Isan Fam Trip - Nakhon Ratchasima (Minister of Tourism likes me!)

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Beauty of Thailand.




Full of vibrant colors.




Uniquely Thai.




There's nothing more fascinating than watching Thai people sit at a machine and with utmost efficiency, produce silk.




Trust me. I had a go at it. I was clumsy as a monkey with rubic cube.

The most I could manage with sewing is wheeling strings.




We were finally approaching Nakhon Ratchasima, the most south west corner of Isan province. Not forgetting to stop by a traditional handmade silk factory to become the victims of these tourist traps.


Traditional Thai house and all


But it was as educational as every other handmade silk factory I've been to this year across Indo-China (5 and counting) none-the-less.

Sitting in the bus got as habitual as it could get.




That's the good and bad thing (mostly bad) about a scheduled tour trip: there's never enough walking, too much eating, and no tan (yay!).


hot sun? no problem. sunglasses enough.


Anyway, it was to be our fourth day. So we decided to be sophisticated for a day and visited a fossil museum set in Nakhon Ratchasima, following the silk factory.




The lady researcher here is a pretty and young 27 year old PHD holder, who took it in her hand to guide us through the museum in her very thai English.




Inside the museum, we hugged some fossilised wood. Or fossil wood.







Which was basically a log of wood turned to stone after centuries of burial deep underground.




Posed with some elephants.


fossil elephant bones



Have you ever seen a four-tusked elephant?






Elephant cave?


Kissed some giant lizards.







O o.. let me tell you a bit about dinosaurs.

Here above, is what I assume to be a Brachiosaurus, judging from the size, since it's not as big as a Argentinosaurus. Whom all belonged to the sauropod dinosaur family - largest dinosaurs known.

The big lizard reached 25 meters in length and could raise its head as tall as 13 metres.





I'm 170cm thank you.


Means... I can barely reach its hind leg with my height.


I can hug its leg though.


Okay, enough about lizards. They taste like chicken btw.

We then checked into our hotel at Dusit Princess. A rather swanky hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima.








Cam whore in the room


Changed, and went back up the bus. Sigh. Bus again.




That night, the local Tourism representatives had all medias gathered at the central to pass us some welcoming awards,





Looks like an oversized chatukam to me (chatukam is a thai buddism symbolic piece)


for every country,




and brought us around town on a tram while their tour guide spoke away in broken English.










There wasn't much deep impressions I have on of Nakhon Ratchasima except it's a quiet small town, secluded, a bit like Chiang Mai (North Thailand) and Melaka (South Malaysia).

We ended the night with a nice simple Thai dinner and a stroll down the smallest night bazaar I've been in Thailand.

However, the next day was a big day for us. It was the FORUM day.
Yep, the forum was what all these media/fam trips were about. It's where all the medias gathered and have a massive discussion (like 2000 ppl in a hall) under one roof with the representatives of TAT Thailand.

So I put on my sunday best on the fifth day morning.




Put on my name tag.




Which proudly beared the title: Blogger. I bet I was the blogger in the entire hall man~ Phewwit.

The thing about introducing yourself as a blogger to a whole bunch of professional journalists and top travel agents around the world, is that, you will receive two types of reactions.

Let me explain.

Reaction 1
Journalist A: Which publication do you work for?
Me: I'm a blogger.
Journalist A: Ooo... Okay.

note: journalist A dragged the O. Which signified that he's either unsure what to react. These are people who usually are sceptical towards new media people like us, or they have never heard something as ridiculous as having a blogger as a media before. Yep~


Reaction 2
Journalist B: Which publication do you work for?
Me: I'm a blogger
Journalist B: OOO... Wow. *continue on with questioins as to how we earn money and such*

note: instead of dragging his O... he emphasizes it, making a loud OOOOOO sound. This sort of reaction is a positive reaction, which means my answer intrigues him. He's interested, probably heard about us before, and finally have met one, or two in real life. Communication channel therefore established.

I enjoy both reactions. They entice me to understand more of how people nowadays perceive bloggers.


Okay. Back to where I was. After the forum, the Minister of Sports and Tourism arrived for the press conference. Which I was supposed to attend, but seeing that I was not exactly a JOURNALIST, I self exempted the conference. LOL




But by god I have to tell you, the Minister of Sports and Tourism Thailand, H.E. Weerasak Kowsurat, is one FINE GOOD LOOKING CHAP.

He's young for a minister, early 40's I presumed, HARVARD graduate. And has a smile that can charm the whole world. Very well groomed at all times.

This was the second time I saw him, but the first time in such close proximity.




And you know. I saw him glancing my way several times! OMG. He totally made my heart skipped several beats.

I tell you, I was 100% sure that every time I flashed my camera up at him for a photo, he would glance my way. And no matter how long I took to actually snap the photo, he won't look away till I put down my camera and gave him a nod indicating I have taken his photo and a gesture to thank him!




He was such a sweetheart OKAY! OMG. I was so totally in love with him.

Hey, I'm a travel addict, he's the minister of tourism. Like elo? Can you not see the click?


The best was yet to come. That night, we were to have our final grand dinner at a Khmer historial temple. (hey Richard, what was the place called again?)







It was an ingenius idea. Though I was a bit distressed about exploiting such ancient and sacred historical place and turn it into a public dining area with performance and such, I could not deny this was their best selling point. It has provided a complete cultural indulgence to its visitors, a true introduction of the Thai culture, through food, location and performance. It was perfect.











We were the VIPs. Ho Ho Ho~ Got people come and serve us one~



Pinky from Keris Travel gave me her flowers as my hair deco


Nice or not my hair? I curl it with a heat-thong that cost me 70 baht only. :D







Back to dinner and performance.

The dance was breathtaking. The best I have ever witnessed. Considering that I have seen a lot of Thai cultural dance in my travel expeditions, being blown away to such extend was a first.




The choreography was excellent. Dancers were like swans, delicate yet graceful. Every single movement, hand gestures, postures were trained to close to perfection.




The synchronized dance, were, well, very synchronized!




The presentation and costume? Beautiful.




The ending? Grand.




O.. did I mention that I was sitting on the floor (since the VIPs were all front area floor instead of tables set up all the way behind and below stage platform) next to the minister group! ^^ (OMG I was such a fan girl)

He stood among the performers at the end for all media to take photograph. And guess what?!




He looked at me again!!! There were a LOT of people crowding in to take photograph, journalists from all around the world, random people who just want to partake in the shooting frenzy too, and TAT representatives of all countries who just have to have this final photo of the trip cramped up at the front to take a shot of the minister. YET!




HE LOOKED AT ME!!


Not ONCE!

EVERY SINGLE TIME!




See, there again! It's no mistake. Everyone was looking everywhere else but he looked at me!!!

Ooooo.. I thought my heart fluttered like nobody's business that day.

I got so excited I was even among the first to run where he stood to take a photo with the performers.




And you know what. That night, I finally plucked up enough courage to walk up to Minister H.E. Weerasak Kowsurat, and


and...



and....




asked for a photograph.




What? You thought I was going to propose to him?