Well, New Year's Eve was absolutely amazing - I don't think I've ever had such a great New Year and Scott and I determined that foreign countries are much better for this celebration (except we missed friends). We started off with a later dinner where I had Tom Yum soup. Yum is right! It was too spicy for me, but because it was the best thing I've ever eaten, I just took an hour to work on it. We sat next to a man from Holland who is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He works as an interculturalist, teaching business people how to be in different cultures. He actually wrote a book called "Dealing with the Dutch," which has apparently ben very successful among Americans. I wan this job! Anyway, it was great conversing with him over diner. We next went to John's Place bar, which we had been to twice already. We looked for our favorite bartender, who is an incredibly sweet girl. We shared drinks with her and enjoyed talking to her. We also met a Canadian guy who first introduced himself when we said something about YMCA and he jumped in saying he was part of a group who won competitions dancing to "YMCA". It was 4 guys and a crazy hobo - hysterical story! We then found out that he was going to a Buddhist temple was up in the mountains to do a month's meditation retreat. I would love to speak to him afterwards to hear how it went but we lost him when we went outside for midnight.
The sky had been beautiful since it was dark with people letting off the lanterns in the sky but at midnight, it was incredible. There were hundreds of these candles let off, fireworks al around and just general excitement from everyone (probably no one as much as me, though!) It was so magical! They would never allow this to happen in the US due to safety reasons and the trash that comes back down, but it was more beautiful than you can possibly imagine.
The sweet bartender ended up giving me her bracelet after I told her I liked it. A friend had brought it to her from Phuket and it was one of the sweetest gifts I've ever received. I felt bad taking it, but I got her address so I can send her a gift from San Diego.
We next went to another bar where we were the only Westerners. There were a few Thai girls dancing up on a table and I joined them much ot everyone's excitement. One girl was dancing like crazy wiht me and people were taing pictures all over. Again - they've probably never seen anyone so white! It was really funny.
We went back to the Irish pub, where I saw the workers exchanging gifts. It's the big thing in Thailand to exchange gifts for the New Year, since this was their big Holiday. It was fun to see all their excitement and they shared some of their tasty treats too. One girl just got a big box of Ramen type soup and seemed a bit annoyed - I felt so bad for her!
We went to another bar (I know - crazy) where there was almost no one left because it was so late. They were playing very fun music, so I had fun singing and dancing. I even danced all aroun dthe bar to Abba with 2 other girls (this video got corrupt - but the others are all intact!) At one point, I went to the bathroom across the street and met a guy from Antarctica. I didn't even know people could live there - crazy!
We closed the bar talking to one more guy and then finally headed back to our hotel at almost 5 AM - go us! It was a really amazing night. We didn't get too many pictures, but did get a lot of video - check it out.
Other people stayed out that late every night, but us old timers can only do it for certain occassions now. We heard them coming in every other morning. Although our place, the Pop House was super cute and nice and brand new, the walls were paper thin and you could hear everything.
We still slept in New Year's Day and had a pretty lazy day. We went to the Tiger Kingdom, which I kin of wish we hadn't gone to. It mad me pretty unformfortable. It was a cool idea because I got to go in an actually pet yong and adult tigers and I think they are amazingly beautiful. However, although some of the reviews I read said they seemed well taken care of and happy, I didn't quite agree. It just seemed like a very unnatural way to keep them. The trainers held sticks, which they would probably use if the tigers "misbehaved". They moved them all around and pushed things in their faces to try to get reactions and pictures thye thought people would want. Some of htese pictures look super cute and natural, but it did not feel natural to me. I would have rathered just see them play wiht each other. Oh well - very cool to see them up so close and feel their fur.
That night, we went over to the night bazaar area, which was just way to crowded and touristy for our likes. Maybe it was due to it being New Year's Day, but we didn't stay for very long. WE did see some Thai dancing while we ate, which was very beautiful to watch.
We're now headed back to Bangkok and then up to Ayutthaya. I can't believe our trip is so close to coming to a close. I am really not ready to go back home. I feel so incredibly hapy, relaxed and in love! I hope these feelings continue on!
