Royal Palace

Highlight for the day was a visit to the Royal Summer Palace - more for tourists today than an operational palace, this was a huge construction laid out one floor above the ground making it a well ventilated and cool place to be. The timber walkways were really impressive. The king does spend time here over the summer. A navy gun boat patrols the coast when he is in residence.

Sea Food

One of the things I really enjoy about Thailand is the food - so much variety and so full of flavour! On our way from Bangkok to Hua Hin we stopped off at a seafood restaurant (Sung Wean seafood restaurant) on the seashore - literally! What a feast we had - crab, squid, sea food salads and more.

Later in the evening we went to the night market and ate banana roti - there was no room for anything else after that!

Hua Hin

Jib and Mac drove us in a ten-seater van to Jib's father's condominium at Hua Hin. This is a massive place - 5 double bedrooms! We are on the 5th floor and have a lovely view of the ocean and the huge swimming pool below.

Dionne, Quinn, Duncan and Myrna stayed in a condo next door; that one owned by Jib's mum.
This is a picture of Jib with her mum and dad.

Jib and Mac's Wedding

This was a really grand affair held in the the Grand Hyatt Erewan - a place one visits rather than stays at! It was truly grand so we took lots of photos to prove we had been there!



Check out the hotel's web site:

http://www.bangkok.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp



The wedding ceremonies were equally grand and fascinating starting with a Chinese tea ceremony followed by a traditional Thai ceremony.





See this website for an explanation of the Chinese ceremony which was mainly for Macs family: http://www.chinabridal.com/etiquette/tea.htm



The Thai wdding ceremony is called ROD-NAM-SANG. It is the main event where both the bride and the bridegroom's family get together. They witness this important event. Both the bridge and the bridegroom will sit close together on the floor (or small stage) with their hands held in WAI style.



A flower chain connects the hands. Jib's parents led the event. They started to pour water over Mac and Jib's hands, blessed them and wished them good luck. The water is contained in a conch shell. Usually, only selected people like close friends and close relatives will be invited to the ROD-NAM-SANG event.



The dinner party started around 6 pm; the bride and the bridegroom with their parents stood in front of the function room greeting and welcoming the guests.



Before this guests went to register their name at reception area. They signed the guest-book wishing good luck for the couple.



Guests had their photograps taken with the bride and the bridegroom.



During the evening there was a reception made up of eating lots of wonderful foods and listening to a series of speeches. It was a shame our Thai wasn't good enough to take it all in as it sounds as if there was lots of humour in the speeches.



The Master of Ceremonies (MC) started the formal ceremony. The MC invited both the bride and the bridegroom to the floor. A wedding Flower is presented to them by the parent of the bridegroom.



The MC called for the guest of honour to give the speech for the bride and groom. The guest of honour in this case was a reresentative of the king.



The cake was an enormous thing standing almost two metres high. Jib and Mac used a sabre to cut it.



Jib and Mac looked really pretty and handsome.

MBK

The MBK centre is huge and a challenge for even the most ardent shopperholic! I have been here twice now and still find eplring the MBK something of a marathon or should that be 'tryathlon?' Tow hours at a time is pleanty for me!It's hard to describe it to friends but visit the website below for some well chosen photos/video clips to get some idea of what you have to look forward to.

http://www.mbk-center.com/en/vdo_presentation/index.php

There are heaps of bargains to be had here and it makes a clean, air conditoned alternative to the street markets.

Christmas Party

The hotel put on a Xmas party for guests. Lynne and I went along and were greeted at the door with a Xmas hat which were happily donned - no-one here knows us! Great food, plenty to drink and good music. There were lucky draws during the evening - but we didn't win one. However our skill with darts saw us win a can of coke and a large soft Xmas toy - really needed one of those!

Tailor

I couldn't resist visiting a tailor and now own 2 new suits and a jacket! The prices was very friendly especially compared with wha I would pay at home. Measured on Tuesday evening, fitted on Wednesday evening and picked up on Thursday evening - not bad I think.

Centre Point Petchburi

Jib checked us into this wonderful hotel http://www.bangkok.com/centrepetchburi/
We have 4 rooms between us and seem to be be having hui in different rooms from time to time.


Breakfasts are something else! Enough to keep your ribs apart for the rest of the day. Yesterday we passed on lunch and had a light meal in the evening at a nearby family restuarant - very cheap.

Next stop - MBK shopping Centre.

Yesterday we had Xmas dinner in a private room at the Oishi Japanese buffet restaurant at Siam Discovery. Apart from the 'hundreds' of dishes to choose from as 'ready to eat' you could also select from a range of meat and seafoods and have the chefs cook them for you. Everything was scrumptious! Jib's dad had sent along some wine for us to drink with lunch. Having a private room was great for Quinn - at least we could contain her - boy is she active.

Singapore

We arrived in Singapore at about 2:30 pm yesterday after a four hour stop over in Hong Kong. Quinn, Dionne and Duncan were at the airport to meet us - it was lovely to see them.

Lisa and Barry, owners of an apartment in the complex held a Christmas party to which we were invited. Great opportunity to meet some other people in the complex.

Lasted until 8:30 pm before travel weariness caught up with us and we had to leave the party while it was still in its early hours!

Today was a lazy one with Duncan and I going into the city to check out a big screens special. However by the time we got there the real bargains had gone. We returned home via the Katong mall where we met up with Dionne, Quinn and Lynne for lunch - calamari, fish and prawn rice and a lovely chicken dish.