Following the wedding, we go back to Bangkok and have a few days there, a few days in Pattaya and then we book our coach to take us to Chiang Mai in the north. Neither of us have been to that part of Thailand before so we're very much looking forward to it.

This is hopefully the start of 3 months travelling, first in the north, then slowly working back to Bangkok before heading West to the coast. We'll be attending Filip and Patty's wedding in Khao Lak on February 20th and then beach bumming for a month or so

But first, a 9-hour coach ride north...

Following the parade to, and the acceptance into, the bride's house the wedding ceremony takes place:

Then, once the ceremony is over, onto the photgraphs:

Some words from the bride and groom:

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and then the feast :

The giving of presents to family and friends:

and then the party:

The parade is a tradition of NE Thailand/Surin and it involves the groom and his relations parading, with offerings of gifts, food and drink to the bride's.

The parade then sing, dance and proceed to the bride's house and offer the gifts to the bride:

These are (it is hoped :-), of course, accepted:

Once all the gifts have been given the wedding ceremony then takes place.

Once the monks arrive we are allowed into the room to observe proceedings and to watch and pray .

And then there is the offering of food to the monks. First it is the giving of rice:

and then it is the actual offering of the alms bowls:

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This then concludes the blessing and the next part is the parade by the groom and his family.

An early rise to be back up at Moo's mother's house for 6 am. Food preparation and cooking has been going on all night and is still in full swing when we arrive:

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The monks are due to arrive at 0630 and it'll hopefully give me enough time to get some coffee inside of me.

The minibus is booked for 1 pm today and it's a full load on the 6 or 7-hour journey to Damm's bride, Moo's, mother's house near Chantaburi.

It's a fairly pleasant journey but the minibus driver (a guy in his early-mid twenties) is obviously more mutton than me as he has to play his music loud. Now I appreciate the whole generation difference thing but when the average age of the people in your van is older thna me you'd think he'd play something a bit more mellower wouldn't you?

Ah well, still moaning Crowley!

Arrived around 8 pm at night and ate food prepared for us by Moo's mother and also a few whisky and coke's before a load more relatives arrived from Bangkok around 11 pm (and then we had a few more whisky and coke's).

Then off to the hotel for some well-deserved kip (and air con for the first time since I arrived :-)

Every year they have Children's Day in Thailand. This is a half-day event run at one of the schools in the district and this year it incorporates 3 schools into one event.

Though it's raining (for the first time since I got here) we head off along the back roads and tracks to the school avoiding the holes, drop, stops and other hazards.

The school event is well attended:

and most of the shows/displays are very good and some are actually quite funny:

At the end, the district MP gives a speech and I find out that I am the first Westerner ever to have visited a Children's Day here.

Out on the moped today and into Prasat. We go the back roads as the main roads can be a little crazy over here, plus it's the first time in over 15 years that I've been on a motorised-two wheeler and the old skills ain't quite recovered yet.

We have noodles in one of Jane's favourite eating places and then go for a short walk into the center of Prasat and do the bank, mini-mart and other things.

It's amazing what you can see when you're walking down the street here:

An early start for all (though not for a lot of the relatives who ahve been up all night preparing and the food for the event) and the sun is shining.

Events such as these always have a meaning in Thai culture and things happening during the day, before and after the ceremony are all a reason. Jane's mum has purchased and prepared a huge amount of food and my initial thoughts of my healthy appetite preceeding me are soon lost when people start arriving and sit down for breakfast.

The cermony for เรียกขวัญ starts around 7 am and the front room of the house is a crowded affair.

I obviously can't follow the cermony but Jane keeps telling me what is happening and it is all very respectful but relaxed.

At the end, everyone gives a gift of money to the groom, this is a wish for wealth during the marriage and is performed by tying notes to the wrist.

Then the blessing:

Then everyone proceeds outside to eat and make merry.

As people leave they are presented with a large bag of food to take home, hence the quantity of food cooked.

่เรียกขวัญ is a cultural ceremony that is performed in the NE of Thailand before a wedding.

Thai people there believe that a marriage can be a worrying event for some people and there is a chance that the bride or groom's spirit may be wandering in the preceeding days.

