Sunday Fiesta

Our boss invited the office people to the reception of his daughter's wedding. So I attended my first Thai wedding yesterday. In as much as I'd want to see the actual ceremony, the rites were done in the morning and apparently only reserved to family and close friends.

The reception was held at Nonthaburi, a province north of BKK (about 40 minutes ride). The sensational restaurant sits on the bank of the Chao Phraya and is composed traditional Thai houses and salas scattered all over the verdant lawn with winding canals. I was expecting a bit of the usual wedding rituals like the cutting of the cake, the speeches, the dancing, etc., but not in this wedding. We simply ate and nothing else. Roughly three hours after we arrived the reception was over and we were whisked back to BKK.

Later in the afternoon I dragged Kiwi to the Philippine Embassy in Sukhumvit for the Independence Day celebration. The lawn of the the embahada was overflowing with tents that sold overpriced Filipino food. Gazilions of BKK-based Pinoys swarmed the place (OMG, I was reminded how fat Pinoys really are). And you know when Pinoys converge it's total ruckus. I felt totally at home in the midst of people talking at the top of their voice and of laughter that doesn't give a shit who's around.

Our friends at the Pinoy Sari-Sari Store.

Overpriced Pinoy food... I see chopseuy, kalderta, sweet spaghetti, dinuguan. Yum, yum, yum.

For dinner I had adobo and a dozen bottles of San Miguel Beer. The latter was sold at a ridiculously cheap 4 bottles for 100 baht. I went crazy over the beer, I didn't even care if I had to work today.

Moi and Margarita Moran... Binibining San Miguel!

The atmosphere of the celebration was like a big town fiesta. A stage was set up in one corner of the lawn where bands played some Eraserheads. I went berserk when I heard that, along with other popular Pinoy pop songs. Of course, there was a bakla who sang and some dance groups showed their stuff. Even the employees of the embahada danced to the Pinoy Big Brother song. And oh, what is a fiesta without the requisite beauty pageant?! The pageant was called Binibining Kalayaan, which was won by a tisay (very Pinoy indeed!).

The queen and her court... look closely at the queen (middle girl)... may pagka-adrogynous ang lola nyo na bordering on the bakla. Hmmm..

It was cool to bump into Pinoy friends as well...

Baklas invade the Pinoy fiesta: Margarita Moran, PJ, Georgina Jones, Kiwi, and Gemma Cruz Araneta y Lopez y Sy y Gokongwei y Madrigal y Tan y Soriano y Macapagal Arroyo viuda de Marcos (whew)

The girls of the Sari-sari Store with PJ.

Daddy's Girl (standing), E (who is three months pregnant... FINALLY!), and PJ.