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.
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.
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