No.98 Krabi Road, Phuket

It had been my lifetime dream to visit the ancestral home where my parents got married in Phuket some 50 years ago. My grandpa who was the CPO in Phuket then, was also the CPO in Krabi prior to that, where both towns come under the county of Nakhon Si Thammarat. 

I have taken the trouble to dig out many wedding albums of my parents but I am too lazy to scan them all. So I am posting just 4 will do lah.

The above photo shows my dashing father and mum being flanked by my Grandpa and Grandma. Do I look like my grandma? LMAO!

My parents wedding was held at No.98 Krabi Road, Phuket where it has become a museum today. It houses the finest antique collections from China and this mansion belongs to my great uncle who was then, the wealthiest tin miner in Phuket. Their family alone has 3 huge mansions where I heard tin ore was later found in the lawn of one of the houses!

My grandpa was taking a puff outside the mansion with my parents and grandma behind.

At the wedding reception, here my parents were photographed chatting with the Governor of Phuket.

I am posting this group photo which seemed hilarious to me. They were all so many men and I guess they were police officers! My grandpa actually forbade my mum to marry my dad as he felt that he would be losing his daughter to some foreigners who could not give her the good lifestyle.

After 11 years of endurance, my grandpa finally gave away his princess to my dad for his patience!

Please view this You Tube to get the earlier complete look of the mansion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DzPYr5-YhLIg

This is the same house TODAY which has been fenced off in front. The 'group photo' posted above was taken at the spot where the fence is today. They are building many new shop lots in front now and they still have several acres behind and beside the bloody big house!

This is the side entrance of the Chinpracha House which is a public museum today. I guess his "Chinpracha" title was given by the King Rama the 5th of Thailand. 

Hollywood's film director Oliver Stone has filmed a movie part in this mansion too.

I was walking curiously everywhere looking at all the familiar photos of some relatives. I think Leumas would have labeled it as another haunted house in his blog.

This is the mother of pearl-laid tea table by the court yard. Come join me to have teh tarek here!

The same furniture used by my parents for the typical Thai wedding ceremony.

This must be the Princess Michi of Phuket! Muahahahaha!

I was looking at the room and poster bed where my dad spent his night.

All the furnitures were imported from France and China which have all survived through the 3 generations. 

This is the indoor court yard which has nice Roman pillars and shallow water features. I have finally closed this chapter of the wedding house and my next trail would be a trip again to Phuket & Krabi to seek a temple's shrine built in the memory of my grandpa's name.

Sawadee From Phuket

Hello my friends! I am back after 5 days in Phuket and my pocket is severely damaged but I am as pleased as a lark.

First, I enjoyed the craziest company of my Penang and Bangkok friends who behaved like insane drunkards when they were happy & merry.

I stayed at 2 different hotels which were so contrast where food & luxury standard was concerned. 

The first - Patong Beach Hotel which was closest to the sea and was affected by tsunami cost about RM400 per night with fantastic open bathroom concept suitably for lovers!

The 2nd hotel which I got 2 night's FREE stay was Royal Paradise which has the best breakfast spread I ever had in Thailand esp their Yoghurt which was simply very marvelous.

When my grandpa was the Chief Police Officer of Phuket during the 50's, this stretch of Patong Beach was still unknown until the King of Thailand paid a visit and HM was impressed by the panoramic view. So he ordered that roads should be made down hill and clear up the space around Patong area which became a reality in 1959.

 The whole island is so hilly, hence its name "Phuket" was derived from the word "Bukit".

Of all the beaches, I preferred Kata Beach which has no-nonsense noisy Go-Go bars and huge crowds but the good hotels are chibai-priced anything above RM500 per night! Phew!

I also went island hopping as well besides renting a motorbike to roam the town to see how my late grandpa lived during his era.

I also found my relative's sprawling mansion where my parents had their fairy tale wedding in 1957. It has become a museum of antiques today. I will blog about it and share the photo of the poster bed my dad slept on!

I lost my camera the night of my arrival, so most photos were taken from my miserable phone. I won't wait for the Bangkok friends to email the others to me, yeah.

Looking Back

It was such a rush-rush week to get ready to head home for Chinese New Year. I had to pack my barang-barangs for 1 week's stay. This is a luxury vacation trip with free accomodation at my dad's new 'hotel like' condo. I left KL after lunch and ahead of me in the highway were blogger LeuMas, Gary and KP in their own Ferraris. But then my Kanchil arrived Penang 1 hour earlier! The traffic was heavy in many areas but no jams, then how Twilight the tortoise beat the hares?

My secret : I drove along the EMERGENCY LANE most of the time lah!

Before I left home, like a grandma I did last minute spring cleaning and basuh kain, wash toilet etc. Then tried to move boxes here & there till I stumbled into a JD Cole's type of unpacked treasures since carting them back from abroad. 

I just stopped all my cleaning and browsed tru my piles of photos taken over a decade plus some artworks done in American classes. I had to paint and design as well for the Advertising Business studies and I was hopeless until I met a hunky classmate!

Twilight and his 2 best friends posing by the Lake Erie in North of Pennsylvania in Winter. Behind us you can see a black line and that is Canada! The Korean hearthrob student was a hot favourite of the Japanese female students who went Ga-Ga over him. I met him during our stay at the boarding school at Point Park College and we became room mates later. The Italian hunk who looked like BJ Bear was from Cleveland, Ohio and my classmate & Art mentor whom I am grateful to this day.

My fond memories of them:

Lee Joon Sung (Korean) - He shit so smelly and taught me to eat Kim Chi. Later my shit became smelly like his. He taught me to speak Korean but I have forgotten 99% of it now. Alamak!

Michael Legan (Italian) - He told me that all the animals in the zoo are Negro's relatives. He also boasted that Italy is famous for everything on earth!! Mafia, lovers, ferraris, fashion and spaghetti! I taught him business studies & he guided me in all the painting classes which helped me to graduate with honours.

Title: Mountain Goat 

- Used a pointed inkless pen to etch on the black board. It took me 3 days to scrape the white lines!

Title: Mongolian Hunter

Oil painting which took over 2 weeks to finish coz it was freezing winter. In the end I put it in the kitchen's oven to dry it.

Title: My Bird

Used o.1 technical pen to draw this birdie and I forgot its name. Maybe it's Tweety.

Title: American Footballer

This is the conventional air brush similar to how we spray motorcars. It was a white player but I screwed up the skin and changed it to a black American player instead. After that I was good at spraying toilet bowls when urinating.

Title: Malaysian Vegetables

Used acrylic to paint this abstract and it was easy and fast.

Title: In America, I Poured Out My True Colors

I bet Sushi King could not display their noodles hanging in midair like mine. It won a special prize and hundreds of busy bodies snapped photos of my Maggi Mee! 

Malaysia Boleh!