Day Fifteen
3rd April

Our last day in Udonthani. We went with Snow’s cousin and her girlfriend, to go buy some wraps and other Thai authentic souvenirs. We drove to the edge of town, past the shrimp farm. Alex found they had a second floor, with a large wooden staircase leading up. We went up and down the stairs, making several trips up and down. Snow picked out some gifts for our family in the States.

We had lunch afterwards at an old restaurant downtown. Snows mom loves it, but she never got to go there with us. They have a large menu, and they had American dishes on the menu. I took the opportunity to order a cheeseburger and French fries. Snow got a shake. She also ordered sweet and sour and a couple of other Thai dishes.

Day Fourteen
2nd April

Snow’s mother and aunt wanted to take us to lunch. We went out to the shrimp farm we visited on our trip in 2005. We had grilled shrimp and also tempura fried shimp, plus a fried fish. It was hot out, and we sat in this room with air conditioning. Alex again got up in the middle of the meal to go walk. I took her around the small restaurant. She stood at the edge of the deck looking over the water and said Apple! And bubble! I don’t know what apple referred to. On the way back to town we stopped off at the vision store, and Snow got her bent glasses fixed. Alex had bent one arm on the second or third day. She also got contact lenses.

We met Noy at the mall after we got back from the lunch trip. Snows mom took our laundry over to the house. Snow and Noy shopped. Like at the Platinum Mall, there are some aisles where its narrow and the shops are very small. The various sales girls were giving Alex a lot of attention. She got a lil scared at some of the aggressive ones and asked to be picked up. The girls eventually went over the big dept store, Robinsons. They shopped for handbags, and makeup. They both got made up. Alex had fun walking around the make-up counters…she was actually allowed to go behind the counters too. They just let her go anywhere cuz they enjoyed her so much. She also sat on those white elevated circular seats and span around.

Then we went to dinner at the grandparents house with Noy. Who ate with us and hung with us over there before we got back to the hotel. It started to rain overnight again.

Day Thirteen
1st April

We had the hotel breakfast. They have a daily buffet. A chef makes omlettes and fried eggs, there’s a buffet. You can make toast. There’s mini pancakes or French toast. There country potatoes, pork sausages that look like miniature hot dogs, ham slices. There are Chinese food such boiled rice, fried steamed rice, and some stir fry dishes, fresh fruit, and small pastries rolls and mini croissants. On a good day there’s also bacon.

Alex likes to walk after lunch, so we walk around outside by the mall before returning to the hotel. We found an interesting movie to watch. Alex took a nap and for lunch, I went down to KFC for chicken nuggets and French fries, as well to the Pizza Store for cheese and bacon bread twists. We finished and Snow ran over to the house. I used the internet at the hotel. When Snow returned, she told me Noy had reached her and wanted to meet us for dinner tonight.

Noy was Snow’s best friend through high school, she has long hair and is about Snow’s height and weight. When they are out together, people inquire if the two are sisters. Noy works for a bank and had Tuesday and Wednesday off. So it was a good time for her to meet up with us. We had hoped she could see us on Sunday during the wedding, but she had to work and couldn’t get over.

She met us for dinner. She was shopping in the mall. So we met her over at the hotel lobby. We went to the UD Restaurant and Pub. UD short for Udon. It was a lovely place, again quiet like the place on Monday night. We took a table in a room, and we were the only table seated in there. There was a stage where musicians play later in the evenings when its more a nightclub. Alex walked around the room while we ate when she got tired of eating. She got on these comfy chairs behind us where she could stand up and look out these windows at the boys who were serving us. They had good tempura shrimp and French fries, plus a good tasting pork and vegetables. We had a nice dinner with Noy.

We got back to the room around 930 PM and Snow could watch the end of her Thai drama, and I got to use the internet. Before bed I got to see the Champions League soccer quarterfinals live from Europe.

Day Twelve
31st March

We spent some time in downtown Udon Thani. We took a jeep. They make two rows of bench seats facing each other. The fare for the ride is 8 baht each or about a quarter. We went to see one of Snow’s favorite noodle soup shops for lunch. We got bowls of noodle soup. Then we walked down the street doing some window shopping. There was a lot of police out on the streets, and no one was allowed to park. We found out later, that the Crown Prince’s daughter, the princess, was in town to visit. We missed the cavalcade. But we caught the footage on the news that night.

