Above: Sydney ushers in the New Year with a fantasmagorical display of fireworks. Despite not being in Sydney on NYE, I just had to put up a picture because as much as I loved being in Thailand for NYE, I knew that I would be missing out on an awesome display to celebrate the coming of the new year. Since I've settled more in to city life with a comfortable home life, chilled out flat mates, crazy "monkey brain" best friend and lovable boyfriend, I've started to see Sydney as home now. Yet, I'll never forget my roots, where I've come from and yet it's nice that I finally feel comfortable in my skin, here in Sydney.
Yet whilst scores of my friends were partying it up back in Sydney, a quiet had fallen over my current location in Phuket, Thailand because at around 8 o'clock whilst I was eating dinner with my sister, Sydney, and her friends, we got a call warning us away from the disco-party area of Patong in Phuket due to bomb alerts. Upon further investigations via phone calls and sms's, we gained the picture that 6 small bombs went off in the countries capital. It was because of this that revelers were now unsure what their NYE plans would be because of fears of further bombings.
Now having grown up on this island, we're used to the constant bomb alerts especially around holiday times and due to the conflicts in the South of Thailand, so to an extent, we've come to take bomb alerts with a pinch of salt. As my mom says,
"When the Tuk-Tuk [taxi] drivers disappear, thats when you know you have a problem"Yet, this time felt different and so when my mom then called and asked us to stay away from Patong, we were slightly distressed about missing the festivities and at the same time, concerned about ourselves and the large numbers of friends that we knew we wouldn't be able to stop from going to Patong that night.
Upon arriving home, we checked CNN and learned that the bombs had been detonated in downtown Bangkok away from where "ferang" (white people) would be, but rather the bombs were detonated in areas frequented by locals. If the bombs did have anything to do with the international terrorism that we are knowingly terrified of, these locations were strange places to hit. We came to the conclusion, and I'm still unsure as to whether its naive or stupid, that I didn't want to let whoever was setting off these bombs to win, I wasn't about to let them ruin my NYE with friends that I haven't seen for years. Which in retrospect is stupid, because if a bomb had exploded in Patong, then Me vs the Bomb = Bomb wins every time. But I digress, we ended up deciding to go to Patong after the countdown which we would watch from a local hotel near my house. We figured that if more bombs were to go off, they'd explode at midnight. So at around 1.30 am we headed into Patong, a little late, true, but we got to spend time with our friends, and remain a tiny bit safer.
The next day, we learn't that 2 more bombs had been detonated at midnight, one in Bangkok and one in Chang Mai. It just goes to show that despite most of the world celebrating the coming of a new year, with new hopes, dreams and aspirations, the world can still be a dangerous place. Luckily no one was hurt in the bombings, and I thank God for that. Thailand doesn't need any more bad publicity. The country is built around its tourism industry and it just seems horrible and often unavoidable things keep getting in its way.
Below: A picture of some of my friends in Patong on NYE 06 xx
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