This has been a short Christmas season, it seems shorter than usual with Christmas and New Years falling on a Sunday. It seems like the holidays just got started and they are already coming to and end!
We are home for the holidays this year and as we watched the snow fall outside, we started to reminisce about where we’ve been for New Year’s over the past decade. It’s been a very fun ride.
So while we celebrate at home for the first time in a few years, enjoy our trip down memory lane and share your stories of where you’ll be this year and where in the world you have celebrated New Years abroad in the past.
Last Year this time we were in Studying Muay Thai Kickboxing at Rawai Muay Thai in Phuket. A fun New Years on the beach complete with Karaoke, Lady Boys and a little Thai Wiskey. Not much though, we were all in training!

Hussein and His Mother in Udaipur India at New Years
We were staying in Udaipur at the Lakeshore Guesthouse where we grew close with it’s manager Hussain. He took us up to the rooftop of his families building to overlook the magical city at midnight. Fireworks were let off over the Lake Palace Hotel standing proud in the middle of Lake Pichola. It was a beautiful sight.
We were about to start our ride down the continent of Africa and celebrated New Years on the plane to Cairo. We weren’t really thinking about the celebrations we were missing out on, we were getting ready to change our lives and live our dreams.
We had just spent a couple of weeks visiting my parents in Florida and were going to stop at Myrtle Beach on the way home when we left late Dec. Instead, we decided to drive straight through to Canada ended up crossing the border at Niagara Falls somewhere around midnight. It was raining, it was late and it was depressing. It was that night that we made the New Years resolution to change our lives. We watched an interview on CBC with Ray Zahab about how he is now living his dream as an ultra marathon runner and made a pact to do something like that ourselves. One year later we were in Cairo at the start of the Tour d’Afrique and have never looked back!
There isn’t a more romantic city in Canada than Quebec City. We bundled up in our down jackets, snowboarding pants and Sorrel winter boots to walk around the old city and take in its historical architecture. Fondue, cheese, fresh fruit, wine and hot chocolate made for the perfect getaway after a few days of snowboarding at Mont St. Anne for celebrating New years.
We were ready to take our dive masters and there was no where cheaper on earth to study than Honduras. Hanging out on Utilla for a few weeks was an awesome way ring in the New Year. We made new friends and celebrated together like we had known each other for years. When the New Year came, we said our good byes, never to see them again. But we came away with memories to last a lifetime.
We had arrived in Vang Vieng just a couple of days after Christmas. I hear that it is over run with backpackers these days, but when we were there on the even of 2004, things were fairly quiet. We walked down the dirt streets and sat with some locals by a fire. We walked some more and grabbed a Bear Lao on a floating bar on the river and eventually settled in while trying to drown our the blaring music coming from the empty bar next door.
There’s nothing like celebrating New Years in the tropics and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Dressed in a sundress for Deb and Shorts and a Hawaiian shirt for Dave we put the cold of winter out of our minds while sipping Margaritas at the beach bar listining to Mariachis serenade the crowd.
So, Where are you this New Years Eve? At Home with your family, somewhere exotic, an awesome party? Share your plans, we’d love to live vicariously!
Seriously — you spent one of your New Year’s in Udaipur? That’s where I was this past time! Everything was just the way you describe, with lots of people watching the fireworks from the Old Town rooftops. See a fireworks photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anutele/6608289155/lightbox/.
Thanks for a wonderful recap.
That is amazing! It’s a great place to spend it eh. I love that we both stood atop the rooftops watching the fireworks. Thanks for sharing your photos. and Happy New Year!