Emily in Thailand

First and foremost, Sawadee Pii Mai! (Translate: Happy New Year! – Pii means Year, Mai means New) I hope all of you had a great New Year, because I sure did!

This New Year, I spent it with the Yuvamits at Nahkon Nayok! Nahkon Nayok is a small province about 2 hours ride away from Don Muang Airport. Don Muang Airport is the other and older airport in Bangkok. They do only flights within Thailand now, while the new Suvarnabhumi Airport handles all international flights.

Uncle eldest sister lives in Nahkon Nayok, and every New Year everyone in the family would be invited to gather there and spend the day together (with everything generously paid for by her!). And you know what? Everyone in the Yuvamit family is so nice, warm and affectionate! They only meet once a year, but I really love the kind of affection they have for each other. It’s so sweet and heartwarming. *melts* I think I’m the affectionate kind of person, always like to hugging/kissing my relatives, friends or even people I just met, but I would think that such behavior is not that common in Singapore. Since young, and even up till now I still kiss my parents! (Not shy at all) My parents have always been the affectionate kind of people as well- my Papa will occasionally SMS to tell me he loves me, my parents hold hands when they go out and when they write on my angpow, they refer to me as their Darling Daughter. Hahaha! Mummy and Papa! I miss you and love you very much! I’ll be back in 2 weeks time, so don’t worry!

Anyway, we were waiting in Don Muang Airport for the other relatives to arrive (from Ubon), so that was can take the minivan together to Nahkon Nayok. First to arrive was this BIG guy, Poulet (pronounced as poo-lei). Poulet is a French word for “chicken”. If I remember correctly, how Poulet got his name is, Poulet is a meat- only- eater and when he was young, he always asks for chicken and needless to say, the French nickname must be given by Maman. Hahaha. Anyway, Poulet must be more than 1.9m tall and very broad, a rare size for a Thai guy I feel. Uncle has 4 siblings- 3 sisters and 1 brother, him being the youngest of all. Poulet is the son of Uncle’s only brother and Poulet calls Uncle “Ah Ood”. In our culture, you definitely don’t refer to your elders as 阿___ (fill in the blanks) because it’s very informal or even rude, right? But in Thai culture, “Ah” means uncle (father’s younger brother or sister).

Poulet is very affectionate to everyone! I just love the way he greets his “Ah Ood” So sweet and cute!

The 2 hour long journey was well worth it! Uncle’s eldest sister’s place is simply GORGEOUS! It’s like a giant garden full of greenery and very, very beautiful flowers! (My vocab very limited, the only adjectives I can think of is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful) Set in the midst of the beautiful garden are 3 houses, the middle one belongs to the eldest sister herself, and the other two, one to her daughter and the other to her friend, this nice old man from Holland.

Front porch

View from the back garden- simply stunning

With the owner of this beautiful place- Uncle's eldest sister

The eldest sister is a Professor, her daughter and son- in- law are pediatricians, and her son is a gynecologist. The eldest sister is 75 years old I think, but in my opinion, looks a lot younger than her actual age. Every family member of the Yuvamits; from the Uncles to the Aunties to their children, are all super (and scarily) highly educated, to a point where I think if I’m one of the Yuvamits, I would feel tremendous pressure to excel because it’s almost like an unwritten rule I have to follow… like some sort of a family tradition.

Like little kids again...

You know how during Chinese New Year, when we visit our relatives, its chit chat and catching up, then its mahjong and cards etc… Hahaha… New Year at Nahkon Nayok, they chat, sit together to play the guitar and sing songs, fly kites and play “monkey” (young and old together!), laze around in porches… The scenerio seems like it came right out of some family lifestyle magazine. With the beautiful scenery, the perfect sky and weather, it was the best way to spend the New Year!

This year, it’s the first time they will be spending the New Year at this military camp + holiday chalet kind of place (usually it’s somewhere else). Don’t tell me how military + holiday goes together, but it just does! There are really Army boys there supposedly having their training, but the place is so freaking big, you won’t really encounter them at all. There, you actually get to use their training facilities- shooting range, canoe, Flying Fox, abseiling, paint ball game etc.! If you look at it this way, it seems quite fun to be in the Army huh? (All the guys in Singapore will slap me for saying this, except maybe Rex, the Army siao guy)

Our holiday chalets

The view from our window

Shortly after we arrive at the chalet, we went to the shooting range. I’ve never really seen a real gun up close, much less hold it and I was feeling very scared and intimidated somehow. I think it was not so scary using the rifle because it seems like there was almost no recoil at all and the sound was not loud. I scored 93/ 100 (one bull’s eye) but was the lowest among the boys, who all scored at least 96 – 98. But when it came to the pistol, I was totally freaked out. The sound it produced was so loud we had to put on ear muffs, and there was recoil, so it wasn’t easy at all. I manage to hit the bull’s eye for one shot (purely by luck) and the rest of my shots were super off. :( No photos of me shooting because a certain someone totally lack photography skills! Grrrrrrr! They were either blurry, taken of the back view (won’t even know who it is) or very dark (against light)… The photos I took of them so chio lor, then photos of myself, sighhhh…

My name is Bond, James Bond

After our adventures at the shooting range, we headed back to our chalets and had to prepare for dinner.

