My Big Fat Thai Weddings
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2003
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11
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Trip End
Jun 07, 2004
Chumponburi, Thailand
Thursday, July 10, 2003
I had finally arrived in Chumponburi.
Yaowapa is lovely, as is her husband and pretty much everyone in Chumponburi. I was introduced to a billion people who all made comment about how I was a 'slim farang'. I think they are used to large American Peace Corp guys. I was immediately plunged into 'Show & Tell'. This was to become my routine for the next few days. Thank goodness for the pile of photos I brought. Alex, Trev and Dean: you are much admired and if you fancy Thai girlfriends, there are about 500 willing candidates here!
And if I was worried about not getting enough karaoke practice, well, Thai students have about four basic questions: how old are you? Where do you live? Do you have a boyfriend? Will you sing us a song? The latter is more demand rather than request. I tell you, Peter Allen never sounded so good. Or as abbreviated. 'I Still Call Australia Home - the catmoj remix'.
That night we went to two weddings. As you do. I learnt a lot. Mainly that you should move your glass away because hospitality dictates that it should always be full. The first wedding was in the school hall and there were hundreds of people there. The bride was in mint green and the groom in a white uniform. We entered thoruhg a big ink heart and immediately began eating. Dish after dish came to our table and I think I proved my mettle by eating everything spicy.
The bride and groom were married up on stage while everyone ate and chatted: that's my kind of wedding I think. They knelt down to be blessed by a monk and then their Invited Honourable Guest Couple painted their foreheads. People came up on stage to pour holy water into their hands and wish them luck.
As Honourable Uninvited Guest I was asked to participate and caught some boys trying to throw toads at the guests as they went on stage. One of the speakers even put some of his speech in English to welcome me to Chumponburi, which was really sweet.
Then it was off to the second wedding, which was very different to the first. It was in a dusty, empty lot and there were three dancing girls up on stage. All the neighbourhood sat and watched from across the road. The Bride and Bride's Brother spoke English well, but he was very drunk, so I was instructed not to speak to him too much. At least he was dancing though!
Everyone immediately tucked into the food that was brought over, and the bride asked me if I would like to get married and wear a dress like hers. She was very beautiful but starched lace and the boofy white dress just aren't my scene. Perhaps more of a skimpy dancing girl costume instead?
