Isaan Wedding

Isaan is the North East of Thailand, a huge plateau, Thailand's rice bowl so to speak. It is sun baked, parched, dry and dirty, the soil giving off red dirt which features largely in the local Isaan dialect. Yet it is a mere 2.5 hours drive form the northern suburbs of Bangkok, although it extends for several hundred kilometres to the border. It is a poor place, subsistence farming predominating, and life is a grind. This is the real Thai heartland.

The region provides Thailand with much of its unskilled labour and a significant number of the girls end up in the sex industry in the cities. The people are traditionally dark skinned, not quite in vogue in Bangkok's style cathedrals where white/fair is absolutely de rigueur. Most people leave the land and head off to Bangkok and the cities in search of economic advancement and a lot of the money is sent home to Isaan to support the family network. If you meet Isaan people away from home in Thailand they will tell you how much they miss their families, the village, the food,the life, the culture and long to return home.

It's been a good few years since I visited Isaan so I was delighted to be invited to Davies & Bom's wedding in a small village south of Saeng Song, about 90 minutes west of Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima), the main economic centre of Isaan and a big bustling city.

What a celebration! Wednesday night a major party with musicians and dancers and the village effectively closed down. The whole village was in attendance and the beers and rice wine (lao) were flowing and a fair few of the locals were "hammered". As a general rule Thai drunks are harmless and actually quite funny. As always at Thai parties there was an amazing amount of food as pigging out is a major part of the fun. It was delicious, green curry,prawns, fish, kebabs, satay, sticky rice, delicious fruit salad and the best fresh orange juice I have tasted in a long time. There was a lot of dancing on stage and below. In fact there was so much noise coming from the sound system it would have been virtually impossible to sleep anywhere in the immediate vicinity of the village. A strange mixture of locals and well heeled Americans (mainly) but there were a few Europeans amongst the faraing.

One funny anecdote. I travelled with a friend, Lauren, who came along to my wedding last year. As we were leaving I gave the singers some money. This is all part of the way it works. There had been a steady flow of people handing money up to the entertainers on the stage; it is a sign of kindness and jai dee, good heart. You get a big cheer from the onlookers and a wai from the entertainers and I think the locals like to see the faraings get the readies out. Let me stress the village people (sic!) were also making donations. Lauren went to give some money to the dancers who were off stage, just to the left, and when he came back he told me one of the girls said we could have her and her friend for 500 baht for the night! This was a source of considerable amusement among the faraing. This is just the way it is. Sad in some respects but yes this is how it is sometimes.

Later Davies, our host, gave the girl Lauren's phone number. It turns out her name is Soda and she phoned Lauren at 0330h, waking me up in the process, to entice him. I don't think they were able to understand each other! I never got to meet or see the friend. I am a happily married man!

Thursday morning was wedding day proper. Eight monks came for alms at about 0730h and then sat down upstairs with bride and groom and joined them together with string which they were all holding and began chanting and blessing the union. This lasted about an hour and then the village head man and elders came in for breakfast.

Davies and his cohorts were required to leave the house after, take a walk, so to speak. We were joined by a band and a procession of villagers and we went on a walk around the village, making a lot of noise and doing a lot of strange dancing. We stopped outside the houses and made a lot of noise as if to say: this guy is getting married come out and join us as we head to his bride's house. We reached the house where there was a brief dialogue, ( have you got the dowery, you sure you want to go through with this etc?). Davies' feet were washed for him and we were invited upstairs where Davies joined his wife and the village head man kicked off the ceremony. The couple were blessed and a white paste applied to their foreheads; once more they were joined by string; as the blessings flowed there was a lot of shrieking and rice throwing; the dowery, paid by Davies to the bride's family, was laid out along with gifts of gold and then strings were tied and by about 1100h the wedding was over. No sooner was it over than everyone was changed out of their gear and back in shorts and t-shirts!

There was much mirth about Lauren and Soda and with Davies' help an 1800 tryst was set up for them later that day. I drove home early afternoon and it was genuinely nice to be home and be with Luna. I am so grateful I am a happily married man these days. I wasn't when I last visited Isaan and I am glad I am far removed from that whole scene.