A Bangkok New Year's

Let me just say, for the record, there is no better way to ring in a new year than from the 27th floor of a swanky hotel in downtown Bangkok like the Millennium Hilton Hotel Bangkok! For a special New Year's surprise, Eric arranged for us to stay at the hotel and enjoy all the luxuries of the high life. A girl can seriously get used to treatment like this! As soon as we arrived, we were whisked away to the 31st floor for a private check-in at the Executive Lounge, where an array of free drinks, biscuits, cakes, nuts, crackers and chocolate were right at our disposal!

Then we received a total VIP invitation back to the Executive Lounge for a New Year's Eve cocktail hour, featuring free drinks and more free hor'deurves! Well, two glasses of red wine and a million little hor'deurves later (salmon crackers, spiced cranberry juice, chocolate mousse, fruit tarts, rice crackers & peanut sauce, lamb with cucumber mint sauce...well, you get the picture), Eric and I were stuffed! The best part? We still had dinner reservations several hours later!

After cocktail hour, which I totally j'adored, we took in the view of central Bangkok from the 31st floor. With lights sparkling, twinkling and blinking everywhere, it was absolutely magical! There was a definite buzz in the Bangkok air, even from tippity top of the Millennium Hilton! Check out my first ever video on my blog, and let me know how it goes!



We still had a couple of hours to burn so we thought we would walk around the hotel and enjoy all the ambience of the New Year's Eve. Sounds like a plan, right? The only thing is... we found the comfort of our super-cushioned, pillow-filled hotel bed first and fell asleep at 8:30pm! Yes, I think us 20-somethings are officially more like 70-somethings! By the littlest stroke of luck, we awoke at 9:25pm, exactly 5 minutes before our dinner reservations at the hotel's Chinese restaurant Yuan. Stuck in the midst of a foggy haze, we raced out of bed and down 22 flights (by elevator of course!), arriving literally just on time!

Unfortunately, dinner wasn't that tasty (all the good restaurants were booked!), but I think Eric and I should have known better when we ordered Prawns & Bananas in Chili Sauce, something was clearly up! But we did get free party hats and toys...all is well that ends well with party favors! At midnight, from the stellar panoramic view of our room, we watched fireworks going off all around the city! Near and far, fireworks lit up the sky across the horizon. It was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's wherever you were and enjoyed yourself (these years are passing so fast!). Happy 2008 and here's to health, happiness and a whole lot of fun in 2008!