New Year's Eve

New Year's in Pattaya. Probably the best holiday to spend here, although I guess Loy Krathong is a little better.

Took and I went out to see the Narnia movie, which was better than I expected it would be... mostly thanks to Tilda Swinton, the White Witch. Funny though: The movie didn't seem as magical as the book to me. But I was ten years old when I read the book, and I had a much better imagination then than I do today.

After that, at around 10:30, we went to TQ2 but it was generally empty — at least empty of people I knew. We stuck around for 1 drink.

After that, it was off to Margaritavilla where we met up with Rick and Mike for the New Year's countdown.

As always, Soi Rungland (where Margaritavilla is located) is the best place to celebrate New Year's Eve. It's the Wild West of New Year's celebrations; the place that has the for-profit ambulances hanging out because they know that someone will be blowing themselves up with fireworks.

The folks in the German restaurant next to Margaritavilla were having a "who can set off more fireworks" competition with the OK Corral down the street. Even with commercial-grade fireworks selling for the bargain basement price of about $4 each, we estimated that die menschen next door easily spent $2000 blowing shit up.

That included one German toe. Heheh. That got a laugh. Drunk laughing 9-toed German dude was loaded into the back of a baht bus to be taken to the hospital... or another bar... we couldn't figure out which.

(<-- Soi Rungland littered with firework debris.)

Next time you go to the Fourth of July fireworks display, and find it nice but a little boring, try sitting 15 feet from where the fireworks are being launched: The "kaboom" at launch to get them to altitude is almost as big as the kaboom they make once they are up there.

Anyway, at about 1:00 we were off to Boys Boys Boys (obviously a gay bar) to join Lolo and the Tiffany's girls for a drink. Oad, Seiko, Kling, Bob were there. It was nice to see them again. I don't see them nearly enough, considering how much fun they are to hang with.

Oh. Boys Boys Boys has the most expensive drinks of any gogo bar in Pattaya: A Spy Wine Cooler cost 140 baht ($3.50).

So at about 1:45 it was off to home. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper, at a literal standstill all the way from Soi Pattayland and Beach Road all the way to Jomtien. Yes: Those new traffic lights are doing a hell of a job.