Thailand Day 5: New Year's Eve

We left for Thailand Thursday night. Sunday afternoon was the Green Bay/Chicago Bears game. The winner of that game would win the division and earn a home game in the wildcard round of the playoffs. It was a big freakin' deal. I had initially intended on just living with a media blackout for the duration of the trip and watching the game as soon as I got back to Korea. That didn't happen at all. It was constantly on my mind. And worst of all, I knew that Mike already knew the results, so I was constantly trying to read his body language to try and figure out if the outcome was good or bad. And so, seeing how our Tuesday started out very lazy, I used that time to watch the first half of the week 17 game.

At halftime, I was very happy with a 13-7 Packers lead. With that out of the way, we headed out the door to Chinatown.

We walked through the over-crowded streets of Chinatown, enjoying the delicious aromas that swirled around us courtesy of the multitude of street vendors, and marveling at the random items that were for sale on the side of the street--everything from ancient phone chargers to individual shoes and disease-riddled dirty toys. We turned this way and that, meandering through mysterious side streets, walking in no direction in particular, just in search of a sit-down restaurant where we could enjoy a good brunch.

The place we finally settled on was so good that Mike ordered two meals--by accident. He tried to switch his order from one meal to another, but hilariously ended up with both. He inhaled them both like a champ, though.

It was already approaching noon as we got to the big mall area--Siam, MBK, Central World, and Paragon. They're all lined up along the same street in very close proximity to each other, and they're all huge. Mike needed to buy souvenirs and gifts for some people, so we figured we'd kill an afternoon there.

When we got off at Siam station, Mike suggested that we go our separate ways because he has a very unique approach to his shopping--I guess he's very meticulous or something--and he felt that he'd get things done faster if we did our own thing for about four hours. I was fine with that, so I checked out Central World, which I hadn't yet explored.

Surprise, surprise, it was pretty much the same as every other large mall I've ever been in, save for the fact that it had a skating rink on one of its floors. I totally would have partaken in some skating action, were it not for the fact that I cannot skate. (It's not my fault; I come from a long line of non-skaters.)

Mike and I met up at 4:30 and made our way back to the hostel so he could drop off his stuff. By this point, there were only a few hours between us and some sweet New Year's Eve celebrations.

As far as we could tell, we had three pretty good options to choose from for our NYE plans: The simplest one involved not going anywhere at all. Our hostel had a beautiful river view, meaning we had a prime location to view the fireworks from. There was a $30 cover to get into the restaurant.

Option number two was going to Central World Plaza for the countdown. There was a digital countdown clock atop the mall.

The third option, which was the route we ended up taking, was heading back to Khao San Road. Foreigners, bars, packed streets. It seemed like it would be a lively place.

Unfortunately, Mike was very adamant that we walk the 4.5 kilometres, as opposed to splitting a $4 cab ride, and so we trekked across the city to our destination. (Thank God Mike had the sense to buy a SIM card, or else we would have been completely lost countless times on this trip. This was one of those times.)

Our plans hit a little snag, though, when we got about two thirds of the way there. See, the reason Mike didn't want to take a cab was because it irritated him that we had gotten jerked around the first time we took a cab to Khao San. Based on the map on Mike's phone, I knew exactly the route we were supposed to take to get there, but our cabbie ended up driving north past Khao San, and then heading back south once we traveled west for a bit.

We figured he was just trying to stretch out the drive to squeeze some more cash on us. However, it turns out there was a completely legitimate reason our cabbie had taken that detour: The route that we ended up walking hit a standstill when we hit a certain road. There was some sort of huge gathering going on. At first it seemed like it may have been some sort of New Year's Eve celebration/parade, because there was a Chinese dragon-looking thing dancing down the street, but as we neared the central point of all of the commotion, there was a stage erected in front of a roundabout, and a huge body of people gathered to hear some fellows speak. It sure didn't feel like a Rick Campinelli-styled countdown speech. It felt more like a rally speech, and it seemed like half of the Thai population in Bangkok was gathered there. There were times when we just weren't moving. I understood that Mike didn't want to take the cab based on principal, but at the time, my stomach wanted to shank his principals and leave them in the river by our hostel to die. I was starving.

Mooooooooooove! 

We finally reached Khao San, and it was full of energy. Restaurants and bars were jammed with people, and regardless of which direction you were walking, you were a fish heading upstream. They even had their own Rick Campanelli hosting the countdown on a stage.

Sadly, there was no Sean Desman to kick out the jams year after freakin' year.

We headed to the same place we'd eaten before, Macaroni Club, and because the place was so packed, we were seated with a couple at a table for four. They were from Holland and were beyond friendly. They had already finished their meal as we sat down, but they stuck around to chat with a couple of Canadians and keep us company. We parted ways as we paid the bill, and wished each other a Happy New Year.

From there, we just picked up random beers in random places and admired the scenery. Hilariously enough, we actually didn't even ring in the New Year together, as we got separated mere minutes before the countdown in the gigantic sea of people.

I would've liked to have come across one particular bar or club that completely blew us away that night, but considering where I was at the start of 2013, I honestly can't complain. Twelve months earlier, Mike and I were at an average bar near Ryerson University in Toronto; now we were on the other side of the world, enjoying some beers under a beautiful warm night sky, and immersed in a pulsating wave of people.

Happy New Year, everybody!