What happens in Phuket stays in Phuket...

(Except for this blog post)

Phuket/New Years Eve/Night of Ridiculosity

On December 31, Karima and I got up around 8am...after about 4 hours of sleep. Was VERY tired. We packed up our stuff, and headed out the door pretty quickly – the plan was to catch the 9am ferry to Phuket and we were worried it was going to be very crowded. Phuket, from what I’ve heard, is one of the top New Year’s destinations, as well as destinations in general, in Thailand. It is a large island on the Andaman coast that is known for its beach resorts and moderately ridiculous parties. We had decided to stay in Patong, the hub of said parties. Patong is described in Lonely Planet as a seeming mix of the carnivalesqueness of the neon lights in Khao San road in Bangkok, the seediness of the red-light district in Pattaya, and the craziness of the all-night parties in Koh Phi Phi. Clearly, we felt it was the place to be on New Year’s Eve. It did not disappoint. (And yes, I do hope you are enjoying all the made-up words I’m using). 

On the ferry, I had ramen noodles for breakfast, then slept basically the entire way to the island – about 2 hours. It was much needed. We arrived in Phuket town at around 11:30ish (I can’t really remember) and battled through the throngs of people to find a minivan to Patong beach, on the other side of the island. We bought out tickets, then hopped into probably the ricketiest minivan I’ve been in yet. It took about 40 minutes to reach Patong, including the 10 minutes we spent in the town driving around in circles. Eventually, we were dropped off at our hostel, Blue Sea Hostel/Guest House. We had made a reservation, but they must have lost it – fortunately they still have space for us. I had stayed in a hostel once before, when I went to Berlin back in high school. Only we were in 4-person rooms with the other the people from the exchange. So this was my first time staying in a proper shared hostel dorm. The hostel did remind me of the times my family and I have done hut-to-hut hiking in New Hampshire. There, you stay in dorms also full of random people – but this hostel was just a bit nicer. Well, it was a lot nicer actually. We were in a room with 6 other people (versus 30) and the facilities were quite nice: air conditioning, a clean bathroom, and a common area. It was a bit more expensive than you can expect to pay at other places, but I think it was worth it.

When we arrived, there were 3 other people in the room. They were speaking French, so we asked where they were from. The 2 girls, Marie-Pier and Mariam, were from Quebec City (woo for more Canadians!) and the guy, Tongay, was from Belgium. (I should start keeping track of the Canadians I meet here, and try to find one from every province!) We chatted for a bit (I really need to practice French more – although between the French people in Khao Sok and the Canadians/Belgian in Phuket, I got a fair amount of practice), then decided to head to the beach. Believe it or not, I had not actually been to a beach yet to just relax/lounge. So the five of us made our way to Patong Beach. Our hostel was maybe a 10 minute walk from the beach, so we got the chance to walk through the town. This included hotels/bars with massive tiger statues, stripper poles (empty for the time being), and lots of clubs (no doubt preparing for NYE that night). It kind of reminded me of Niagara Falls – basically a fixed carnival. Was slightly ridiculous.

The beach in Patong is very beautiful – Patong itself a bay that is quite separate from the other surrounding beaches. Like all the beaches in Thailand, the sand was super fine and almost white. Even though this is a big tourist destination, the waterfront wasn’t completely taken over by resorts and giant hotels (unlike Hua Hin). In fact, there were lots of trees, even by the main road. The rest of the bay was also very green, and also a bit mountainous. It was quite nice. It was still fairly overcast and chilly, so we didn’t stay at the beach for too long.

We returned to the hostel around 4pm, and I decided I needed a nap if was going to make it through NYE. I fell asleep right away, which is unusual for me, and slept for about an hour and a half (the Canadians and the Belgian were also napping). Once I woke up, Karima and I decided to have our beers in the common area – the plan was to all go out at 7:30pm for dinner. In the common area, we met two of the other people in our room: two brothers from the Netherlands, Rik and Roel. Eventually, everyone was ready and we decided to wander in search of food. We also met the final member of our room: Jakob from the Czech Republic. We had dinner at a restaurant on the main road, at a restaurant with these ridiculously heavy wooden chairs. After dinner, Karima and I went to change, and prepare our drinks (DIY buckets from Koh Phi Phi). We also got a call from a friend who had found themselves in Patong for the evening, and tried to coordinate meeting them. 

We met back up with our group and decided to head to the beach. There was a large beach party happening with a crazy large stage, but we didn’t want to pay 2500B for a ticket. Especially because there was an equally good beach party happening just down the beach for FREE.

