New Year in Bangkok - Jan 1, 2009

Happy New Year to you all!

Our friends Liz and Barry arrived at Bangkok from Manchester on the morning of New Year’s Eve and were immediately embraced and enveloped by the madness, sultry heat and partying that Bangkokians had laid on. After a restful afternoon by the pool, they nobly managed to keep going until midnight. Our backpacker locale became even more manic and throbbing than usual as live and recorded music blasted out from every conceivable corner and even the numerous massage ladies forsook their usual trade in favour of disco dancing outside their premises. We slowly weaved our way through the heaving crowds, street performers and even a decorated elephant in order to find a good spot for a cold beer and later, a hideously fattening banana pancake with chocolate, condensed milk and sugar topping.

We took a walk to our nearest park where, curiously, hundreds of people were lying snoozing on individual mats, some of which were doubling up as massage mats with helpless ‘victims’ being pummelled and twisted into strange shapes. Retuning to the relative ‘calm’ of our hotel (the ground floor of which hosts a popular nightclub that plays techno, ska and other such genres at unbelievably loud volumes, supplemented by a live music stage just outside the foyer), we watched the spectacular fireworks across the city from our 6th floor balcony. Most of the displays were organised by the various shopping malls and some of displays were truly awe-inspiring and sophisticated with their pyrotechnic wizardry.

Today we took the water taxi up the Chao Phraya river to Wat Pho which houses the remarkable reclining Buddha. It was completely packed with local Thais making merit so the air was thick with incense and the ground in parts covered with little bits of paper that had tiny slivers of gold leaf for the faithful to stick onto some of the many smaller Buddhas around the enormous complex.

One particular sadness is the news that a serious fire in one of the popular nightclubs in the City has claimed 59 lives as New Year’s revellers got trampled and inhaled thick smoke when a fire broke out. It is our view, having seen numerous examples of the Thai attitude (official and unofficial) to health and safety, that such concerns are not generally high on the list of priorities for most people.