Happy New Year!

China Town area
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Happy Birthday Paul!!!!

Today is Chinese New Year and we plan to have a good night. We've all been looking forward to today for a while. We knew that we would all be in Chiang Mai for this weekend and we all said that it was a night where anything could happen. We did our usual Market stroll in the afternoon and at about 3pm; Fred, Luc, Kim, Bjorn, Mark and I set off towards china town for the festivities. Outside starbucks we all stopped to consult the map and I saw the 2 Danish girls that I'd shared the taxi with on my arrival to Chiang mai. I went over to say hi while the others got their bearings (I am no help with any map). Luc came over and joined us and after a while chatting, we realised that the others had dissapeared. We decided that the coffee looked very tempting and we knew where to find the others later, so we ordered Espressos and Latte's. Just as we the coffees were ready, the missing troops arrived back. Apparently they'd popped to the ATM. We all sat around while Luc and I drank our coffees and then I invited the Danish girls to join us on our excursion.

Happy Birthday Paul!!!!

Fred, Mark, Me, Luc, Kim eating on New Year
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When we arrived in China Town it was quite busy and red seemed to be the theme colour of the event. There are 2 long connecting streets all lined with food vendors and a little market between them selling all kinds of paper and plastic hello kitty type things. We were loving the food vendors. So many interesting dishes to try. At the end of each street there was a big stage and from the sound of the performers (mostly children singing and dancing) the professionals were coming later. There was some guys Karate chopping breeze blocks which was fun to watch. There was also a man doing a sword dance which was cool. We soon came to the conclusion that the evening was a better time to come, so we all agreed to meet back there at 8pm. Fred, Luc, Mark and Me walked towards the market me and Luc had seen the day before. Mark said goodbye near his guest house and the 3 of us went to shop. Luc needed some new trousers and he'd seen perfect ones. We all seperated a little and browsed. I didn't buy anything, but Luc bought the trousers. After a while, Luc and I left Fred to browse and we went back to the guest house. After a snack and a shower, the 3 of us set off for the festival. Kim was there already with Bjorn and had a table saved which was a godsend as the place was packed. Hundreds of people everywhere. It was a painfully slow shuffle down the street to find them. When we joined them, we bought some beers and ha da giggle. When it came to eating time, we decided that we liked the whole sharing nibbles in the middle of the table idea and split into 2 teams. Team A went first to bring back some interesting morsels. It was all very nice, then it was our turn. I went for Dim Sum and they were a hit.

Happy hours
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When it started to die down, we went off to find a bar. We found a fun looking one with pool tables and grabbed a big table. There was a really good band playing inside and 2 very, very, very drunk irish guys stumbling around their mates embarassed faces. One had ants in his pants and had lost all sense of balance and the other one was desperate to be part of the band as he sang along at the top of his lungs flailing his arms about and stepping on and off the stage. We were very impressed with the young Thai landlady who was taking no nonsense in her bar. She kept ordering them to sit down and appeared quite scary. She eventually threatened them with the police and they left (more than once as they kept forgetting why they were leaving in the first place). We all played pool with some local guys and I told the Landlady how impressed I had been with the way she had handled the guys. She was really cool and very friendly but I certainly would never challenge her to step outside.

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We were all very drunk by the end and I don't know what time we got home to bed. I do know that I went to sleep with a smile after another brilliant night travelling SE Asia.

Elaine x x x