As we have travelled around south east Asia we got used to the flexible traveling. It is extremely easy to book buses, trains and flights as you go along. It is usually enough time to buy tickets with a days notice.
What we had not anticipated was that pretty much everyone celebrating New Years in the south of Thailand was also planning on going back to Bangkok at the same time as us.
All sleeper trains between January 1st and 6th were fully booked. None of the airlines had any tickets left for January 2nd or 3rd. The only possibility left was to fly out of Trang early in the morning on New Years day.
This time the forced change of plans turned out very well. Spending New Years eve in Trang took us off the banana pancake trail*. We were the only westerners on the beautifully decorated streets around the Trang clock tower. We enjoyed a great New Years dinner in a street side restaurant where no one spoke a word of English and menus had not yet been invented. With lots of smiles and made up sign language we managed to order something that tasted great. We got to hear the countdown in Thai and bring in the New Year surrounded by a sky filled with rice paper lanterns.
*) Banana pancake trail is the nickname for places along the standard backpacking routes in south east Asia. No local would ever order a banana pancake for breakfast so without enough tourists you won't find a banana pancake.
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