Gemseek goes to Thailand

Even some of us die hard rock hounds have "normal holidays" sometimes, but what do I mean by normal? well without busting ones but digging, in the endeavor to unearth precious gemstones, while sleeping rough beside your dig, and beneath the huge night sky, glittering with billions of stars, well maybe not so much sleeping under the stars, we have a beautiful Coromal off road caravan with all the mode cons, including a wonderful sky light, but you get the drift of what I'm saying.

This family holiday to Thailand was going to be completely different, like shopping, grandchildren, hotels, Thai food,  endless massages for our ailing bodies, and generally relaxing and having fun.

The holiday was also to witness my son's traditional Thai wedding, in a remote village 5 hours north of Bangkok. Accompanying us on the journey was my daughter and son-in-law with our twin grandsons, and the best man and his family, eleven in total which made for quiet a crowd at the check-in counters. Our 1 year old adorable twin boys instantly drew their own crowd, of clucky individuals, from all races, who would tickle, kiss and photograph our beautiful boys, it was quiet unusual. We called this following the paparazzi , as they were every where we went. It would appear that Asian cultures rarely have twins, probably due to their small body frame, so we had celebrity status most places we went.

Arriving at Bangkok airport in the middle of an electrical storm was quiet a hairy moment, and I'm sure I counted at least 3 bounces on landing. But what was worse was, the thought of our connecting flight, a small private aircraft flying at night in an electrical storm, to a small remote village deep in the Thai jungle, I could see the newspaper headlines now, "Aussie tourists lost in deep jungle" and my stomach rolled. But as it was, the storm had moved away by the time we took off, and the plane was a descent size , not the two prop model I had imagined,

as they say "90% of worry never happens"

All the girls were invited to the brides grandmothers house, the day before the wedding to help prepare the food for the monks, who would be conducting the ceremony.

Grandma's house was a traditional pheasant style dwelling with several buildings around a central court yard where the food is prepared in an open aired, covered platform. Here they sat around on woven floor mates and peeled hard boiled eggs by the thousands, chopping just as many carrots 

into very fine sticks, and dissected some type of mushroom come fungus thing, which they had never seen before, it really sounded like an interesting afternoon. Some how, with out one common language, four generations of women, from four culturally different back grounds, successfully conducted women's business? Mmmmmm!

The Food apparently was continually being delivered by the ton on bicycles and mopeds with side carts of varying construction, and some of them deflying gravity with their loads. and whole families riding one bike.

The sight of a large pig being delivered and prepared for cooking, will be embossed on Laurie's mind for life, I just wish we had some photo's to show you , especially of the pigs head in a pot of boiling broth, unlike us, they do not waist anything, we found them to be a very resourceful race of people. 

The monks arrive at 8am the following day to conduct the wedding ceremony, and we had to prepare large rice bowls for their meal beforehand, so there was no being late that morning, and the party the night before was no excuse.

The monks, and the bride and groom were linked together with cotton threads, from a cotton hallo /crown on each of their heads, while the monks chant a continual prayer of blessings and fertility on the happy couple. Family and friends are also asked to tie a string on the wrist of the bride and groom and to bless them with money in sealed envelopes. In fact there is allot of money involved with the ceremony. The groom has to buy his bride with money and gold from her father and mother. The money/gold is put on a large tray and bartering begins, three times the amount offered is rejected and pushed back to the groom, until an agreed price is offered.





The monks receive their payment in sealed envelopes, as part of the ceremony.

The religious part of the ceremony is concluded at 12 mid day by the monks anointing the family and friends with holy water, and chanting their way out of the home and back to the village temple.

                                         

Just as the monks exited stage left, about 30 of the local school children arrived playing various band instruments, to herald the groom's taking of his bride.  Anyway the groom asks his mother-in-law for his bride and she offers him 3 other girls before handing over the bride, and yes they ride off into the sunset. 

And that concludes the morning session.

In the evening we arrived back at the village oval, which had been transformed since lunch time into to the most impressive party arena we had ever seen. Catering for over 800 people with tons of traditional Thai food.

At one end of the oval was a large open air stage with bands, continual singers and dances , and comedians, there were even some lady boys singing, which was interesting, entertainment went all night, with no intervals.

On the sides of the oval there was light show wind mills, with multi coloured laser lights spiraling off into the night ski and of cause there were fire works, although the fireworks was a bit scary. We walked over to the village lake where the fireworks were to be released, big mistake ! they erupted not more than 6 foot over our head and the large chunks of shrapnel fell on us, thankfully no one was injured, which would have spoilt such a brilliant night of celebration.

The following day we all slept as late as it was humanly possible, given the mattress gave a new meaning to planking. However the owners and staff were fantastic, our wedding party had taken up all 6 villa's, and considering there was no other accommodation for miles, we were lucky to be near the brides village.

