Teaching English in Thailand: Thai wedding

A few words of introduction

For a few reasons I believe that the timing of my volunteer program is just perfect. One of them is that I had the opportunity to attend a Thai wedding J I love foreign weddings, I attended a few and can definitely say that wedding is the place to get to know a lot about the culture, traditions and of course – about the food of the country!

This wedding took place in the most eastern province of Thailand – Ubon Ratchathani, close to the border with Laos. We left the school after lunch convinced that we have 4 hours of driving ahead of us. With some small complications on the road it appeared to be 8 long hours instead. I have to admit that this evening I experienced my first cultural shock asking myself “what the hell am I doing here” for a few times. First time was still in the car. We were lost and without proper navigation, tired, the roads were dark, there was nobody outside to ask for directions and in those circumstances we drove through a jungle for one hour trying to find the house of the bride. The roads after floods in the region were quite difficult to pass without proper car (no need to mention that we didn’t have one), but luckily even after crossing the road sign “road closed due to flood” finally we found our destination. What a relief! The family welcomed us nicely with a dinner and shortly after we went together to our accommodation. The houses were located in beautiful scenery, in the jungle, just at the river and small waterfalls. Since we arrived late at night we couldn’t see all of it, but calm sound of a waterfall was there as a proof. Our house was very basic, but had everything we needed to get some well-deserved rest. Bathroom had some funny decorations inside – a tree and a huge spider (size of my feast), all to make the indoor look like you’re in the nature. As much as I liked the tree in there I found the spider idea very strange, as some people might be afraid of it… And so, just to make sure it was a plastic spider I touched it… when it started running around the bathroom wall!!! I was shocked and scared… I’ve never seen a spider this size and not in my bathroom after a long and already tiring day! As the boyfriend of my friend couldn’t find the spider back when I called him to rescue, they decided that we change the rooms so we get a clean (of spiders) room. Much appreciated. So thinking that nothing else will surprise me that night I was going to bed when I received a mysterious message from a friend – “I hope you’re safe there with the typhoon coming”… I didn’t check the news on that day, so I didn’t know which typhoon I should be afraid of. Internet connection in my accommodation was horrible, so I could hardly connect to any website. All I found was one article about a super strong typhoon in the Philippines (Haiyan) which could also reach other countries, including the border regions of Thailand and Laos… Being exactly the location where I was staying for the weekend! Knowing that I was in the middle of nowhere (one road, no lights, no civilization), in a place with risk of that typhoon according to the article I started to imagine scenes from the news & movies about the catastrophes in Asian countries… Mix of tiredness and discomfort in that place (plus the exact description of the location from the internet) made me really believe that something bad is coming. It was a horrible night! I wasn’t able to sleep until very late and finally totally exhausted I got a few hours of rest. I had to wake up early and thank god I received a call that the typhoon lost a lot of its power and there is nothing to worry about (thank you Baby for staying up till late to give me the updates, you’re the best :* ).

This story made me appreciate my life more and even miss my work for the first time since I arrived here ;-) Now it sounds fun to say it to you, but at that night it wasn’t fun at all to me… But I shook of quickly from negative emotions and did my best to start the wedding celebrations in good mood. J The morning at our accommodation was so peaceful – we had breakfast at a wooden terrace above the river, a beautiful place:

The wedding

Thai wedding consists of two parts: a morning traditional Thai ceremony at a house of the bride and an evening dinner prepared in western style. We arrived to bride’s house around 7:30 in the morning, had a Thai breakfast there (rice and chicken) and waited for the groom. Close family of the bride gathered in the house and soon after the family of the groom arrived walking through the village until the door of the girl. The groom had to go through a symbolic gate to enter to the house of the bride. He then met the bride. Both of them looked stunning. She was wearing a traditional costume in beige-brown colors with handmade embroidered patterns and beautiful Thai jewelry and he was wearing a white uniform used by Thai men for special occasions. The ceremony started with a blessing of parents and close family members. Each of them said a few words to the couple and poured holly water on their hands.

Shortly after we moved to another part of the house where all family members could enter and pray for the new weds. The family prepared a kind of tree made of banana leafs, next to which they put a few offerings for the happiness of the couple. In a very cheerful atmosphere they sang songs, said prayers and blessings. At some point the father handed across the room a ball of thread and once everyone held a part of the thread in their hands they started prayers. I found this an interesting symbol of unity. After the prayers the family cued to give their wishes together with a few banknotes for a good start of married life to the couple. They have a very interesting way of doing it, namely you wrap the banknotes with some floss and tie this “bracelet” on the wrist of the bride and the groom. As a result, they finish the ceremony with wrists full of bracelets with banknotes which afterwards they take out to count the money together with their parents. Next step is also related to money – the parents of the groom hand over a pile of money to the parents of the bride – this is to provide the new weds with some cash for the beginning of their family life.

Below some more pictures from the traditional part of the wedding:

We spent the afternoon relaxing and walking around the river in our resort. It was a very quiet and abandoned place, we haven’t met anyone and hardly saw the owner of the place, but it was perfect like that J

The evening ceremony took place at a school nearby, where the bride’s father was a teacher. We met the new weds at the entrance. She was wearing a beautiful white dress and he a white suit, they looked very happy. There were around 250 guests, all sat at round tables of 6-8 people. The place looked beautiful, decorated with white and pink colors and with a big stage in the front. Based on what I heard before I expected traditional Thai dancing performances, but what I saw was far from traditional Thai dance. A group of girls dressed in shiny provocative costumes (bras and tiny skirts) were dancing a quite erotic dance in front of all guests. What made it even more awkward was the fact that guys were approaching the stage to give tips to their favorite dancers… It reminded me more strip club scenes than a wedding dance, but no one seemed surprised. Funny! In the meantime while dance shows and greetings took place at the stage we enjoyed a delicious dinner with seafood, fish, meat, rice and fruits for dessert. I have to admit that as a Polish girl I expected more food and more contact with guests at the wedding. Over there the new weds spent most of the evening at the stage and eventually walked by all tables to take a photo with all guests. The party was over and most people left within 2 hours, so this was very very different from a Polish wedding J

The day after

Fun part of the wedding started actually the morning after… When going to take breakfast we met a group of wedding guests continuing the party with drinking, singing and playing guitar. We joined them in the singing and spent a great morning having fun and socializing with them. They were very open and fun, tried to speak and sing English for me – and I have to admit that after some whisky their language skills got better. They also taught me how to play one of their local instruments, giving a lovely soft sound. I loved this morning, it was so spontaneous and full of fun!!! At the end my new friends gave me this instrument with a special dedication ‘for Pau’ :)