The Road to 40 Day 236/365: Happy New Year!

We’ve mostly spent the holidays with family, and we welcomed the new year with our little family in Singapore.

We had to wake up early because our flight to Bangkok was at 9:20am. Originally, the plan was to celebrate new year in the house in a quiet dinner with Steph and James.

Two days into our PH trip, the idea of spending new year in Thailand came about. Thankfully, there were still hotels available that are not priced exorbitantly, and the budget flights weren’t that bad. The Ngouple flew out on the 30th, and we followed a day after.

It’s been a while since we went to Bangkok. My first was pre-Vino, where we shopped for baby clothes at Platinum. Next was with months-old Vino, where I frequented the street vendor selling fried rice hoping to replicate the flavors they produce.

I’ve always loved the food in Thailand, but most of it tends to be very spicy. Their spice level is in another level as well. “Little” could be very strong for some, while “strong” is almost inedible. We’ve wanted to go back for quite some time now, but never really had a chance to.

Summer was a target, so I’m not sure why it was pushed up this early. Regardless, we’re happy that we’re here again.

I wanted to maybe watch a ONE Championship event, as I never got the chance to ever since they had a partnership with the country. I’m no longer under contract for months now, but I still follow the big fights from time to time. But with all the celebrations, I don’t think they’ll have an event while we’re here.

The Suvarnabhumi Airport is way different than I remembered it to be, in a good way. It’s yet another reminder of how the Philippine government has failed us in terms of infrastructure, especially post-pandemic.

Of course, I can’t discount the fact that there are improvements to NAIA Terminal 3, but that’s mainly because it has been privatized.

After a smooth immigration processing, we went to find the Grab pickup point to head over to the hotel. We came a little bit early, and Che and Vino were both hungry. Luckily, Platinum was right across us, so we grabbed a bite there.

I wanted to go with Pad Thai, but Che ordered crab rice and some chicken wings while Vino was going to have chicken and rice. I felt that if I had Pad Thai, it’ll be too much. I got the buttered corn instead.
The chicken rice was a bit spicy, and Vino didn’t really eat much of it, so that means I’ll probably not try to cook it at home. He did get a lot of the buttered corn. The crab rice was nice because it had actual crab meat. The downside to it is that there were a lot of shell fragments in the rice. The chicken was good value for 200 baht.

After we finished, we wanted to walk over to Central to book a massage appointment. However, the crowd for the new year celebration was growing rapidly. I thought we should just go back to Platinum instead.

We saw the first few people gathering at the gates, and it got a little too physical for some of the people and the security. You know it’s not a common occurance as a crowd gathered to watch it from the overhead bridge, with some even taking videos of the incident.

Anyway, we went back to Platinum to walk around, but I really wanted to get me sleeveless hoodies. When I was younger, it was fashion that I liked, but Che didnt really care for it much. It was one of the first things she removed from my closet when I told her she should remove things she didn’t want me to wear when we’re out on a date.

However, it’s making some kind of comeback this past year, so I feel validated in a way. Now, I could justify to her that it’s a happening thing, and I could even use it for workouts and runs. After getting a couple, I told her I’m done with my Thailand shopping.

We went back to the hotel to check in and waited for Steph and James while watching the rest of Dynamite Kiss. We then went to Central World to have early dinner and buy some stuff to welcome the new year.

Vino was tired though, so I brought him back to the hotel while the rest of the adults went to the supermarket.

When they got back, we had a bit of time to relax before gathering for the new year celebration. During this time, we finished Dynamite Kiss. It was a nice romantic flick, though it probably won’t make my top 10 all time. The story flowed well, but it fell into some cliches and even did those “a few years later” things in the final episode to speed things up. I also didn’t pick up a new song for my playlist.

We went over to the other room at about 10pm to begin our countdown for the new year.

Steph was our practice baby, which made her part of our family in some ways. It’s like having a daughter but skipping all the formative and adolescent years and jumped straight into adult issues. Now with James, we’re getting a practice son-in-law. So in a way, we’re still with family during this time.

We counted down with the Philippines, which was one hour ahead of our timezone, so we called our respective families. Later, we popped open a bottle of champagne while we enjoyed the extraordinary view of the fireworks from our window.

We turned in shortly after, as Che was dead tired. We booked a massage for tomorrow at noon, so we plan on getting heavy breakfast and have lunch after the massage.