Crap, only 2 weeks of vacation left.
Our stop in HK seemed rather quick. I don’t know why, but we were so unproductive on that leg of the trip and in the end, I think it will be the most unsatisfactory part too. It ended wonderfully though. My good friends Lieny and Dom got married in a very intimate environment. It was surreal to see so many out-of-towners attending the wedding. The ceremony itself went off without a hitch. Nobody came crashing in an attempt to call off the wedding and nobody tripped or fell. It was perfect. Lieny looked beautiful and Dom was his dashing self.
I should note now that I felt very fortunate to be asked to be one of the groomsmen. It’s always an honour when you can be there for a friend and stand alongside him when he completes his nuptials. Overall, my job this time around was pretty simple and Dom didn’t demand much of me at all. The only thing I had to do was hold onto the marriage certificate. When the ceremony was over, we went for lunch at a Thai restaurant near a park. The park itself was perfect for weddings. As we ate lunch, we saw at least 3 other wedding parties taking pictures outside. There was a waterfall and a pond with fish and turtles all over the place. It was a stunning location. For lunch, it was buffet style and the food was excellent. I think I enjoyed the shrimp cakes and the curry the most. So after lunch, the wedding party roamed around the area and took some photos. The photographers had an interesting style to them and I just hope that their ideas and shots translate well to film. They had us running towards the camera a few times, and they made the guys do some weird kicking shots too. I think some of the best photos will be the ones of us eating ice cream and drinking water while walking through the Star Ferry tunnel and terminal.
At this point in time, everything was going smoothly until my so called friends decided to pull a prank on me at the restaurant. We got up to leave and I left the marriage certificate on the table. My asshole ‘friend’ Wes, also a groomsmen, saw it and instead of handing it back to me, he gave it to some other friends to hold onto but he decided not to tell me about it cause he was a fucking asshole. I was in a frame of mind to punch him in the face and knock off his smile when he revealed it was a prank. This was a shit decision on his part on so many levels. It made me look and feel like shit when I realized 30 min later that I had left it there, and it made Dom feel even more crummy when he thought that it was lost. Is there a better way to ruin a day and disrupt a good feeling than by doing something like that? Or what if the other guys lost it or ruined it while transporting it around. Who knows what could have happened to it. In any case, it was a shit thing to do and I’m still pissed about it cause it was an inappropriate thing to fuck around with. It’s was an original piece of documentation and one of a kind, not to mention it was just freshly signed an hour or two earlier. I say to all of my so called friends that participated in this prank to ‘fuck themselves’ cause they were all cock suckers that showed poor judgment. I’m glad they thought it was funny cause it made the ‘victims’ feel like shit on a grand day like a fucking WEDDING DAY!!!! BASTARDS! So fucking funny shitheads!
Other than that incident, the rest of the day went quite well. The biggest downside in this particular case was wearing the monkey suit. It wasn’t too bad at the ceremony cause for the most part, the place was well air conditioned and I think I managed to hold myself together quite well. Even at lunch, it wasn’t too bad. The worse was when we were taking pictures outside. It wasn’t so bad taking pictures even, it was really the type of pictures that the photographers wanted us to do. They asked us to run, jump, run some more, walk fast, run past Dom and give him high fives, pretend to kick a ball and they wanted all of the guys to embrace and skip together towards the camera. If you haven’t noticed, these were all action shots that required me to get hotter and sweatier than I wanted to be. I was dying in the monkey suit. When our photos were done, we headed to Repulse Bay where the reception was going to take place and where Lieny and Dom’s wedding suite was located. The place was unbelievable! The suite was a two floor apartment style room. It was located on the top floor (34th floor) and the building was situated on a mountain overlooking the beach and water. It was very impressive to say the least. The other good thing about the place was the air conditioning and the furnishings. It was heaven for me. I took off my jacket and let my wet shirt dry while I curled up in a ball and took a nap.
Downstairs of Repulse Bay, there were two areas dedicated to the wedding. The first part was the main reception area. It was on the outdoor lawn that overlooked the water too. It was a wonderfully unique setting and something that you would never see in Vancouver. It was breathtaking! Tables were set up to allow guests to mingle and enjoy beverages. The humidity and the mosquitos kinda sucked but the actual venue itself was amazing. The dinner itself was in the Verandah; a long banquet hall inside of Repulse Bay. At dinner, it was a buffet again and the food was fantastic. There was sashimi, fresh oysters, crab claws, shrimp cocktail, beef wellington, duck in thai curry, veal loins, lobster bisque, salmon, etc.. The food was top notch and I wish I had room for more.
There were several speeches and Dom’s brother floored me with some of the things he said. The best part about his speech was that he winged the whole thing on the spot. It was funny, witty, and he was bang-on with everything. If you’re interested in some of the details, ask me when I get back into town. The devastated look on Dom’s face was priceless. Shortly after, Dom had prepared to sing a song for Lieny; 98 Degree’s ‘I Do’. The live band started to play the music and it turned out that they had the wrong sheet music. Dom was speechless and stunned. It was another priceless Kodak moment and eventually Dom declared that ‘you have all just witnessed the most embarassing moment’. The whole place was howling in laughter and took it in stride. In the end, Dom did it a cappella. Impressive!
The wedding ended and we capped off the night at a karaoke bar. Even the bride and groom came out to sing a few songs and to have a few drinks. It was a great way to end the night cause it was also our last night in HK. I was able to spend a little bit more time with my friends in HK and despite the fatigue, I was able to appreciate everyone’s company. This lasted until 4am. I loved every moment of it.
The next day, we flew out to Thailand. It just so happened that Kerena and Dalidda was flying back to Beijing at the same time, so we got to say one last goodbye at the airport. It’s great when things work out like that.
So we got to Koh Samui today and the place has a unique personality to it. The airport was unlike anything I had seen before. There weren’t really any buildings there. Customs and security were done under outdoor style huts (no walls just roofs). It was totally weird to have my passport stamped in an outdoor environment. Also, I should note that I will be melting all over the side walk tomorrow. It was about 8 pm when we got in and it was dark, hot, and humid. I’m dreading the heat in the daytime. I think I’m going to hate it a lot tomorrow cause it’s going to make me feel really uncomfortable. We’ll see how it goes I guess. For dinner, we roamed around until we found a decent looking place that was open. I am going to enjoy the cuisine here. I love most of the Thai food I’ve already had thus far.
Oh well, I think I’ve updated enough for tonight. It’s 3am here and it’s time to pack it in. We plan on getting up early for some breakfast buffet. Sawat-dee!
~Anthony
