All part of traveling

5 days ago, we got on a ferry that took us from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi. This beautiful small island is a natational park. There are no cars in the area, the only people that have motorbikes are the police. 

I have the feeling that less then a year ago this island was not so commercialised but I get the general  feeling that’s the case with a lot of Thailand. It seems there are not that many jobs a Thai person can have, and the only way for there economy to grow is the tourist industry. 

The water in phi phi is the clearest I have seen so far, if you walk into the sea and stand still, lots of see through looking fishes swim past you. There’s also a few miniature rock pools where you may see other sea life.

We also followed signs to island view point. It was about a half hour – fourty five minute treck up hill. At the top was beautiful view of the whole island and we went at the perfect time when the sun was setting. It was so pretty and peaceful. 

Unfortunately on day two of our stay at phi phi, we went out for dinner and it didn’t taste right. We had planned to go out for a few beers but I was feeling ill and needed to go home. After this I was sick for over 3 days, and my partner a few hours after me also became ill. On the second day of being ill, we stayed in bed all day and woke up covered in bites. When we went to the pharmacy she confirmed we had been bitten by bed bugs! We left the hotel immediately, who were shocked and gave us our money back for the remaining nights we had booked.

We are now in a cleaner hotel, and slowly starting to feel human again. Last night we even adventured out in the evening to watch a fire show and eat pizza on the beach. 

We have two days left on phi phi and I’m hoping to be well enough to experience it properly as it’s beautiful. 

First week in Thailand

We set off on our adventure last Monday. Tony’s alarm went off at 5am. We were already awake and hardly slept that night. Mixed feeling of excitement, nervous and overthinking. 

We flew from Gatwick to Dubai and then Dubai to Bangkok in Thailand. My best friends mum works at a resteraunt in Gatwick and she gave us a free breakfast and Buck’s Fizz to start our journey. The flight with emirates was good, I only slept for half an hour but I watched lots of Disney films. 

We arrived at Bangkok 7am local time on Tuesday. We stayed at the D&D on Koasan road. If anyone has been to Thailand you will know this is the loadist road ever! It was so loud that my pillow was vibrating from the noise until 2am. Lucky for me I can sleep through anything and I slept all the way through. Tony on the other hand couldn’t sleep. 

Bangkok was an interesting place, full of sales men waiting for the load of tourist who have the airport clothes on. They annoyingly pretend to be your friend and then they trick you to buy stuff. This put us exploring Bangkok and so we spent most of our time by the pool and then adventured out at dinner time. 

We booked a flight from Bangkok to Krabi. Tony accidentally spelt is name as Tong. Luckily, they gave us a temporary boarding pass. The flight was a very small plane and was s bumpy flight. 

Once in Krabi we got a taxi to Ao Nang. We found a cheep hostel for the first night. Ao Nang is a lovely area with lots of resteraunts, bar and beaches. On day two in Ao Nang, we went on our first hike up many many many stairs. It was called the monkey trail but unfortunately due to the rain all the monkey where hiding.

We discovered our new favourite bar in Ao nang the reggae bar! It has love reggae music throughout the night and then live fire show at midnight. We have had two very drunken nights there, starting on the Chang beers and then braving for the sungsum buckets.

Yesterday we met our friend from Brighton, Stu is now in Krabi for a couple of days. We also partied with our hotel receptionist and her sister! 

The food is amazing here, pad Thai, red currys. Street food is great, lots of coconut ice cream! 

We have spent two days at the beach. It is usually very busy as it’s a touristy area. I’ve enjoyed eating corn on the cob on the beach. 

We have stayed in 4 different hotels so far. All of them have been different experiences some very good and some not so good.

We plan to stay in Ao Nang for a few more days and then we are getting a ferry to Phi Phi. 

Shine

Today’s daily promt is the word shine. Whilst, to me the word shine may be positive to other it may not. 

Some people may struggle to shine, or they my feel of they shine as much as they want to they may be judged my others. 

The words shine, is to show everything, to beam and give it your all. To make a door handle shiny, you have to add polish and give it a load of elbow grease.

For us to personally shine to out full potential. We have to strip back to basics and give it everything we have. 

In order to shine at work, you have to break the job down in to smaller bites and master each individual part, so that the total part shines. 

To be best we can be as a person, we have to get rid of any fake aspects on the surface and work hard with what we have naturally. 

Why do we want to shine? Because the heart automatically loves shiny things. It’s get all of our senses excited, to our eyes eye candy and to our brains a puzzle of why it is shiny. 

