when the Full Moon rises...

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We've encountered our first consistently cloudy and windy days here on Thong Nai Pan Noi - not to say that it's still not warm and wonderful...just different! There's quite a bit of surf here compared to the other beaches we've been at - which is awesome because our bungalow is just steps from the beach and often the first thing i hear when i wake up are the waves crashing against the shore.

I much prefer the sound of the waves to the construction going on out to the left of our bungalow. When i walk through it to reception, it's the only place i have to wear shoes. I haven't worn shoes since we got to Ko Pha-Ngan. (Those who know me from work are laughing because i don't like to wear shoes their either!)

And I must make my mandatory ode to the toilet once again - we do have a Western-style toilet here, but it doesn't flush, and you can't put toilet paper in it (similar to a squat). You have to take a little pail full of water and pour it in the toilet, and it kind of dilutes and flushes it down that way. There is a tap to fill the pail, but the first day it was dripping (just to add to our long list of plumbing trouble in guesthouses!) and some guy came and fixed the dripping - except now you can't get water from it so you have to fill it in the shower, which is basically a two person job. Just can't win!

We had virtually planned our Thai adventure around being in Ko Pha-Ngan for the Full Moon party March 3rd, even allowing an extra day between to sleep in and recover before heading to Bangkok March 5th. But after all our careful planning, a Buddhist holiday on Saturday pushed the Full Moon party to Sunday, and all of a sudden we faced a 24-hr travel day on zero hours of sleep. But lets rewind to the fun part!

We took a long tail boat a 1/2 hr ride to Hat Rin at 10pm sunday night - when we came upon it, it looked like a glitzy carnival strip glowing out of the sand, with thousands of people packed onto the beach. (i would guess between 8-10 thousand). I have never seen anything like it in my life - it was incredible.

Where do you even begin? The beach front bars spilled onto the sand, you could hear three different kinds of pulsating, pounding music at once, people were dancing or sprawled out on the sand - males were lined up facing the waterfront relieving themselves (sorry that's too much info, but it makes a funny picture!) There was fire dancing, fire works, neon body painting, buckets & buckets of Sangsum just waiting to be drunk! It literally was the craziest thing ever, it was so incredible - all the people and lights and sounds. It was crazy to know that at that moment the biggest party on the planet was happening and we were right in the middle of it!

8 hours FLEW by. I was shocked when i found out we had 20 minutes before we had to catch our 6am boat back to Pan Noi. We had a BLAST! Our boat arrived back at 7am , and we only had time to shower, eat breakfast, pack up, and take the sawng thaew to Thong Sala to catch our ferry. Did i mention we hadn't slept yet? I grabbed an extremely uncomfortable, constantly interrupted cat nap on the 3hr ferry ride, which seemed to somehow tide me over for the 4hr wait for our overnight train to Bangkok. And another fun day!

(ps we're in limbo with the picture situation of the party, because Emily had her camera out often, so i took zero pictures. BUT unfortunately a little mix up with which boat we took back left the camera a little wet - it's a film camera. So cross your fingers we're able to salvage some pictures!)

(pps can you believe it...my trip is half over!)

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Comments

[jason]

as per your baby sis
Mariah is at our house today and i was showing her all your pics. She says she misses you and and wants to come to the airport to come pick you up when u get home. Just thought you'd like to hear that. Now we are going to play her car game, which she just beat me before. This time i will try to catch her, because she must have cheated. j/k Have fun, Love Cynthia, Mariah and Jason