On the night, the boys, a lovely NZer called Kelly, and I headed out towards the river to find a good spot to watch the fireworks competition taking place north of the old town.
Whose idea it was may be the subject of some dispute but I remember standing in front of a mini-skyscraper with a huge tacky Christmas tree lighting it up and saying "What's the worst that could happen". We strode in the front door making a beeline for the elevators (hanging with too many Americans - sorry!). Once we were all in I pushed the button for the top floor and up we went, giggling.
Fireworks across the city
You could see most of the city from the windows on the top floor but next I knew it, Rowan was walking through a fire escape and we were climbing stairs. A few flights and non-electrically locking fire escape doors later and we were on the roof bewildered by how easy it had all been.
Hundreds of paper lanterns were already burning in the sky, rising up the air columns in spirals like big glowing jelly fish on migration. We lay on our backs, Changs in hand, watching them ebb away, occasionally rolling onto our tummies to watch the fireworks across the city.
Glowing jellyfish
Although doubtlessly beautiful in large numbers, the lanterns must have an appalling effect on the environment. We saw hundreds strewn around the trees, roads and canals the next day, hanging over power lines or crumpled and dirty in corners. Some are shaped like hearts or pandas and other have firecrackers that go off beneath them. It was one of these that crash landed on the hotel roof to our (lightly inebriated) delight. Rowan caught it and brought it to the centre of the roof trying to relight it again - it was at this point we discovered the unspent firecrackers which ignited shooting sparks across the roof and causing us to jump back and behind pillars shrieking with laughter.
Roof reprobates
Rowan and I snuck into the terrace swimming pool we spotted from the roof. This involved taking a service lift and walking through a busy laundry room - it’s incredible what you can achieve by simply acting with oodles of confidence - of course we’re supposed to be strolling through a laundry room at 10pm!
We took the briefest of dips, discovering it was completely freezing, wrung out our underwear and wrapped it in a towel to head to the market.
I LOVE STREET SUSHI.
Wandering through the market at about 11.30pm we heard chanting and ducked into this stunning temple full of Thai people. We squished ourselves into spaces on the floor near this gong that was being struck periodically to match the chanting. It was intense as the striking made every cell in your body vibrate making you feel really present. Just before midnight we dashed outside to watch the fireworks over the temple - stunning. Health and safety don’t really exist in Thailand (thank god...Buddha? er hm!) and the fireworks were really close, really loud and really big.
Entering 2011 - those lights aren't stars
An epic night.
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