So the Irish wedding was perfect! If I ever get married (operative work IF) that is how I would like to do it. The couple, Milo and Lisa, invited all their friends and family, and said whoever wants to come can come, but we are having it on the beach in Thailand and you have to buy your own plane ticket. Coincidentally, only the people who cared the most ended up coming- just their closest friends and family. The rest of the guests were us beach-bums who had been warmly invited and welcomed into their exciting event. Good people.

Only the bride and groom wore traditional wedding garb; the rest of us sported sarongs and flip flops. It was a short and sweet traditional Thai cerimony, held on the second story of the open-air restaraunt at the Chaloklum Bay Beach Resort. (FYI, the term "resort" is used loosely over here.) Afterwards, there was a wonderful Thai food buffet compliments of our generous new friends, and a chocolate cake that, true to island culture, seemed to taste of coconuts.

Later, we all gathered out on the beach by the fire made from fallen palm fronds, and one of my traveling companions Shannon, proceeded to play the guitar around the fire, singing lots of john denver and damien rice to the requests of the Irish. The bride and groom danced in the sand, and everyone was happy just to be there to experience this with moment with them. We all drank beers, the Irish more than the rest of us, and watched the palm fronds burn away in the warm Thai night as we sang along with Shannon. I swang with Milo and Lisa's son Liam, from the swing hung from a bending palm tree out on the beach. Soon, a Dutch couple's son Sven was swinging with us, and soon a Thai child, either Chai-Chai or Thai-Thai, was hanging on as well. My South African friend Mathilda took a wonderful picture of the four of us, and I will have to post it some time. Those kids were too cute!

I went to bed soon after, but I heard that the Irish, specifically the bride and groom, stayed up for quite a while, drinking with everyone and getting good and hammered in true Irish style. It was a good and peaceful time, as most nights out here are proving to be. Good good people!