Moving from Boston to Bangkok | A Travel Diary

I apologize in advance for the low-quality iPhone photography , the lack of food pics, and the pile of words! I’m passionate about good quality photography and want my blog to have only the best – but this blog post is a little different than others! I wanted to document our trip for our close family and friends who were interested in how the trip went! 

If you’re interested in seeing more little details about our daily life here in Bangkok, I regularly document pictures and videos through Instagram Stories.

Both John and I’s family came to the airport to see us off! 

To start off: I have always had sympathy for parents who travel with their young children . I don’t mind screaming babies on flights (am I an anomaly or are my ovaries just saying, “IT IS TIME”). I usually just feel sorry for the parents because hushing a screaming infant is frustrating enough, and then having to endure death stares from every other person 3 inches from you is even worse.

Well, traveling with a four-legged bag of needs is good training, I guess. 

We’ve been diligently training Daisy for months for this trip – taking her for long car rides in her carrier, rewarding her for going and sitting in it. When yesterday rolled around and it was time to embark on our grand journey – I was so confident that we were ready for travel!

Once we got to the airport and through security, we went up to the SWISS Business Class lounge to enjoy the spoils of flying Business. We sat down in a beautiful lounge area, John with his cappuccino and I with a glass of champagne , and we sighed a big breath of relief – all the months of intensive planning for this moment, it was finally upon us. We were finally here, and everything was perfect. And that’s when Daisy started bucking like a wild horse to her out of her carrier and barked at every nice steward that came by. She was anxious, panting, whining, chirping, barking – literally my worst nightmare. Everyone in the Business Class lounge turned and gave us unsympathetic death stares . A few waiters and waitresses walked by with horror. Sweating from embarrassment, I begrudgingly chugged my nice champagne and we left the Business Class lounge. The next hour and a half was spend doing laps in Terminal E trying to get all the anxious energy out of Daisy.

See you later Boston!

Once we boarded and settled in our seats, Daisy was still an anxious mess. I was so afraid that she would start whining and barking again so once we were in the air and they dimmed the lights, I let her out of her carrier. I brought a blanket and made her a little nest by my feet which she thoroughly enjoyed. She immediately settled down and sat at my feet. The official rule is that you are not allowed to take your dog out of the carrier for any reason. I swear that if we didn’t fly Business we would have never made it to Thailand. Swiss Airways Business Class has ample leg room, and the back row has a lot of privacy. We had very patient flight attendants who didn’t seem to mind that she was out of her carrier and snuggle quietly by my feet. Although I had to sacrifice my legroom and being able to lay the seat back, I was just thrilled that Daisy was being quiet.

We arrived in Switzerland and desperately looked for a pet relief area (which they had none). At this point, Daisy hadn’t gone to the bathroom in 8 hours. For anyone who’s traveling internationally with a pet, at Boston Logan Airport there is a Pet Relief Area in Terminal E. For anything who’s traveling to Zurich, there is no Pet Relief Area. Thankfully, the Swiss Business Class Lounge had an outside area where we hung out with Daisy. She didn’t understand the pee pads . Word of advice to anyone doing a long flight with a dog: train them how to use pee pads well in advance. I guess I kind of just thought she’d get it and if she had to go bad enough that she would, but she didn’t. Instead, she used the pee pads as a place for her to lie down. We had to convince her to eat by playing games with her food . Our layover was 6 hours, so for those 6 hours we sat outside, walked her back and forth, and tried to tire her out so that she would be okay for the final 10 flight to Bangkok.

We had to play with her food to get her to eat! She also thought the pee pad was a nice play to lay down.

Thankfully, our plan worked. She was so tired from our layover that she stayed in her carrier the entire 10-hour flight and wanted nothing to do with being outside of it. The flight crew from Zurich to Bangkok was much more anal about everything, so I’m thankful I didn’t have to play the game of having her by my feet and trying to hide her from them.

The flight from Zurich to Bangkok went by surprisingly fast. Swiss Airway constantly feeds you. If you’re a vegetarian, they also have a special menu for you. Yay! I’m always worried about John not being able to eat anything. John has a SNES Emulator on his computer, so we played Super Mario World for most of the flight . John fell asleep for a while, I couldn’t sleep at all – a mix of nerves, excitement, and minor flight anxiety. The good news? Anyone who knows me knows that I have/had crippling flight anxiety. When I say crippling, I mean, full-fledged-sobbing-my-eyes-out-blacking-out-panic attacks. The irony is that I travel a lot for work and am on a plane nearly every month. I was prescribed Xanax and every time I flew, I would need to take it. I’ve come a long way. 6 months ago, just the thought of a long flight to Asia made me physically cry in fear. But I really wanted to learn how to not have irrational fears about flying. Since I fly a lot, I started to skip the Xanax and practice different healing strategies on shorter flights. I use a mix of breathing techniques (I recommending the Breathing App on the Apple Watch), using noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the noise, and looking out the window into the horizon. A doctor also recommended wearing sunglasses or a hood to darken your surroundings. I’m so proud to say that I didn’t need to take Xanax once during either of the flights from Bangkok to Boston. 

Puffy but happy faces landing in Bangkok! #NoFilter

Although I hadn’t slept in 26 hours, I was wide awake when we arrived in Bangkok. The next steps were to go through Immigration, Animal Control, and then Customs. When you travel with a dog overseas, you will need an International Health Certificate supplied by a USDA approved vet and then stamped by a USDA office. This is a lengthy process and if anyone reading this has any questions, I gotchu. The most common question that we’ve received is whether or not Daisy would have to be quarantined. If you have all of your paperwork, Animal Control in Bangkok will only quarantine if the dog is showing visible signs of illness. Daisy did not have to be quarantined and everything went smoothly! 

Anyone who also knows us knows that we have a history of bad luck with airlines losing our luggage overseas. We’ve lost our luggage in Mexico, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden. We traveled to Bangkok with a total of 12 bags. I was mentally prepared to lose at least one of them. Miraculously, every single one of our pieces of luggage came off the baggage claim. Every single one. I’ll take it as a good omen for the rest of our trip.

It’s a miracle all of our bags made it!

Walking out of the airport in Bangkok, we were welcomed with a big breath of jungle-like humidity – and it was awesome. I was just smiling, excited, for all the new smells, sights, scenes, and people. I’ve never been to Asia before, and now I get to live here for a year. On the cab ride from the airport to our Airbnb, I was just thinking that I am so blessed to have this opportunity to live and work in another country for a while. That’s the weirdest thing, too. A few years back, before I even met John, I had wished so badly to be able to do this. Not necessarily in Asia, but I wanted to live and work overseas. I lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when I was 11-13 – so I remember what it feels like – but I wanted the experience as an adult. I’ve always believed that there’s a fine line between fate and coincidence. Having the opportunity for this experience and to do it with my best friend – that to me, is fate ♥️.

The next week will be spent apartment hunting as we look for a place to live for the next year! Wish us luck !