You experience everything in Thailand (60)
In Pattaya there is a Dutch association, which was founded roughly 25 years ago. Blog reader and writer Dick Koger was one of the founding fathers of the association. He was the first chairman and has since held several positions within the association. For a long time he was also the editor of the Newsletter, in which, in addition to all kinds of association news, he published stories about his experiences in Thailand. We're going to include some of them in this series.
After the story about Dolf Riks, this is the second time that he speaks in the series “You experience all sorts of things in Thailand”. He experiences a Thai marriage in Isaan and wrote the following story about it:
A Thai-style marriage
We arrive early in the morning in BanLai, a village in the Northeast of Thailand. The family is on the Mekong (not on the river, but on the whisky). This makes me fear the worst, but what we didn't know was the fact that the son of the house was to be married just that very day.
And a wedding in Isaan starts early. At eight o'clock, a solemn event takes place in the groom's house. The groom and two friends, dressed in white as paranymphs, sit in front of an old man. Long incomprehensible prayers are rushed off. Lucky strings are tied around his arm.
Then we go with a party of about thirty men and women to the house of the bride. Drinking here again. The bride is still kept elsewhere. At some point we will all go on the road together. The groom with his paranymphs in front. A similar procession approaches from the other side, with the bride and her companions leading the way. Both parties stand still ten meters apart.
One of the paranymphs goes forward to ask for her hand. Quasi indignantly, this request is rejected. The other tries the same. Unfortunately for him, same result. Then the groom hesitantly steps forward and, thankfully, now it's hit. They hug each other and apparently this is the signal for even more revelry.
While older women are constantly passing around with drink, a ceremony similar to that in the boy's house takes place in the bride's house. Then there's a party and everyone gets drunk, including me.
Very recognizable. When I came to her house with my ex-girlfriend in 1999, they had also organized a party because she was going to the Netherlands. At 7 o'clock in the morning, the neighbors were already half drunk drinking whiskey at her house. And at one point my arm was also full of those strings. I adjusted myself a bit and also drank a bottle of beer at 7 o'clock in the morning.
I got married in the Netherlands in 1995 and in 1996 we did it again in the Isan.
My wife had told me very little about the hows and whats and, to be honest, I hadn't insisted either.
I thought, I'll just let it come to me and then we'll see, in hindsight I shouldn't have done that.
Although I was physically in top shape, the efforts in those temperatures had become too much for me, all the ceremonies in which there was no time to eat properly, a lack of (no) sleep and the necessary alcoholic beverages became fatal for me on the 2nd day, during I left the ceremony with the 9 monks.
According to an aunt of my wife that was a bad omen, we have been married for 25 years now so that is not too bad.
For the guests at an Isan wedding it is an unforgettable experience, for the bridal couple it is 2 days of top sport.
do the Thai really drink as much as I read in the stories and comments? In the years that I spent my holiday in Thailand, I have not experienced anything while I really had (many) Thai “acquaintances”. HG.
Certainly not everywhere and by everyone. In my immediate (Buddhist) in-laws, no one drinks a drop. They come from the deep south of Thailand, Yala. Perhaps that is a difference and Isaners simply drink (much) more alcohol.
Frank, in my experience it is true that "the Thai" as far as it exists has difficulty stopping.
A Thai goes on until he falls over.
Before everyone falls over me, this is of course not the case with everyone, but in my area I experience it a lot.
It depends on the company and environment where you stay.
From my own experience in the past 40 years I can tell you that much and much too much Thai whiskey is drunk in Isaan.
Not by everyone of course, but alcohol addiction next to drug use is a big problem throughout Thailand.