Last month we went to Bangkok for a holiday of course but the main reason was to obtain documents wich would allow us to get married in Amphur Fang. I asked for the afternoon of from my work in Tzu Chi and with the car we drove to Chiang Mai airport. Not a good idea... now we really now that Friday is one of the busiest times to drive there and it ain't fun!!! Lucky enough I knew the way to get to the ring road but of course I was never that sure so that was stress full enough. Than the ring road was the weirdest thing in Thai traffic we have ever experiences (besides the chicken, dogs, people driving on the wrong side and drunk drivers). All the time there were two separate lanes but you never knew which to choose to not end up of the ring road so every time it was a guess to choose the left or right lane. Than the lanes would either suddenly end so you had to just stop and to try to get into a fast driving other lane. Than there was this system that halfway on a stretch of straight road the road would change direction,, meaning you suddenly saw headlight straight in front of you! Well Ben made us survive this adventure but next time we take the bike!!! He thought that Parish in peak hour traffic was bad but now he no longer thinks so.Anyway we needed to go to Bangkok to get our wedding paper from both our embassies. To marry in Fang we need permission from the embassy and a special letter. After finding first the Australian one we were of good hope and trust all would be fine. No queues or other unexpected things and a translator was only a block away and could do the translation straight away. So than we came to the Dutch embassy what became a different story...A large queue full a Thai girls with some men with them who looked rather suspicious. They were trying to get work permits. Well after a while we passed a nasty nasty secretary and we came to a nice Dutch lady and we thought we would be enjoying holiday soon. Within a minute we were disappointed because the Dutch embassy wants all possible documents you can get from Holland. So belasting dienst,, income,, everything from the gemeente etc etc. And also things from Australia because yes it was true that I didn't really live anymore in Holland. Well to make a long story short the only hope was to go back to Fang without the papers and hope we would have a person there who was friendly and not strict with rules. Still we had to get the already translated documents from Ben certified in another government office. Took only an afternoon because there you can pay more to get things done quick.In Fang we went with our friend Som to the Amphur District Office. Som know everyone in Fang,, really funny! Everyone we ever meet knows him and that makes us friends straight away! So coming in the office he goes straight behind the desk to the biggest desk in the back (highest rank will be there) which Ben and I thought was a good sign. We already started discussing if we should sign the papers if now they would except our incomplete documents. Optimism is good but it doesn't always helps so we were disappointed and not even we could solve it with some cash.Now my Parents need to get all the documents after I legally appoint them. And then we have to go back to Bangkok! Hopefully I get some days of work because embassies are not open in the weekend... So we do our best not to disappoint all our wedding guests by not being able to get married!!! We will keep you up to date!Further Ben renewed his Irish passport to have the option to live and work in Europe. Really lucky he got it. Actually to pick it up from the post office was not that easy because he lost his wallet with the pick up paper in it. And I tell you,,, the people there are just not human, just impossible! But it took litterly hours for him to sort it out.... Nothing here in Thailand goes fast!We were sure that the rainy season was finished but the rain has started again! Yesterday and yesterday before it just didn't stop at all! so after we got some errands done we came home to watch a long movie. Really nice. We had many home cooked meals last week which is nice for a change. One night we ate at Malfrieds and we got left overs for dinner for the next day. Than they came over to our house and Ben cooked a delicious curry which we ate yesterday as well. Today we will cook as well because I was so happy to find eggplant (aubergine) on the market. Oh I also bought my wedding dress last week. It was rather easy. I already had a sort of pencil picture from a dress shape and I only picked out the fabric and that was it! I hope it will be nice because they will only make it in a months time... dressmaker is very busy... Further no news here!!!xxxxOHH and also we bought wedding rings in Bangkok!!!
We were in China town but there were only the really cheap soft gold ones with hard edges etc. So after a kind of tense time looking around a man 'accidental' bumped in us. He had the story that the gold wasn't good and I was only happy to get back up from that fact and I was happy that he could tell us were to go. Ben was suspicious straight away so we didn't get into the tuk tuk who miraculous just happen to stood there as well... We went in another tuk tuk to the place and we bought rings there. They had to be made so we could pick them up a few days later.
Back at home we felt a bit silly for not having done any researched etc and when we went on the internet on the morning before we went back to the shop. We read all the stories about scams but they were mainly with gems. But we were all fired up before we got there of course. The rings looked really nice but we asked how we knew for sure of which component the white gold was made of. We got a certificate but that was just a piece of paper and could be put with any other ring. They thought we were really difficult but in the end Ben managed to get a massive discount! Ben always manages to do so! So now we are happy and we will have see if the rings will start rusting when we will wear them....
