August 12-13, 2010 So this past week we had a 4 day weekend due to the Queen's Birthday on Thursday (and then the government subsequently deciding that Friday should also be a day off)--works for me! So, Wednesday found Me and Josie at one of our places, RCA, for one of our friend's birthdays which turned out to be a fun night of good food and dancing. Thursday found us awake and ready for a roadtrip South. Josie, our Thai friend, Jade, and I hopped in Jade's car and made our way about 340 km (4 hrs) down the gulf side of the peninsula to a place called Baan Kruud. It was a really beautiful area nestled up against a moun
tain, amid a forest of palm trees, along an expanse of light sand beach. Reason for Baan Kruud? Wedding Crashing--Jade's best friend from university was getting married. Yes, Josie and I were living out a much desired dream ever since Owen and Vince presented the idea in everyone's favorite wedding movie. Well lemme just say that wedding crashing does in fact start out a little awkwardly and is made even more awkward when you are the only white people at an all Thai wedding. So, we decided to abandon our plans of creating fake names and fake backstories and trying to a do bit more blending than being the life of the party :) It turned out to be a great night, a little different than an American wedding, but really nice. 
It was at an outdoor venue overlooking the ocean and the sunset that night was beautiful. The wedding had a white and blue theme, so all the guests were wearing some of one or the other and all the decor was of the same scheme. The eveneing was pretty much spent at one's table watching video montages and listening to some speeches (Josie and I clapped with everyone else and even conjured up a couple fake laughs when someone 
told a joke--aka we didn't understand what was being said.) Others braved the karaoke machine which projected over the sound system and at one point a really 'good' singer had the dogs barking nearby! We were seated at a table with 2 couples of Jade's university friends so we had fun getting to know them and of course, what would a Thai wedding be without immense amounts of food and drink. I think we had 10 different dishes brought out with everything from fish stomach soup to noodles to pork shins to sticky rice and taro. Not everything was our favorite food in the world, but with so much variety we definitely did not go home hungry. The next day we woke up and enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast and made our way
to a gorgeous temple at the top of a mountain with an equally stunning view of the ocean's green water as it blended into the palm tree expanse. There was an enormous golden buddha statue and, as you walked up a set of long and never-ending stairs, you were greeted by the wat and it's red, 
green and gold adornments. It was a really cool experience not only because of the view, but because we went with Jade and his friends from university and got to watch them going through the motions of paying respects to Buddha and the different subsets of the temple. After this we made our way north to Hua Hin (but not first without a stop at a road side eating spot with amazing grilled fish and chicken!) It's nice to travel with a Thai person who knows the best things to order and the best places to go.
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