Two Weddings - One Day

Here are some pictures taken at two different weddings I attended on the same day.  The first was an elaborate affair; the second very down-to-earth. 

 

Overheard at a wedding I attended in the late 1970's: "Some marriages don't last as long as this ceremony."  That ceremony took place in a Catholic church.  The Thai wedding lasts quite a bit longer, but you can take breaks whenever you want, and water and tea are available.  Between events (the negotiating, the song, tying of  string, etc.) there is entertainment.  One of the best parts is the groom's procession to the site of the ceremony.  I would have taken pictures, but I was asked to join the procession.  Holding a banana plant in one hand, and a sword in the other, I found it impossible to use the camera.  My cohort in the procession, Clement, from Singapore, carried the same items.  He leaned over and whispered, "Skip, do you know the significance of the swords?"  I replied, "No."  Clement said, "It means that we get first crack at the beer." 

Siripana Resort

Khun Chef and his father.

The groom, Gerry, and his brother.

Gerry brings gold and one million Thai Baht (about $33,000) to the negotiating table.

This is one of the people who makes a lot of noise as the grooms procession approaches the brides location.  He has a grim look on his face, but mostly he was smiling and having fun.

The noise-makers.  There is a name for them in the Thai language but I couldn't remember.  As the groom's procession tries to gain entry to the brides location he encounters several gates, which are a series of flowers on string held by friends of the bride.  They question the groom's motives and then ask for a bribe in return for letting the groom pass.  How much is the bribe?  We'll never know, but it's a good bet that the gate keepers report to the bride, "Oh, he gave us this much money.  He must love you very much!"  Meanwhile, the  noise-makers just keep on making noise.  You can dance to it if you are so inclined. 

The ceremonial negotiations between the groom and the brides family.

The bride and groom give thanks to the parents for blessing their marriage. 

The marriage having received the parent's blessing, the bride and groom move to another room to get hitched.

Note the man on the right.  He is singing, calling on the angel of marriage to bless the couple and to look after them.  I didn't time the length of the song, but I would estimate it lasted fifteen to twenty minutes.  It was quite a lovely thing, very light and lilting, almost wistful.   

The ties that bind.  Notice the halo and string between the bride and groom, and on their wrists.  Every person attending the wedding is invited to come forward and bless the marriage by tying a string around the wrists of the newly weds.

Mother and father of the bride.

The entertainers.

The reception following the ceremony was very elaborate.  Thai food, red and white wine, several desserts, tea and coffee.

Alas, my camera battery died before I could get pictures of the entertainment provided during lunch.  But I can assure you that it was a great show.

 

The following photos were taken later in the evening at a second wedding.

The bride and groom, and the traditional tying of string.  Can you guess their ages?  Hint:  guess low - very low.

My friend Sohm.  As you  can see, this wedding was  not a dress-up affair like the previous one.

Sohm's wife, Kim Huay, tying the strings.

Many Thai children believe that farang (foreigners - and it's pronounced fah-lon) are ghosts and will eat them.  This boy is finally warming up to me.  He knows that I'm not a ghost, but I will eat his pickled pork if he leaves it unguarded, which he finds hilarious.  To compensate I let him eat my veggies.  Strangely, Thai kids love to eat vegetables.

The groom's family.

This is a dessert made from something similar to tapioca, with fruit and coconut milk.  It's aroi-aroi (very delicious).  I should add that I didn't take the photo.  Tuay, Sohm's youngest son took the picture, and how he got the flowers imposed above the bowl I can't say.

Sohm, myself, and the groom's father.  Note that Sohm is wearing a coat.  The temps had dropped to the low 70's.  To many Thais that's cold, baby.

Enjoying my dessert.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Same Same - But Different

Here's a few more photos taken here and there.  It's fun taking pictures on those days when the clouds change the lighting situation, sometimes quite a lot in just a few minutes.  All of these pictures were taken with a Panasonic FZ200, which belongs to a friend.  He doesn't like it, but I think it's a very good all-around camera.  It won't fit in your pocket, but it's much easier to tote than any slr. 




Workers waiting for bags to arrive.  They will be harvesting the corn in the field across the road from my house.



How much corn can you load on your Isuzu pick-up?



