Happy New Year

Welcoming 2009 in Chiang Rai


Chiang Rai New Year Clock

We celebrated New Year’s Eve, of 2009 in the Western calendar and 2552 of the Thai Buddhist count, in Chiang Rai with John Muir. Thais love a party and celebrate Christmas and three new years with gusto, getting drunk and eating food for the Chinese and Thai new years in January and April respectively too.

We walked into the town centre Nigh Bazaar which has something of a Mediterranean air about it. Perhaps it is the altitude, which at 1,500 metres above sea level, brings a freshness to the evenings missing from the lowland Tropics.

We wandered with fruit shakes to browse the handicraft and clothing stalls before settling down at the main open-air restaurant below a tree and in front of one of the two stages where traditional folk music and glamorous dancing featured heavily. A slightly eccentric waiter with a slight mullet spoke great English and we soon negotiated four vegetarian versions of their dishes, including two green curries, a sour red curry and stir-fried vegetables. They quickly arrived accompanied by a silver tureen of steamed rice and a couple of bottles of Singha beer. The night before we had grazed from the small food stalls lining two sides of a much larger open square in front of a grander stage, taking an Indian curry, vegetable tempura, potato roti, stir-fried veg and tom yum from a number of vendors. Tonight, being New Year’s Eve, was a bit more special so it was good to sit down at a restaurant with a friend and take a bit more time over a proper meal.


Counting Out 2008

We headed to the town clock tower at 11pm where we were expecting, based on one poster, a countdown with fireworks. We walked into a crowd of expecting Thais and Farangs forming a packed circle around the central brightly illuminated clock tower, their faces cast upwards to the clock. A couple more beers for John and me, and we were set for the big count. There seemed to be two contradictory counts coming from the stage at the far end of the street, but we kept place with the TV screen broadcasting a digital clock and cheered in 2009 seven hours ahead of the UK.

The edge was taken off the thrill somewhat by burning debris raining down from the midnight fireworks which were shot skywards directly above the clock in a mini re-enactment of the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius. Burning cinders falling into your eyes don’t make for a full celebration. I counted two skin burns and a while burnt into my shirt by the time the fireworks ended.

It is customary to let off an airborne candle in Thailand for almost any ceremony. Large thin paper balloons rise on hot air from lit rings suspended below them like inverted paper lanterns. We lit one for our baby and watched in take off to join hundreds of others floating upwards against the black night sky.

A mobile drum and percussion rig set in a frame and on wheels erupted into noise as drunk revellers were invited to bash the skins by the real drummers despite the clear anxiety that the professionals had for their equipment. There is only so much discordant fun you can have so we wound our way back to the Chian Guesthouse where the staff were still partying, playing instruments and singing. Most guests had retired to their beds and we did so at 2am. Not bad for a bunch of over 40 year olds, one of whom is 6 months pregnant. Happy New Year! It is certainly going to be quite a year for us going from two to three, from a couple to a family.