New Years Eve in Phuket

Deb, Blaze and Gary Set Off Their Floating Lantern

It has been many, many years since we went out for New Years eve celebrations. With company here visiting from Canada, and at the invitation of our friends Deb, Gary and their son Blaze, we decided to venture out to see what it would be like for New Years in Phuket. From having often gone to bed before it was actually midnight, we went to seeing midnight in and then spent a few more hours celebrating. I was the designated driver, so I choose to bloat myself on Coca Cola instead.


We had gone out earlier in the afternoon and saw that the shopping centers were mad houses. I had also heard the radio message of the police calling the first 7 days of the new year, the seven days of death, due to the high number of deaths and accidents, where alcohol was the prime factor. As we made out way up the island to meet our friends for dinner at a restaurant at the Boat Lagoon, the traffic was more insane than usual. It seemed that everyone with a motorbike, car or truck was zooming everywhere. I managed within 500 meters of the house to find my first weaving motorbike. Normally this could be a number of reasons, such as letting the 4 year old on dad's lap steer the bike by the mirror posts, to someone eating, texting and driving. But tonight it was obvious that the issue was probably one too many shots of whiskey. In many places I was suddenly in a 4 lane roadway, that was marked for 2 lanes, and motorbikes zipped and zig-zagged between any space to the front, or side of the car. People making u-turns would dart into your lane and then slow to about 5KMH as they used the full 2 lanes to make the turn. As I got closer to the Boat Lagoon, I was beginning to think that perhaps this was not a night to be driving after midnight, but there was little choice now. As I got closer I began to see the Police road checks and the sober-up tents. This is an area where if you are stopped, and cooperative and not too intoxicated, they will give you a chair at a table and some coffee and water, and you stay until the police decide you are sober enough to be out driving again. I soon found not just one random one, but many more checkpoints as we traveled. So while you may have gotten through one point, there was a need to get through a few more, and each place had some people with their cars and motorbikes parked, having a "time-out". This brought some comfort to me.

We drove to a Reggae bar at Layan Beach. A very long and beautiful spot adjoining Bang Tao beach. As far as the eye can see left and right it is beach front and kilometers of sand. As we exited the car, Deb and Blaze opened their doors and began clapping. Initially I thought it was perhaps due to their gratitude of being delivered safely. I know my driving had been erratic and I thought they were probably grateful they had made it alive. But instead Deb explained to me that when you get out of the car after dark, and are parked on grass, you clap your hands and this sound vibrations of the clapping, make the snakes run away. Something that had never occurred to me until they mentioned it. I would later have to return to the car to put some things in the trunk and dutifully began to clap my way across the grassy area. Out of nowhere appeared a security guard shining his flashlight on me and asking if everything was okay. I explained that I was going to the car and clapping to make the snakes go away. He had a look on his face that I believe was "crazy farang", as he lighted my pathway to the car and left shaking his head. Now I had the dilemma of simply walking through the dark grass area or resorting to my new-found routine of clapping snakes away. I choose to go with simply walking through the grass, as I am sure the security man was probably on his cell phone comparing notes with the other guards about his discovery of the snake clapping farang. And I did not want to risk they were on their way to see this sight for themselves.

The bar was all set-up for a party and there were already fireworks going off along the beach. We took our table and ordered drinks. Blaze had returned to the table in less than a minute proudly holding 6 fireworks sticks. He told me they were selling them by the toilets. My curiosity got the better of me and I had to go see, with Blaze in tow to educate me on what were good and not so good fireworks. There is apparently a classification of what is a good choice and what is a lame choice. Having had zero experience with buying, let alone setting off fireworks, I was advised that most of what I picked up was apparently lame. I of course was looking at the 50 Baht fireworks, and he was looking at the 3000 Baht fireworks. I opted for the 50 Baht ones, as my first venture, and they were pronounced "good pick Bruce" by Blaze. I had to stop myself from returning to the fireworks tables, as this could get addictive and one could easily eat up a few thousand Baht in just picking one of everything. The size of some of them was amazing and the sound and light show some of those 105 Howitzer size ones literally lighted up the beach. I was apparently not alone, as I saw many people having their fireworks virginity broken and all of them returned to the table to buy more. This scene must have been repeating itself all along the beach from Patong to Mao Kao, as they went off all night long. I suggested to Gary that if one were smart, you would get a franchise for this thing and you could have a license to print money.

I have been fascinated with the floating lanterns, and alongside the fireworks, they were selling the floating lanterns. These paper lanterns resemble miniature hot air balloons. They are sold flattened and you pull the paper to extent, in some cases 2 meters high and a meter across. They have a wire criss-cross framework on the bottom to which is affixed a wax ring, which you light from the beach torches. As the ring burns, the heat filled the lantern with hot air and it floats to the skies. To my delight, you could also add a fireworks to the base and as the lantern lifted off you lighted the fireworks and it sprayed a long incendiary tail of colours, and seemed to give the lantern an almost rocket like boost. It seems fairly simple, but I did witness some disasters, as people would not full inflate the lantern and it would simply settle to the beach. If you were not quick enough the lantern would catch fire. Others may get a little lift and then slowly descend 10 meters into the water. But more often than not, they floated, and at one point the sky was awash in all of these lanterns being lighted along the beaches of Phuket. I think I was perhaps a little more amazed that they did not get hit like a  heat seeking missal by the fireworks, but they seemed to do okay. As they floated into the winds, there was an airflow pattern that eventually began to congregate hundreds of these lanterns and they began to dance high in the sky and form shapes and patterns, almost like we had created our own constellations.I am happy to say that Clive and I sent one off (with a tail of course) as a tribute to the past year and hopes off a good new year. Apparently if they fly well, it is a good sign. And as much as I profess to not believe in these good luck/bad luck things, I think had it crashed to the ocean, I would have been heart broken.

All of this activity took place before midnight. Then when midnight did come, the sky literally came alive allalong the coast. No matter where you looked the beahces were ablaze in fireworks, as far as the eye could see, and above them were the floating lanterns, as the Andaman Sea crashed to the beaches. It was a most surreal moment, where it feels like this is not happening, but you know that it is. The DJ had been playing music all night long. The dance floor a raked flat surface of sane and he was in his little hut on the beach. He announced that the buffet was open for one an all. The fireworks man was handing out sparklers and disco sticks to the children and the drinks were getting stronger. As evidenced by some of the guests. By 2:30 Am I had convinced some very happy people that it was time to make the 45 minute drive back home to some dogs who would have been having their own issues with all the firework activity.

Our visitors and I spoke about the evening. They were completely beside themselves on how beautiful and fun the night had been. We could count at least 10 violations of law, were this back in Vancouver, and admitted that you could never see this in English Bay or most other places in the world for that matter.  It truly is a once in a lifetime experience. If you have the urge to have a truly festive and moving New years, you should plan to be in Thailand at New years.