Me and the yellow thingy that saved my day :)
I remember I had so much trouble last August attending the Bangkok Meet Up from a rough airplane trip to torrential rain! I was hoping everything would go easily and smoothly for the Bangkok NYE Meet Up, but it didn’t happen. I think I am destined for “interesting experiences”! Haha!
Rijo and I left Khao San Road around 4:30 PM and took a taxi to go to Central World. The traffic wasn’t that bad around that time and I was very confident we would be there in 20 minutes. But my hope crashed when I found out that several roads to Central World had been blocked due to New Year’s traffic regulations. The taxi driver got rid of us in the middle of jammed road and we had to continue our journey with a Tuk-tuk.
Smile everyone :)
It took F-O-R-E-V-E-R for us to get there even though the tuk-tuk driver tried shortcut roads! The traffic was really “Bangkok BAD”! But we were just trying to be positive about the situation! You know the power of positive thinking, right? Hahaha!
Finally, after 45 minutes dealing with a million people trying to go in our same direction, we arrived at Central World safely and soundly. One day before the meet up I checked my TB to write down the address of the venue and THERE WAS NO CHANGES! So, we headed to Le Casbah on the 7th floor. It was very SCHOCKING because we found out that there was no one around in that restaurant. *What the Heck? Where are the people?*
I asked the waiters about the Travbuddy meet up (“What meet up”? except they really couldn’t understand us!), and I was afraid we might be totally in the wrong place!
I felt like screaming!! Haha! But I was trying to control my frustration and tried hard to think positive.
Reunion!!!
We sat at a small fountain around the area and since I had my iTouch with me, my plan was to try to get a Wi-Fi connection somewhere in the building to check the TB forum to see if the dinner location had changed. Such a BUMMER because there was no FREE Wi-Fi around! We both just looked at each other and LAUGHED!
Out of my frustration, I looked around the area and suddenly something YELLOW and BRIGHT caught my eyes! There was a small yellow LION balloon in front of a restaurant next to Le Casbah and on that balloon there was a small message: TRAVBUDDY!
Oh my Gosssshhhh!!!! I felt like winning a lottery!! I told Rijo and both of us rushed to the restaurant (I don’t even remember the name of the resto! Haha!) It was such a relief because when I mentioned “TRAVBUDDY” to the waiter, he nodded and showed us the way to meet the people!!
I made a bunch of new friends with these fellow travelers and was thrilled to the max to meet Dodge and New again! It was a small REUNION for 3 of us! Haha! We had a blast laughing and catching up with each other! After talking and talking, we had dinner together like one big happy family! Everyone was still in their mellow and sober mode.
Cramped in an elevator!
Haha!
After dinner, and trying to stroll through the million people celebrating New Year outside Central World, we decided to move to Khao San Road since we couldn’t get a place to sit and have drinks around the Central World celebrations. The place was packed with People! Stages were set up, bands were playing, it was unreal! By the way, it should have been impossible to move 19 people from one place to another in Bangkok, on New Year’s Eve, but thanks again to the small yellow LION balloon (from the restaurant), because New walked in front of the group and held up the balloon for all of us to follow! Haha, it was like a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire back in Moses time!
We finally made our ways to the Silk Bar at Khao San Road and had our drinks (of course I had my water) while waiting for the count down! The dancing team (Agustine, Satochi, Dodge and Cambria) kept us entertained.
Cramped in taxi
I was so happy to see Dodge didn’t fall on the floor this time! Hahaha! Gaetan bought too many silly string spray cans and we had a silly string FIGHT during the countdown! CHAOTIC!! And my BIGGEST ENEMY is Chris! Hahahaaha!
After the countdown some people said good-bye and went to different directions! Some went to the Gazebo or the Roof bars to continue partying. Rijo and I decided to go back to the hostel and slept :)
Thanks to Wouter, Preawpan, New, Dodge, Rijo, Agustine, Gerry, Satochi, Andy, Cambria, Solai, Chris, Jane, Aaron, Jane, Danila, Joe, Tony and Gaetan who made my NYE fun and memorable! Hope to meet you guys again!
Oh and special thanks to Wouter, Preawpan, Dodge and New who made this Meet-Up happen!!!
