New Year's Eve 2008 - Bangkok, Thailand

Our last night in Thailand happened to be December 31st, 2007 and we spent the evening at Central World in Bangkok. Have you ever seen the countdown around the world on TV where they show you live footage of NYE in Times Square - New York, London-UK, Seoul-Korea, Tokyo-Japan, Sydney-Australia etc? It's even better than on TV! There were hundreds of thousands of people there having a great time, listening to the bands and waiting for the clock to strike midnight 2008 (and surprisingly, we had more elbow room than we have had in Korea and especially more than at the Seoul fireworks, wow!).

In a previous post, we mentioned that we met our friend James on the flight to Thailand, who was also an English teacher in Korea. Well, we met up with him while in Bangkok and made our way to mingle with the crowd at Central World, and of course we stopped at a 7-11 on the way for beer (in 1 square block we saw FOUR 7-11 stores, all stocked with cheap beer! :).

The theme for the countdown was Hands 2008: Bidding farewell to the old year while greeting New Year is a festive practice significantly embraced by people around the world as it’s the last biggest event of the year that leads to a fresh beginning. Hands Bangkok Countdown 2008 is designed to be an international symbol of the celebrations for Thais and visitors. Bangkok is a center of tourism in Southeast Asia, full of lively attractions and facilities for tourists. Click here for the official website.


3hrs, 56min, 11seconds to go!



Central World!



The bridge was also decorated for the event.



There were bright lights on the buildings everywhere you looked.



Krista and Prada.



Center stage, the globe was an digital display that also showed the countdown and the Hands 2008 logo.







So many people!



Ahhh Chang... how we miss your great taste..... :( If only we could get better beer here...



More lights!





It was a very large and upbeat crowd.



This was the largest LCD TV by Panasonic - they were showing a close-up of center stage as well as NYE around the world.





7minutes, 47 seconds to go!





Happy New Year 2008!!





Here is a short clip of center stage and the crowd.



It's a bit late, but Happy New Year 2008!! We miss our friends and family back home - this is our way of keeping in touch with what we have been up to during our travels (and providing info to anyone who is interested in travelling or teaching), we do encourage emails from anyone at jonandkrista@gmail.com. We also hope you will add your email to our blog list (top right of this page) you will receive an email copy of our blog posts when new ones are available.

Take care!