Heaven is a place on Earth (Day 2)

First thing in the morning I had to meet the dwellers for about 2 hours. Within the first 15 minutes, I was on the verge of flaring up. THe dwellers had no respect for themselves. Keep talking and making silly comments. Had a face off with one of them. Not something that I enjoy. The silly dweller having lost the face-off promptly 'slept' and 'woke up' immediately when the time was up. He woke up, left and started making phonecalls outside the room. I see his 'sleep' as a way to save his grace and I understand his anger and hurt pride. I had wanted to explain that my actions were targeted at his behaviour but not as a person but he had walked out too quickly. So young, so much anger. As I reflected, perhaps I had been too harsh with my words but I justified that by reminding myself how I had also 'suffered' the same harsh criticism before, gotten hurt too but emerged a better person. Is this dweller gonna turn out a better person or will he continue to be an obstacle to his and my progress? I cant tell yet....but i believe all things happen for a reason.

Heaven is a place on Earth. With its own problems, and also has dwellers who had problems too.

Day 1 in Heaven

Yesterday was my day 1 in heaven. The dwellers in heaven are by and large nice people. The culture here is good and the archangels are friendly. I got my schedule to meet the dwellers first thing in the morning. Great! All the dwellers I am meeting are all seniors, which means they will be more mature and hopefully more reasonable. This also means I may face more other sort of problems with them. I rolled in bed last night for a long time and could not sleep. Kept talking to myself…talking….talking…..talking.

Sawatdii Khrap, สวัสดี (Part 2)

Here's the second installment of my bkk trip. Everywhere in the Kingdom of Thailand, people were celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the King's Ascension to the throne. Their love for their current King is amazing. A British couple commented that just months before, Queen E had celebrated her birthday and it was nothing close to what was seen in Thailand. Folks from the rural area had travelled a long way to the capital city and began camping outside the palace grounds days before the celebration.

The celebration highlights includes the arrival of about 25 royal representatives of countries around the world including Sultan of Brunei, King of Malaysia, King of Swaziland, Prince Andrew of the British monarchy, Emperor and Empress of Japan. Other highlights includes the King's Speech on a self-sufficient kingdom, traditional Thai rituals and finally culminates in an old Thai ritual: The Royal Barge Procession.

The Royal Barge Procession is a convoy of traditional Thai boat/barges, some with the King's Colours, complete with rowers dressed in traditional Thai warrior outfit, rowing down Chao Praya River, also known as the "Mother of all rivers". This tradition dates back to the Ayutthaya period and was revived by the current Thai King. Throughout his 60 years on the throne, this procession was only seen 14 times.

One of the exhibit of the "Splendor of Kings" jewellery show at the atrium of Siam Paragon.

Another exihibit, the centrepiece of this art is a coin with the side profile of the beloved Thai King.

All around Bangkok, there were decorations for this joyous celebration.

A drive around the Champs Élysées of Bangkok. This road leads up to the palace and is lighted up. People had travelled miles and miles just to witness this.

At the lobby of our hotel, like anywhere else, the King was revered like a god. Not surprising for a the good things He had done for His people.

This cute teddy bear says "I love the King!"

See...

This picture was taking seconds after the King's Speech which was telecast LIVE from His Palace's balcony. After the speech, people teared and when the King's Anthem was played, the entire Silom Road's traffic stopped and everyone sang the song. It was a truly memorable sight.

At Siam Paragon, the King's portrait stands towering over His people.

The King giving His speech again just before the Royal Barge Procession. This trip had made me realised how much love Thais have for their King. For a person who has initiated many rural projects, setup many experiments in his palace since the 50s to improve agriculture and a King who has lived frugally, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is an inspiration.

"During my ascension procession, someone in the crowd shouted 'don't forsake your people !!' I felt like crying out to him 'if my people do not forsake me, how can I ever forsake my people?' " His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Whats your problem?

