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With the pub on the verge of opening we were determined to have a cracking New Year's Eve celebration.
As a thank you to the builders, who have been fantastic, we began by throwing a little bash for them at the still uncompleted Tuskers. A few beer Changs and some whiskey soon got the party flying. The builders went and found some great Thai street food for us to enjoy with the drinks and once everyone was well lubricated, language difficulties soon disappeared. Things were further complicated linguistically by the arrival of our French friends and their parents.
At about 8.30, we left the happy builders to continue their celebrations and jumped in a tuk-tuk to go the short distance to Riverside, one of the biggest pubs in Chiang Mai.
The place was packed and there was nowhere to sit, hopefully we will be this busy next year! As it was, we found a lovely spot down by the water's edge which was also conveniently located next to a temporary bar erected to cater to the vast crowds. We had an excellent evening and at intervals the bar staff came along with huge bags of hats, party poppers and micellaneous noise makers to help us contribute ti the proceedings.
At midnight an enormous fireworks display was unleashed from the opposite bank to which we had a truly grand view. It was far bigger and spectacular then we had ever expected and while it was perhaps not quite in the league of the enormous displays in London or Sydney, it was certainly on a par with many of the world's major cities. We saw ths as a declaration of intent by Chiang Mai that is was a city very much on the up and that is something we definitely want to be involved with in the coming years.
A happy New Year indeed.
