Back in Manila, October 2004

In October 2004, we decided to go back and visit Manila. Just in time to celebrate my father's birthday. This photo was taken before we (including my brother, Nico) left for Don Muang airport to catch our flight.



Here's Kanittha and Nico, jamming with a local folk band greeting the arrivals at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.



Kanittha, Mom and me. It's amazing how quickly she's become such an important part of our family. I'm talking about Kanittha, of course. Mom's been around since the very beginning as far back as I can recall.



Whenever we are in Manila, we find ourselves eating out a lot. Nico, Kanittha and Via, eating out at Tony Roma's... I think.



Here we are with our friend, Aljor. One of the major contributors in bringing the Landmark Education into our lives. This was taken while we were out with a whole group of friends, just playing a wholesome round of billiards at Astrobowl in Magallanes. One of these days I'm going to write a long tirade about 9-ball and physical therapy. Just not today though.



This photo was taken on the birthday lunch my father hosted. It was also a reunion for his side of the family, and an occasion to introduce Kanittha to the rest of the clan. Here she is with Uncle Jim and his second wife, Auntie Vicky. I'm very happy that they all had a chance to meet each other. Uncle Jim passed away a few months after that. I remember that he asked me how to say "beautiful" in Thai. Then he turned to Kanittha, smiled and very clearly said to her, "souwai, souwai".



Here in the family living room, seated with my younger sister, Tessa, and her son, Jose. I'll tell you more about our nephew, Jose, later on.



Here's the group photo at the reunion, taken at home. I'd go through the whole list of people in this photograph, but chances are that the only people visiting this blog are the same bunch in the picture, so that makes the whole effort a bit redundant.



I don't know exactly what is going on between these two women. You know how they say that "men always end up marrying women like their mothers"? Well, when I met Kanittha I was positive that couldn't have been farther from the truth. But, then again I'm starting to notice that they both enjoy having their pictures taken.



I know you've seen all these people before, but I always thought that this was such a great photograph, so here it is. Via, Nico and Kanittha taken just outside Greenbelt III in Makati City.



Here we are clowning around in the garden space in front of Greenbelt III. My wife always says that she hates this photograph, but laughs herself silly every time she looks at it. I must hastily add that this isn't one of my best photographs. Not that there are any actually.



Later that same day, having dinner at Ebun Restaurant with some of my cousins. From left to right, my sister, Via, and my cousins Ginggay, Pia and Leah.



A few days after that, Kanittha and I met up with my friends from high school. Even after all this time, we have still managed to keep in touch with each other. In semi random order, roughly from left to right — Bobby and Ana, Marton and Pinky, Albert and Pia, Kanittha and Franco, Tony, Ben-G and Maita, Mau and Alvin. This photo was taken somewhere in The Powerplant in Rockwell Center, in Makati City.



We had a wonderful visit. The more independent we are becoming as a family of our own, the more drawn together we all are. It was one of the most unforgettable times we shared together.

Nico in Bangkok, September 2004

September brought us another visitor here in Bangkok, my one and only brother, Nico! I don't have enough words here to describe the wonder that is my younger brother. Here he is with Kanittha, just outside the apartment building where we live. We were on our way out to go visit the night market in Huay Khwang. Kanittha wanted us to go shopping for...



Bugs!

Yes, deep fried insects. My wife is a great fan of bugs as a source of protein. I'm not sure about the nutritional value, but the novelty factor is quite high.



The wife and I at Huay Khwang market.



Here's Nico with one of my oldest friends here in Bangkok, Sam. Sam's the little guy with the pointy ears and the hairy face. We'll talk about the little guy some other time. Nico stayed with us for a few days, but he was mostly busy attending the Advanced Course of Landmark Education. That took up most of the time he was here, but it was still incredible to have him around.

Mommy Visits Bangkok, August 2004

Coming back from a tour of Spain with a few of her friends, my mother stopped by Bangkok for a few days to visit with us. Here we are together having dinner at the Jim Thompson Saladaeng Café. It's a quiet little place that serves excellent food in a very cozy atmosphere. Not at all that expensive for the quality of the food and the great setting.



One of my very favorite photographs of Kanittha and my mother together. Two very, very special women in my life. I sometimes think it is a blessing that they cannot communicate very well with each other in a spoken language, although they seem to understand each other perfectly speaking from heart to heart.



Seated from left to right — my mother and two of her friends (whose names escape me for the moment). Standing from left to right — myself, my wife, our friends Gerald, Tai and Kenny.

Hard Rock Hotel, Pattaya, June 2004

I'm not exactly sure why we decided to travel again, but this time we ended up checking in to the Hard Rock Hotel, Pattaya. Despite having a musical theme that neither myself nor Kanittha could relate to, it is still an excellent place to stay.



Here's a shot of their fantastic swimming pool. It's a pretty cool novelty as half the pool has got a tiled floor, with the other half with a sandy bottom. I suppose if you sat around on the beach long enough one could acquire a sandy bottom as well.



The room is compact but comfy, from balcony to shower stall the whole space can be opened up to enjoy the view. The themed interiors don't hold back one bit, with a larger than life Elvis plastered on the headboard.



We made sure to do the tourist thing by walking into the hotel souvenir shop, gawking at the prices, then retreating out into the sunshine again.



