Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part V

Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part V: The Final Countdown

Sophie and I basically spent six days “getting back to Nanjing.” We left Koh Chang for Bangkok in the mid-afternoon. We spent one night and half a day in Bangkok. Since we weren’t sure what to do in one day, we ended up going to a market with one of the women who stayed in our dorm-style hostel with us. She was from Germany but lived in Spain. She was super cool: as a side job, she travels to Thailand and buys things to resell in Spain.

 Flowers and sunglasses

Fake flowers




















The Chatuchak market is famous in Bangkok for being enormous and overwhelming. We only spent a few hours there but I think we barely made a dent. I loved all the jewelry, vintage clothes, and random stalls that sold only plastic purses or denim products.

We then flew to Chiang Mai. We met up with Maddie and Heather at the Sunday walking market for dinner and walked around some. Afterwards, we sat in the tree house at our hostel (yes, there was a tree house at my hostel… it’s Thailand don’t ask questions) and just hung out for the night. Sophie and I were exhausted and I was starting to feel a little sick.

 Last papaya salad... boooo

The colorful hill tribe accessories



















The next morning we flew to Hong Kong (see what I mean about it taking “six days” to get back?) We stayed with a different friend of a friend who is now, I would say, a one degree of separation friend. At that point, I had a bad cold and couldn’t stay awake for longer than a few hours at a time. So the next day I didn’t really do much, even though there is so much to do in Hong Kong. For lunch, Sophie and I got dim sum at a fancy restaurant.

Great tea and great dimsum

Looking classy 

Some kind of glass noodle dumpling, it was great!














Afterwards, we took the star ferry and walked around downtown Hong Kong island. 

 View from the star ferry

Hong Kong skyline 

Some random chick 

Cool escalator at a Hong Kong art museum 


















In honor of Chinese New Year

Skyline at night

Even though it was the last day of our travels, I was so exhausted and sick that it didn’t make sense to go crazy. We got Western food for dinner, since a lot of restaurants were closed for Chinese new year (and also, I really miss it!)

The next day, we headed to the train station in Shezhen for our long trip back. This time around, we didn’t have sleepers, we only had seats for the 25 hour train ride. There are definitely advantages to having seats rather than sleepers. It made the “awake” parts of my trip easier. But they don’t turn off the lights at night in the seated cars, and even though it was 4 AM people were still up and talking. Sophie and I were not the only people making the trip from Shenzhen to Nanjing in seats, there were other Chinese people with us from start to finish. The trip would have been easier if I wasn’t so sick. But I got to read, play set, and befriend a small adorable Chinese boy, so all in all it wasn’t that bad.

Three countries in three weeks! When I returned, lots of people asked me to tell them about my trip, but I saw so much and experienced an uncountable amount of new things. Writing it out blog-style really helped my comprehend the trip as a whole. In the end, I loved every minute of my travels. I can't choose a favorite part... can my favorite part just be the whole trip? And now that it’s over, I’m looking forward to my next adventure: Shanghai, Beijing and Xian!