New Year's Eve 2008-09, Kata Beach, Phuket

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM KATA BEACH, PHUKET THAILAND!

Heidi is preparing to release a fire lantern with the help of Mr. Joe. The release of the fire lantern is tradition in Phuket on New Years Eve to make a wish for the coming new year!

We had originally referred to these lanterns as fire balloons, but after speaking with a Thai local, the correct term is ‘fire lantern’, and the Thai phrase is ‘khom fai laew fa’ which means fire lantern that floats (i’m sure that i’ve butchered the spelling and probably got the translation a little wrong).

The lanterns quickly ascend into the beautiful night sky here on Kata Beach.

Of course, there are plenty of fireworks here as well and everything is legal! This little kid was shooting bottle rockets towards some people who were lighting their lanterns. Fortunately, no one got injured while we were there!

Extended exposure, hand held (sorry for the blur), but shows the many people on the beach waiting to release their fire lanterns. Once you light the lantern, you have to wait about 5 minutes before the lantern creates enough heat to lift off into the sky.

Our Studio was kind enough to throw us a New Years Celebration for Free!!! That is unheard of around these parts where most hotels are charging hundreds of dollars for their new years eve events! This is the view from the roof of our studio.

For about 180 degrees the sky was filled with fireworks and fire lanterns. However, this is Kata Beach, and if you are looking for more action you need to be in Patong Beach and better yet, Bangla Street in Patong! For us, Kata Beach was just the perfect combination, the only thing lacking was some good dancing, but we still did a little of that on the roof.