According to Japanese legend, anyone who folds 1000 cranes will have their wish come true!  


In 1955 a young Japanese girl named Sadako started folding cranes with a wish to cure her own cancer, caused by radiation exposure related to the bombing of Hiroshima.  After witnessing the suffering of the children around her, she kept folding cranes, but with the wish for world peace instead of her own cure.  

Sadly, Sadako died before she could complete her task, so other children finished the cranes in her memory.  
Tsuru, the word for paper cranes, has become a symbol for world peace.  

These lovely examples are hanging in the Changi War Memorial, Singapore.  These rainbow coloured strands of Tsuru were given to the museum by Japanese school children in a gesture of goodwill and remembrance.  

Bangla Road, Patong.  If this is a place on your radar,  you likely know about the clubs, the people, the ladyboys, and booze.  On New Year's Eve, Bangla action is amplified by 1000%.  In particular, too many people drinking  excessive amounts of booze.   I would venture to say it is crazier on NYE than Songkran Festival.  I definitely recommend the water fight shenanigans of Songkran, and that story is here.  http://www.sailgirldesign.com/sailgirl-and-skybaduba--our-blog/go-ahead-get-wet-its-songkran-festival  

Corey and I met our friend Fon at one of our local hotel bars on the quiet end of Bangla Road for a little bit of pre-func imbibing.  My cousin Sarah and her two friends were also in Phuket and we had hopes to meet up with them again a bit later.  

Wandering end to end on Bangla Road during high season is always a bit of a challenge but on NYE it is a gauntlet that involves pinging off of drunks like a pin ball and side stepping colourful streams of Silly String.  Why were we doing this?  Of course, it involved fireworks, on the beach.  If fireworks are involved, I am usually compelled to watch them.  We had been advised that Patong Beach had a firework show at midnight...  this is true but it was, of course, 1000x crazier than that.

First off, I must digress to a bit earlier in the evening.  Corey and I met Sarah and girls for a quick 'Hello' at the Hard Rock Cafe, where they were having dinner.  We had parked our motorbike a bit down the road and took a short cut through the "Aussie Bar" section of Patong.  I really cannot explain this well but basically there are some streets that are pedestrian (and a few motorbikes) only, lined with tiki bar style shacks littered with Aussies and Kiwis doing shots.  To attract customers, each shack tries to be louder than the other and offer cheaper shots.  There are also tree stumps at each shack where the local bar girls/boys? bet the drinkers how many hammer strikes it would take them to drive a large gauge nail into a block of wood.  I couldn't bear to watch this as I'm quite sure Patong hospitals see more than one crushed finger, possibly hand, a night from this bar game.  In addition to the usual craziness down these lanes, people were actually setting off serious fireworks.   It was beautiful but a bit frightening at the same time.  Although it seemed the common revellers were drinking hard enough to forget they ever attended this grand party, we paced ourselves. 

So back to the promised beach fireworks...  we made it down Bangla Road onto the sand to welcome in the New Year.  What an amazing spectacle!  Starting prior to midnight and continuing for no less than 30 minutes, fireworks were constantly blasted off from areas up and down the entire crescent of Patong beach.  In addition, the Aussie bar fireworks continued to skyrocket up from a few blocks inland.  To add to the beauty, there were also sky lanterns being set free into the night sky.  

Corey, Fon, and myself enjoyed the view from the beach and then moved to a rooftop bar on the beach road.  If I am in Phuket again for NYE, THIS is WHERE I will be for the night!  Sadly, I do not know the name of the place but it was above the Wine Connection bar on the third floor.  Sarah and team made it there to find us (thank goodness for Whats App) and we enjoyed one more cocktail as we watched lanterns and fireworks continue to compete for space in the sky above the beach for about an hour or longer.
It was time to head home so we said our goodbyes.  Corey and I hopped on our motor bike back to Kathu.  We had promised to stop by our friend Min's bar.  I will have to do a separate blog about this space as it is more than unique. I had almost hoped no one would be up as 3 am was fast approaching, but as we pulled up, Min and a few diehards were there all drinking local Thai booze, eating homemade soup, and singing karaoke.  We of course, had to stay for a chat, a smile, and a toast or two.  

Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog!  May 2015 bring you all you wish for and more.  Please don't forget to open these blogs in a browser by clicking on the Title if you get them by email.  That was you see the slide shows! Lots of pics you may have missed in previous blogs if you haven't!  Cheers!  

Ha Noi is a busy place!  Corey and I traveled there about 8 years ago and it has certainly changed since that time.  The city feels more modern as there are many new buildings, trendy shops, groovy bars, and restaurants.  In fact, I was only there a few days this trip and now want to go back and explore!!

One thing that hasn't changed much is the crazy traffic!  Motorbikes still appear to out number cars.  They take advantage of their size and nimble movements to get through traffic as quickly as possible- even if it means driving on the sidewalk.  I was quite surprised that I did not see a fender bender or worse on every corner.  There are traffic lights and lanes but they seem to be more of a suggestion, not necessarily something to be taken seriously.  

The local team I was working with took me to Mai Coffee.  It is one of the most famous local coffee roasters and shops.  My goal was to purchase local coffee for one of Corey's Christmas gifts.  Mai sells a variety of coffees.  Of course we stayed for a cuppa!

I was told that the one we tasted was "weasel coffee."  After working through some translation I determined that Vietnam also has a similar coffee to Kopi Lewak in Indonesia.  The Civet Cat eats the coffee beans and then poops them out.  They are gathered, hopefully cleaned, and made into a very prized bean.  I had tasted it in Indonesia and enjoyed a nice cup at Mai Coffee.  Yum!