I love how small this world is. We so often make connections with people we just randomly meet all throughout our journeys. Here in Bangkok, I suspect we will have a lot of people coming through that we know as it is a huge hub of South East Asia. Saturday we met with Sinead's cousin and her husband for dinner before they set off on some Thailand travels. Before doing that Sebastian had a great day out with his favourite family, Joe, Pam, Andy and Ary.
On Friday we were treated to a Diwali celebration dinner from Asit and Charu. Also, my head of Maths and his wife Jane came as well. They took us to the best Indian restaurant in town. It was a fantastic meal.
I love what Sebastian learns at school and feel so happy he is having a different education then mine. Not that for the 'time' there was anything particularly wrong with it but we certainly did not lear about diversity, different types of families and gender stereotypes. Sebastian, at 3, has all this and so much more. He knows that some familles have two Dads or two Mums, some families have only one parent etc. And he was so happy for non-uniform pink day as knows that boys can wear pink too.
We were going to take Fred and Shea to Phuket for the weekend. We know it so well and love it. But Phuket had a terrible week of rain that was beyond unlike any rain they had seen before. Houses were collapsing, cars washing away, roads crumbling and land slides. In fact, it has only just stopped. Very scary and sad for the people of Phuket. Therefore, I spent time looking at things to do outside of Bangkok and 'I love phants' kept coming up. It was just amazing. A Dutch man started the foundation 20 years ago after being in a terrible car accident here. he spent many months in hospital and reflecting on what he could do to add value to his life. He has certainly done that and more. Once an elephant is rescued in Thailand from logging or tourism they are unable to go in the wild. And they are very expensive to maintain never mind save in the first place (saving them comes at a great cost). He started with one and now saves all animals left at the gate. They have 200 acres where the elephants roam free. They also have gibbons and many other animals they rehabilitate and hope to put back in the wild. Including now all the tigers from Phuket Tiger world. It was fantastic.
Friday night we decided to take a River Cruise, Sebastian loved the last one and he needed some Fred and Shea time. I can say it was not totally what we expected. The boat was packed and the dinner was not as good as our last one. But we saw the temples all lite up at night and we had a huge dance party. It ended up being so fun and Sebastian had a blast.
