I’ve had a few great New Years celebrations, one was spent at a random festival with friends some 7 hours from home when I was 15, dancing listening to music without a care in the world. Last year I was in Budapest sampling all of their delicious red wine and beer and basically everything – I don’t like to discriminate.
But the New Years of 2010 to 2011 had to be one of my favourites – which is not that surprising because I was on a boat, and boats have a charming way of making everything a little better.
It wasn’t just any boat; it was a boat in Ha Long Bay – one of the most breathtaking places I’ve been.
That’s right, I had New Years Eve in HaLong Bay!
This is what I woke up to on New Year’s day.
Pretty good – right? While I’ve posted on my blog about how I’m going to Asia, partially because I miss Asia dearly and also because I want to test out working and traveling together in preparation for a bigger trip, but it’s also because I want another New Years in Asia.
Where? I have no idea. But looking through my photos of my New Years in Vietnam leads me to believe I’ve picked the right region.
We organized our Ha Long Bay tour through Hanoi Backpackers hostel, which was somewhat expensive but had a fantastic reputation as being a party boat; and what more would you want for New Years? It seemed a lot of people had the same idea and the boat actually ended up being two boats together, to accommodate the large crowd.
On New Years Eve we played a version of circle of death that involved a Troll card; a person would go under the table and tug on people’s feet in order to drink their drinks and was only allowed up when another Troll went under the table. There were also cards for various confessions, dares and my favourite was having to swap clothes when the person of the opposite sex closet to me – let’s just say my skinny jeans never looked the same again.
We moved to Castaway island where we chilled out, playing volley ball until the sun melted into the sky. As night became dusk we swam out to the ocean, where we were greeted by thousands of little glowing fish, which is a lot more incredible than it really sounds. The night was spent in great company having conversations that stretched to the corners of the universe and life and purpose. It was, all in all, an incredible New Years in a wonderful location.
I have no idea where I’ll be for this New Years, but that’s part of the charm.
Where was your best New Years ever? Where in Asia should I go for New Years?
I love the sound of Castaway Island playing volleyball and the glowing fish…sounds like the perfect NY. My best so far has to be New York…very magical, probably in a different way than Castaway Island though.
That sounds like an awesome way to ring in the New Year! Especially with great people to keep you company. One of my favourite New Years was celebrated on a beach in Rio de Janeiro crammed with hundreds of thousands of people, djs playing, and fireworks going off. 😀
I had such a great new years that year; no idea how I’m going to top it. Wow, I’ve never been to Brazil but it’s on my list. Sounds AWESOME for New Years.
Castaway Island sounds like a great New Years to me.
It was the BEST!
Sounds like a fun place to spend New Years. Is that where they jump from the boat into the bay and have beer thrown in after…?
What?! I didn’t know they threw beer in. People jumped into the water, but no beer. This was two years ago, though. Maybe they’ve upgraded their drinking since haha 🙂
[…] forces you to do to is to be present. Whether it’s because you’re in such awe of the beauty of Ha Long Bay that your breath is literally ripped from you and you can’t do anything but stare, slowly, and […]
[…] you get around potential travel road-blocks, going away somewhere new or familiar during the festive or New Year period means you will remember it for entirely different reasons, and who knows, you […]