My plan had been to turn in early, skipping the countdowns and insane hooting, and just aim for a good night’s sleep as 2022 yielded to 2023. Instead, with 10 minutes to midnight, I decided on a whim to go up 26 floors to the rooftop deck of my condo. Bangkok usually has two spectacular mall fireworks displays, one at IconSiam on the river and the other at CentralWorld in the business district. Both are visible from my building, along with a panoramic 360-degree view of the rest of the city. 

As 2022 ended, I saw something that I have not seen in my 16 years in this city—fireworks were going off on hundreds of rooftops all over the sprawl of Bangkok. From my height and distance, they looked like twinkling stars and small comets. The city was twinkling, almost as if happy about something.