Bangkok Countdown

I have never understood the novelty of a mass countdown at some public place, surrounded by a million other people and competiting for standing and breathing space while waiting for the official public countdown to happen. This must have been my first time ever after being in Bangkok for almost 5 years now, of which I subjected myself to such a situation simply because:
a. we did not plan early enough to get out of Bangkok
b. our most reliable and favourite place to chill out has lost its charm with the lead one-man band quitting his gig
c. there are really no other places to go without paying insane amount of cover charge with only 20 minutes to midnight
d. we were feeling rather adventurous with an "anything goes since there's nothing better to do" attitude

And so, we ended up going to Central World after being gravely disappointed upon finding out about situation b & c (see above). After thronging the massive crowd, the countdown was greeted by a 3-minutes of pathetic firework display that left much to be desired. To add on to that, they were blasting hip-hop and rap music in Thai after that ---never mind the fact that the place was also full of tourists. We pretty much did the whole hopping to Central World, battling the crowd to get to the centre and squeezing our way out again in a matter of minutes before we parked out asses somewhere else, away from the maddening crowd.

It reminds me why I never bothered with such things all this while. Crowds drive me insane!

While it wasn't a mind-blowing New Year's Eve celebration as we have had previously, it was still a rather fun night, even if it was just a party of three. In the end, it was the company that matters. Thank heavens for a good company, I tell you!

Here are some blurry shots around Central World as we made out way to get some breathing space before the countdown and the not-so-spectacular display of fireworks: