The Wedding between Gal and Jonathan.

4/25/15 Saturday  Jonathan and Gal’s Wedding day

   Cloudy, overcast day to begin with.  They say a bit of rain on a wedding day is good luck for the marriage.  Heading to get hair and makeup done with Gals’ mother and sisters.  Not sure what I’ll look like after this!! Lots of makeup, false eyelashes and a can of hairspray later, we head to the church to change clothes.  The sky opens up and a downpour hits us in route, along with the hordes of people on the Bangkok streets.  I think everyone is out driving today! Especially on motorbikes & scooters.     

   Finally arrived at the church, carrying our dresses over the puddles and under many umbrellas to save our hair and makeup.  By the time we get inside to change clothes, the sweat is dripping off us, not sure if that’s sweat or rain? We hurry to change and into the church to make sure we have a good seat for pictures.  Lin is already there with Gal’s father, looking very handsome in his suit and tie.  You don’t see that very often!!

   The procession of the seating of the parents, flower girls, ring bearers, then bridesmaids, with cameras going off everywhere.  Then the music changes and we all stand for the first sight of the bride with her father.  Lin and I are seated in the front of the bride’s side of the church, so we have a great view of the whole procession.  Lots of pics!! Video running so we can have many memories. A great, fun part was the song Jonathan’s family put together for the lovely couple.

  Wonderful memories of the love shown between 2 people, the respect for the parents, family and friends shown in the ceremony.

  More pictures, then off to the reception.  Of course, we deal with Bangkok’s traffic.  Not sure I could deal with it on a daily basis.

  Lots of food, more food and more food.  Then the bride and groom arrive, telling how they met, what they love about each other, cutting of the cake and bringing a piece of cake to each of the honored guests, which Lin and I were honored to be. 

  Then the blessing was given to the couple by several honored people, again Lin and I were honored to be able to give a blessing to the couple.

  The ceremony continued with the couple giving more blessings to their family and friends, then the throwing of the bouquet to the single ladies. 

  As the crowd starts to disperse, the female members of the family go the hotel with the couple and give the bride to her new groom! 

  So many new and old traditions blended together to create a lovely day.  We give so many prayers and blessings to the new couple, Jonathan and Gal.

They are such a cute couple already!!

The day before the wedding!!

 The beauty is amazing here, from flowers to golden palaces, to Wots, to the food we have been enjoying. Of course this all pales to the wonderful friends we have here to enjoy all this beauty with. 

4/24/15 Friday, Bangkok, Thailand-Visas

    Traffic, traffic, picking up our Vietnamese Visa downtown, then more Traffic, traffic and traffic.  Did I say there was so much traffic here?  Today has been the worse, 2 hours to get back to the hotel and most of the time spent sitting at lights. But at least our passports and Visas are in our hands! Back to the hotel, fried rice for dinner then we treated ourselves to another foot massage, across the street from the hotel.   The girls are getting used to us and Lin’s Thai!  Mine is only a few words, but practicing with them, they don’t mind our attempts and they are using more English words.  They don’t seem as shy today.

   Tomorrow is the Wedding day, so off to bed early.

Sunrise in Thailand

4/20/15, Monday, Sunrise in Thailand

   I woke very early to make sure I got plenty of sunrise pics and was able to get a short video of all the birds singing this morning. It is so peaceful here, just listening to the wildlife, watching the sun come up over the mountains.  I could live here easily.  This is what I would have described as Thailand, before we visited.  

 Then we are heading back to Bangkok, a little shopping along the way at the floating market, an alligator show, monkey and dog shows. Oh and don't forget the camels?  

4/21/15, Tuesday, Bangkok, Thailand

  We decided to head downtown for the Vietnam Visa as we’re not sure how long it will take to get them to process it and get our passports returned.  A bit scary to hand over your passport, your only link to being able to return to the US, and not really know if you’re going to get it back.  Especially with a language barrier, we only hope they don’t lose them!!

4/22/15, Wednesday, Bangkok, Thailand-Chon Buri

Had to have a day shopping for souvenirs.  Lin is amazing at the bargaining for any items we really want.  I’m such a wimp, I want to offer them more than they say!!   

 Dinner with family tonight, a beautiful drive out to the sea, Chon Buri.  The monkeys are wild along the road, playing, begging for food from the visitors, jumping on the roofs of cars, buildings,  all holding some type of corn on the cob. The locals don’t seem to see the allure of the  monkeys!   Lots of screams at them to get off the stalls.  A few were hissing and jumping back at those trying to take pics.  I decided to take my pictures with a zoom lens. The sunset is beautiful and we gathered together for a family picture.

Just love this old couple laughing, had to have a picture with them.  The old couple is not the ones in front holding hands!!

 can you believe the colors in the sunset sky? 

4/23/15, Thursday, Bangkok, Thailand- Grand Palace

    Sight-seeing today at the Grand Palace. The Palace was established in 1782 by King Rama I.  Encompassing the royal residence, throne halls, government offices, & the renowned Temple of Emerald Buddha.  So many people were taking their shoes off and heading in to see the Buddha, but we weren’t brave enough to herd thru the crowds, maybe losing our shoes in the process!!

    We only spent a short amount of time taking pics and seeing the beauty, but  with so many people and the heat, we decided to head out to meet Fon and her father, for lunch, Museum and sight-seeing along the river.  Back to the hotel this evening, too tired for supper, so decided to splurge on a foot massage across the street from the hotel.  What a great treat!! An hour of a great massage, new friends at the massage site and practicing our Thai.