My re-wedding

[ChiangMai noon]

Hi all.
If anybody is interested, the following thread will detail my re-marriage down in Petchabun over the past weekend.

The history behind this episode is a foolish promise made by myself in a not too lucid moment last songkran after my first wedding to Nam.
Me, being Welsh by miracle of birth and as a result, a little bit on the tight side, went against familial wishes and got married quietly and incredibly cheaply in my house in Chiangmai.
The Promise...
I would make up for this stinginess by pootling down to their village for a rather grander ceremony, attendable by all relatives and surrounding villages.

The wedding was to take place very early doors on Saturday morning, so I hired a pick up and headed off relatively uneventfully on Friday morning.
Accompanying me on the journey were my mum, her best mate, my siss in law , 2 friends from norwich, my retriever tart (Hooper) and her 5 little puppies (including my fave, Maa Aeh).



By about 1.00 in the afternoon, we had reached Uttaradit, about halfway between Chiang Mai and Petchabun. A good spot to have a bit of lunch. The views over the valley from this pit stop were magnificent.

Me, with Maa Aeh and my nice new bamboo tatoo.



At this point I cracked and just had to hand over driving responsibilities to my mum who drove the next 4 hours to Petchabun.

We arrived just before dark at the village.
Loads of kids ran out to meet us.
A whole pile of village women were chopping up a recently culled piggy

The scene looked a bit like this except more well rounded and sharper like.


I'm sure you are delighted thet I have to get ready to go out and play with fireworks now.
Will continue with this little story tomorrow.

[machangezi]

Best of luck CMN.

[ChiangMai noon]

Cheers mate.

[MeMock]

Good start mate - cant wait for the rest.

[dirtydog]

so where's your curly brown hair?

[Goddess of Whatever]

Me, with Maa Aeh and my nice new bamboo tatoo

Yeah.. nice name, eh?

:x

[hillbilly]

I luvs dis stuff...

[Captain Sensible]

Yeah.. nice name, eh?

:x

hehehe. I was wondering about that myself. :-P

[Marmite the Dog]

Me, with Maa Aeh and my nice new bamboo tatoo.

LoL! Nice one mate. Nice tat, too!

Looking forward to the next part.

[ChiangMai noon]

Before I continue this little story, I would like to introduce you to some of the members of my family.
This is my tart dog Hooper, poor mother to my 5 little puppy dogs.



Isn't she cute??

This is my mother, holding maa Aeh at the same rest stop at Uttaradit.



We all got to bed late and a bit wasted on Friday night, the drink of choice for the wedding was beer chang, drunk in large quantities, constantly topped up by the endless Uncle's that i am now somehow related to.
That friday night I was introduced to at least 20 uncles, Lung sip, lung Jon, Lung Singburi. All like a tipple. You have to think that these Thai weddings are a neat excuse for a 3 day piss up in a community where not a lot happens for the most part of the year.
These guys all work their tits of farming tobacco for 6 months of the year and rice for the other 6. I guess their entitled to a bit of fun now and again.

Anyway for anybody who has never been to a Thai wedding, they start early, very early.
I was awoken from my slumber by my wife and wife soon to be at 4.30 in the morning. The monks were due at 6.30 and she had to be made up at a shed which doubles as a beauty parlour, about 2 kilometres away. I had to go with her in order to try on a traditional Thai wedding suit that i didn't want to wear.
On getting downstairs at 4.45 i was met with the sight of about a dozen uncles, sitting around the garden table, pissing it up on chang. Really I wanted to refuse their offer of booze, I rarely drink before 6.00 am. I was however, assured by my soon to be father in law that it would be rude not to join them for a breakfast drink. My concern was less getting drunk before my wedding than being unable to sit through the wedding with an aching bladder.

Off we toddled to the make up place. Apparantly the gay guys doing the make up were also my uncles in law.
From 2 km away we could hear the wedding music being blasted through the dark morning air. Tried on the suit and found myself quite liking it, showered, shaved and taken back to the wedding house.