We went to a glasses and contact lenses shop. Since Alex broke my glasses for the first night. We got me a new pair of glasses and two boxes of contacts. We headed back to the hotel via the jeep. In the evening, Snow’s mom and aunts wanted to go to dinner with us, and we went to this restaurant that did the food for the wedding. But it was closed for some local dignitary… perhaps even the princess still in town. So we went to this other restaurant outside another hotel. It was a very slow night. In the distance, there was lots of lightning. Alex did her walking around the patio thing again, and she seem to warm up to the girls who are servers there. We headed back to the hotel around 8 PM. Snow’s aunt from Bangkok, Baumoo, headed back home. She was driven to the airport by Aunt Nenoy while the rest of us stayed at the restaurant. She came back to drop us off.
Snow got to watch one of her favorite Thai dramas running right now. The storm rolled in and we got to watch the lightning from our room on the 14th Floor. It finally started to rain overnight. Alex was up to 11 or so. She and I were playing on the bed. Where I was bouncing her off my foot and she was also climbing up on my leg, then falling down on purpose crashing and laughing on the bed.

Day Eleven
30th March

We have to wake up at 645 AM to shower and prepare as we are leaving for the house at 730 PM. Snow gets up at 5 AM to have her hair and make up done by a friend of Some Oh’s. Like with Mo, Snow is not happy with the results, the make up is too strong, and she’s not happy with the hair style. She begins to think she could have done a better job herself.

So we get over there and at 730PM there are already guests. In Thailand, its traditional to celebrate weddings in the mornings, and on Sundays too. Snow is wearing this beautiful gold traditional Thai dress. Her hair is up. I am in jeans, because we forgot my slacks they had made for me in Bangkok. Snow didn’t pack them. We called Snow’s aunt in Bangkok who flew up days later, but she didn’t bring them. My shirt was white and a traditional Thai shirt. There is a band there. They have these loudspeakers there is a guitarist and three drummers. You walk out of the house, out of the yard out to the street down to the street. There’s a group. Uncles and Aunts in front, cousins, Snows sisters and brother and me. They have bowls of offerings. So the band plays up, and this is 8 am and they are really loud and the processional heads back to the house. Everyone is dancing Thai style, which is moving your arms and your hands in a curvy fashion, reminding me of ways we have seen Indians dance in movies. We had envelopes in which we offered gifts to aunts and uncles. tThe monks arrive. There are four of them. They sit in the front room of the house. We kneel in front of them. They chant these prayers for us, to bring us good fortune and happiness. There is a lead monk, he does most of the of the chanting.. He takes two candles and lights them, then he has a pot of water, he tilts the two candles down. As the candles burn, the molten wax drips down into the pot and covers the surface. He continued to let the wax drop until it covered the top of the water in the pot. Then he took these thin sticks in a bunch…he dipped the sticks in water then he flicked the sticks down over our heads, soaking us in water. The water symbolized purity and good spirits, so the drenching was to bring us good luck and good fortune.

Then they chanted some more and I had a brass bowl and pitcher. The pitcher had water in it, and while the monks chanted, I poured the water into the bowl. I had to pour very slowly so as not to finish before they did. At the end, some more water over the head. I didn’t just get wet on my hair, I got wet on my face, shoulders and chest.

After we finished all the chants with the monks, we went outside. They had a couple of long tents like Lisa has for soccer just two to three times longer. They put a chair under it that both Snow and I could sit on together. There was a nice flower arrangement on a square coffee table in front of us. It was a large pyramid shape with flowers all around up to the top. Family and friends came up to us one by one. There were individual segments of string hanging from the flower arrangement. In Thai tradition, each person took a piece of string, and tied it around my wrist, wishing me good things such as happiness and luck, rubbing my wrist up and down and rubbing the string. They line up and this took a while especially for those who got strings that weren’t quite long enough to get around my wrist. After each person tied my wrist, they went on to tie one of Snow’s wrists. After they were done I might have had as many as 20 strings tied around my wrist.

