Sebastain is Three!

I cannot quite believe it but Sebastian is 3, how time flies.  We had a rather quiet birthday as we do not know anyone here yet.  But as luck would have it some of our old friends from Phuket flew on Saturday afternoon and came straight over to celebrate.  We have not seen them n five years and it was amazing to see them again.  They were some of our first friends in Phuket, they lived on our road and we spent loads of time together our first year.  Sebastian was also super excited as they have an 8-year-old and Sebastian is really keen to make some new friends.

We had a lovely morning opening presents

We headed to Harbor Land a huge indoor soft play.  Video below

Had lunch at Broccoli Revolution, fantastic vegan restuarant.

And had pizza, Thai and cake with Rhiannon, Raphael, and Filippo.  A great day!

Chatuchak Plant Market

Much like every move I have ever made, you make a lot of mistakes at the beginning.  You buy things overpriced, in a rush, and in the months to come learn about your mistakes.  This time is no different, we have taken taxis confidently telling them where we wanted to go, and ended up on the other side of the city.  We have bought furniture only to see something much better in quality and value the next day.  And yesterday we bought plants from a vendor driving buy our house.  I was suspect of the price, even though it was half his original quote and when I googled it inside I saw that we had paid a huge premium.  We want to fill our patios with plants as we are a little nervous about the huge drop-down and trying to block Sebastian.  Last night I did my research and today we headed across the city to the Chatuchak Plant and Flower market.

This is a horrible video, but I am working on it!  Trying to do a bit of a video blog as well, but my learning is slow.

After a little rest from the morning, we walked around our neighbourhood exploring.  I just love it.  Sebastian is laughing at Tuk Tuk passing, he has had no wine!

The Commons, Dog Friendly Spot

Today we had a Lola day, the poor girl has not seen more than our street and it is not much.  What we have learned is Bangkok is not ideal for dogs, we are going to have to search quite a bit.  I have been searching blogs and websites to see some places.  This place has been mentioned loads.  I thought it would have something special for dogs but just a place with many restaurants and bars where dogs can go.  I did really like the place but we need more for Lola Cola.  Very different from Phuket where Lola went everywhere.

But Lola had fun and loved the Tuk Tuk rides there and back. I have not seen that smile for some time, which was great.

Exploring and Frankie

It continues to be a busy time, getting set up and settling into the 12-hour time difference.  This morning was the first morning that Sebastian slept till a decent 5:30am, we are getting there.  I love our neighbourhood, in about a half km radius we have about 5 Indian restaurants (2 pure vegetarian/vegan), two vegan burger houses, a vegan restaurant, tonnes of cafes, and a Mexican with a vegan menu.  What we do not seem to have is a Thai restaurant!

Luis buying shoes off the truck on our street.

Sebastian loving the tuk tuk

Finding play grounds

Sebastian entertaining Frankie and her friends. They came to drop off a bag but will stay with us for four days in August.  Lovely to have our first visitors.

Our swimming pool.  It is fabulous, with great views, and is clean and warm.  There is so much to explore, it will take us a year just to figure out what is in our basic vicinity.

Bangkok!

We are now in Bangkok. I love the location of our flat and although it is dated it is ample space and has such a nice feel.  Our road is a dead end so even though you are right in the heart of the city, you feel like you are not.  There are many families in the building, and I hope Sebastian makes loads of friends here.  In fact, I hope we all do.  It has been a busy few days, mainly catching up on sleep and dealing with Sebastian's terrible jet lag.  Well and catching up on hours of missed sleep.

You know I am tired when I do not have millions of photos!  It will come for sure.  In the next few days, we will be alive again and I will be the annoying picture lady again.

Terminal 21, Turkish Airlines Hell

 I am so behind with the blog.  It has been a tough week of moving.  We left Grand Bahama and spent a night in Miami before we started our journey to Bangkok. This was pretty uneventful, we ate some terrible food (it is definitely a quantity over quality sort of place), played in the pool, and then made our way to the airport.  Turkish Airlines were great, checked Lola in quickly to go on board in the cabin, checked our million bags, and felt like we were almost there.  Little did we know!  

We arrived in Istanbul with an 8-hour layover.  No big deal, we have done far longer.  But at 2am when we tried to board we were denied boarding by the worst gate agent I have ever seen.  We had all the correct papers and even letters from the Thai Department of Agriculture.  Not only did he deny us, but he did it cruelly and did not help us with any of the next steps. Sebastian was bawling and it was just awful.  The next 48 hours were horrendous.  We could not leave the airport as did not have an import permit to Turkey for Lola.  And even if we did the minute we stepped foot into Turkey Lola would have had to stay three months to get into Thailand.  We could not easily go anywhere as all countries have different requirements for dogs, it is not like you can just go anywhere.  As do the airlines.  So we were stranded.  Turkish Airlines was the worst.  We had all correct, and they kept denying us.  We spent 18 hours in queues, to be spoken to rudely while our toddler and elderly dog slept on a cold floor.  They refused to help in any way and told us to go back from where we came from.  But we couldn't even do that as we had exported Lola from The Bahamas.  Not even a glass of water.

Here comes the power of social media.  After 18 hours in a queue just to be treated like garbage I started making videos.  Facebook and Twitter went crazy, I was so humbled to see my friends around the world start making a huge stink.  Some I had not seen for a decade.  On day three, management hunted us down to put us on the next plane.  They admitted they were wrong and we had everything correct. They put us in a lounge and got us all fed, wined, and washed.  It was a great moment when one of the most horrid women to me the night before had to put us in the First Class lounge.  But then it ended there, they separated us on the plane and had promised to compensate us for the hundreds of dollars we spent trying to eat, keep warm and keep a toddler entertained.  But in the end, we did make it. 

Sebastian was a trooper.  And Lola, poor Lola was far too old for this.  And sick, she had an infection just as we got on the plane and then the poor girl suffered.  I am actually just so angry writing this!

Finally in the lounge, eating.

After we had showered, had boarding passes, and just could not wait to get out of there.  We have badgered Turkish Airlines since and they have been awful.  If you read this, please trust me when I say NEVER EVER fly with them.

Bye Bye Grand Bahama

On July 8th we made it out on a friends plane with minutes to spare.  It was a close call with Lola's export permit as they accidently made her an import one!  But the department worked hard that morning to fix it.  However, we were very relieved to get on that plane.  But also of course sad to say goodbye to our home for the past two years.  Sebastian learnt so much here and we will always remember it fondly.  The wonderful people, our beautiful house and beach, and the community that we grew very close too.

Of course, Bruce.  It was so hard to say goodbye to this special man.  He was our rock for two years and I will miss him beyond words.  I hope he comes to Thailand very soon!

Sebastian actually flew the plane!  Like turned it and everything.  I was a little scared but what a great experience.  Almost there now!