Oh, and sucks that I took so long to blog about this but on 20 Aug 06, Pat and I became proud new uncle/auntie of STAR VEDDER (yes, of Eddie Vedder), who was most probably made in Singapore or Bangkok when they visited 9 months ago. Isn’t that crazy?
I so wish to tickle those big feet right now!!
As my camera (and pix from Vietnam) is still hopping around Vietnam with Pat right now, I am unable to post photoblogs about Vietnam (and believe me, I have some good ones) right now.
Just an update on my reads of late:
Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert): finished it quite a long time ago. It’s as perfect a novel as a novel can get. It’s pretty much about a cuckoo bananas woman that fucks up lives around her because of her own self-centeredness and general cuckoo bananasness. I’ve seen those in real life. Flaubert is fabulous.
Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini): finished it in my weekend in Koh Lanta. It’s a good read in a National Geographic kinda way, i.e. it gives you an insight into Afghan culture, something completely exotic to my Singaporean and American-stained eyes. Not a great novel in any sense of the word, but its well-written and touching…“for you, a thousand times over…”
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris): It’s more touching raw pathos than laugh out loud funny, but I loved this book. For some odd reason, I didn’t quite like David Sedaris’ humour when I first read him previously and never did finish his books I think. But I just thought this collection of stories was great. David Sedaris is like a gay Bukowski…kinda. They are both brutally honest, raw, self-depraceting, no-BS, and just plain brilliant writers. Finished it while in Tioman.
Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris): So when I came home, I picked up the MTPOD that has been lying around the house for years which I for some reason never picked up. And loved it just as much. I think I love his brother. Finished it in Sapa, before the vomitting began.
Adam Bede (George Eliot): After MTPOD, I walked into a used bookstore in Hanoi looking for a new book. I picked up a dusty copy of Adam Bede and went to buy it thinking that 60,000VND was 60 cents. I realized it was 6 bucks, and not that cheap for a very used used book, but bought it anyway because it was Eliot and Eliot is invaluable. Oh, and she so is. I’m only just into the novel and it’s gripping. There’s a wonderful loving tenderness in the way Eliot writes about the characters she loves and a searing subtle way she cuts characters she hates (in the same way Flaubert disses Madame Bovary throughout). She reveals the inner workings of human mind and action in the way no one else can. And she digs your heart when tragedies occur most unnecessarily to the best of us because of the best in us.
So my father-in-law has been Wikipedia-ed.
How did that happen?
And how fucking cool is that?
Bamboo Hill again!
Family time with the in-laws. Snorkeling while others dived (one more month post-Lasik to dive). Which was a pity. Patrick got all his dives as a wedding gift from our diving instructor buddies we’ve made on the island.
Got sarong drawn. 2 dancing Chansidines surrounded by their 3 kitties, one small, medium and large.
New friends around the bonfire from M’sia, Australia, Finland, Japan, America, England, including David, the only Transvestite on the Island, which of course led to many a parallel drawn to Daffyd, the only gay in the village.
Brandee and Natalie with Finnish sisters Titta and Laura, 2 of the most beautiful (in all ways) women you’d ever meet.
I (heart) Tioman!
Food poisoning in morning. Sucked it up. The biggest tea ceremony I’ve seen. Happy happy kellykelly. Wedding dinner. Happy Happy Happy kellykelly. My husband’s smokin’. After dinner dancing dancing dancing. Verryyy tired. Verryyy happy.
Friends from/living in Singapore
Friends from USA
My very cute receptionists
Getting ready…love my hair. Got it done up at Formula Cuts Far East Plaza for S$35. Did my own makeup. Screw the thousand dollar hair/makeup packages…
Beautiful women in my life…mom, mom-in-law, sis-in-law…it’s quite obvious who’s who!
The Dress I found in 20 minutes (along with the green one in the morning).
My husband’s suit…and cropped head
I love our idea of a picture slideshow that ran all night. Who needs fake studio shots when we have thousands of photos taken over our >3yrs together with our friends and family and true moments that really matter to us? Although we spent HOURS sifting through our thousands of photos taken over the last 3 years to censor them! ;p
My wonderful beautiful bridesmaids, without whom I don’t know what I’d have done.
Happy Bliss…
The Rufnecks!!!
The Family…wish Pat’s Dad & wife could have been there…
Our very own superstar DJ KrazyKris bringing it up after the dinner
Our wonderful Tahiti photographer Florian Charread, flown in from Berkeley…
…with his girlfriend, one of my bestest friends, Jane.
Of course, any wedding shouldn’t end without a race across the chairs set up for tomorrow’s agenda.
Oh, whatta night!