Alex wasn’t ready to sit still during these ceremonies, as they bored her. Lucky for us, she was happy to walk with Kung. He was very patient to spend time with her as she walked around the grounds and gardens of the house. She was getting tired by the end of the string tying which was after 10 AM. Everyone started to eat at the buffet laid out, again all outside. Snow took a cranky and tired Alex inside the house to the grandparents room to feed her. We thought she would fall asleep, but she didn’t. So we ate our lunch. They had several dishes in a buffet. There was chicken satay. There were pork short ribs and rice. There was Thai sausage, chicken tom yum, The food came from what Snow’ family considered the best restaurant in Udon Thani. F

On a side table, there was a painting in a gold frame. It was of Snow and I from our American wedding in August, painted from a photo Noel took of us after the ceremony. There we had our signature book and a gift wrapped cardboard box with a slot in it for gifts. After Snow and I finished eating, we went around visiting guests. We had done some of it before the monks, now we met more people. I am not sure how many guests we had, but I think it was between 80 and 90 people. Snow’s good friends Nok, Fiat, Nook, and Eiat came but Noy one of her best friends had to work and couldn’t make it over during her break. Ja’ae and Nimh also helped Kung out with Alex. Poor Nok was trying to get a hug and a kiss out of Alex to no avail. Som’O also was willing to help out with Alex as well.

We left the party shortly before noon, as it started to heat up. I never saw the official weather report, but it could have heated up to 95 or 98 that day. It wasn’t so hot at 8 in the morning but it heats up around noon. We had a ride from Nok back to the hotel. Some of the guests started to leave after 11 AM. By noon, it wasn’t a full reception. When we got back we fell on the beds, relaxing in the air conditioning. Alex finally took a nap.

For lunch, I went down to KFC and got us some chicken nuggets and French fries. Snow headed back to the house with Alex. They headed out shopping shortly after and went to Lotus Tosco. They said they would be back at 6 for dinner, but got there much after 7.
We were all pretty beat at the days end from the heat. We had dinner at grandmothers house, and Snow had heard from her very good friend Nok. Who wanted to see us at 7:30 PM. We couldn’t meet her until 8:30 PM. We went to a spot called Cop Fee Bar. We had Sprite and water, and finally ordered some ice cream that we shared. There were a group of ten or so, mostly boys from Snow’s and Nok’s school days.

We went back to the hotel around 10 or so, and Alex was asleep soon.

Day Ten
29th March

Snow’s uncle was going to do flower arrangements for the wedding on Sunday. But his son and his father-in-law were hurt seriously in a car accident earlier in the week, and he has to drive far to get to their hospital. So on Saturday Snow is taking our laundry over to the grandparents house, and will be working on the flower arrangements. After she is there, the uncle is able to return and she doesn’t have to do them.

In the morning Alex stayed with Daddy. It was a real father-daughter bonding day. Snow went down to the spa for a massage. It lasted 70 minutes. Alex says one of two things: either “go-ey” for go, or “walk-ey” for walk. She has pushed Snow and I so much this week and last to get up and go, go walk with her. She loves to walk the hallways of the hotel. She likes to walk through the lobby. She loves to walk the city sidewalks outside the hotel and the mall. Strangers walk up and touch her hair, brush her arm, pinch her forearms, they say jah aiee which means peek-a-boo. At the spa, Alex and I see Som Oh, Snow’s cousin, who works at the spa in the hotel. Som Oh is enchanted with Alex like everyone else has been. Alex walks around the inside of the spa, and plays with the girl who works the towel counter. There’s a table in the lobby of the spa with an arrangement. In the arrangement there is real fruit, real peppers. Alex grabs at them. Som Oh warns her off from holding the peppers. But Alex is happy with two limes.

After Snow’s session with the masseuse, we relax in the room, and Alex took a nap on her bed. Snow plans to go over to the house with the laundry. She leaves Alex with me to watch while she sleeps. But as Snow leaves at 145 PM, Alex wakes up. In her state of just woke up, she wants her mother. So she cries at me, and she wants to go out, perhaps to try and catch up to Snow. I calmed her with leftover pizza from our lunch on Friday. We had five pieces left and I gave her small pieces of pizza to eat for lunch. After lunch, she wanted to walk, So she and I went to the mall. We rode the escalators, we went into Robinsons. The Robinsons sales girls were taken with Alex, we played with the fans, and in the clothing department. She got thirsty, so we bought a lemonade at Auntie Anne’s pretzels. We sat in chairs by the stand with a small table and looked at each other. AClose to 4 pm, we headed back to the hotel. We ran into Snow who was back. She took Alex and went over to run errands, while I used the internet.