Reunion in Hua Hin

So the transits in Taipei and Bangkok were uneventful and long. For those of you who haven't been to Bangkok in the last year, I included some shots of the new airport at Suvarnabumi. Extremely modern but a touch cold with all that grey metal. Not to mention everyone bitches about how long it takes to get around.

This is probably the 7th time I've flown into Thailand since 2000. While the airport may look completely different from the old one at Don Muang, the smell of Thailand humidity is exactly the same. This time it didn't really hit me until i got onto the tarmac to board my flight to Hua Hin, which is a small resort/golfing town 2.5 hr south of Bangkok by car. But since I was already approaching hour 24 in my air travels, the plan was to top it off with a 40 minute trip on a Cessna 208B Caravan. Easily the most fun I've ever had on a plane.

Just to give people some context, my cousin Michelle just got married to her fiancee, Andy at the Sofitel Central. That's also where my mother, girlfriend, uncles, aunts, and 8 cousins were staying over the weekend. Unfortunately, I missed the wedding by a couple days due to my bar exam and about half of my cousins by the time I reached Hua Hin. Aside from the long trip, as soon as I got to the hotel I had to leave for the hospital to see Mary Anne who had checked herself into the San Paulo clinic because of food poisoning. Things only got stranger when I got to her hospital room. 15 minutes into the visit, Dennis gets a call from Michelle that William's foot got run over by a horse. Later the story would go something like "a large white woman was galloping across the beach on a white horse and lost control." So the first time I get to see the new bride and groom is at the emergency room in the same building as my bed ridden girlfriend. As for William, nothing was broken, just a flesh wound.

Most of us eventually made it to a dinner at the waterfront - somewhere around 20 people. (For those of you counting: Mom, Daling, Jennie, Tim, Carolina, Anastasia, Bridgette, James, Dennis, Michelle, Andy, Andy's sisters and family, and a few of Michelle's friends - Jennifer and Candice). Mom retired to the hotel, but Mary Anne was kept at the hospital for observation. And I spent my first night in Thailand on a hospital sofa keeping her company =).