Full Moon Disappointments and Fun

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Matt, after your e-mail, I was afraid your post would be too dirty to accept for the blog, but it looked tame enough. Opium is very big in northern Thailand's "Golden Triangle" but not down here in the south. The drug here is Yang-Ba and it often puts users in a zombie coma for three days or more where they wander the streets like stray dogs. Sounds like fun, but I would rather stay on the beach and get Thai massages. Also, I can't imagine you with a mustache. I can't picture how your hair would get dark enough for anyone to even notice it.

Ok, now on to today's blog.......

Yesterday was a lot of fun mixed with two big disappointments. First, Colin and I rented a sea kayak yesterday to take over to the island off the coast of Ko Samui. I brought my dive/snorkel gear along with me. Unfortunately, our kayak overturned. My mask and snorkle are negetively bouyant and were lost at the bottom of the sea. Although I have other masks and snorkles, this mask was my first scuba mask and had emotional value to me. Sad.

Less sad actually was the Full Moon Party debacle. Colin and I bought tickets for $15 each for a service that would pick us up from our hotel at 8:00 p.m., take us to the port, send us by speed boat to the party, and then bring us home at 3:00 a.m. The service never showed up. We waited for three hours until 11:00 p.m. before we gave up and decided to go out to the bars on our "beach" -actually a very popular four mile strip of bars. So, we came all this way and missed the party. However, we had such a good time last night at the bars here that I can't say I could have had much more fun at the party. Plus the drinks here were cheaper, the bathrooms were likely much cleaner, and we got to control our own schedule. I'm hoping we can get a 100% refund for the tickets.

We stayed out late drinking last night, and as I mentioned before, I have a headache hangover -my first of our trip to Thailand. We'd planned today as a recovery day from the Full Moon Party and we're both going to need it despite not going to the party. It's 10 a.m. now and I'm off to the beach to take in the morning sun before getting a Thai massage and use the sauna to get the toxins out of my body. I need to drink lots of water today and do a lot of swimming to be back in great shape for our trip to Anthong National Marine Park tomorrow where we will go mountain climbing and snorkling (with a rented mask).

Oh, one really fun thing happened yesterday. Colin and I found a local woman up one of the side roads off the beach who was selling large krathongs (see yesterday's post) for $1.50. We each bought up and took them up to Big Buddha Beach in the north-east corner of the island at sunset. We made our wishes and launched them. I also got some great photos of the Big Buddha and the Loy Krathong festival there. I may take a songthew back there today to explore the religious aspects of the Big Buddha in more depth today. Then again, I may not. It's our day to be lazy.

I hope you all are not getting snowed on too much. I would like the 60 degree weather to return next week with Colin and I. Mom, thanks for the weather report.

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