Saturday, December 11, 2010

A song that will forever be etched in our hearts


The Stranger in Bangkok and Co's special wedding surprise for Li Li!


Everyone who has made the effort to drop by this blogpost, please give this video a chance and share our joy. I would like to hereby give another round of thanks to Jay, Daniel, Chye Hou and Aaren Tan for making this possible!

歌曲/Song Title:我给你幸福 (I give you happiness)
歌手/Original Singers: 动力火车 Power Station
深深爱一个人
原来可以改造灵魂
不再做率性的人
讲什么都认真

宁愿像个神灯
你的梦都想去完成
你是我的美好我的责任
真爱让人无所不能
给我全世界也不在乎v1
失去一切也不想要被弥补v2

chorus
我只要你靠近看清楚
我的情感到什么浓度
当你眼睛起雾
感动会在心里跳最美的舞
我只要你在爱的沿路
感受一个晴朗的国度
当你脚步停住
情绪都被照顾不再起伏
我给你幸福

只给你幸福

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

A Pictorial Flashback of my 1st full year in Thailand

2010 went by in a flash. In fact, I have never felt a year fly by this fast before. It's been an eventful year, anyone outside Thailand can see it from the global news. For me, it's been a big adventure with many defining milestones accomplished. In January, I did a post-mortem of my first 6 months here, now that December is here and we're sprinting towards 2011, I would like to follow that up by recounting 2010 month by month using pictures, please hold my hand and walk me through this year again....

JANUARY

Somehow managed to get myself into the winning team on Gibthai's Sports Day
FEBRUARY

Went back to Kuching for CNY and met some nephews and nieces for the first time

MARCH


Went for a superstar concert on the day the red shirts arrived in Bangkok

APRIL

Survived the hottest day in Bangkok in decades, 39.7 degrees Celsius!


MAY

Hurdled pass my first ever curfew, hopefully my last

Witnessed Spurs qualify for their first ever Champions League, hopefully not their last
JUNE

Welcomed my first real guests to Bangkok, not that I did a good job of taking care of them

JULY
Sent wedding gifts to Li Li's family
AUGUST

In the midst of marriage prep, set up our online lifestyle mall http://www.b-living.com/
SEPTEMBER --- the BIG month that will forever change my life

Took Li Li as my wife for the 2nd time (after ROM) on 911
And again for the 3rd time on 18 September, this time in Kuching
Became Uncle in Bangkok to Rene Yii Qian Ying, my lovely niece whom I held in my hand just once

OCTOBER

Confirmed that my warehouse space would increase 10 times to 806m2 within a year of operation
Took care of my mom in Bangkok for the first time

NOVEMBER

Became a Krathong hawker on Loy Krathong!!!
DECEMBER

Witnessed a blissful wedding take place to a couple of dear friends in Bangkok

2010 has been the ride of my life. With 2011 right around the corner, I shall savour every last bit of this exciting journey before embarking on another one.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

A Day in the Life of a Krathong Hawker

2009 was my first year in Bangkok. Trying my best to be as Thai as possible, I made it a point to join into the festivities of Loi Krathong and the celebration of King's Birthday.There wasn't any doubt that the latter left a much bigger impact and inspired me to write this post, which is now the undisputed most-read article on my blog.

This year, both Loi Krathong and Father's Day fell on Sundays, so I insisted my wife joined me in both occasions as I knew it would be an experience of a lifetime. That said, I am still not exacty sure what Loi Krathong was really about, aside of the fact that its date varies every year depending on which day the moon is at its fullest, and that Thais will bring their whole families along to release boats (aka Krathongs) into the rivers to send away their past sins as well as bring better fortunes to their futures.

Can you see the sins floating away? They will eventually be stuck somewhere for poor cleaners to clean up.
This year, however, I was given the very unique privilege to follow my staff Rit and his wife Om to become Krathong hawkers! That is to say, we make these little boats from banana tree branches, banana leaves and assorted flowers, and sell them to be released into the rivers!

The 2 of us beaming with Om, who was surprised at Li Li's speed at making Krathongs
The ladies were responsible for the manufacture and beauty of the Krathongs, while the guys took care of the rest, including sales. It wasn't easy at first as I failed to sell many Krathongs and got some friendly mocking from the gang, but eventually I warmed up and did a decent job, selling quite a few to pretty young Thai ladies!

Our small but steady Krathong stall
Our Krathongs, not too shabby eh? 30baht each, anyone?
At the end of the day, business was great, and we sold more Krathongs than expected (albeit after dropping prices from 30baht to 20baht). I really think we contributed positively to Rit and Om's night and hope to get their invitation again next year.

From my experience as a roadside hawker, I had my revelation of the day, which can be explained from this picture below:


This slipper-stall was our neighbour, and despite our great sales efforts (including big discounts) and flawless craft-work, the interest we generated could not compare with theirs. It was shocking for me to see 2-5yr old girls' eyes glowing with delight while browsing through the colourful slippers one-by-one. Their mesmerised gazes then falling on their parents who had no choice but to part with hard-earned cash to remove slippers swiftly off the racks onto their daughters' feet. This fateful night, I understood the universal truth of life: Women are BORN shoppers. They are destined to become shopaholics, like it or not.

Anyway, the night couldn't possibly be complete without releasing Krathongs ourselves, so we made our way into the temple to do so.

The special Krathongs we made for ourselves, no incense for me though

Li Li with our mega-size Krathong
Photo of the night: What does Loi Krathong mean to Thai people?  Rit's expression says it all.
While we were having the time of our lives, a tragedy happened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where the same festivities turned into a horrifying stampede which took hundreds of innocent teens, turning joy into a day of national mourning and regret which will never be forgotten. I could feel my heart wrench as I flipped through the massive coverage of the mishap on Bangkok Post over the next couple of days.


Supposedly good days could turn fatally bad in an instant. Let's live everyday to its full and treasure the ones around us, because they deserve it.
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