If you know me, very rarely do I become a hopeless romantic. Maybe I have hit the point in my life where I am ready to start to settle down. Quite ironic how these feelings started during my solo travelling trip. So, this blog was meant to be me telling you about the fact I might have met the guy for me. I know this might be a shock for anyone who knows me. Let’s call the boy Max to keep this anonymous. I met Max at 5 a.m. Thursday morning (basically have known him for 72 hours). So now you’re probably thinking – “how can you get hurt from a guy that you’ve known for three days”. And to that, I would respond – “have you ever watched Love Island?”. When people are in such proximity and each other’s company for long periods you skip the multiple dates and make deep and meaningful connections. Well, that’s what I thought.

Anyway, back to the love connection beginning. We met in the early hours of the morning, to embark on the journey from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang. This is a two-day slow boat where you stop off in a random location in between and stay in a guest house for a night. My friend who I met in Chiang Mai, and had been travelling with for the past 10 days had met two guys earlier on in her trip and they were taking the slow boat the same day with us with their friends (including Max). This is where I met Max and he was my type on paper (enjoy the Love Island quote here).

The slow boat is a journey which you only do once in a lifetime, before the journey I thought that this was because “why the fuck would you want to basically spend two days on the river with no wifi, electricity or kitchen with something that sell anything other then noddles”. Well, I would highly recommend it if you have a good group of people who love to get on it (if you have a slow boat journey planned soon, bring plenty of booze). Mine and Max’s first conversation was about the fact that he liked my music taste. I was DJ and thought – why not play a little bit of DnB? It was 11 a.m., we had been demoted to the kitchen and the drinks were flowing. From that point, we seem to constantly be attracted to each other, like a positive and negative magnet. We went to the front of the boat for some air (as this boat had no air conditioning or fans) and kissed. If I am completely honest with you a lot of the rest is a slight blur, but I remember having deep chats and spending hours getting to know each other well.

We went to the back of the boat for a nap, this should have been my first red flag. As soon as we arrived at the back of the boat, he pushed me over – nearly off the back of the boat. I am not sure if he had a previous relationship which was slightly violent but this left me with a nasty scar on my back and multiple bruises. Stupidly, I thought the past hours of love and affection cancelled out this toxic behaviour. We planned on staying in a private room together that evening. But I am so glad that the house share was too full for us to have our own room, as I have great memories from the 10-bed room we were given. It actually made our trip. It reminded me of Geordie Shore house and I was with my girlies. Nobody got any sleep because we were giggling all evening.

Max and I showered and got ready together and got given the bunk bed. One of the boys even made a curtain out of a duvet so we had some privacy. Also, I forgot to mention earlier that he asked to be my girlfriend on the boat (but apparently, which I learned later on in my travels – he does this with everyone). We went on to hold hands all evening, get multiple pictures together, and shared a meal and a bed. That evening, I couldn’t sleep, I was tossing and turning and he was so sweet all night – he even kept asking “what I was doing to him”… that he didn’t want the feeling that he had with me, I felt the same – anything that happens this fast is bound to end in tears. Once we got to Luang Prabang, we decided that we wanted to get a private room.

The next day he woke up, got in the shower and didn’t speak to me all morning. Everything from the last 24 hours was a lie. We got on the boat he ignored me and when we were booking the accommodation he didn’t mention anything about the fact that we decided on getting a private room in Luang Prabang. After travelling for a month it still baffles me how someone would rather stay in an 8-bed dorm rather than a private room. An hour into the boat journey, I went to sit with a fit Aussie whom I had previously met and kissed in Pai. Once I came back to the group, Max decided he wanted to speak to me again. It shouldn’t surprise me after living in London for 18 months that a guy is only interested when you have caught the eye of someone else. Like the boat before we were all over each other again. I spoke to him about the fact he ignored me that morning and he no longer wanted the private room together. He told me that he was hungover and forgot.

When we got to the hostel, Max again was all over me. Kissing me in the pool. Clearly, I looked fit in my bikini. They were passionate kisses, way too much PDA for my normal liking but I was in a whirlwind of lust. Afterwards, I saw him in his room and he was cold, and no longer interested (even though he had the worst boner in the pool). The next day, he didn’t want to look at me or engage in conversation. I saw him at the bowling alley and he was all over another girl. I wouldn’t have been bothered, if he was honest and didn’t spout to me so many lies about liking me and wanting to travel together. This experience was just what I needed to get rid of my writer’s block.