What we did: shopped, wedding reception
Budget: 3000B/$100; Spent: 7116B/ $237
Both of us woke up for our very enjoyable breakfast this morning. After we ate, Patty spoke, separately, to her parents and to Frank and Dan. There was a lot of talk of Tiny Tim, the sweet little puppy we met in Kolkata. Seems like he's now touched more hearts than just ours.
We checked email and did some blogging before heading to MBK to do some more shopping. First things first though: pad thai in the food court! As usual, the pad thai was delicious and the perfect start to a day of shopping.
We shopped mostly for shoes for me to wear to the wedding reception tonight. Mala got in touch with us today over Facebook to let us know about the location and time of the event tonight. So, now we have somewhere to be!
We looked all afternoon for shoes for me and ended up buying a pair of shoes at the first place we looked! They were a little pricey so we didn't buy them right when we saw them, but they are a beautiful pair of shoes. I'm pretty happy! We bought them from a department store in MBK called Tokyu.
Patty was also looking for a dress to wear to the reception and found one at Tokyu as well, after trying on a bunch. It's actually a really nice department store that sells all kinds of things. A little pricey though. We were just glad we had something to wear! Patty also bought some eye-shadow from Tokyu, which she mentioned she hadn't worn in months.
We got back to the hotel in something of a mad rush because it was already past 5pm and we had to get to the reception at 7pm, and we still had to shower and get ready. Not surprisingly, by the time we were ready and had figured out where we were going, it was nearly 7pm. Thankfully, it looked like we could get there very quickly by the skytrain.
We left our hotel and were at the Holiday Inn in no time. We walked in and asked where their Grand Ballroom is. They told us that we were in the wrong hotel and to check out the Intercontinental hotel located just across the parking lot. We thought this was odd, but that maybe Mala got the location wrong. So, we walked over to the Intercontinental to ask about the Grand Ballroom. The front desk directed us to the Grand Ballroom, but when we got there, it was empty! This was not looking good.
We confirmed with reception that there were no weddings tonight, and then walked back to the Holiday Inn to ask about their other locations. They didn't really help us at all, which was really annoying, so we walked back to the Intercontinental and asked to use their phone to call Mala. Thankfully, they let us use their phone and when I spoke with Mala he told me we were at the wrong hotel. His message had included the word "silom" which we assumed was just a misspelling of the word "salon", so we didn't think it had much importance. Turns out it was important and it described which Holiday Inn he was talking about!
He suggested we hop in a cab to get there, but, we being cheap and seeing that traffic was crazy anyway, decided to take the metro as close to the hotel as we could and then hop in a taxi at that point. This turned out to be a good decision and we arrived at the correct hotel around 8:30pm. We were very embarrassed but there was nothing we could do. At least we had some sort of an excuse for being so late!
We were very nervous walking into the ballroom so late. Our worst fear was that the room would be packed, soft jazz music would be playing, and everyone would be seated for dinner, and, when we entered, all eyes would look up at us as we interrupted. Thankfully, this didn't happen. When we walked into the reception people were eating, mingling, and otherwise just enjoying themselves. Many people were looking at us curiously, but that was the least we expected. We wandered around for a bit feeling very out of place until Patty spotted Pummy, an old classmate of hers from Linden Meadows and Shaftesbury and Mintoo's brother. She quickly went to the table and tapped him on the shoulder to say "hello". No sooner had she done this than we realized that Mrs. Kamboz, Mintoo's mom, was sitting next to him! It was a great reunion and we were very happy to see people we knew!! After talking with them for a couple minutes, we saw Mala who basically chastised us for being late and not making it to the event yesterday. I think he was disappointed that we had missed the events yesterday and that we were late. But the disappointment quickly disappeared and the start of a great night began.
We spent most of the night with Pummy and Mrs. Kamboz, and Mala was coming and going the whole time. He seemed to know many there and was being a real social butterfly. He was acting much differently than at the wedding in Delhi. I guess he feels more comfortable with the people here. Mala comes to Thailand at least once a year to visit the groom, Robin, and his friends. He seems really close to all of them.
Apparently it was a last minute decision for Pummy and Mrs. Kamboz to come to the wedding. We learned Pummy literally got his passport rushed and received it less than 24 hours before his flight was scheduled to depart. The passport people told Mrs. Kamboz she had to buy his ticket to Bangkok first before they would rush his passport, but they would also provide no guarantee that Pummy’s passport would arrive on time! Bloody ridiculous! Fortunately, everything worked out for them.
Mala's mother and brother were also there and we said "hello". Mala's mom really likes Patty, and vice versa, so it was a really nice meeting for the two of them.
We ate a fantastic dinner that consisted of Thai and Indian food and then watched close family members perform choreographed dances for the bride and groom. That was a lot of fun. Mala danced with four other guys and we videotaped it. They did a really good job, and it was hilarious to watch.
Bride and Groom dancing
From there the night went smoothly and was a great time. All guests got picture with bride and groom. We approached them for a picture even though they didn't know who we were. That was a bit awkward. We later learned that they did know who we are, and that Mala had told them about us. I wish we had introduced ourselves better!
Once the dancing started, it was relentless. Robin's friend had a famous Indian singer from the UK flown in especially for the reception. He performed for about an hour. Needless to say the floor was packed with people dancing.
We danced most of the time with Mala and Pummy and all their cousins. We even danced with Mrs. Kamboz and Mala’s mom for a bit. It was a lot of fun.
I got picked up a bunch of times and paraded around the dance floor. I didn't think much of this until near the end of the night when the guy who kept picking me up began getting very friendly with me. It was kind of awkward. From the get-go he was an odd character. He told us about how he has 2 wives and 1 girlfriend, but that he’s still alone. He had a small guy with long hair with him the whole night and nobody seemed to know him and he didn't seem to speak with anyone.
Anyway, once the guy literally tried to grope me, I pushed him away and stayed away from him for the rest of the night. It might sound worse than it is, though. It really didn't detract much from the fun I was having. Everyone else definitely noticed what was going on. Meanwhile, apparently Pummy was making some hilarious comments to Patty about the guy’s interest in me.
When 2 am rolled around, we figured we should get going. We had to take a taxi home and we really didn't want to be wandering around Bangkok at night. Mrs. Kamboz just told us to let the front desk know we needed a taxi and they would help us get one. We ended up paying about 60B ($2) for a taxi ride because we finally got the driver to turn on the stupid meter!! They like to rip people off by refusing to turn on the meter. That being said, we still had to insist on several different occasions for the guy to turn on his meter. He even blatantly turned it off at one point! Man, these guys are ridiculous.
Anyway, we got home safe and sound and went straight to bed. Another great day!
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