I like this photo I took of Poulet's father

Every year, each family is to have a show- and- tell segment- singing, dancing, whatever, followed by a short update of whatever that is happening or has happened in the past year (because they only meet once a year). Very cute right? I think it’s very exciting and when I heard about this, I was looking forward to see what each family have to present. The Yuvamits are all very enthusiastic, gamely going on stage to sing solo… All not shy! After each performances (especially by the kids), the elders will show their appreciation, in the form of money! It’s almost like ang pow, but you have to work for it. Hahaha! And it different from Chinese New Year, because here, you only get money IF you perform.

The first 3 performances were by the youngest kids in the Yuvamit family, all playing the same instrument- Thai- version 琴. The very cute and mini Min was the first to perform. This darling girl received so much money, her Dad was like displaying the notes like a fan and fanning himself with it (jokingly). Hahaha! It helps if you’re young and cute. I was thinking why all of them were learning the same instrument, and such a difficult instrument at that. It turns out it’s sort of like we learn to play the recorder in Primary School, they chose learn the 琴 among other instruments.

First to perform, Min

Granddaughter of the eldest sister, in her full costume

Rubics cube performance

This uncle (in the photo below) is the son of the eldest sister. For his segment, instead of receiving money, he gives money out! Everyone is to raise their hands high up in the air and hand sign whatever digit they think the last number of the note will be. He will slowly one by one eliminate the guesses, “It’s an odd number”, “It’s lesser than 5”, “All the number 9s, hands down” etc. This sure builds the excitement and anticipation of the participants. Talk about audience participation. Hahaha. If you guess correctly, you get the note and there can be more than one winner! It started with 100baht, 500baht then to 1000baht notes! Then finally, it was a wad of 50bahts and we had to guess the total number of notes in his hand… There was only one winner, who guessed it was 12 notes. The rest of us 太小看他 and were guessing less than 10 notes. Not much luck for me, didn’t get a single guess right but it was fun anyway. Hahaha. At the very last guess, Mathias and Cyril both won the 1000baht note!

Special "performance"

My favourite performance when unexpectedly, all of the Aunties and Uncles one by one walked out from the curtain, decked in full Hawaiians prints, flower wreaths around their necks and on their heads and gamely boogie away. It was so spontaneous, so cute and fun- loving. Everyone looked so happy and it made everyone else happy too. I remembered screaming and cheering away while they shake their booties away.

Uncle and his siblings having a ball of a time

End of their awesome performance

Everyone sure knows how to have a good time

Singing his lungs out

The 3 narak sisters

Second eldest sister, I think her face very cute!

Some brother bonding

Me being naughty, with Poulet and his Dad

After the countdown, I was so tired I went back to my room and crashed, without even taking a shower or removing my makeup and contact lenses. Poulet, Mathias and Cyril were up till 4am drinking, and doing crazy things together. They ran down slopes (Mathias couldn’t brake, Cyril vomited and Poulet just didn’t run) and slept on ant’s nests. Don’t understand, why guys always do silly things like this.

On 1st January 2009 itself, everyone was up early for breakfast (7.30am!?!!) despite going to bed late last night. We were following Pii Ed’s (Pii is used to address an elder brother or sister) car back to the eldest sister’s house to spend the rest of the day, but before that, we decided to do some activities first. Pii Ed is the son of the 2nd eldest sister and the father of Min. He is also an ah jahn (lecturer) at Chulalongkorn University. It was only me, Mathias, Cyril, Poulet, Pi Ed and his family. We went canoing and Flying Fox, everything liang (Translate: treat) by Pii Ed! No pictures though because it was water activities.

Everything was the first for me, and it was so fun! Canoing was tiring and Flying Fox was over in a jiffy and not as scary as it looks! Mini Min didn’t dare to try it though. And Poulet was so big, the ropes didn’t look like they can support his weight and he looks as if his feet was going to touch the water below. Hahaha. After our activities, we headed back to the eldest sister’s house. It was good food, chit chatting, napping in the front porch and playing “monkey”!

I throughly enjoyed the company of the Yuvamits and is very happy to have met them. I cannot thank them enough for their kind hospitality and generosity. I’ve gained a wonderful experience and many new friends! What a great way to spend New Year 2009! They tell me “Hope to see you next year!” and I sure hope so!

Present from Maman and Uncle

I got a present from Maman and Uncle- a box full of little knick knacks! You know, I’ve always wanted to receive a gift like that, filled with small little cute items of thought and effort. I remembered once during my polytechnic days, a school mate John presented his girlfriend Dina with a box full of very cute and thoughtful, but not necessarily expensive items. And I was thinking how sweet to receive something like that. (Which reminds me, guess what Uncle receive as a New Year present from his eldest sister? A Honda car! Zzzz. First a house, now a car?! Really very generous!)

In return, me and Mathias went shopping for Maman- knick knacks to put together to give her as a belated birthday (26 December) present. I really had fun shopping and putting together the present. And the total amount spent was no more than SG$10. And I know Maman will surely appreciate and be very happy with her present. :) (She is, the day she received the present, she was putting on almost everything she can from the box- earrings, scarf, hair clip and scrunchie. Hahah!)

Have a Happy 2009, everyone!