New Year in Patong

New year in Patong was amazing. We anchored off Patong beach, which is the main tourist area on the island. The fireworks started at 8pm and built up to a climax at midnight. We stood on the deck and gazed in awe as the sky exploded from one end of the beach to the other. Every hotel has there own display and then lots of folk set them off on the beach. That continued for about 20 min and then the odd one continued to go off till about 4am.
We had friends from Cape Town with us and Rob showed them how to light a lantern (happy balloon). Not so easy when its windy. The sky is full of them by midnight. Its a thin paper sleeve with a simple candle at the base. Once lit the heat floats it up and away.

With the nice breeze there were no mosquitos, so we slept out on the deck. Two blow up mattress is all you need! Here the one mattress is left as our friends had a late lie in. Rob even served us coffee in bed!