grandpa's girl's declaration (April 30, 2016)

"lolo, i have my period!"

With that statement grandpa said goodbye to his baby and said hello to a lady.

Whatalife!

Rockin’ with the Foursquare Gospel Church

Congregation singing in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church is done with hymn book by pre-modern standards. There’s no clapping, dancing, waving of hands or cheering. Drums, cymbals, electric synthesizers, guitars, etc are taboo. 

There is no spontaneous individual praise, speaking in tongues, prophesying or crying. Everything is kept in a formal, outwardly reverent and strictly prescribed format - and that is from my own experience being born, raised and educated by this church for the 47 years of my life.

At the other end of the church decorum spectrum stands the Pentecostal church - specifically the Foursquare Church. In my teenage years I had the chance to observe them worship and my friends and I labelled them as weird, possessed, drunk, etc. Honestly I thought that they were not worshiping God at all.

My perception could have stayed that way were it not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit that transformed me into a Pentecostal believer. My daughter who followed me out of the SDA church had the chance to serve the Foursquare church just recently and the experience stirred her soul like nothing before. Here are some photos that I gleaned from her album and Kathleen's.

The Evangelical church of Bangkok praise team led by Pastor Adam was invited to the Foursquare Youth Conference in Baguio city, Philippines. Kukie - my daughter, is in the left with a hand 
raised in prayer. 

This is conference is done every two years for the youth 
leaders of the church

that's how they pray... If you did that in the SDA church 
you'd be considered odd.

sing and dance... why not?

speaking in tongues... prophesying...

cheering...

All that is considered old-school compared to the SDA style of worship when one considers these examples in the ancient Israelite era:

Psalm 149:3 "Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.

and in the early Christian era:

Acts 2 "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine."

How to take a break from the work-eat-sleep cycle

work-eat-sleep... work-eat-sleep... if you don't break this vicious cycle soon, you'll end up a stinking zombie in dire need of a psycho-medical rehab.

Anyway, here's how this cycle can be broken:

1. Go online and look for great promos in exotic places that suit your fancy.
2. Book 2 - 3 months in advance so that when the date to leave comes you have already paid the resort and you have less money matters to bother you.
3. Get in a good-sized van for the 4 hour trip to Laem Ngop pier in Trat province.

4. Get on board a super fast speed boat for a 40-minute ride to Koh Mak.

5. Check in at this villa - Koh Mak Resort

6. Feast your eyes on scenes you don't often see

7. take as many photos as you want

8. Go scuba diving

9. Kayaking

10. Swim

11. Eat, eat and eat

 12. Don't ever forget "happy hour," because cocktails are B1T1 and beer is B2T1.

13. Celebrate your daughter's birthday

14. don't forget the mandatory wacky pose...

... and the 360 degrees shoot

While on the island the trend is sleep-swim-eat... sleep-swim-eat. If you want to break that cycle all you have to do is hop on a boat and head for home.

I will never dive koh mak again!

The title may sound like I'm a poor loser - actually losing is not the issue here, rather it's doing the same mistake again that makes me look stupid.

A few years back some dive buddies and I decided to check out the dive sites around Koh Chang (Chang and Mak are two islands that share the same dive sites). After that trip I vowed not to return to this area again.

The photos will show why.

 shallow

 poor visibility

drab, monotonous flora and fauna

Forgive me for the descriptions. It just so happens that I'm from the Philippines where marine biodiversity and crystal clear water is at its best. If you have been to the Philippines you will understand my rant.

The good part about this dive trip was the company:

2 czechs, 1 dutch, 1 french and 1 pinoy

These guys had the "same feathers" although apparently one had less. the czechs were an elderly couple who were madly in love with each other that we had to give them some space.

 that's the dive boat. it had 12 adults and 2 kids for snorkeling and 5 divers with only two staff (captain and divemaster) - obviously understaffed.

 the swimming dutchman - Hajo, and the balding filipino.

Arnaud the frenchman engrossed with his u/w photography.

Notwithstanding the negative facts about this trip, we had a good time. We had ice cold beer on board and the trip to and from the dive sites did not take too long.

This Koh Mak trip was actually a family retreat to get away from the hassle of the daily routine. I just chanced upon a dive shop on the island and forgot my previous vow. 

Maybe next time I will remember not to dive Koh Mak again.

Songkhran ride 2016

Songkhran - i just can't get enough of you

Why does the Thai new year fall on a day that is 38 degrees Celsius? Yeah, it was super hot and so these blokes hopped on their bicycles and took a ride through the streets of Bangkok.

They shared the road with some guys with white powder on the face...

Some with water guns and backpacks holding water...

...and buckets of white powder suspension with 4 guys to a motorbike all without safety helmets...

by the roadside were people whose only goal was to douse anyone who passed by...

most often they had barrels of water and ice

some just had drinking water bottles...

 ...which can't hold much, but the effort was worth it.

 this guy just stood there with a 200ml water gun. One 20ml squirt was all he could muster.

another guy blasted away with his bucket...

these guys took it to another level with their mixture of water and white powder...

that blotted out my sight for a few seconds.

a  mother and daughter tandem enjoying the afternoon.

this is the Rambutri - khao sarn area with a band playing and the soaked revelers all massed together

dinner by the road at Thewes on the way home... yeah that's durian.

extracting the money from a ziplock plastic bag.

 a final douse in front of Yanhee...

 ... 31 km done and it feels like we're kids again. 

HAPPY SONGKHRAN!