party.

We definitely had a great time at both and it was so nice to be with some close friends dancing on the beach of a beautiful Thai island.

My original plan was to spend 5 nights in Bangkok, fly to Hong Kong for 3 night then to Beijing for 3 more and getting a direct flight home on the 3rd of July. There was some complications with university dates which meant I needed to cut the trip short, meaning I only had 2 nights in Bangkok before heading home.

Me, Katie and Dan made the most of our last few nights together and even went to see the Thai boxing on our last night, ending up on the big screen at least 5 times.

A chaotic flight home:

My flight home set off at 1am. The flight was 12 hours from Bangkok to Copenhagen, 50 minute layover then 2 hour flight back.

After crying a lot on the plane because I decided to watch “Me before you” (literally sobbing it was so embarrassing), I asked the flight attendant if I could move closer to the front so I wouldn’t miss my transfer. They let me and I dropped a man’s bags in the process. It’s a wonder I didn’t break the whole plane while I was at it.

Being levels of tired I don’t know If I’ve ever felt, I ran off the plane and trudged my way over to my next flight. As soon as I got to the gate, the flight attendant let me know they’d downgraded the flight and there wasn’t enough seats left so I was going to have to wait until 5:30pm… it was 8:30am.

Luckily, it meant I got to go into Copenhagen for a few hours. I saw the iconic Nyhavn with all the beautiful colourful houses and canals, strolled around some serene parks and palaces and just admired the amazing architecture.

At 5:30 I got on my flight and flew back home to the country I’ve lived in my entire life.

Coming home:

Looking around, at the rolling hills and fields and cute little pretty houses and churches, I finally understood why other people want to visit the uk. I looked around and thought, this is really one of the most beautiful places in the world. I thought back to that conversation I had on the train with the lady in Korea. It’s so strange I’d travel halfway around the world and see some of the most beautiful sites, on my second long haul multi-country trip and instead of becoming numb to it, everything around me becomes even more beautiful. I can look at a building or a view and remember what one looks like in Taiwan or Croatia or Turkey. There’s so many amazing things in the world and they’re all around us.

I’ve wrote essays shorter than this and I’ve only talked about 1% of it, because every moment was so special but something you can only really experience in real life. The food, the energy, the people.

To recap I’ve had the most amazing time on my trip and I feel so grateful and lucky. It wasn’t my first big trip and it hopefully won’t be my last but every trip helps me learn and grow and open my eyes and this was no different.

-Elisha xoxo

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