Family and Friends

Brenton's off on his 4 month bike ride from India to Australia. Lucky bugger to get such a holiday - I'm sure I'll catch him as he rides through Thailand. Check out his blog for details.

I've lost a couple of close family members over the past few weeks. In May, after having his leg amputated earlier in the year, Bill Hanel (my uncle) succumbed to health problems due to diabetes. And last week, after having a hip operation during the day, my grandfather, Jack Barnes, passed away. He was 94 years old.

Rest in peace - Grandad and Uncle Bill.

The main reason for going home to Australia was to attend my brother's, Peter, wedding to Allison. I was best man, so couldn't really miss it. The wedding ceremony was held in a local vineyard. It rained most days up to the wedding, and rain was also forecast for the wedding day. But it turned out to be almost perfect weather, with no rain and comfortable temperature.

While the groom (Pete), groomsmen (me and Brett) and guests waited at the vineyard, the bride (Allison) arrived with her father and bridesmaids on horse and cart. After the official ceremony and many photos, we cracked our first beer, and the wedding party travelled in the carts to Pete and Allison's new house (currently under construction) for more photos, drinks and snacks. Then after a few more photo stops, we made our way to the Barn Palais for the reception dinner.

It was a great night, with perhaps the best food I've eaten at an Australian wedding and plenty of beer and wine. Pete and Ally went on their honeymoon to Tasmania the day after the wedding. However, to ensure they started their married life with a smile on their faces, someone went into their hotel room during the reception and made their room a little more 'comfortable'. All of the toilet paper and tissues were removed from the room (well, not removed, just soaked in water then placed in the freezer), and breakfast was prepared (that is, a large container of cornflakes and weetbix were crushed in their bed). Many people assumed that it was me that did such nasty things, but people may be surprised as to who the real culprit(s) were ...

Some of the photos from the wedding and reception are in the gallery. More may come when the official photographer releases her photos.

On 26 March I returned home to Australia for the first time since arriving in Thailand 18 months ago. This was a 2 week holiday, with most time spent catching up with family and friends in Kongorong, working on the farm, and doing a little bit of local sightseeing. Photos of people, places, animals, food and more are in the gallery.

Wan was visiting Bangkok over the past week, so I took the opportunity to get out and about, both to some new places around Bangkok as well as back to some visited too long ago.

Photo Gallery

Wat Phra Keow

This area is the main tourist destination in Bangkok, and for good reason. Many excellent buildings, the emerald Buddha and royal palace. It was hot with plenty of tourists, but definitely worth a second visit.

Wat Pho

The giant reclining Buddha is the star attraction here, but I took more notice of the maze of pagodas and buildings around the complex this time. This is a good place to walk around for an hour or two (bring an umbrella), then eat across the road at one of the small street restaurants and finally get a massage.

The Wat Pho massage is well known, mainly because they have classes for learning how to massage. I had a body massage which was ok, but not as good as Hua Hin, nor Zeer Rangsit. At 360 Baht it is bit on the expensive side as well.

Saxophone: Jazz Bar and Restaurant

A few of my friends go to Saxophone quite often, so I figured I would check it out. Its a farang-oriented jazz place at Victory Monument. Its got a nice dark pub atmosphere (similar to English/Irish pubs in Australia), some ok food, good music and plenty of cocktails. As you may expect for this combination, its a bit pricey, but worth a visit. Apparently it gets very crowded after 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights.

Cowboy House

An outdoor pub/restaurant in Klong Luang, Pathumthani, about 5 minutes taxi ride from Thammasat Rangsit. Has some good food, beer and often a guy playing popular English songs on guitar. Almost opposite the nightclub/restaurant/live band place which I think is called Bang Pleeng.

Talad Thai

I have been 3 or 4 times already. This time we went about 6am and bought some prawns to cook for breakfast. I must go more often, as it takes about an hour (and 80 baht) to go there, buy some food and get back to my room. It will be even more convenient when I get my car ...

Buddhamonthon

Also known as Phutthamonthon, this is a large religious site and park in Nakhon Pathom, with the main attraction being the 16 metre standing bronze gold Buddha. The park is very nice, and there is supposed to be some excellent flower gardens somewhere (I think they had just been removed when I went). We caught a taxi there, which is a problem because its such a large park that you need a bicycle (there are none for hire) or car to cover all of it. Although there was a cafeteria, I recommend going with a picnic hamper.

Don Whai Riverside Market

After wandering around Buddhamonthon, we went to the nearby Don Whai Riverside Market. It was a very popular market, selling a mostly fresh food, snacks and small knick-knacks. We went on a 1 hour boat tour up the river, viewing some of the riverside homes (both old style and new three storey houses), eating fresh ice cream and feeding some fish. There are some restaurants on the river, and duck is a speciality.

Khun Noi, a member of staff at SIIT (and my part-time Thai language teacher), got married today. The wedding was in her brother's home in Rayong. About 10 of us from SIIT took a day off work and had a day trip to the eastern area of Thailand.

A van was organised to leave Thammasat Rangsit campus at 6am, but some of the girls took longer than planned to put on their makeup, and we left sometime closer to 7am. It was a 2 and half hour trip, mainly via a multi-lane motorway. For the first hour it was quite rowdy, with a stream of gossip between the 8 girls. But people soon fell asleep, making for a peaceful trip. We arrived just in time for the groom's arrival at the house (walking from the neighbours house).

There was an official ceremony inside (we actually missed the Buddhist monks ceremony at 7:30am). The bride and groom exchanged rings, the groom handed over a wad of cash and some family members said a few words. Then all the guests gave their best wishes to the newly wed couple.

Then the celebrations: an informal but delicious banquet lunch outside, as well as photos and mingling between the guests.

The wedding was over by about 1pm, so the group of us from SIIT had a quick stop at the beach and then headed into a market in Rayong for some shopping. I made the mistake of buying only one packet of durian chips - they are delicious!

It was a great wedding, and nice mid-week day trip. Check out the photos in the gallery.

After some corn flakes and bananas for breakfast (the first time I've eaten cereal for almost 1 year), Mum, Dad and I headed into the big smoke - Bangkok.

Mum and Dad arrived last night for their 3 week holiday in Thailand. This is their first visit to Thailand (and Asia), and luckily I have some time off to show them around.

I met them at Suvarnabhumi Airport (ท่าอากาศยานนานาชาติกรุงเทพ-สุวรรณภูม) at about 10:30pm last night. This was my first visit to the new Bangkok airport and it seemed ok. However one small thing I didn't like about the arrivals was that there are two sides that the passengers can go when they meet people waiting for them. That is, when passengers finish with customs and stuff, they can go left or right into the public area. With such a big area, and the possibility of people everywhere, if they go left (and I'm waiting on the right side) it would be quite hard to meet each other. Anyway, it was no problems (not so many people at the arrival gate), and we got out the airport pretty quick.