Married by the goverment
Trip Start
Mar 15, 2008
1
5
10
Trip End
May 15, 2008
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
April 11th-
Today I thought that we were going to the goverment offices today to sign the papers to proceed with the marrige and last minute, I found out that we are getting married there by a goverment official..........OMG!! I had to dress nice and take the rings......man, was I nervous. What was supposed to be signing my name became an offical ceremony. The man representing the goverment of Vietnam took all of 5 minutes to tell Jolie to tell me and her our responsibilities to each other here and in Canada as husband and wife. His secretary took our photos necessary for the Canadian Goverment and before I knew it........snap snap bang bang......I'm a married man and very very happy to boot.
April 13th- Well last night, I thought that I was in the middle of a bombing raid with the booming thunder that was happening through the night.
Hanoi's west lake
I have never in my life been so shaken with the noise. I litterally felt as if there were bombs being dropped all around us with the ground shakiing around us as we slept. I now know the fear that people who have experienced war must have felt during an air raid even though it was just over a couple of hours, I was terrified being woken by it as it continued to rain throughout the day while on our way to Hai Phong and continued into the night. During the day J;olie, her mom and I went to see her brother and sister and their families as they prepared for their cousins wedding.
I can tell you all this, if you think planning a wedding back home is a lot of work you should try doing one here..................so much tradition is steeped in this ceremony I can't even begin to explain the things necessary to "make everyone happy" and so no one "looses face".
Stay tuned for the next day..............................
April 14th- Ok, the sun is finally shinning and its dress day, wedding photos day and her cousins wedding day.......OMG..........everything is starting off in the wrong way with confusion as the "word of the day" .......the dress shop that we went to sent Jolies dress to their other store and so we had to walk another 15 minutes there (thank god they set up a fan for me).
For the pictures, we needed some done for the goverments to show that it was "for real"..........and ithe shop tryed to "upsell" us on photo albums like "used car salesman"........but lucky for me, they couldn't understand or talk to me.
This chick digged my "Big Lens"..:)
Next after having my tailored suit jacket sent from Hanoi 12 hours earlier, the dry cleaner delivered my shirts and pants last minute to the hotel.
Now, Jolie is getting her makeup done and I've remembered that I forgot my belt in the north at moms place so, I find the only shop around with a belt and they want $70usd for a guaranteed "knock off" DunHill belt.........fuck!!..............and its only 9:05am.......I can just imagine what the day is going to be like from here on in....................stay tuned.............
Well, after 3 hours of taking photos for the wedding shots, we made our way to the wedding of her cousins in the boonies of VN. Once there, I swear that I was the only white guy these people have ever met face to face and was welcomed as good as any king has ever been. When there all of Jolies family wanted to talk to me (through Jolies translation of course) and her uncle and father took to me especially drinking Vodka and feeding me and bringing all their relatives to greet me and ask me how I liked VN.
I'm sure that none of you could imagine what I've seen or eperienced but I can tell you as far a place as it is and as different a lifestyle that they have, everyone is very friendly to me and all want to say hi to me and show me respect and kindness no matter if they are family or total strangers..........its an amazing feeling to be treated so well even in the poorest of countries, they are very rich with their hospitality towards me I can say.
The night finneshed after many vodka shots and lots of pictures I took of all the wedding goers ( I love my Nikon) and a long ride back to the north too Meh's house in the north of VN..................stay tuned kids..........peace from gee!!
