- February 26, 2015, Thursday.
- One of the things I look forward to during the year is the Thailand Trade Exhibit, frequently (if not always,) held at SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia compound. This annual event is organized by Thailand's Department of International Trade Promotion, the Royal Thai Embassy in the Philippines, and the Thai Trade Center. This year, the trade exhibit started today, and will conclude this Sunday, March 1, at 7pm. As always, businesses and services (food, clothes, jewelry, health and well-being, travel, etc.) that want to expand or look for partners in the Philippines are present in the event, but knowing me, my main purpose was to catch the Thai cultural shows that liven the event.
- I normally visit the trade exhibit on the last day, because the last day of the exhibit is usually a Sunday, and is the day when the most number of visitors arrive, which means more spectacular cultural numbers, and probably more products for sale. This year, I decided to go on the first day, since I will be attending another cultural event this Sunday. Fortunately, I arrived just in time for the opening ceremonies, and the first dance of the whole event.
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| Tada!! |
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| The Thai and Philippine flags. |
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| VIPs on their fluffy couches. |
- The first dance is a human-puppet dance accompanied by a Khmer-looking apsara dance. The human-puppet dance is a special Thai dance that uses a human, dressed up as a puppet, whose movements are controlled by three puppeteers in black, who also appear on stage and mimic the general dance movements of the puppet.
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| Apsaras. |
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| Took me a few seconds to realize that it was a human pretending to be a puppet. |
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| Synchronized movements. |
- The dance was followed by speeches by Ms. Rachakorn Saksri, the minister counselor of the Thai Trade Center, and Ms.Somjai Taphaopong, a consul from the Royal Thai Embassy. After their speeches on strengthening the bilateral relations between Thailand and the Philippines through trade, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was done, and another puppet dance was performance. This time, the puppeteers did the "Hun Lakhon Lek." The dance was similar to the human-puppet dance, only this time an actual wooden puppet was used. The puppet they used today was a Hanuman (monkey-god) puppet.
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| Ms. Saksri. |
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| Ms. Taphaopong. |
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| Hurray!! |
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| Hun Lakhon Lek. |
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| Synchronized movements once again. |
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| Hanuman close-up. |
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| Entertaining the VIPs. |
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| Hanuman looking at an apsara. |
- After the puppet dance, a mini-fashion show with the models wearing clothes and accessories from the traders in the event. Before the opening ceremony ended, there was also an official photo session with Ms. Saksri, Ms. Taphaopong, and other consuls and representatives from various embassies in Manila.
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| Fashion show. |
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| VIPs. |
- I roamed around the hall and saw a fruit carver and another lady making Foi Tong, a kind of Thai dessert made by cooking strands of egg yolk in syrup-water, and rolling up groups of strands into a tube. Apart from these two ladies, another area in the hall had a man skillfully painting umbrellas with Thai-style nature motifs.
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| Thailand in a photo. |
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| Making Foi Tong. |
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| Fruit (and veggie) carving. |
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| I love her costume. |
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| Umbrella painter. |
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| His workplace. |
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| Finished product and his materials. |
- I had a quick lunch in Mall of Asia, before coming back to SMX to catch more performances. I came back in the nick of time, and caught the last few steps of an Isaan (Northeast Thai) dance, and the final pose. Afterwards, the female dancers were asked by the organizers to have a photo op near the fruit-carving-and-foi-tong area; I had my photo taken with them, so that was a consolation for not seeing their whole dance. I was also prepared with my Thai accessories, so much so that the Filipino visitors, and even the Thai organizers thought I was Thai.
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| Final pose of the Isaan dance. |
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| With pretty painted umbrellas. |
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| I blend right in. |
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| Sorry I covered your face Thai girl number 3. |
- I rested for around half an hour just to catch another dance performance. At around 3pm, a Central-Thai courtship dance was done; the dance was performed with a slight modern execution. I suspect the dance had influences from the "Lakhon" dance style. The costumes were also designed with some contemporary twists too.
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| Interesting designs. |
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| Men of the village. |
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| The dance incorporated some lakhon and movements. |
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| Vibrant colors. |
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| Final pose. |
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| My moment with my Thai women. |
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| Traditional pose. |
- After the dance, the dancers had another photo op, and of course I had my last hurrah before leaving. Until next year then, for Thailand Trade Exhibit 2016!!
