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January 21, 2007

New Year's

(Beth, a long-time friend from Camp Silversides, Ji Hyun, our first and closest Korean friend, myself and Maureen, a good friend and colleague from Poly)

So what does a New Year's Eve in Thailand with only four girls and no husband look like? Well, a lot like this... fresh flowers hung over our necks by an adorable, brown eyed, Thai who no one could refuse. Fresh fruit shakes, spicy Indian food, delectable sea food, and world-class calamari. Not to mention the live talent, the likes of which I have rarely heard, in the background picking and singing softly everything from Eric Clapton to Elton John.
What could be better after a wonderful dinner than a moon light stroll on a nearly abandoned beach to watch the fireworks explode from every direction and glimmer across the ocean waves. It was at this moment that we noticed that from somewhere beyond the mountains to the north glowing balls were raising into the sky and were slowing hovering across the sky. They were so high in the night sky that they looked similar to a very slow aircraft. We were all baffled as to what they might be until a small party of Scandinavians next to us lit a small flame under a paper lantern. As they held it there it slowly filled with hot air and ever so gently lifted out of their hands and snail-paced its way up into the dark sky to join the hundreds of paper lanterns making their way over the mountain ridges to the south. To land who knows where and burn up who knows what. (As an interesting side note that next night as I was walking down a street late at night I was almost hit in the head by one that was making a crash landing. Luckily, I think, it hit a power line first which deflected its path and it landed in the middle of the dark side street.) And where was Trevor? Sitting in an airplane on the Bangkok runway waiting for and anticipating both take-off and a terribly long flight to Beijing while listening to the captain do a count down on the P.A. system. Poor Trevor!
While Maureen and Ji Hyun took the liberty of an afternoon nap Beth and I walked around Karon Beach looking for the best fruit shakes in town. These banana yogurt ones defiantly did the trick.

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