Happy New Year

We went to celebrate the new year in Patong. It was an entertaining night but I have to say the number of fights we saw and the general underlying feel of tension did not make for the most relaxing time. I have never seen the mood in Patong quite so ugly.

Pon and I started by going for a seafood meal with Gil and Daeng. Then we met Huwy, his wife, Chris and his girlfirend in Soi Eric. So far so good. Bangla Road was crammed and there were lots of people in all the sois. We had a couple of drinks in Soi Eric and it was all nice enough. Then we moved on to Soi Crocodile before midnight. This is where things started to get a bit tasty. I was still fairly sober but the state of some of the people wandering around the soi was hopeless.

One guy wandered down the Soi glowering at anyone he could try to goud into a fight. He decided to pick on a bunch of boozed up Aussies and after introducing himself, he chinned one of them. Somehow it didn't kick off so he wandered off looking for more trouble.

There was a guy in our bar so smashed he could barely stand but still generally looking troublesome. Then the action really heated up as one nutter took a hammer from the nail-banging game and tried to start on the barman. The bargirls did a fantatastic job of coming between them and cooling the situation but it couldn't last. Two or three more punch-ups, security got involved and then eventually a smashed bottle was held against someone's throat.

It was time to go so we tried Soi Easy. It all started fine but then a big punch-up kicked off in the bar next to us. One poor innocent bystander came staggering into our bar covered in blood looking for protection. His only apparent crime was that he must have talked to the wrong girl.

We moved on to Soi Gonzo. Outside there were people puking and unconscious in the street while the party revellers milled around them. I can't be bothered to go into all the general mayhem and unpleasantness that we saw through the night. Strangely, despite it all we actually did have quite a good night out. Just the same, next year I think we will be spending New Year's Eve somewhere else.

Patong really is not Thailand. It is a special creation to satisfy the needs of tourists and part them from their money. It says more about the tourists than it does about Thailand although it does of course also attract the worst of the Thais. Don't get me wrong - I actually like Patong for an occassional visit to see all the craziness and if I was coming to Phuket for a short holiday then it is where I would go. But once you live here it is somewhere you move away from and even visiting once a week would be too much for my liking.