Just time for another couple of small changs before the monks turned up in a songtaew.
The ceremony took place upstairs in my in laws house, naturally it had to, they seem to have forgotten to build a downstairs.
This is a picture of us getting re-married. The little girl on the left is my niece Lisa.



Back with some more later.

[Goddess of Whatever]

That's they way Thai bride's relatives are.

I don't wonder.

[ChiangMai noon]

Love the new avatar GOW..

[Goddess of Whatever]

Love the new avatar GOW..

I love it too, thank to marmite.


PS : I also have a t-shirt like that too.. hahahahaha.. ;-)

[ChiangMai noon]

Evening all, just got back from loying my kratong, hope you've had a good one.

Following the monk thing that went on for about an hour and a half, we were told that we could all go downstairs for a break. I was not sure if I had been re-married yet, but anyway this was time for a little bit of beer and relaxation.

30 minutes into the beer and re-laxation, some of the people were told to walk down the road a bit for the kaan maa. i gather that this is the traditional entry of the groom and his guests into the bride's home. I might of course be very wrong (help me here GOW).

This part of the ceremony was my favourite bit and looked a bit like this.



And also a bit like this.

See the bloke carrying the gun at the back. He also shot it.
I noted that he'd been drinking heavily.



In order to get into the next part of the ceremony I had to get my feet washed, not because theywere dirty, I had already taken a shower, but for some other reason. (help me here please GoW).

The doors to the house were blocked by gold chains and girls. In order to cross said chains and gain entrance into the house, I was to pay the people holding the chains a bit of money. The bit of money offered was deemed insufficient by the ladies holding the chains ,so I had to offer more until I was let through.
I loved this bit. In my 35 years of lifetome this was one of my favourite 20 minute starring spots.

After that, the next bit of wedding happened

[Fabian]

The man with the gun would have scared me. Was he there to prevent you from mrunning away?

[dirtydog]

how comes welsh ppl are so short?

[Goddess of Whatever]

I agree with ya, DD.

[ChiangMai noon]

It's a mere trick of light and camera.

Height I say is in the eye of the beholder.

[ChiangMai noon]

And you also have to remember that i wasn't wearing any shoes whereas all those cheating Thais wuz wearing high heels.

[benbaaa]

Hey Chiangers, all the best. See you for a beer in town sometime. If you're still allowed out after 9pm...

[Storekeeper]

CM.

Thank you very much for ruining the mental image I had of an astute gentleman who had me visualizing a "Dapper Dan" golfer type of fella.

Congratulations on your re-wedding, however ... you might want to consider cleaning up your act and getting that tattoo removed.

Why did you have to end up looking like a redneck pikey ?

[DrAndy]

how comes welsh ppl are so short?

they are Thai people DD.

[DrAndy]

anyway CMN, it looked very nice and fun

made me remember my own bash

[ChiangMai noon]

Thank you very much for ruining the mental image I had of an astute gentleman who had me visualizing a "Dapper Dan" golfer type of fella.

Sorry mate.
But gawd only knows what made you think I'd be dapper.
I do however like to scrub up for my afternoons on the links, favouring the plus 2 look a la Payne Stewart.

Just wait till i finish this thread and you'll see the type of company I keep.

[ChiangMai noon]

Just to finish aorf this story.

Being rather drunk and a little tired I was sent into a hammock for a sleep at about 3.pm.
Awake, and a little groogy at 6.00.
The village had been transformed into a party. People were flooding in from all directions. About 600 of the fuckers.

My favourite bit was this stage, which must have been delivered and erected during my little nap. complete with bands and dancing ladies. It cost the fair sum of 8,000 baht. I love this place.



The party that my re-inlaws put on was waaay beyond my expectations. 600 people and i knew about 9 of them.

This is me with my head in a bucket with my mate Dicky.
Handsome chap isn't he??