What will I miss.. hmmm

Less then 24 hours until my flight to Thailand. Today, I am appreciating the small things I will miss for 3 months. 

My make up, I am taking minimal make up. This means no fake lashes, no fake tan and no powdered eyebrows. I am unsure how I will cope with this! I have BB cream, concealer and I may take a mascara for full moon party’s ect. 

My house coat ( or dressing gown as most people call it) I love nothing more then waking up and putting on my coat fluffy house coat. I love coming home from a stressful day at work, and getting into pjs and my fluffy house coat. Maybe I will be too warm in Thailand, to miss it.

Toast and tea! My friends who are travelling tell me breakfast is pad Thai, lunch is pad Thai, dinner pad Thai! I don’t think I’ll be eating toast. As for tea, apparently it’s rare to find and when you do find it, it dosent taste the same.

Today I am wearing my jeans, full face of make up, straightened hair Michael Korrs watch and it will be the last day wearing all of this for 3 months!! 

I am very excited, I actually feel a little sickly as I have mixed emotions of excitement and feeling nervous.

I have a family carvery today and my best friends are also coming and then spending time with Tony’s family after.

After that I will try and sleep but I feel that I may me slightly to excited ooops. 

Food bank

My Dad is chairman of a Food bank based in Hangleton. Every year I attempt to raise money, at Christmas time to dontate to the charity. 

I head most days from my dad about horrible situations people have been left in that leaves then without enough money to purchase dinner for them and there family. The little things we take for grant age like bread and tea bags are out of reach of people that could live on the same road as us. Food banks in general, are amazing charities that organisations as big as supermarkets and as small as someone clearing out their cupboard can donate too.

The first year I raised money by organising a office cake sale which raise just under £100. All the Your Move staff got involved by baking there own cakes and mince pies. We invited clients into our office for cake and coffee, as well as visiting all other local offices with the remaining cakes. 

The Christmas just gone, we came up with a new idea. We decided to organise a reverse advent calendar. Instead of opening a chocolate advent calendar, everyday and receive chocolate, we did the opposite. We would open a box that we made, and put something inside. 

Donations ranged from teabags to baby food. I asked my Dad what they needed he most and at the time they really needed baby stuff. Not only did the staff at Your Move donate daily, we had donations from clients, friends and contractors. Our Valuation Managers mother dontates £25, and with that we went and bought lots of baby food, baby wipes, dummies.  

The box was collected a few days before Christmas and we were overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that was collected. It was so rewarding donating that amount of stuff just before Christmas. Knowing that we made a difference to lots of families, so refreshing. 

I will continue to raise money for food banks, as I feel so passionate about what they do for local community’s. 

If you are looking for a New Years resolution this year, I challenge you to speak to your local food bank and see what you can do to help because I guarantee you it will be rewarding.

Love 

Dominique Lennon 

Good bye England prep

I am totally aware of my lack of blogging recently and despite having time of work since Christmas I have been crazy busy! 

Before Christmas break, I finished at my job! My last day was very emotional as I received lovely cards, a big beautiful bunch of flowers and went out for cocktails after work. I will miss my team very much, they are my estate agent family and could not of asked for a better bunch of people to work with. 

I had a great Christmas and New Years spent with family. I also visited reading after New wars to see the rest of my family and spent two days there. 

I’ve had lots of preparation to do such as buying last little bits. Sun cream and bikini are very hard to find in January! I’ve ordered Thai money which is called Baht. The money difference is crazy I ordered £600 in English and works out to be around £24,000 in Baht. 
I’ve been going to the gym most days, although I’ve slacked this week as I’ve had so much to do. Tommorow I am gyming and swimming, Friday I will gym and Sunday morning I will gym. The sun beds at my gym are broken so I’m having to fake tan! 

My besties planned a surprise for me on Friday night. Which not only was a sleepover but we had Thai take away, cocktails, snacks DVDs and matching pjs.

The next day was our leaving drinks at the pub, which ended up going to a few bars in Hove but I had a lovely time and spent Sunday being super hungover ooops.

Mistys Bar, Hove

I am now 5 days to go. I’m currently sorting out all my laundry as I want everything clean and fresh for when I come home. I’m spending this afternoon with my niece making cakes and pizza. Tommorow taking Tony’s niece swimming. And family party at the weekend and monday we fly ahhh.

I will be blogging while I’m away, tell you all about my exciting adventure. 
Love 
Dom x