Just got back from TTSH fuming mad. My sister was walking around TTSH trying to look for the clinic we were suppose to visit when she bumped into this 2 aunties just off the escalator. My sis apologised quickly went away but these two hags had to keep doing the 'aiyoh..wah lao...tsk...' till I cannot stand it and asked them what's their problem. They went on 'yak yak yak'. You know, they are just the typical irritating people who keeps on whining after someone accidentally knocks into them. I dare say that if the tables were turned, they wouldn't even say sorry. Anyway, after my outburst, they went on saying that my sis had step on her foot and that my sis should have apologised blah blah blah... wah kaos, it's just an accident and I wonder why she has to kick up such a big fuss. The closeted beng in me came out and retorted that my sis had already apologised and gave her the 'whats ur problem' hang gesture. ENT is just around the corner, she should have her ears checked man.

Just cannot stand these people who make a mountain out of a molehill.

Sawatdii Khrap, สวัสดี (Part 1)

It all started one afternoon in my hall. Someone suggested that we should do a trip together this holiday before all the chaos starts. Someone else agreed and then that very day, we started the planning and bought the tickets within a week. Haha...talk my 'press-button' mentality, this is even more 'press-button' than my 'press-button'. Unfortunately, Juicy was unable to join us for this trip becos she had a date with Mickey in HKG. She went to send the entourage off nonetheless.

Arrival in Bangkok Don Muang International Airport, we spotted a suspicious looking Hong Kong Celebrity.

The paparazzi in us just couldn't stop snapping...

And so we finally arrived in BKK and immediately we set off for our favourite hobby: EATING!

And we ate...

That evening, we went to Chinatown to eat by the roadside store. We ate quite a bit and could not escape the clutches of 'o glorious food...

Somehow, this picture looks somewhat dreamy.

After dinner, we went to Suan Luum Night Bazaar just off the Suan Luum MRT. This sweet area will soon be closed for a commercial development. There was a new Ferris Wheel there and since dom and I missed the London Eye the last time, we thought this would be an ok-substitute! :D

And in the next carriage, we saw a bunch of monkeys.

The next day, Dom and I went off to meet Tata, who invited us to her house in Cambridge for dinner and subsequently brought us around Paris. She's Thai and speaks very fluent French.

And so we had dinner with Tata's family. Tata's dad and mum were very amused and amazed at my lousy thai and so kept them away from bothering Mike, Tata's bf. Last time we came to BKK, the family brought us around the suburbs and had dinner there. This time round, they brought us to the Champs Élysées of Bangkok. Nice avenue all lighted up to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the King's reign.

After the drive around BKK, met up with my friends again for FOOOOOOOD!

What is a BKK trip without massage? I nearly screamed when the massuer elbowed my shoulders. All the gym work had left my shoulders muscles with so much knots and she managed to clear them all! Yay...

Feeling all relaxed after the massage, we attacked the shopping malls.

*poof*

**GASPS!**

This is what happens when I don't wash the dishes for eons. Then we saw some terrorists in the shop.

That night we had dinner in Baiyoke Sky Restaurant. The restaurant sits on top probably the tallest hotel in Asia. That night was also the start of the celebration for the King and there were fireworks everywhere and we can see most of them at that height.

Suddenly realised all my pics are about food....

Look...here's one more! Foooooooooooooooooooooooooood

MORE MORE MORE !!!!

The restaurant also sports a revolving open air top. An amazing view from top!

Next day morning, we went to Chatuchak weekend market. Need i say more? This particular shopkeeper was extremely cheeky with us and didn't even give us big discounts! Argh... Unable to bear the heat, Mr X, Dom and I went back to the hotel but not before stopping by for A&W's rootbeer float at Siam Square!

Dinner at Fuji, probably the only jap restaurant i will ever willingly step foot into.

And we ordered so much there's hardly any space for more!

Next day, i popped by Chatuchak again to grap a few stuff I wanted more of then headed for Siam Paragon's Cinema. Bought VIP tickets for SDG$25 each to watch Omen. The chair could be reclined till it's flat and we had ushers who fussed over us with pillows and blankets.

Dinner at Som Boon. Som Boon means perfection in Thai and this restuarant has a reputation among the thais as being one of the finest.

And that's all for Part 1 of the BKK trip. Part 2 will be on the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the King's Ascesion to the throne. "Raw rak naay luang" !