Part II of the ceremony: the bridegroom has to prove he is rich enough for his bride and deserving of her. Much of the ceremonies will remain a mistery for me but the overall impression is of a happily lived and professed religousness, with many rituals (handbinding) inbedded in the ceremony.
The parade
A lot of gold has to be paid!
Sasi has to be coaxed out of the bedroom
The riches the bridegroom offers
Gifts (mostly money) are presented, Walti represents our group and gives them our model sofa!
And there is somebody who is unaware of all that is happening:
What are they all doing out in that heat? Let me sleep!
Back to the hotel at 12, we all look forward to going to the pool on the 4th floor and recharge our batteries for the wedding party tonight.
Go up to the room and change again! I wear a long light grey linen dress with the new Hemisphere cashmere cobweblike shawl with the same blingbling shoes, Rebecca rather daring in her lace tights, grey dress and high heels in the beginning.
We leave at 5 for the wedding party,enjoy the now very familiar ride to Phichit.
Tonight the bride wears a beautifully tailored white gown with a long trail and the bridegroom a dark grey suit, including waistcoat!
The newlyweds with Sasi’s parents and Kittipon
It is crazy: there is a huge stage set up on the big open space (used for rice drying) and tables (square ones for the VIPs and round ones for the normal guests) feeding between 1’200 and 1’500 people.
There is an amateur group of dancers and singers from Chiang Mai performing, a solid 5 hours of constant costume changes, we have never seen so much glitter before. Their maestro is a veritable drama queen, rather rotund, his secret wish must have been to be an Egyptian bellydancer, together with the singing skills of an Arab professional mourner! But with an uncurbable will to perform and please!
A high ranking politician is giving a speech, he must be very important as he is accompanied by 4 bodyguards. Would not want to encounter them in the dark.
The night the moskitos attacked! Unbelievable, as darkness sets in billions of moskitos are appearing out of nowhere and start a massive attack, they have no shame and go anywhere exploring every opening. This is a flying hell vision from Bosch, at first we all think that only we Europeans are the victims, or behave so stupidly and feel ashamed of our uncontrolled arm flapping and other movements but those moskitos are of a fair species believing in equality and spare nobody! This lasts for about 2 hours, then they are gone and we can finally relax.
We are seated at the ViP table No. 1. As Kittipon’s parents do not speak any English they could not seat them the traditional way, so there is a Thai family table and a mixed Swiss and Thai family and close friends’ table.
Sasi and Patrick go on stage and they are interviewed by our maestro and a lovely woman, they have to tell their love story and what they wish for in their marriage. Very entertaining, it is very intimate and yet sweetly innocent. They even kiss in public (only on the cheek)!
Delicious food and an endless flow of drinks (the waiters and waitresses constantly fill up the glasses). The Thai guests disappear as soon as they have eaten. In the end it us foreigners and the family.
The bus takes a happy and very tired group back to the hotel in Phitsanulok.
Thank you, Sasi and Patrick, for a memorable day and night we will never forget. Bless you!