Christmas Eve started off slow. Lorna (a coworker from Bangkok) and I had spent the day learning basic scuba skills in a small, fairly filthy pool that was stuffed with way too many people.
Following a small rest after the class, Lorna and I met with 2 other girls from the course for a drink and dinner. So, all grabbing a beer from 7-Eleven, we scoured the beach for a restaurant with decent food and a view.
By the time we left, things still didn’t seem to be picking up. We had been hearing of a party going on at the Lotus bar, a few buildings down the beach from where we were taking the diving course. We had checked it out on our walk down the beach before dinner, but nothing had been happening.
This time, unlike so many other places on this beach, Lotus was packed with people. Many of them donned some sort of comical Santa homage. Unfortunately, I had left my shabby Santa hat on the desk in my apartment back in Bangkok.
The night just got longer and more interesting from there; complete with beach dancing, fire dancers, people inhaling balloons full of ‘laughing gas’, and concluding with a fairly intense fight between a Canadian and an Aussie that had to be broken up by unhappy Thais.
