Holidays, wedding and much more

Jara's been growing soooo fast, you would not believe it. When she was 6 weeks old (it seems like yesterday) Thorsten's parents came for a visit to Thailand. 2 weeks of helpful hands, traveling and lots of advice. It was wonderful.

We decided to do some traveling in proximity of Bangkok, just to get the hang of it (traveling with a baby that is). A visit to Khao Yai National Park was on the top of our list. We've been in Thailand for more than 2 years and we never made it... shame on us!
We stayed in a lovely place amidst the green hills of Khao Yai en enjoyed the surrounding nature and wildlife. Jara (who has always been a difficult sleeper at night) slept wonderfully in this fresh air.

As we were up that end of Thailand we decided to come back to Bangkok via Buriram, a restored Khmer site à la Angkor Wat. Also Thailand has quite a number of ruins from that era and some Thais even claim that Angkor Wat in Cambodia belongs to them... Nevertheless, whoever it belongs to, these sites are beautiful and absolutely worth a visit.

After spending a few days in the jungle, it was time to wash off all the insects at the beach in Hua Hin. We went back to Jara's birth place and paid a visit at the hospital wing where she was born. The nurses we delighted to see how much she had grown in these few weeks.

Again we stayed in a lovely place and there the idea grew of spending the next Christmas together in Uganda, where Griet's parents live. As of now, the tickets and accommodations are booked and we are looking forward to land on African soil.

Once Thorsten's parents left it was time for Griet to organise her wedding dress... Which was an adventure on its own, not the least finding a tailor who can sew a proper dress ('Thai style' wedding dresses are very, very glittery and extremely tightly stitched together so you can barely move, let alone dance!).

Although Thailand is the country of custom made clothes, Thorsten also needed some encouragement to get his suit tailor made. However, it all worked out well in the end.

At the beginning of July, Griet flew to Belgium with Jara where her mum met her at the airport, arriving from Uganda the same time. We needed the extra weeks to finalise the wedding preparations... ever tried organising a wedding from a distance (Griet and Thorsten in Thailand, Thorsten's parents in Germany, Griet's parents in Uganda and the wedding to be held in Belgium)?

It was also a time for Griet's family to meet Jara and Jara to meet her relatives.

The wedding itself was wonderful. The Weather Gods were extremely kind and provided us with Bangkok-like temperatures. Most of our friends from all regions of the world came to Belgium for this day.



The service was beautiful, plenty of good food and drinks and non-stop dancing.

It was so nice to meet again with all the friends we met during our stay and work in The Gambia, UK, Germany and Belgium. The fact that people made an effort to come from so far away (some came from as far Mexico, Afghanistan, Ecuador and Cameroon) made it an unforgettable day.

The next day we had an "after party" for those that came from furthest away and that was as much fun as the wedding day itself. It gave us an opportunity to have some more time for our friends, finish the leftovers from the party and have a BBQ.

Before we knew it, the holiday was over. Now we're back in Bangkok and for Griet, the job search has begun. It's great, looking after Jara full time, but one needs to find a job at some point...

Since we are back we have been able to go away for a weekend to Vientiane, Laos and again, a very nice place to be... wouldn't mind finding a job there...
It is, just as Luang Prabang in the North of Laos, a very laid back place where you can stroll along the Mekong River, have pint and good French food.

Last weekend we went off with the Bangkok House Hash Bikers (http://www.bangkokbikehash.com) to Nakhon Nayok (towards the Khao Yai National Park). Thorsten did the biking, I did the swimming in the pool with Jara instead.
It was a very nice weekend away, among lots of trees and fresh air. The right environment to reload our batteries for another couple of weeks Bangkok. Because in 3 weeks time we head off to Krabi - another one of these places we've never been...- for 5 days beach, sea and sun (although it's rainy season, we have ordered good weather).