This is me, reminiscing about the first time I visited South East Asia 20 years ago! This being the second time I had set foot in Asia – the first time was in 2002 when I visited my sister in Bali whilst she was backpacking.

I went on a ’round the world trip’ with my friend – our route started with Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia where we went our separate ways – her to carry on working in Sydney, me to carry on with the travels.

From Darwin I flew to Singapore, which is quite possibly the cleanest and neatest introduction to Asia! I loved everything about Asia – the weather, the smells, the food, the people just to name a few things. From Singapore I travelled up through Malaysia, stopping in Kuala Lumpur, to Thailand to meet my sister in Bangkok. We stayed on the Khao San road then night train-ed it south to Koh Samui, Koh Pha Ngan for full moon partying and across to Phuket and Koh Phi Phi for the filming location of ‘The Beach’ the 2000 film adaptation of the 1996 novel by Alex Garland.

We continued south to Malaysia to the tropical rainforest of Taman Negara and the rolling hills and tea plantations of Cameron Highlands.

Travelling back to Thailand I swapped my sister for holidaying friends for more full moon partying, raves in caves and the historical sights of Ayutthaya and Bangkok.

My final destination was Hong Kong with it’s iconic skyline and the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world.