Sakhon Nakhon, July 2005

In July of 2005, I had my first opportunity to go visit the family home of Kanittha up in the province of Sakhon Nakorn, up in the northeast of Thailand, in the Issarn region. Rather than traveling twelve hours by bus, we decided to fly there.



My wife's family are all very humble farmers, who by sheer hardwork have been able to raise themselves up from complete poverty to a respectable status in their village. Money is still very hard for them, but they earn enough to keep a cozy little home.



Here's a shot of the view right in front of their home — rice fields. When we went up to visit, I went with the intention to ask Kanittha's parents formally for her hand in marriage, and to offer up a partial dowry to her family.



What might have been a simple quiet exchange, became a big event with half the village coming to the house and with the village headman present to witness our engagement.



This was taken the morning after the impromptu engagement ceremony. It's a tradition here to tie a strand of homespun cotton around the wrists as a way to ward off harm. The belief is that it ties your spirit to your body, so that should something happen it won't decided to depart at an inopportune moment. From that moment on, I stopped referring to Kanittha as "my girlfriend", and she became "my fiancée.



Shopping at the local wet market with Kanittha's older sister, Aey. Everything up there is so fresh and inexpensive. I spent most of the time up there just lounging around and taking naps all the time.



Here's Kanittha on the bridge that spans a stream fed by a reservoir near their home. The house with the blue roof is the home of Kanittha's family. That time of the year, there's nothing but lush greenery all over the place.



Green rice fields, skies heavy with rain and breezes that calmed the soul. That's what it was like spending time up country in Sakhon Nakorn. Now because I was sleeping too much, Kanittha's family thought I was bored and they decided to take me to go visit the local tourist spots.



Kanittha and I got around on one of the family's motorcycles, while her three nephews and only niece followed close by on the other motorcycle. The 10-year old nephew driving the other motorcycle is Toy.



Here they all are at the reservoir, from left to right — Chet, Toy, Kanittha, Ay and her niece, Toon. No idea who the dog is.



A view of the reservoir.



Here's a sunset shot taken with one of the Buddha statues surrounding the temple near their village, Wat Danmahlen, which literally translates as "temple on dancing horse rock.



This modest temple was built on a huge solid rock, which bears the imprints of what appears to be random patterns of hoof prints. Local folklore says that horses used to dance upon this rock. No one can explain why, but that doesn't seem to be important at all.



Here we are at the airport of Udon Thani, about an hour and a half drive from Kanittha's village in the neighboring province of Sakhon Nakorn. This was taken just before taking the flight back to Bangkok. We're a bit tired from all the driving around, but I was totally rejuvinated from that peaceful break up country.

Commitment Seminar, June 2005

One of the most amazing things that has happened to us has been the Landmark Forum. And the person who has been the most instrumental in making this contribution to us is my good friend, Kenny Marshall.



Here he is accepting a token of appreciation from the class of the Commitment Seminar. I took the course with Kenny and completed it. Kanittha didn't take the seminar with me.



Here's a photo of the group that completed the Commitment Seminar of Landmark Education.

Woodlands, Pattaya, May 2005

Time to travel again!



Here we are at the Woodlands in Pattaya, Chonburi. A fantastic place with great food and an awesome pool. Service was very good and the rooms were decent, but prices were a little bit steep.



Here's Kanittha in the pool in her itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny red polka dot bikini. We were there for about four days, but if I recall correctly she brought about five or six suits.



Big breakfast on our second day. Absolutely wonderful food. On Saturday evenings they have an awesome dinner buffet, which we of course enjoyed immensely.



Here's Kanittha at the bar of the Woodlands, just before we left to go to the Tiffany Show.



In the two years that I lived in Pattaya, I never had the chance to go and visit this transvestite cabaret extravaganza.



Here she is posing with the star of the Tiffany show — Nong Poi and Kanittha. Now before anyone says anything they might regret, it should be stated that Nong Poi is in fact a guy. Or is in the process of re-inventing himself.



Here we are — Nong Poi, Kanittha and myself. You can read more about the Tiffany Show at the link above.



After the show, we decided to enjoy a late seafood dinner.



And the next day we enjoyed noodles...