 

 The motel was situated next to a disused quarry, filled with water and fish and which one day will become a water park, the dream of owner Mr. Oh. The rooms very basic and have no tea/coffee making facility's, just a double bed , TV and separate shower / toilet room, so you go to the main house, for meals and beverages. In fact because of the breeze and fans we spent allot of time socializing with the owner , his family who live on site and not to forget the fantastic staff. They would cook for us , just the way we liked things "not too hot" and were such humble, soft spirited people, nothing was too much trouble, and of cause they loved our twins, and they quickly pasted photo's on their face book pages.

Our pace however was to crank up a notch or two in the following days as we traveled back to Pattaya then Bangkok. The villa were we first stayed in Pattaya had a pool right outside the lounge room, which was heaven sent in such a humid hot climate.We spent morning hours playing with the babies in the pool and found out that one of out grandsons has quiet a love of water, a born swimmer.

As proud grandparents we constantly had either the handy cam or camera out, on one such time, I recorded this funny incident. "The Duck" ( now uploaded to YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPvyfbhFdMA

Our visit took us to Pattiya which is a night time city, a party place, where anything goes.

The city starts to come to life around 3pm when stalls and many shops open for business. As the evening develops more and more people take to the streets and by night full everything is in full swing.

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Thai seafood curry



The food is incredible, all manor of Asian food is available, from first class restaurants to vendors with nothing more than a bicycle and a hot plate.



Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty



A tank full of feet nibbling fish, was a scream, literally, Immersing ones bare feet into a tank of flesh eating sucker fish,( Garra Rufa fish) which for 15 minutes, exfoliate all the dead skin on ones feet. To begin with the feeling is so intense that the sales assistants hold your knees down, to stop you pulling away. After a few minutes one relaxes somewhat, until you open your toes and the extreme tingling starts all over again, you've just got to have a fish pedicure if you have the opportunity. Although it is baned in at least 14 states of America, as being inhumane to the fish? but I dont believe any fish were harmed in our activity with them.

The gun range was also lot of fun , using a 45 Magnum automatic I some how hit the target 46/50 times, not bad ha.

Asian forest Scorpion

But the night markets are crazy, with everything on sale or "can get you " my son -in -law became quiet the haggler asking for "Thai price" not "Phalanges price" or white man price, it was very entertaining to watch, and he scored quiet a few bargains.We came across a vendor selling all sorts of deep fried bugs and watched on as the same son-in-law chewed upon a large black Scorpion uh.. 

Talking of insane though, we saw the most amazing buskin magician ever! he started by throwing a card into the air and it flew around his whole body, backwards and forwards and hovered in mid air. He then took my lite cigar and had that fly around his body. By this time I was beside myself with awe, and helped gather quiet a crowd with my enthusiasm. The son-in-law just then came out of a shop, so I immediately volunteered his assistance to the magician. In the front of his very expensive designer tea shirt the magician made a cup with his hand, into which he put not one burning cigarette but two. You should have seen my son-in-laws face he was mortified, but with a one two three abracadabra , the magician pulled his hand away from the tea shirt , there was no burn marks or cigarettes. Which we thought in itself a good trick, but hey there was more, he reaches down to my son-in-laws trouser zipper , opens it and out fall 2 lite cigarettes. His act was simple amazing and beyond ones comprehension to fathom out, especially considering he wore only singlet top and jeans, there was no were to hide anything as he walked along

"Walking Street".

There's over 350 hotels in Pattaya alone so your bound to find accommodation to suit, we stayed two nights at the Marriott hotel next door to Riply's believe it or not? fantastic service and Day Spa.

The Bangkok Pathumwan Princess Hotel was our next stop with a hectic three days of intense shopping and sight seeing in Bangkok, which did include some fossicking around gemstone dealers and the purchase of a very nice 4 caret Amethyst in an unusual pineapple cut, but that was the smallest purchase, like so many others on a Thailand shopping spree, we needed to purchase another suit case to bring home the shopping.

To finish the holiday we headed to one of the southern Islands Ku Summat for 5 days. We were staying on the luxury side of the Island,which  meant a wild rough ride on a motor bike or taxi to town on the other side of the Island, were the back packers stay and the  action happens. But the best ever traditional Thai massage was to be had, at our resort. Laurie wanted to bring the girl home with us she was so impressed.



Thai women collecting mussels



 

Getting off the boat onto the Island can be quiet enough action for some, there's no Jetty ! 

To cut a very long story short I got an old butterfly tattoo fixed up, its now a multi coloured rain forrest scene, covering the whole of my upper arm and a brilliant piece of art, even if I say so myself, I have never seen anything quiet like it.

Laurie got her hair braided which also looked fantastic and we spent alot of time by the pool with the twins or walking the beach. What a fantastic ending to an incredible family holiday, and we're now planing the next trip, for my next tattoo restoration!





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