It’s taken me a while, but I’ve finally uploaded photos from the wedding. Lots of people have asked me about it, so I’ll describe it here.

For those who aren’t aware, the whole timing of our trip was to end in Bangkok for my father’s wedding. He married a Thai woman, Prem, about a year and a half ago, but they didn’t have their official Thailand wedding until this January.

I really didn’t know what to expect going in, so it felt like quite an adventure. The festivities began the night before, when a friend of my father’s hosted a dinner for all of us out of town guests. So there were probably about a dozen of us, me and Mike and a bunch of my dad’s golfing buddies, including my uncle (mom’s brother), my father and Prem, and two of the men’s girlfriends. We went to a nice Thai restaurant in the Sukhumvit area. My dad’s friends are quite a kick, and we had a good time trading travel stories with them.

We dragged ourselves out of bed the next morning and rushed over to the hotel where the wedding was to be held. It was within walking distance, but we were running late, and made the bad decision to get a cab rather than take the sky train the one stop. I don’t know how we forgot that traffic in Bangkok is horrible any time of any day, and Sukhumvit is one of the worst streets. We got there, paid too much (”minimum charge 100 baht”), and rushed inside, to find that we had made it just in time for the stand around and talk for half an hour before the wedding part. Now we know. Just take the train.

So the morning ceremony was the official Thai wedding. It was mostly Prem’s friends and family there, only one friend of my father, because he was a part of the wedding party, and a Thai friend of both my father and Prem who lives in NH too.

The wedding began with my father’s entrance. Everyone, including Prem was inside the room, and members of her family stood on either side of the door holding gold chains across the entry. As he entered, he had to give them envelopes of money in order to be allowed past the chains. Once he made it through everyone whooped and cheered. We wondered what would have happened if he’d forgotten the envelopes!

Then Prem’s mother, Prem, my father, and his friend, Davies, went up onto the stage, where there was a leather couch and two leather armchairs. They sat on the couch and the emcee (I think that’s the best word for her) said some stuff (in Thai so I don’t know what). Then a table was placed before them and these platters on top of it. One had a bunch of Thai Baht fanned out on it. I’m not sure how much money was there, but a lot, and it was all brand new crisp bills. One had velvet boxes with gold jewelry in them, and one had two smaller boxes with rings, which I presumed to be the wedding rings. All of the items had beautiful pieces of fabric underneath them.

Davies was asked how much money he had brought for my father to marry Prem (I’m guessing that the role he played was that of what the groom’s father would normally hold). Then member’s of Prem’s family cam up and one by one sprinkled flower petals and seeds, and I’m not sure what else, all over the money and jewelry. Then the corners of the fabric underneath the jewelry were gathered up and that bundle moved over to the money plate, where that fabric was gathered up and the whole thing was tied up into a big bundle, and handed to a member of Prem’s family.

More was said, and my father placed a ring on Prem’s finger. More talking, and then my father placed the second ring on her finger! My father told me that in the Thai wedding he has to first give her the engagement ring, and then the wedding ring. So both rings were for her.

Then, the table and couched were removed, Dad and Prem sat on the floor, and people went up one at a time to tie a white string around their wrists and give them blessings. Often they also gave a give of money or jewelry. Each person was given a gift by the bride and groom.

Finally the couch was returned to the stage, and we took about 10,000 photos of every possible combination of family and friends.

We went back to our hotel and rested, and then returned to the hotel that evening for the reception. This part was help on the 11th floor rooftop area, with great views of the Bangkok night skyline. There is much less to say about the reception, it was like most receptions. lots of good food, tons of people. Prem wore a western style wedding dress, and my father a basic suit. As Dad’s only family present Mike and I were required to give speeches, which I found terribly difficult. I hate speaking in public, and wasn’t quite sure what you say at your father’s wedding. The fact that 75% of the people there speak little english made it a little less nerve wracking though. My initial greeting in Thai seemed to be a hit. Mike of course gave a smooth and moving speech, because he, like his brothers, is excellent at that type of stuff.

So that’s that. It was a great time! There are more photos on flickr if you click through on one of the above shots.

We got home finally, after approximately 36 hours of travelling. It is not necessary to take so long to get back to Seattle from Bangkok, it’s just the way things worked out with flight bookings this time around. Naturally, Mike and I were pretty out of it by the time we got home. I managed to get a lot of hours of sleep on the trans-Pacific flight, and in a fully reclining first class seat no less, but apparently it wasn’t enough. I can only imagine how horrible I would have felt had I not slept!

Our flight from Tokyo was to LA, where we had a few our layover till our flight to Seattle. In LA we had to go through customs and recheck our baggage and go through security again. We were struck immediately by the differences between LAX and the airports we have been travelling in.

First, the escalators. They are filthy in LA! (this is not something I usually think about, but it seemed most the escalators we saw on our travels were gleaming, even in the dirtier cities like Hong Kong and Bangkok). Then, amazingly, LAX seemed leagues more chaotic and unorganized than any where else. I’m sure our level of tired did not help, but still, wow.

And man, what’s the deal with having all of your terminals completely separated? We were given a pass to the AA Admirables club which is in a different terminal than Alaska flies out of to Seattle. You have to leave the building, walk to another one, and go through security all over again. It seems horribly inefficient. Given the amount of time the whole rigamaroll of trying to get into a terminal you are not flying out of took us, including everyone we talked to not really knowing what is going on at all, we ended up skipping the admirables club anyway. I still have the keycard though.

To be back into the world of take off your shoes–liquids and gels are evil, unless in a ziplock bag, but then only of the bag is a 1 qt size–take your computer out of the bag–don’t even think about commenting on how ridiculous all this is, unless you want to spend the next day being interviewed by the TSA. Well, yeah, to be back was weird. It’s not that we had forgotten what it is like to travel at home, but things are so much calmer and logical in other parts of the world; we liked it, and we got used to it. Since we arrived in Japan on the 6th we’d flown on 9 airplanes, more than we often fly in a year, and not once removed our shoes or worried about ounces of liquid and ziplock bags. We were treated calmly and with basic respect at every airport. What a concept.

One last gripe about coming home: why must I be greeted by framed photos of george and dick at immigration in LA? Are they trying to rub it in?

Good things about being home:

–Seattle has got to be the most beautiful city in the world. The drive home was stunning. I love living in a place where not only am I happy to arrive home finally, but every time I do I am struck by how incredibly gorgeous my home is. I love travelling. Probably too much. There are many places in the world I have visited that call to me to return as I go through my days at home, and many I’ve never been that call to me to visit. Some, like London and Bangkok, I even feel a sense of homecoming when I arrive. But no matter where I travel and how much I love it, my heart is in Seattle.

–I missed the cats!!!

–I missed my bed!

–I love my house.

We have a day and a half at home. Then we take off for New York City for the weekend. Yes, we are insane. But my dear friend is performing there right now, and this weekend is the last weekend of the show. I have to see it, so we’re off! Once we get home I’ll get to really experience the other great things about being home: spending time with our family and friends.

There is more to tell about the trip. We haven’t written about Bangkok at all. And I’m sure we’ll have plenty to tell about NYC, so there should be more updates to come. For now I need to figure out how to get back to sleep so that I can get up at a reasonable hour and try to get somewhat back into this time zone. Or at least to EST. That’d work too.