And the breakfast after that, some soup. You can see a pattern of eating here. My wife is petite and a bit underweight, so I have been encouraging her to eat.



Here's Kanittha mugging for the camera, putting on her sneaky face. Probably looking for something to eat again.

In Luang Prabang, January 2005

Here we are again, this time we are visiting Luang Prabang, Laos PDR. Here's my wife, Kanittha, very early in the morning on the airport in Luang Prabang! Of course at this point we aren't married yet, but I've gotten used to referring to her as my wife.



Birthday breakfast right beside the fog covered Mekong River at our hotel, the Grand Luang Prabang Hotel. It's a gorgeous hotel, probably one of the very best in that city. We decided that it would be nice to spend my birthday in another place. Ever since we'd taken the Landmark Forum together in April of 2004, we'd made a commitment to each other — to create a powerful relationship of love and adventure.

This wasn't the first time I'd been to Luang Prabang. Back in 1995, I was with a small group of architects to create an urban conservation guideline for this city. We were working under the auspices of UNESCO, helping to get Luang Prabang declared as a World Heritage site.



Here's Kanittha striking a pose on the way down to the boats along the Mekong River. The hotel was still under construction when I was first in Luang Prabang. It was designed and constructed by a company I used to work for, Habita Architects.



And this is a photo she took on the boat down the Mekong River towards Wat Xieng Thong.







Above is shot of the front facade of one of the minor structures beside Wat Xieng Thong. This particular building housed the cremation chariot of the last king of Laos.





Here's Kanittha saying a quick prayer at a shrine inside that structure.



When we got back from the visit to the temples, we walked around the main street. A lot had improved in the decade since I'd last been here. But, architecturally speaking, fortunately not much had changed. While the signs of prosperity were slowly peeking up every where, the essential urban fabric of the city had remained intact.



In the evenings, the main thoroughfare is closed to vehicular traffic and it becomes one enchanting night market. Very safe, very colorful and so many wonderful bargains to be made and haggled over.



The next day. Ready and excited to go, Kanittha strikes another pose at our hotel. Did I mention that my wife enjoys to have her picture taken... and did I confess that I equally enjoy taking pictures of my wife?



Here we are feasting on a delicious meal in a small restaurant right beside the Mekong River.



Back on the main road sitting at a sidewalk café. Kanittha posing with some beautiful silk pieces hanging to dry just behind her. Laotian silk, in my humble opinion, is perhaps the most attractive in terms of design and colors. Don't get me wrong, Thai silk is beautiful, but I personally prefer the intricate delicacy of the designs of Laotian silk.



From our hotel, which is located in the outskirts, we take a shuttle busy to the city post office, but from there we get around Luang Prabang on bicycle.





We stopped to see the main temple right beside the grand palace, then we climbed up to enjoy the view from high atop the temple hill, on Wat Phousi.





This is a shot of the highest point on Wat Phousi.



Once more back in town, taking some refreshments and yet another outdoor streetside café. Kanittha looks a bit harassed here because she's not used to handling foreign currency. She got totally stressed out when I asked her to hang on to 250,000.00 LAK (Laotian Kip), which is roughly about 26.09 USD.



Now back at the hotel, Kanittha fresh from a bath — washed off all the wandering around town. All cleaned up and ready for bed.



Here we are on a plane again, leaving Luang Prabang, Laos PDR for Chiang Mai, Thailand.



Above is a view from the plane looking out on the province of Chiang Mai.



We spent an evening in Chiang Mai then flew back to Bangkok after that. Above is a photo of Kanittha taking a break in a coffee shop in the heart of Chiang Mai. This trip was officially the first foreign vacation we had together. Although we'd been to the Philippines together, that didn't really count as travel, that was more a family visit. Hopefully, we will have many many more travels together.

Meeting Mom in Bangkok, January 2005

The very first time I met the family of Kanittha was at a dinner for them at Silom Village.



Here we are posing for a photo with a couple of traditional dancers who put on a performance over dinner. Myself and Kanittha are standing, then seated from left to right are her sisters, Kut and Kit, then Kanittha's mother, Thiap. I guess I made a fairly good impression as we ended up getting married.