The afternoon was sad; lots of goodbyes from some special people. It seemed silly, five weeks isn't long at all but that day it just seemed like I was going to be away from home for a life time! After arriving at the airport, me, Mum and Dad all enjoyed a Starbucks and said our goodbyes - a very teary Mum and some wise words of safety from Dad. After finally getting through dreaded security, I was absolutely ecstatic for the whole thing to start. The journey went surprisingly quickly. Stepping off the plane was like walking into a sauna. The heat hits you straight away and it really is insane. After collecting my bag and saying goodbye to the anonymous chappy from the plane that I had spent a good 8 hours or more chatting to (we never actually exchanged names!) I soon found myself in my transfer taxi, where I met the lovely Nicola, from Belfast. We were so giddy and excited driving around Bangkok. The mad traffic, the tuk tuks and the tiny babies sitting on their parents laps on the motorbikes - it was just madness. The city is so huge and ridiculously overly populated. Forty exciting minutes later, we arrived at our hotel. I checked in and found that my roomie was nowhere to be seen. I had an hour to quickly get showered and sorted, ready for our first group meeting at 6pm, I was so excited! I then met Alissa, who was Nicola's roomie, from Bristol. We made our way to our group meeting in the dining room and everybody was really, really quiet and shy. All I could think was 'great I have to spend the next 30 days with these goons'. Everyone was sitting on their phones and not really saying hello. I was seriously starting to worry and could tell Nicola and Alissa felt the same. We then met Pooky, our amazing Thai tour guide. She was absolutely hilarious straight away and I knew after the first few minutes we had a good one.

After the meeting Pooky took us for a walk around China Town and then to a really strange smelling but quite nice, cozy little restaurant. Very fortunately, my first impressions of the group soon changed! Everyone was chatting away and introducing themselves. There was a good mix so far - British, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Dutch and American. The group seemed like a laugh, especially after a few bottles of the local 50p 'Tiger' beers. My meal and three of them cost just £3.50! Katie then arrived, my roomie from Chester. I was so relieved because she seemed a bit mad straight away and I knew we would hit it off. I really enjoyed my first traditional Thai meal, which was a delicious spicy stir fry; saying that I got a bit adventurous with the chilli, was sweating like a pig and couldn't finish it. We were all getting to know one another having a great time. We were the last ones in the restaurant and were practically forced out by the grumpy, smelly staff. A group of us jumped in a taxi and headed to the madness that is Khao San Road - Bangkok's mad centre for tourists. Bars, booze, shopping, street food, loud music; the backpacker's ghetto! We pretty much stayed in the same bar all night, with live music, lady boys and lots of odd Thai people trying to sell us scorpions, dodgy hats and jewellery. The group very quickly demolished a few massive towers of beer and some tasty shisha. Me, Katie and May got extremely excited experiencing our first tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel. It was a great first night, shame it couldn't have lasted longer, but had to be up and ready at 6am! My first impression of Bangkok is amazing; it's crammed with exotic sights, bustling markets, old temples, art-deco hotels and fast-food stalls on every corner. The rivers are packed with boat traffic, but most crazy of all, there were people….people EVERYWHERE!!… If you love cities, you'll love Bangkok.