This ceremony, performed by a person specialising in these matters, calls the spirit back to the person and they can then be comforted and soothed in preparation for the wedding. If the bride and groom live close-by this is often done the day before the wedding, if not, it happens at the closest date before the marriage as determined by astrological signs.

It is attended by family and friends of Damm's family and is my first time at such an event.

The food purchasing and preparation is begun days ahead:

and Jane's mum's family rally around to help prepare and cook:

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After an hour or so I hear extremely loud music very close so decide to get up.

Damm has music on and it's playing through a speaker the size of something that Lemmy & Co would have. A few of their relatives are there and they're drinking beer, Thai whiskey and getting into the spirit of things nice and early (or is it?)

The inevitable karaoke starts and though I'm not loathe to singing the odd song or two I have difficulty in making myself understood about the whole idea with karaoke being is that you try and sing the songs you actually know - as most of the songs everyone else are singing are Thai or Cambodian artists it's a little difficult for me. As such I have to gracefully decline.

Fortunately, later on another one of the villagers arrives with his laptop. He is a teacher and teaches IT/computers at a local school and he has karaoke software on his laptop that has a lot of 'western' songs - over to me then!

At around 10 pm it's presents-time. Everyone has brought a present for someone else and all are placed, numbered on the table.

---

The next hour or so is drawing a number and then presenting your gift to the lucky winner.

After that the children and wives kind of disappear and then it's time for the men to carry on drinking and singing - quiet night really :-)

Finally filters out around 1 am (for me), of course I put it down to jetlag

Jane's there to meet me along with her brother Damm and two of her sisters' children, Lom and Am.

I thought Buriram was closer to Surin than this but we stop for lunch by the reservoir and have somtam and some chicken - delicious!

Afterwards it's straight to Jane's mothers' house and then, after 52 hours travelling, it's time for a siesta as it could be a long night.

Taxi from the hotel to Don Mueang and at security I get the, "Cant take that on board!"

This is, of course (as always), referring to the CO2 cylinder for my lifejacket.

"Yes I can, it's exactly the same as the ones in the aircrafts lifejackets."

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can!"

(Escalates to the airport check-in desk)

--- Phone call ---

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can! If you're telling me I have to take this out and can't take it on the plane then you have to remove everyone in the jackets ON THE PLANE "

Show her the cylinder, detached from the jacket, clearly marked CO2.

--- Silence! Thinking! escalation to supervisor ---

Supervisor listens, smiles, makes a phone call.

"Yes you can sir, where would you like to sit!

Thank you

It was a long wait at Cairo and another 5.5 hour wait at Mumbai but we get into Suvarnhabumi Airport pretty much on time.

I was expecting it to be busy but have neve seen an immigration line like this, anywhere. It's a free-for-all for the first 20-30 metres with just a mob and then it's orderly lines, every ne of them, as far as I can see, is open.

As such it takes an hours or so to clear but my bag's waiting for me.

Straight to the taxi rank and get my ticket for the taxi: the fare is 50 baht on top of the meter charge - this is the standard airport surcharge here and is 'normal'.

As soon as I get in the taxi the driver turns to me and says, "400 baht."

Now I've done this journey once or twice now and I know how much it's going to cost (150 baht, 200 max) so tell him "No, meter!" (in Thai).

At this he goes into the old, I'm not sure where it is, do you know where it is...normal taxt driver crap - in my experience this happens in a lot of places. I'm too tired to argue so phone Jane and then pass the phone to him. Quickly enough we're off, straight to the hotel and it's 160 baht (+50 = 210)). A smile, a wish of Happy New Year and he's on his way.

Up to the room and then across the room to the min-mart to get a refresher - boy am I knackered!

We land at Cairo after a pleasant 1-hour flight and after retrieving my bag go through to the main airport entrance. I go to the EgyptAir desk and explain the situation.

"There are no storage facilities for bags at this airport [smile]!"

"But I was told....!"

"Sorry sir!"

"So I have to sit here for 12 hours with my bag?"

"Yes!"

"AAAArrrrgggghhhh!!!"

