Day 200 - New Years Eve

We spent much of the morning lolling about the hostel reading books and newspapers and drinking coffee. That's the danger of a very nice hostel - sometimes it's virtually impossible to peel oneself off the roof deck and actually do anything. Fortunately, one of the blessings of long travel is that it is not necessary to do absolutely everything everyday. In regular life, no one is on-the-go all day every day. If we were, we would be frazzled messes. When one is travelling for several months, it becomes less like 'traveling' as we generally think of it, and more like 'living abroad in lots of places'. Travel becomes 'regular life', and downtime days are just as necessary as they are at home.

That said, we did spend a few hours out and about this afternoon. We started our day with a late breakfast/early lunch at a little restaurant serving fried fish and soup. They might have offered other things as well, but those were the ones on display which we could point to and order with hand gestures. The fish were just in a large bowl. Not wanting to appear too greedy (and not realizing just how good they were) I reached for a medium-sized specimen. The motherly lady working at the counter shook her head no,no, no, and tsking-tsking me, my picked out the plumpest, nicest one and plonked on my plate with a big grin. Both ladies were tickled with Cz eating vast mounds of rice from the serve-yourself rice cooker (most SE Asians we have met seem to think Westerners don't really eat rice, and then find it highly amusing when we do), and at my eating all, even the head, of the fish.

After lunch, we decided to ride the river taxi to Chinatown with two Americans. As usual, the river was quite busy with all manner of boats whizzing and chugging up and down. Longtail boats like this one remind me of mayflies the way they zip around the surface with their motor-on-a-pole trailing out behind. Most exciting were the many fireworks barges being set up for New Year's displays. All the swank hotels along the waterfront were scheduled to have New Year's galas, and each one seemed to have its own floating fireworks stage.

Since the other Americans had not yet visited Wat Pho (the big, reclining Buddha wat), and because that one is our favourite, we stopped there first. After the requisite oohhing and ahhhing at the big gold Buddha, and giving the great gong a few good hits to ring in the New Year, we spent the rest of our time wandering around the outer courtyard taking irreverent photos. We saw Thai families doing the same, so we figured it couldn't be too sacrilegious. I think this pony might be a bit too small for me. We were a little surprised at first when we heard one of the stone statues say "Pssst. Pull My finger!" , but being fart jokes being universal humour (even among the sacred inanimate) Cz obliged.

We walked from Wat Pho into Chinatown. It is one of the largest Chinese centers (maybe the largest) outside of China. We only skirted the edge, maybe the middle is more intense, and maybe we just built it up in our minds, but it seemed tame compared to Canal Street. We did however have a sampling of some seriously tasty street snacks. Here's one of the simpler ones.

Ingredients:
quail eggs
wonton wrappers
Optional ingredients (not in the one we ate, but I think it would be good)
scallion
parsley or cilantro
salt
chilli, pepper, or paprika

Hard boil and peel quail eggs
fold up in wanton wrappers
deep fry

It's that simple.
If you want to get fancy, you could season the eggs with salt, herbs, and spices, and tie up the wonton top with a scallion. Still pretty simple, and your momma would be so impressed.

Around 6PM we started gearing up for New Year's. First we stopped by our local food stalls for a 'fancy' New Year's Eve dinner of soup, fried rice, and coconut smoothies. Then we hopped on the sky train and hurled ourselves (or shoved ourselves to be more accurate) into the scrum of Central Square. I was surprised at how few foreigners were present. The crowd was mostly a sea of Thai families cheerfully jostling for position in the crowded square. It was crowded, but relaxed and happy, with none of the fierce competition for 'prime real estate' that happens every Dec 31 in NYC. Everywhere bright lights cheered 'Happy New Year' and 'God Bless the King'. The Ganesh statue on one side of the square was wreathed in swirls of incense and buried under mounds of jasmine, tuber roses, and marigolds left by Thais hopeful for a prosperous new year.

Fueled by two parts excitement and one part beer, we laughed and mugged for one another's cameras in anticipation of the big event. 2007 is coming to a pretty spectacular close. We are in short sleeves and sandals waiting to ring in the new year half a world away (and twelve-fifteen hours ahead) of everyone we know, yet we are still surrounded by friends and laughter. The Central Square celebration has been advertised as "Hands Together 2008" in the hopes that everyone will join hands at midnight in a gesture of peace and goodwill. So hand-to-hand we count down the last few minutes of a most eventful year. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...