The Wedding in the Tropics

Just after my holiday over to Malaysia, I had a great little weekend down to Taidong to celebrate the wedding of my good friend Richard Jones and his lovely bride Jo. The weekend was an excellent celebration where many friends came together to honor these two and toast to their happy new life.

The weekend really started in Taipei. On Saturday morning, about thirty foreigners congregated in Songshan Airport in Taipei prepping themselves for the ride down to Taidong. We took up the majority of the plane, or at least it felt that way, and after a short 45 minute flight we were landing in sunny, hot Taidong.


The group of us took the shuttle over to the hotel and all checked into our beautiful rooms. The afternoon was spent lying by the pool, swimming, bathing, and enjoying a generally lazy afternoon! The best men worked on their speech, the families took a swim, and the older unmarried enjoyed a beer, illegally, by the poolside.


After a splendid afternoon of doing nothing, we all returned to our apartments, showered, dressed and reconvened at the reception area for some pre-dinner drinks.


The set up was lovely and the dinner was quite nice. For those who have never been to a Taiwan wedding, the process is quite different from America. You sit at a massive table and waiters serve you about 12 courses of food (mostly seafood) and you sit and enjoy entertainment throughout the night. There are songs, dances, costume changes, jokes, stories, videos and much more. The evening is all about the bride and groom entertaining the guests more than it is about the guests coming to celebrate the bride and groom.


After dinner, everyone met outside at a local bar across the street from the hotel for an after wedding party. All the old faces were there and the revelries went well into the wee hours of the morning.


Congratulations Richard and Jo! From your very own wedding crasher, Michael!