Phanganburi. Awesome swimming pool. Motorbike parade again, up in the mountains. Accidents. Great food (falafel…pizzas…mmmm). Bought checkered Buddha painting. Muay Thai boxing in pouring rain. Ravers. Epic amazing night. Bunny ears that became feelers, then straws. Laughing at buddies hooking up trannies (not knowing it, of cos). Dancing till dawn.
At a restaurant on top of the mountain with outstanding view.
Biker boyz…after Hendy suffered a fall…
The picture I bought is the buddha head on the ground…it’s huge…
Off to Muay Thai boxing match, obviously tailored for the tourists, but it was brutal fun nonetheless, esp with the complete storm that turned on and off…
Full Moon Party 2006
Yes, those are Natalie’s feet…
Gotta love that hat
Classic picture at sunrise
The sun has risen
WHOOO YEEEAAAHHHH!!! This is how you celebrate a Wedding!
Bachelorette Party. Amazing hotel (Banyan Tree. Yes it was worth the US$200 a night room…esp when you can ghetto it out and split it with 4 to a suit). Amazing views. Great street food. Debauchery. Pussy blow whistle. Go-go boys. Cocks. Lots. Never think of soccer the same way ever again. Ayuthya in party bus (we had a 40-seater bus for 12 of us to take us there). Rufnecks in motorbike parade (about 10). Zoom zoom zoom. Whee!
Pussy Menu
Go-go boys pump iron by the street. Brandee & Natty show the boys how to do it
I bought my sis-in-law that T-shirt. He isn’t a go-go boy…just the dude that sold us the T-shirt.
Sleeping on the party bus to Ayuthya (yes, that’s Natalie sleeping on the floor)
Roughnecks banged up Bangkok!
Pat’s mom treated us to a weekend at fancy Pimalai Resort in Krabi as a wedding gift. All said, we enjoyed being pampered thoroughly, but also missed roughing it and riding around in scooterbikes and not paying US-type prices for things like food. It was almost like being in a beautiful prison. We were chauffeured from the airport to a private jetty to another pick-up at the Lanta jetty into the resort itself. Along the way, we bypassed loads of street food stalls and roads we wished we could motorbike at, but didn’t want to stop the van as there was another couple on our ride. We would have enough of that later in August, however.
On the wonderful sunset boat ride from Krabi to Koh Lanta
In fancy form, we were greeted with a garland of flowers and cold towels wrapped in leaves. True to Natty form, she hams it up.
View from beach-side swimming pool
Even nicer view from the top of mountain
I thought I was creative on the sand…
…Natty does a better job…
You tell ‘em boy…
Little boy walking around naked in oversized shoes
On very bumpy and VERY windy boat ride back. The winds were so strong it hurt to put my face up. Patrick gets creative with a ninja mask
Of course, the Wedding was just another excuse for the Chansidines to travel as much as possible. With about 2 dozen friends/family from USA flying in and a dozen friends flying with us from S’pore to Thailand the week before the wedding, I’m still amazed that it all happened. And then, 2 weeks after the Wedding to travel some more. Not really a honeymoon in the traditional sense of the word because it was spent mostly with family and friends. We had a few days to ourselves in incredible Sapa, 10hrs northwest of Hanoi for a little snuggle-wuggle time, then promptly interrupted with a violent bout of food poisoning that sent me hurling over the train tracks (more later). Despite that, I’m whirling over the incredible, epic, amazing time I have had and my words won’t even capture the extent of my gratitude for this life and the love I am surrounded with. Oh, and I -LOVE- my company’s 14 day marriage leave benefit. I’m going to try as much as possible to give a snapshot (or a few snapshots) of the glorious time I had. It was ‘only’ 3 weeks (excluding the weekend in Krabi) but it felt like a good 3 months. I’m blessed when time flies when I’m working, and time condenses when I’m traveling.
I’ll be posting up pictures from each leg here gradually. Haven’t got the Vietnam pictures with me now so that’ll come later.
12 Aug 06 – Singapore: Chansidine Wedding
20-21, 27 Aug 06 – Hanoi
22-24 Aug 06 – Sapa
25-26 Aug 06 – Halong Bay
It’s been slightly more than 2 months since I went for LASIK surgery. Since then, I have been to Krabi, Bangkok, Koh Phangan, Tioman, Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay. And I must say right now that having done LASIK has been spectacularly wonderful.
The dryness has subsided, my eyesight is clear. While the ghosting in the right eye is still slightly there, it has improved and the ghosting in the left eye has all but disappeared. I can’t tell you how lovely it’s been to travel so much without worrying about my contacts, calculating whether I should put it on when, wondering where to put my glasses in the moving train to Sapa, not worrying about my glasses flying off as I bend over the railway tracks in Sapa to vomit violently (food poisoning), jumping off the junk into Halong Bay as and when I wished, snorkel in Tioman without having the salt-water make my contacts-eyes itch, etc.
Will post pix from all the travels sans glasses/contacts soon.
It was so worth it.
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