I was planning on going on a 5-6 hour trip to see the pyramids and the sphinx but now I'm not - what joy!

Check-in doesn't open until 3-hours before the flight and I'm stuck! Cairo International airport is not a good airport to get stuck at, take it from me!

I sent my mate Akmed (from the Clipper Race) an email from the yacht about my stopover but have had no reply so it's probably gone intop his 'junk' email or he's gone back to the UK for Christmas. Am pleased I have some good books with me.

A couple of days before I left the UK for Thailand in August I went into the LloydsTSB branch in Gorleston to report that my cash card was not working.

I spoke to one of the bank teller's and was told that my card had been stopped but she couldn't give me a reason why??

I ordered a new card but didn't need a new PIN. This would be waiting for me on my return - no it wasn't!

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To cut a long story very short, this teller in August changed my home address to a fictitious local address. Thing is, she didn't do it once, she did it twice, in the same day!

Now, this is a bank, they hold my money and, in these days of serious risk of identity fraud, she changes my details without any authorisation from me, realises she's made a mistake and then changes the address again. Only problem is, she doesn't change it to my actual address, she changes it to another fictitious local address.

----

Now let's look at this. She works in a bank realises she's made a mistake and rather than make any steps to actually rectify it, i.e. contact a supervisor or even perhaps contact me to find out what my actual address is, she changes my address to something totally different - I might add that I have never lived at either of these two addresses - and lloydsTSB think this is acceptable?

Not only that but they then send my card to this new address!!!

Fortunately I never requested a PIN because I think that though there are a lot of decent people in this world, the chances are that Christmas would've come early for some one!

Not only is it hard to believe that this has happened - not once, but twice - but I find it equally hard to believe that this has actually been allowed to happen! An employee can just change your details without any authorisation or request from the customer!

I have written a very snotty letter to LloydsTSB, unfortunately I'll have to wait untill I return to the UK for the reply.

Moved out of the appartment today and over to Jane's condo 'deeper' in Bangkok :-)

Been here at Sitara Place for 4 months now and it has proved convenient for Jane getting to and from work. Also convenient for the underground but the actual 15 minute walk to the MRT is slightly longer than the 3 minute walk advertised on their website.

Must've been a typo

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Robert Binyon, 1869-1943

Miss you dad!

Jane starts her 10-day veggie/vegan detox/diet today. Good luck to her but I'm staying carnivorous

Read my first paragraph in Thai today

"So what!", I hear you mutter.

"Great step for me."

My old 60 GB ipod which I took on the Clipper Race and which got battered about after flying across the yacht after one too many tacks needs a new battery.

Even though the battery was u/s it the iPod was okay to use in the base station up until recently.

Went to the iPod shop in Fortune Town and they said it would be 900 THB for the new battery and to come back in about an hour.

As I was off to my Thai language class I said I'd pick it up later on that afternoon.

A few hours later, supposedly all done, it turns out that the same problem still exists!!!

Back to the shop a few days later and this time I stay there while they do the work. This time I actually get asked some questions, i.e. do I use Windows or a MAC? Do I have a backup of all songs on the iPod, etc.

Obviously nothing was done the first time and they just took the foreigners money!!

This time they did it Still didn't work though

Without boring you with the details it took me a week to recover the entire disk. Would say I got about 95% of it all back and 100% of the important stuff.

A big lesson there is for backups as I'm totally fed up with wasting time with all this crap. I needed a new drive to be able to recover the old one so now will do my best to implement a [fairly] regular schedule

That's me by the way!

Jane was at work early today so having decided to reinstall and readily armed with coffee and my XP Pro dvd I started...

Install was exactly the same as the previous time, took no longer only this time I partitioned at 30 GB for C.

Booted up and Windows starts...now to install the network, graphics, video, audio drivers for the laptop, all of which are safely backed up on DVD and on my 500 GB Western Digital external hard drive...which is still plugged in to the USB port!

It's not visible in Explorer so I 'safely remove hardware', delete the drivers from within 'System' and reboot. On startup, plug the USB cable back in and the popups tell me it has installed and is ready to go

Open up Explorer and...no sign of it?

