Buzz!!!

With the Trim Factory New Years Party over and just another piece of Korat history, I packed my bags and drove down to Bangkok to spend the rest of the holiday with Nuch and her family.

If there is one good thing about working in Korat, it's that during long holidays like New Years and Songkran (the Thai New Year) while the Bangkok masses are heading North, I am heading South - in other words, my 150 mile journey, which takes 3 hours one-way takes everyone else going in the opposite direction from 6 to 8 hours. It's a meager consolation for living on the edge of civilization, but I do my best to savor it whenever I see the miles of congestion snaking through the Kao Yai Mountains during my drive to Bangkok.

My New Year's Eve was fairly uneventful compared to years gone by, but a good time nonetheless. Like so many other days, it started out on Kao San Rd.

This doesn't really fit the story, but these wires always grab my attention when I'm on Kao San, and I finally got some decent pictures of them.

I was planning to get the party started early, but Nuch had other ideas. Instead of sipping Heinkens and watching the wacky Kao San world walk by, we ended up at our new favorite spa and had massages. I don't even know the name of it, but it's on a back alley of Kao San and kinda hard to find. It's run by an old Thai lady that reminds me of the Oracle from the Matrix.

Nuch had a traditional Thai Massage...

while I had a foot massage. My official new year's resolution is to do that more often.

While we were getting our massages, Nuch's phone rang about 10 times, which she completely ignored. Turns out her mother, who had been a bit sick recently, had passed out in the living room. Her brother had been trying to call to tell us she was in the hospital. Fortunately, it was nothing serious, and we took her home after seeing the doctor and getting some medicine.

With her mother home safely and feeling much better, Nuch and I went out to celebrate the New Year. I wanted to go downtown, but Nuch was worried about another series of bomb attacks similar to what occurred last year. Although a Bangkok New Year Bombing would be great blog material, I agreed that we should play it safe, so we decided to go to her cousin's house, which is safely located across the street from Nuch's house.

All in all a good time. Here's Nuch after a half glass of champagne.

Here we are with Nuch's cousins and her aunts just after midnight. I had taught them how to play 'Buzz' (with wine). Someone asked, if it's a drinking game, why are we trying not to drink? I don't think we got past 28.