Happy New Year!!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Leadership is important. Especially in large groups. Especially during large celebrations or major holidays. Especially when alcohol is added to the equation. At 11:59pm, it was clear that the large gathering of Thais and Farangs lacked leadership. Our tiny group of fellow volunteers and friends had already become aware of this fact and were already formulating a solution to this problem.

Without question, the largest tourist attraction in the South of Thailand is Phuket. Patong beach is the tourist center of Phuket and at the heart of Patong, or perhaps it could be called its liver, is Bangla Road. Comparable to Khao San Rd. in Bangkok should it ever have had a love child with Soi Cowboy. (Google these if you're unfamiliar.) Filled with trinket shops, bars, Go-Go bars, and night clubs, Bangla Rd. also has a really good seafood restaurant just off to the right near one of the 7/11s. Good seafood at a reasonable price! Bangla Rd. is the only place in the South where you can pet a lizard and a tranny in less than 5 minutes. Then go for a burger and fries to contemplate what the hell just happened.

At some point in December, the high officials of Phuket either found or created a large Christmas tree. I'm not sure which as it was dark and to be honest, I wasn't really interested if the damn thing was real or fake. This behemoth of a thing was erected at the mouth of Bangla Rd. where the road meets the beach. This was our meeting point for our New Years celebration. It was also the meeting place of several hundred other people. Luckily for us, we only slightly looked like lost idiots. Ah hah! An advantage!

Having gathered together under the brilliant lights of the Bangla Christmas tree, we were left with the frightening realization that a stark problem to these festivities was falling into place. 2009 would arrive at 12:00am. That was in exactly 7 minutes.

10 minutes.

5 minutes.

8 minutes?

Their was a pack of Dutch or slow Germans who were already celebrating about 15 yards away. Everyone else was standing around. Drinking. Talking. Looking at their watches and cell phones.

Nobody knew when New Years was but what was even more apparent to our group was that the Thais in charge (were their Thais in charge?) probably didn't know either. And even if they did know they would probably be 15 minutes late, as usual. Something had to be done.

An open discussion and debate was started as to when and for how long a count down should begin/take place. Obviously we would all 'know' when the moment was right but how long should we count? 30 seconds? 10 seconds? 5 seconds? One volunteer wanted to count down from 2 minutes He was quickly labeled an idiot and was flogged to death with the man purse he was carrying. An item he insisted was stylish but in fact proved a very affective weapon against him. We then began to count down from 10.

Quickly asking if Everyone was ready, (It's the proper way to begin any exercise with students, ages 8-12, and has become habitual with many volunteers) we began to count down from 10. By the time we reached 8 we had everyone in the general area counting. By 5 we had the whole beach. 3 - 2 - 1 Happy New Year! At this point the entire beach erupted in celebration with dance and song and drink. A universal since a joy swept over everyone.

Peace Corps creates leaders.

Roughly 15 minutes later, a massive firework show erupted over the beach marking the New Year. As we expected, the Thais were late. We stayed to watch the show and later adjourned to a nearby Go-Go Bar to challenge the dancers to game after game of Connect 4.

Happy New Year

p.s. Never play Connect 4 with a Go-Go Girl for money. You might as well just give her your wallet.

 
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