Okay, no worries, where's the DVD, I can reinstall the drivers from that, then go online and browse the forums...where's the DVD? Not in Thailand!!! I must have left it in the UK - merde!

So, go through the usual fault finding and cannot resolve it so now need some expert assistance.

Unfortunately I have no way of connecting to the internet to download the network drivers which I have to have in order to be able to connect to the internet [via my laptop]

I can however, browse via iPhone.

From posts on various sites, it appears that somehow the Master Boot Record has been wiped/trashed and that's why the problem is as is.

Nothing has been installed to, or deleted from the hard drive so I know from past experience that the data is still there, just got to recover it now...

I do have data recovery software just unfortunate that it is with my recovery disks IN THE UK

...Tomorrow's just another day.

I reinstalled with XP Pro, SP3 and installed the latest Office, Adobe and other 'stuff' and cannot believe the size of some of these applications now: nearly 2GB for Adobe Acrobat Pro!!!

Having partitioned my C drive at 20 GB it was no way big enough so it looks like I may have to do this all again else create additional problems. Ah well, a job for another day.

Was wondering the other day (as I sometimes do) where things disappear to. You know, socks, loose change, notes and all the other items that just aren't there any more.

Where do they go and why have they gone? They can't just disappear, or can they?

Looking at my laptop's hard drive I was racking my brain trying to find where all the 'space' had gone.

The drive is physically still there, 'Properties' shows me as having 13 GB free space (meaning I've 'used' 39 GB of space). But searching ALL my files, I have actually only used 21 GB of data, where has the other 18 GB gone?

After defragging, running checkdisk, etc, and after searching and reading the user forums, the consensus is that this is caused by a corrupt hard disk.

Time to reinstall then...

I decided to add a new category as I seem to spend so much time these days rectifying/reinstalling/redoing things with either my laptop or iPhone these days.

In the UK I use Vodafone as my provider. I have to admit I ask myself why a few times but there you have it, probably due to the number I guess.

However, one good thing is the free access to the EDGE/GPRS settings in the Uk which, though not fast on my iPhone, enables me to get my email at all times, slowly browse simple web pages but is nowhere near good enough for Skype/Facebook, etc.

Unfortunately, over in Thailand this service (3G/EDGE/GPRS) is not free and eats away at your (my!!) credit.

There are a few sites offering as solution to this problem (such as setting up your EDGE/Roaming account with dummy login details) but, having tried a number of them, none of them worked for any length of time (some did work for a few hours but cased the phone to crash even more than it does normally :-)

Frustrated at this, I took the liberty of sending an email to the provider (One-2-Call) who called me the very same evening and disabled 3G/EDGE/GPRS for my sim card. Okay, I don't have the facility of location services as such but who cares

iPhone works normally now and only crashes about once every fortnight :-)

Not feeling particularly good today :-(.

Aches and pains (more than usual), headaches, bit of a dry throat, coughing and a temperature. My trusty thermometer showing 38.4 C which is not particularly good) for me.

Though it may (or may not) be a good idea to see a doctor about this, it's almost definite that, having a fever and showing [some of the] signs/symptoms of the said swine flu, being a foreigner, I'll be quarantined.

Stay in with a bottle of rum I think (good job the Ashes is on :-)

The month didn't pass as quick as it normally does (strange that). But I hire a car and drive to Heathrow, flight leaves on time but it is a crap flight to Mumbai!

Then, a three hour delay there and a cramped, uncomfortable 4-hour flight onward flight to Suvarnabhumi

Thankfully we arrive safely and at about 9.30 in the morning am around Jane's flat in Bangkok. Happy days

At last the 30th comes around and with a certain trepidation I walk to the hospital.

To be honest, I'm not overly worried as there's no pain, no discomfort, the lump is not attached to anything (it floats, it moves) within the sac so I feel confident it's nothing major but, as always, these things just need checking and diagnosing!

There aren't many people in the clinic so I'm not waiting long before I see the consultant.

Adopt the position (as they say) and she quickly diagnoses the lump as being an epididymal cyst.

Nothing to worry about and no further treatment Happy days!