The scary part is when you encounter these guys doing 70mph on the highway.



Work done.  Now it's time for beer, whiskey, or orange soda.

This mountain range is on the border between Thailand and Burma.



The King's Pagoda at Doi Intanon.  Picture taken from the Queen's Garden.



This is a nice pond-side restaurant, specializing in fresh fish...



...and you know it's fresh because you catch it yourself, while hanging out in one of these salas.



This scorpion messed with the big lizard living in my attic, and lost. 



This is my good friend Sohm.  I can read his mind..... "Oh no, he's got the camera thing going again."



Traffic hazard near my house.



Lucky shot while trying to shoot the moon.



"Ya know Bessie, just once I'd like to cross the road without my motives being questioned?



"Ya know, just once I wish you'd take a day off from all of that crowing."



Maybe you know my cousin?  His name is E'ore.



Typical Thai dwelling near my home.  Note the Honda City parked in the garage. 



"If you take one more picture of me I'm gonna....."



"You were warned!"



Bpee Mai shooting at me with his bubble gun.



Skip and baby Chef. 

"That's my opinion. It ought to be yours."

Today is September 11, a day, like December 7,  .. “that will live in infamy.”  I grew up watching images of WW2 on TV, and listening to my father drone on about why that war and the Korean conflict were just wars.  As if he would know anything about justice.  But like most boys I believed that they were necessary wars.  We had to stop Hitler and Tojo before they tried to conquer us.  

The atomic conclusion of WW2 and the fear of annihilation by the communists had a sobering effect on kids when I was growing up.  Throughout grade school we practiced those “drop and tuck” drills in the event of a nuclear attack.  In October 1962 when I was 11 years old Nikita Khrushchev had plans to park nuclear warheads in Cuba.  President Kennedy was having none of it.  Most kids in my class were pretty sure that the US was going to war with the Soviets and that we would all be vaporized within a few days by an atomic bomb.  We were not happy.  If I had to identify one event in time that pushed my generation toward depression would be that one.  Then the fiasco in Viet Nam did more harm to our already damaged psyches.  I was 13 when that war really heated up, and confident that I wouldn’t have to go.  I felt the same way at the age of 14.  At age 15 it looked like the Viet Nam war would last forever.  This was when I first began to question our involvement there.  I wondered…  “You want us to go off and get killed because… ?  For what?”  By the time I was 17 I was totally against that war, and, totally convinced that because of my personal circumstances that I would most likely be drafted and sent there by my government.  At 23, having “survived” (yes, an over-used word) four years of military service, I resolved that I would “leave the country” (and there’s an over-used expression) before doing that again.  Later I would grouse about young US men and women being sent around the globe to some conflict or another, Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, always wondering why, and never getting a satisfactory answer.  You see, I had ceased to believe most of what the US government tells us.  Thank Richard Nixon for getting the ball rolling for me on that one.  But the lies and propaganda have been going on much longer than the days of Tricky Dick.  How long, you ask?  Well, for example, how many of you still believe that the USA won the war of 1812?

The September 11 attack left me as shocked and angry as anyone.  I was concerned for my country, and selfishly perhaps, I was concerned particularly for my two sons.  As a father I worried about them being sent to war, always pondering the question…  “Why?  Could this have been avoided?”   Sure, I wanted my country to go get those who had attacked us, but I was thinking along the lines justice for a certain group of bad people, not a country.  But off we went to war in Afghanistan, but not with Afghanistan, a very cleaver political maneuver.  And we are still there.  Why?  Perhaps one reason is that my children were taught almost nothing about Viet Nam when they were in school.

I was dismayed at the number of people I knew who supported GWB’s decision to send troops to Iraq.  I mean, a blind man could see that the US would go to that country, kick ass and take names, and then the real war would begin.  But perhaps, maybe, there is light at the end of the tunnel…. because of Syria.  Yesterday I was talking with two of my friends, one of whom is a war hawk wounded veteran retired from the USMC.  The topic was Syria.  I didn’t start the discussion, the Marine did.  And he has one of those domineering personalities.  He said… “Don’t you think it’s about time the US started learning from it’s mistakes?  Why should we get involved in Syria, at any level?”  Well, I was speechless - speechless because there was nothing more to say, in my opinion.