New Year's Eve 2008

Our interest in photographing them led to an invitation
to participate -- something we rarely turn down.
Great local fun. We returned to our condhotel room to
watch the rest of the evening's celebration from our window.
The sky lanterns were randomly released over the next
3 hours while the world here waited for 2009 or 2552.
The midnight culmination was probably the most amazing
one I've seen in the last 67 years. Check out our Picasa web
album if you haven't already.

Following the pageant, we walked up the soi a ways to
where some families were lighting their krathong -- a sort
of paper hot air balloon. They are set aloft by the
thousands across the city and make a most awesome
display. AND they're biodegradable - or so we are told.
It's a big deal for the kids. You gotta love the little
gal and her high heels for the occasion.

The highlight was a most wonderful beauty pageant.
It featured the "mature women" from the soi. We
were not able to understand all of what was going on,
but some appeared to be in native garb. There were
individual introductions and LOTS of applause.

Then we moseyed over to the neighborhood soi
where we had earlier seen they were erecting a
stage for some kind of event. The revelry had
already begun and the happy ladies presented
us each with a cone hat for the festivities.

The evening began with an extravagant spread
at our little sushi spot in the next block from the
condo. We really splurged for a whopping
$8.53 USD. This is just the first course. It was
the beer that pushed the tab so high.