*This is the part of the story where things get insane. I feel like a lot of it I can’t even put in words. So you will have to do your best to imagine the ridiculousness. I think it’s best to take what I say and multiply it by about 7. And yes, some details have been... edited*

On the beach, it was nuts. There were fireworks going off sporadically, some I think were official, but a lot were just from people who bought some and had set up randomly on the beach. Some were quite close... There were also tons of lanterns going up into the air, which are always beautiful. Karima decided to buy one of the flashing mickey-mouse ear headbands – it was actually a fantastic idea as it made her easy to find! After wandering and drinking, we claimed a spot on the beach and started to dance. There was a stage set up with a DJ and video show? Thing? (Lots of flashing pictures) going on. We all kicked off our shoes into a huge pile – my flip flops (which were already in rough shape) had fully fallen apart on the way to the beach, so I abandoned them. I spent a good deal of time thinking how cool it was to be dancing in the sand at a beach party for new years. There were so many people, and they were all hammered. Something about being on vacation and in Thailand makes people let loose a lot more than they would at home. I also drank A LOT. We had a great time dancing, and even managed to find our other friend. At one point, I remember joining a random group of Thai people and dancing (wildly) with them. Somehow, our group from the hostel managed to stay mostly together. After a while, Karima and I decided to go to the bar (read: table on the beach selling alcohol) and split another bucket (this was probably a mistake). At the bar, they finished making our bucket, but we decided we wanted more alcohol so Karima took one of the bottles of whiskey and just poured more in our bucket. No one said a word. I’m still laughing at that now... Then cue more crazy dancing and awesomeness.

At some point (quite late), we realised our teacher friend was quite messed up, so we took them back to our hostel to find a bed. To do this, our friend had to walk with Tongay and myself on either side. They could barely stand, so it was quite a process. But we eventually made it back to the hostel, only to discover it was full. So we sat outside for a while. Gradually, the others from our group trickled into the hostel. A few decided to sit outside with us and chill/get eaten by mosquitoes. Rik and Roel had somehow acquired a really creepy monster mask, so that entertained us for a while. After a bit, we gave our friend our key so they could go lie down for a bit. Around 6am or so, we decided to head inside. We discovered our friend had misplaced our key, so I took them outside to find a taxi. At this point, the sun was rising. After a while, our friend went to find a way back to the beach they were staying at, and I went up to bed. It was now around 7am. I also felt bad for our hostel mates because of all the commotion. That and our friend decided to sleep in one of the Dutch guys beds. SIGH...

The next day, Karima and I had to get up around 11 to prepare to checkout at noon. It was not an especially happy time, as we were both exhausted and hung over. We said bye to some of our hostel mates who were semi-conscious and headed to the beach. The sun had finally decided to come out, so the beach was gorgeous. Most of the beach was taken over by beach chairs that you have to pay to sit in, but we managed to find a little square to lay out our towels. The water was lovely – not too warm either so it was actually refreshing. Later on, the wind picked up a bit, so there were some half decent waves to play in. For one wave, I must have somehow jumped at the exact right time (completely by accident, of course), and I managed to body surf (read: was stuck in the wave and had no idea what was going on) onto shore. It was awesome.

Around 3:30pm, we went back to our hostel to grab our things, then back to the main road to catch a bus back to Phuket town. We had to wait quite a while for the bus: it seems transportation in Thailand is either really great or really lousy. After about 45 minutes, a swang-tao bound for Phuket town pulled up, and we leapt on. The driver decided to start driving away as I just stepped on... and I had my backpack on. So I came THIS close to falling out the back. Phew! The attendant then took my backpack and tied it to the metal frame on the back of the truck with a piece of string. I really hoped it was secure as my bus ticket was in there... The sawng-tao was very crowded, and I spent most of the time standing awkwardly under a fan, trying to keep it from eating my hair. 

Waiting for the bus...

It took us about an hour to get into the centre of Phuket town. I was happy we gave ourselves lots of time to get to the bus station. Once we got off, we were taken by a motorcycle taxi to the bus station. And yes, by “we” I mean Karima, myself, and all our stuff. It was just silly but we somehow managed to fit. The whole time I was pretty sure we were going to die. Karima had attached her water bottle to my backpack in the motorcycle’s basket, and it started to slowly fall off. Naturally, this was my thought process: “Oh no! It’s going to fall, then we’re going to run over it and go flying, and then we’re going to die!”. Karima was having similar thoughts, so when we finally reached a red light, we were able to take it off my backpack.

The other lumps in the front and basket are also backpacks. You can also see the waterbottle lol

After a while, we reached the bus station, and paid the inflated fare (I didn’t even care at this point). We had about an hour and a half before our bus left, so we tried to find some food. For whatever reason, all the food places around the bus station are closed by 6:30pm (when we arrived). And that isn’t considered late for Thailand. We ended up eating ramen noodles from one of the shops. Dinner of Champions. Could be worse! On our bus were a few other people from our orientation. When we asked one about their new years, they responded, “I don’t want to talk about it”. We felt similarly. At this point, the phrase “What happens in Phuket stays in Phuket” came up. It is so very true. 

Our bus left at 8:00pm, and I was very happy to be on it, as it would provide 12 hours of quiet and sleep – more sleep than I had had in the past 2 nights. I was out for most of it. It was glorious. We arrived back in Bangkok in the morning, and we went our separate ways on the bus home.

And so concludes the tale of my New Years in Thailand. It was fantastic. We definitely squeezed as much out of our trip as possible – and more and I probably would have died. But it was totally worth it. I’m also glad I was able to visit Khao Sok, and have a relaxing time there before the insanity of Koh Phi Phi and Phuket. Normally at home, I’m not big on New Year’s, as I’ve been to too many parties that end badly. But this year, I was in the mood to party, even though people got even more drunk than back home. It must have been the beach that put me in the mood. Best New Year’s Ever!