Another (very overdue) life update: I moved to Thailand!!

I realise I am soooo overdue for another life update, or even just another blog post (HA, it’s been a hot minute…) but I’ve been rather busy. Big kudos to those who can travel, work AND blog, I don’t know how ya do it. Seriously.

Every so often I feel inspired to sit down and write so what a great time to fill you in on what’s been happening while I’ve been on the road. The first exciting piece of news is I landed myself a full-time remote job!! SO happy and hence why I’ve been soo quiet lately. Getting settled into this new role as a social media manager has been exciting. I am working with the best people and it already feels like a little family.

What else is new? Well, I moved to Chiang Mai!! I arrived in Thailand about a week and a half ago, spending my first couple nights at the gorgeous Le Meridien in Bangkok before making my way north. I stayed in a hotel for four nights while searching for a place to live. Only a few days ago I signed a lease on a little one bedroom condo and I must say, it feels pretty damn cool to have a place I can call my own for the next wee while. The plan is to be here for 6 months and have a base to come back to while I continue travelling here and there to see places like Myanmar, Laos and the Phillipines!!

Moving into a place on my own is a such a new experience for me, in fact moving into any place is such a new experience because until I left NZ back in April I had never actually lived out of home – thanks Mum and Dad for not kicking me out haha. So here I was leaving to travel alone on the other side of the world with no real clue what I was doing. This has also become pretty apparent since moving into my condo, I also have no real idea what I’m doing. A few things I’ve learnt so far…

• In Chiang Mai it’s cheaper for me to go buy street food then it is to cook (sorry Dad, I don’t think my cooking skills will be improving anytime soon)

• Turmeric doesn’t add flavour to cooking, just colour – also stains your nails, not great

• When cleaning in a small place with limited ventilation be careful not to OVERDO the cleaning products

• ALWAYS write a shopping list, unless you want to go back to the supermarket a thousand times (my record is three times in one day lol)

• If you only want half the pack of chicken you bought, you still have to cook the whole pack. NOT leave the uncooked half in the fridge ha…

• Turning off the lights when you leave the room is an important habit (hello power bills)

• Never confuse vinegar with oil, it ends badly.

• Cooking the correct amount of rice/pasta is a skill that I will probably never nail

So yeah, definitely learning as I go. If I report back in another month I’m sure that list will be a LOT longer. I’m already loving it here in Chiang Mai so I have a feeling it’s going to be a good 6 months 🙂

One of the great things about it here (aside from how cheap it is) is how easy it was to find a place to live. Within 72 hours I had found a place I liked and moved in! I’ll write a blog post on how I went about finding my place etc (eventually…) and will link it here. Also plan to write a post about what I’m doing in regards to visas cause that sh*t is confusing!!

AAAAND of course there’s all the stuff to come about where I’ve been travelling over the past 5 months. That’s going to take me a little longer but it is on the way so watch this space <3