We also did a fair bit of eating. Here is Kanittha about to devour an enormous breakfast at the hotel.



When I used to live near Pattaya (in Banglamung, Chonburi), I was only a few minutes away from this structure called The Sanctuary of Truth. So when we were there, Kanittha and I went to visit.



Not only is this all-wooden structure immense, the detailing is incredibly rich. Every single surface has been intricately carved... with the exception of the floors, but they might just get around to doing that eventually.



Here is Kanittha posing beside the carving of the family that greets guests at the main entrance foyer leading to the main hall of the building.



Not that my wife is very tall, but it helps give you a sense of scale when you see her posed up against one of the statues inside the building. No photo manipulation in this one, this is an actual un-retouched photograph.

Visiting Phuket, May 2004

Not long after we came back from the Philippines I had an invitation to visit Phuket Island, which is on the southwestern part of Thailand on the Andaman Sea. I was able to book a very nice boutique hotel called the Baan Karonburi Resort.



Above is Kanittha making sure I know which resort we're supposed to be staying in. Right next to our resort is another tiny establishment, which serves a much better breakfast that we were almost tempted to walk up to their dining room instead.



After breakfast is the perfect time to run around on the beach. Terrorizing the local wildlife, composed of stray dogs and domesticated water buffalo, seems to be the appropriate thing to do.



I had a chance to catch up with Tom Keator — a former employer, one time mentor and a very good friend. Here we are having a late lunch at the Savoey Seafood Restaurant. The food here comes highly recommended and it definitely lives up to its reputation.



Other than running around and eating, Kanittha and I also made sure we spent enough time enjoying a cold beer in the pool bar at our hotel. Great fun!

Via's Visit to Bangkok, April 2004

In mid-April 2004, my older sister, Via visited Bangkok with her boyfriend, David, and two of his friends (whose names escape me). Here we are all having dinner together at Kalpapruek at The Emporium. Kanittha couldn't join us for that dinner, but we made up for it later on.



Here's Kanittha with Via doing a bit of shopping at the wholesale center of Pratunam.



Finally here's David, Via and Kanittha standing in front of Panthip Plaza.

Ancient Ayutthaya, March 2004

Sometime before or after our visit to Manila, we decided to take a day trip to visit the ancient ruins of the former capital of the Kingdom of Siam, Ayutthaya.

There were just the four of us — myself, Kanittha, and her two half sisters, Oh and Na. We got up early one morning, hailed a taxi cab and said we all wanted to go to Ayutthaya, we agreed on a price for the whole day and away we went.



The three ladies just barely awake — Oh, Kanittha and Na.



We also had a chance to visit the elephants. Once upon a time there were literally hundreds of elephants kept in the precepts of the palace in Ayutthaya. It's popular knowledge that elephants are a highly regarded animal in Thailand. They are revered as a symbol of royalty and respected as a beast of burden.



You can barely see them in this image but somewhere up the ruins of that stupa you will see the three girls.



I was able to take hundreds of amazing photographs that day, with the Buddha head overgrown by the roots of a tree being one of those images. Although, one of the saddest and most moving scenes is this silent row of derelict Buddha images.

In Manila, March 2004

Let's start from the beginning...

Kanittha and I met on her birthday (July 18th) in 2003, and by February the next year we were seeing each other quite seriously. In March 2004, I decided to bring her back home with me to Manila to meet the family.

Now that sounds really nice and wholesome, but that isn't really me. So to add a bit of interest to things I didn't tell my mother about her and my father only knew that I was bringing Kanittha home with me a few days before we arrived. Only my sister, Via, and my brother, Nico, were in on our little surprise.



Everything went extremely well... the surprise was well received and she was made most welcome. Here we all are gathered around the dining room table at home, from left to right — Jose, Daddy, Louie, Tessa, Nico, Mommy, Via, David, Franco and Kanittha.



No surprises there, my wife is a real charmer. Here she is trying on a hat my mother gave to her.



We spent time with family and friends... mostly eating. Here's the family having lunch at Banana Leaf restaurant. Again, from left to right — Franco, Kanittha, Mommy, Tessa, Louie, Nico, Bong, Daddy, Jose, Via and David.



But, we were also able to spend time enjoying the summer weather. We took advantage of the really great swimming pool over at Via's condominium to cool off. We tried to get our friend, Bong, into the pool with us but he wouldn't fit into one of Kanittha's spare bikinis.



The photo above is Kanittha sandwiched between our really good friends, Gino and Bong. Perhaps you now can begin to understand why Bong couldn't go swimming with us. This was taken in Café Bola at the Glorietta 3 Mall, in Makati City.



Despite the fact that Kanittha had become quite sick and tired of going out to malls, and that we were both exhausted towards the end of our trip, I think it's safe to say that we had a wonderful time in the Philippines.

Started A Blog

Well today is the first day of this blog... and that's all there is to it.

I thought it might be a good idea to leave some kind of a journal to share with friends and family. Nothing deep or profound, but hopefully nothing too mundane or trivial, just simple everyday "real" life.

I still have to figure out how I can stick photographs to this blog thing... once I do that, I can add in our wedding and travel photographs for all of you to have a look. Let's see what happens next...