BUSARA’S DIGEST #8

Sip, gow, paert, jeht, hok, haa, see, sarm, sorng, neung…SAWADEE BEE MAI!!!!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

SAWADEE BEE MAI KA! That's Thai for ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’. Well the holidays are basically gone for now. It’s 2001 and most of us are happy to be where we are. I know I sure am. 5 awesome months down…5 to go!!! The English New Year is gone but for me there is still Chinese New Year later on this month and Thai New Year sometime in April. It seems as if I get the best of three worlds!

Well, I can say that this holiday will be one that I will never forget. I must admit that Thailand didn’t feel like Christmas at all but I made the best of my circumstances and had a great time. Well, what did I do?????

My Hosting Rotary District (3350) had a Christmas party for us in this district and also the Inbounds in another Thai District somewhere in the North. Rotex, Rebounds, Outbounds and YEO’s were also there. There was food and of course there was Thai karoake. Honestly the party was only “sanook nit noy” which means only a little fun. But we didn’t let that stop us, we planned to do Secret Santa and of course that’s what we did. I got wind chimes from a Canadian Inbound. Overall, I think it wasn’t all that bad. 

On Christmas Eve, my fellow Bangkok/Petchaboon Inbounds and I had our own Christmas get together at Shenanigans (or however you spell it) which is an Irish pub. We devoured American/Irish food and enjoyed the Christmas air that surrounded us. It’s amazing how you can meet people from all over the world wherever you go. Well, we Inbounds in this district got a chance to meet Santa Claus in person and experience what he had to offer that night. Hey, there’s no snow here so I guess he was taking in some sun and decided to stop in and greet some semi-homesick Rotary exchange students. You wanna know Santa’s real name??? ROB!!!! He just came over to our table and wished us Merry Christmas. Well, we were so happy to see a ‘falang’ (foreigner) that we didn’t let the opportunity pass to start up a conversation. After this and that we finally asked him where he lived and only to find out that he lived in Bangkok. I’ll never, ever forget the look on his face when all of us chorused out “US TOO!!!” He was sooo surprised but then who wouldn’t be…we look nothing like Thai people.  

We got into good conversation and it appeared that he has been to every country that was represented there…even the Bahamas!!!! He lived there for seven years or so. Anyway, Rob turned out to be Santa when he offered to treat us to whatever!!! Of course we didn’t decline. The special part was when he saw the first bill was only over 1,000 baht that he treated us about 4 more times for that night. We got to meet his friends from Scotland and Ireland who were all business men living in Thailand and Hong Kong. It was a bit strange...a bunch of teenagers sitting around all night talking to 'old men' but lot of fun and how he treated us, everybody thought he was the “Y.E. Santa Claus”. You never know, maybe he’ll visit some other exchange students next year. 

Nothing much happened until New Years. With my host family being out of town I was up to doing anything that I could get to. New Years Eve started at Hard Rock Café in Siam Square with Mariko (Japan), Barbara W. (Germany) and Megan S. (Canada). After dinner we walked to World Trade Center where there was supposed to be Bangkok Countdown 2001. There were lights everywhere and the main road was closed. This doesn’t happen very often so the Thai people took the opportunity to sit in the road and take photos. Since it was very early we decided to move on and just do the countdown somewhere else. We took a taxi to RCA (Royal City Avenue) which is just 2 roads lined with dicoteques for Thai teens. On the way we stuck our heads out and shouted Happy New Year, Sawadee Bee Mai Ka & Chok Dee Na Ka (good luck) to everybody we saw. We almost caused this one man on a motorcycle to crash because he wouldn’t stop looking at us. RCA was absolutely jammed with dancing people and not very comfortable. We moved through and went to visit the owner of Skybeach, a club that I have been to before. She was so happy to see us but we only stayed a short while.

From there we moved onto Khao San Rd. which was just like RCA but only with a bunch of ‘falangs’. I went to a Reggae Bar, that was cool but for countdown we went to a main area which was crowded with drunk ‘falangs’ dancing, hugging and kissing everybody Happy New Year. It was like a war zone. We were practically walking on glass bottles and people were being lifted in the air like those weird rock concerts. To get away from it we danced and celebrated while standing on tables and chairs in the middle of the crowd. After most of the counting and stuff was finished, we went into this Gullivers bar and danced for about 3 hours and until our feet ached with Thai people and tourists. Then we had to take Megan S. to her hotel because she’s not from Bangkok. Next…we had to find somewhere to crash until we could go back home. So we decided on ASIA Hotel where we tried to sleep in the lobby but only ended up talking from about 4am to 6am. It was then morning so I could go home and I did. I scrubbed myself for so long after that War Zone ordeal and hit the sack and entered my own dreamland. New Years wasn’t all that bad I must say. I guess everything is what you make it.

Ok, that’s all for the eighth issue of “BUSARA’S DIGEST”.
Look forward to issue nine (9):::::::::::
COMING SOON TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU, IN AN E-MAIL JUST FOR YOU!
SAWADEE KA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Signed: BARBARA ZÁ FRANKS
R. Y. E. 2000-2001
Dist. 6990 (Grand Bahama) – Dist. 3350 (Thailand)