i got invited by a friend of mine to her sisters wedding up in nong khai, which is in the north east of thailand. this area of thailand is called isaan and they speak a different type of thai than back in bkk, leaning more towards laos.
anyway the official party starts the day before the wedding when all the family of the bride get together and and have one hell of a shindig. ( the grooms mob do the same but thats back in his village.) my lot had bought a shed load of beer and an equal amount of lao khao (rice whiskey) they also had 3 buffalo ready to slaughter.
me and my friend arrived at her village at 8am and everyone was busy with the preperations. i've met my friends parents before so they where ok when i turned up but the rest of the extended family (about 100 of them) where pretty shocked to see a falang (foreigner) turn up to the wedding but with my charm and good looks i soon had them all on my side.
it soon became time to slaughter the first buffalo which i had to see. nothing humane here i'm affraid, they just tied it to a tree and whacked it over the back of the head 3 or 4 times with some type of farming hoe then slashed its throat. i took a few photo's out of curiousity but hung around a little too long, the tradition is that once the buffalo is slaughtered some of the meat has to be eaten while still warm and yes you guessed it they picked me to eat the first bit followed by by a glass of lao khao and all this at 10 in the morning. well i carried out the task with ease which had everyone clapping and cheering. from then on it was just a day of drinking beer and eating rather under cooked buffalo.
come night-time and the party is still going strong, suprisingly so am i.. then its time for the dancing, and now looking at my photos i feel quite embarressed at my thai dancing technique.
i stagger off to bed at around mid-night very, very drunk only to be awoken at 6.30 am to re-start the party ready for the wedding in a few hours time. i manage to avoid any alcohol until 8am and then i start slipping into a drunken haze.
the family wants me to use my digital camera to take the wedding photos, i manage a few but have to pass the camera to my friend to continue. the wedding is conducted in an upstairs room with only selected family from either side but i do sneak a look or two. after that its just more drinking, they had to send off for more beer and i think they got yet another buffalo from somewhere(4 altogether).
i had to crash at 6pm but was back at it by 8pm. it finally finished at 11ish. the family let me lay-in until 8am the next day.
but here's a word of warning about thai weddings, if you do go to one, make sure you take some imodium with you. i had to visit the toilet at least 10 times that day, lao khao and buffalo create havock in your guts. be warned!!!!!!!!
yanni