The night I stumbled into the gallery of the "artist who steals faces"

One of the main things I absolutely adore about travelling is those completely unexpected experiences that you stumble across on your journey. For someone who was Little Miss Organised at home, it's a refreshing change and has led to some of the most exciting and memorable moments for me. By following my gut instincts and my heart, I have opened myself up to a wealth of opportunities to meet amazing people I would never have come across otherwise, and for that I will be forever grateful.

One night in Phuket was a perfect example of this, I was supposed to meet some blogger friends for dinner but I was given the wrong directions to meet them and we totally missed each other. Starving, I wandered along the street and happened to pass an artist working in a gallery at the side of the road. Curiosity got the better of me and I couldn't resist a peek at his work. I tip-toed into the workshop, trying not to disturb him while he worked, but he looked up straight away and welcomed me in. It turned out that Monthian Yangthong is hailed as one of Phuket's, and Thailand's, most popular and talented artists who has exhibited his works all over. I was so lucky to walk in at that point because I had the amazing opportunity to see him working on his latest piece.

Known as "the artist who steals faces", his latest collection was a series of woodcuts made of the faces of well known western artists ranging from painters and musicians, to politicians, scientists and more. I'm no art expert, but I know how amazed I was by the level of complexity to his work - how each carving took so long to prepare and plan, how he created many different variations of the same work to contribute to a final piece, and how he told each individual's story through minute additions to the carving that were blended in to the very faces.

I spent hours in his workshop, watching him work, talking about art and Thailand. As we chatted about art and life in Thailand, his family all sat on the floor alongside us and painted. His wife was working on a painting of sunflowers, while his two beautiful little girls worked on their own creations for their own gallery. None of them spoke any English, but they made me so welcome by showing me their paintings, offering me oranges and water. It was so touching to see how kind they were and how welcoming to a random person who walked in off the street, but it was a perfect example of the amazing Thai culture that has made me feel so at home in this country.