Amanda Kingsmith

yoga teacher. world traveler. writer. podcast host.

travel

Month 4 Travel Update Part 2: Bangkok to Bali

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The last time I wrote, I left you in Mandalay and it feels like so much time has passed and so much has happened since then. I am well into month 6 on the road already, yet I am still recapping the end of month 4. The days and weeks have begun to blur into one another and it feels like time is passing far too quickly. But back to month 4. Here we go…

We arrived in Bangkok tired, sick and ready to be in more of a developed city + country. It’s funny to look back on my travels in 2011 and remember how completely and utterly terrified I was of Bangkok then. I remember arriving in Bangkok from Greece and being so tired from jet lag, yet not allowing myself to sleep in the taxi from the airport to the hotel because of fear that I would be taken.

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Month 4 Travel Update Part 1: Myanmar

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Month 4 kicked off with us ringing in 2017 at the Golden Rock in Myanmar, but I’ll back up a bit and start from the beginning of our time in Myanmar. We arrived in Myanmar on December 28th, flying into Yangon (which used to be the capital city of Myanmar). Myanmar is a really interesting and unique country due to its corrupt government that didn’t allow tourists to enter for about 50 years. We had heard nothing but good things from people who had visited though, so we decided to visit for ourselves.

As we were about to touch down in Yangon, I looked out of the window and was greeted with the flickering of lights across the city. I was confused at first, until I realized that it was the instability of the electricity across the city. Stable electricity has never been a concern in my day-to-day life, and this was the start of my eye opening experiences in Myanmar.

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Month 3 Travel Update: Chiang Mai

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This month was spent entirely in Thailand, and it was perhaps our best month on the road yet. After 2 months of slow, albeit continuous, travel, we were ready to settle down.

After we spent 144 hours in Shanghai, we flew to Bangkok where we spent 2 days, most of which was spent sleeping in and lounging around as we fought off the colds we caught in China, before flying north to Chiang Mai. We had heard amazing things about Chiang Mai, and we were ready to settle in for a month of work and restoration. I know, those 2 words don’t usually go hand in hand, but if I’ve learned anything over these 3 months it’s that working + traveling is much harder than it sounds. It’s this constant pull between feeling like you should be working and wanting to explore, and while trying to balance both, all forms of relaxation go out the window.

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Month 2 Travel Update: Macau, Hong Kong + Shanghai

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As I sit down to write, I can hardly believe that another month has passed and that I’ve been away from Canada for 2 months. Time really does fly by, and I can’t help but wish that I could slow things down…

Over the last month we traveled through Macau, Hong Kong + Shanghai. We arrived in Macau to visit our Canadian friends, Josh + Tanis, who teach at an international school there. They are in their second year living in Macau so they are quite adjusted and familiar with the area, and it was really cool to see their life in Macau and to have them show us around a little bit.

Josh + Tanis are super busy with school, so we didn’t get to spend that much time with them, but we were grateful for the time that we did spend together. We had plenty of late night chats, dinner dates and good conversation about travel + life.

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Month 1 Travel Update: Singapore, Philippines + Malaysia

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Over the last year I have spent a lot more time writing for The World Wanderers and M.B.Om than have for my personal site. And I have decided to turn this website into more than just a travel blog, it is my personal website – a space for not only my passion for travel, but also my passion for yoga, and life in general.

As Ryan and I travel through Asia, I have decided to write monthly updates on where we have been, what we are up to, and how things are going. Of course, for more detailed accounts of what we’ve been doing, you can follow along with our travel podcast, The World Wanderers or on social media.

Ryan and I flew from Penticton on Monday, October 3rd. After nearly 24 hours of travel with a long haul flight over night from San Francisco, we made it to Singapore. Our original plan was to spend the entire month of October in the Philippines because we had booked a conference in Manila for mid-October. Before booking flights we did some research, only to find out that the Internet is ridiculously slow in the Philippines. On any other trip, this would not have been an issue for us, but this trip is different. We are not simply traveling. We are working + traveling. Beginning a life as digital nomads. So, we did some research on other places in Asia that we could visit for our first week before the conference, and settled on Singapore.

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27 Things I’ve Learned in my 27 Years of Life

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I’m 27 today. Like my 26th, 25th and all the birthdays before this one, I realize that I don’t know it all. I don’t have all the answers to why we’re here, where we came from, what we should be doing, etc. All I know is what I’ve lived thus far. I am not wise beyond my years, and I certainly don’t think I’m better than any readers out there. I am just a 27 year old girl sharing what I’ve learned in my 27 years of life.

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