Watching the Miss Universe live is, I'm sure, one of the top five things one can find in any gay man's bucket list - aminin!
Anyhow, I was still in college when they held the 1994 Miss Universe here and although Vic wanted to get tickets to watch the 2017 edition here in MOA, I wasn't too enthusiastic because the ticket prices were too steep - pandagdag na rin yun sa tuition ng mga bata.
Luckily for me, the Miss Universe did travel to Bangkok, Thailand in 2005, and as soon as I heard about it, I immediately bought tickets to watch it. Ewan ko ba, pag-MOA ang venue, napakamahal talaga ng tickets, and I don't remember spending an arm and a leg just to watch that year's show.
At that time, it was already easy to buy tickets through Thaiticketmaster and I was already familiar with the venue, having watched many concerts there - ang Impact Arena kasi ang parang Araneta Coliseum ng Bangkok.
Yun lang, malayo sya sa center of the city, so everytime we watch there, we have to hire car service kasi di ko alam umuwi na magcocommute - and well, Mama and I were dressed to the nines.
I learned then that there were many pageant watchers locally pala - the only famous one I know was Mr. Ben Chan, and as always it was easy to get a picture with him, but he's not talkative.
Yun lang, I cannot find our pictures from the event anymore. These are the only ones I can find. Na-Ondoy na siguro ang iba huhu
As for the show, the atmosphere was electrifying - sya nga ang Olympics ng mga bekis - grabe ang flag-waving! I also remember that the winner, Miss Canada's Natalie Glebova was already a big favorite among the audience because the crowd will always shout with approval everytime she came out.
So my theory was, you'd already know who the winner would be just by judging how the crowd reacts, especially when they are just down to the top 10 and so on and so forth. Let's see if that happens here in MOA.
I flew into Bangkok just a day before the event so I had no idea who the Thai crowd was rooting for and I did not know who the candidates were. I remember cutting some clippings from the local papers the days before and after the event.
The show was at 9AM to coincide with the primetime viewing of Americans kaya I remember 7AM pa lang bihis na ako kasi the venue was an hour's drive from our hotel and I remember , marami kang toll booth na dadaanan with big voluminous hair!
After the show, Mama was so brave to go near the stage for photo ops, and we did get some pics as some of the candidates were sweet enough to pose for the audience. What I remember was that they were all incredibly tall! Parang mga higanteng Barbies!
Actually, maraming events ang for sale, the Pre-Pageant presentation, the National costume show, etc., but I decided to buy lang the main event kasi one whole month ang events and I don't live there naman. Kaya dito, I was surprised why they are not selling tickets to the pre-pageant judging events, etc. - sa main event lang.
So sinong manunuod sa pre-pageant presentation event where the top 15 finalists will be chosen? By invitation lang? Andaya naman. Yun actually ang mas importante na show e kasi dun nakasalalay ang fate ni Maxine natin if she is going to rampa sa main event.
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