30 July 2005
The Good, The Bad and The Full Moon Party.
We arrived on Koh Phangan after an incredibly packed ferry (where are all these people headed?) and were quickly whisked away to Had Yao. Those of you familiar with Koh Phangan, or handy with a map, will quickly realise this is absolutely the furthest point you can get from the full moon party. Despite the scary old man's / walking advertisement for why drugs are bad (1) advice that there were no rooms closer and that it would be no problem to get a cab past the police barricade and to the party, we decided to try our luck in Had Rin (where the party is).
We found a room in approximately 7 minutes. Celebrating our good fortune, I went down to the supermarket/laundrymat/safety deposit boxes and decided a beer was in order. The look on the clerk/cleaner/banker's face when I tried to purchase it was a mix of disgust, empathy and finally sadness. It was, of course, Buddha Day and I would be promptly arrested for drinking a beer. Approximately 10,000 people have descended on Had Rin to drink, smoke, trip and otherwise alter their conciousness, and I can't even buy a single beer. Luckily all was not lost, after her severe admonishing against drinking on such a holy day, the clerk took my money, popped the bottle open, took a giant swig and handed me my beer.
What follows is a hazy and tumultous three days. Somewhere there was four hours of sleep in a forty hour period, enough UV light to tan all of Ireland, fire dancers, hippie drug twirlers (colored balls on pieces of string that are strangely transfixing) and about 10,000 really messed up people. At least the people passed out on the sand had a relatively comfortable place to sleep, others were literally relegated to sleeping the gutter. And through it all were two of Had Rin's finest, the great women at the 24 hour chicken sandwhich and crepe shop, who probably enabled us to survive this mess of humanity.
We took the first boat out of Had Rin the day after. Everyone seemed to have the same idea, get the hell out of there to never come back. Except Tom, Richard and Becky / walking advertisement for why drugs are bad (2,3,4) . They informed us they had been in Thailand for around 8 months and this was one of the best of the five full moon parties they had been to. Becky then passed out (drooling) for the remainder of our thoroughly uncomfortable journey. And remained passed out (drooling) when we arrived. And remained passed out (drooling) while people shook, pinched, tossed water and generally tried to revive her. We both shared a terrible moment when it looked like this girl was in fact dead. She was not, and was dragged (and I do mean dragged) back to her bungalow. We saw them two nights later, Tom was in a leopard print thong playing with hippie drug twirlers on fire. Drugs are bad.
The next four nights we spent on the lovely Thong Nai Pan beach relaxing. One day we went swimming. One day we played volleyball. That was about the extent of it. You know when you are paying two people $5 to slather you in pounds of fresh aloe vera then literally stand there and fan you, that you are onto something.
Now we're on Koh Tao sitting out the typhoon (probaly accumulated bad karma from the outright rejection of all that buddha held dear a few days earlier) that is swirling around the Phillipines. While we'd love to do an overnight diving trip to Ang Thong Marine Park (think: The Beach) or a deep sea fishing expedition, instead we are stuck deciding whether to drink our cases of beer at the pool or the beach and what type of massage to get. Tough life.
Cheerio
Steve + British Eddie
PS> We get four years of decent baskeball, Ludicris and Richard Lagos and 2006 gets a championship and The Stones?
We found a room in approximately 7 minutes. Celebrating our good fortune, I went down to the supermarket/laundrymat/safety deposit boxes and decided a beer was in order. The look on the clerk/cleaner/banker's face when I tried to purchase it was a mix of disgust, empathy and finally sadness. It was, of course, Buddha Day and I would be promptly arrested for drinking a beer. Approximately 10,000 people have descended on Had Rin to drink, smoke, trip and otherwise alter their conciousness, and I can't even buy a single beer. Luckily all was not lost, after her severe admonishing against drinking on such a holy day, the clerk took my money, popped the bottle open, took a giant swig and handed me my beer.
What follows is a hazy and tumultous three days. Somewhere there was four hours of sleep in a forty hour period, enough UV light to tan all of Ireland, fire dancers, hippie drug twirlers (colored balls on pieces of string that are strangely transfixing) and about 10,000 really messed up people. At least the people passed out on the sand had a relatively comfortable place to sleep, others were literally relegated to sleeping the gutter. And through it all were two of Had Rin's finest, the great women at the 24 hour chicken sandwhich and crepe shop, who probably enabled us to survive this mess of humanity.
We took the first boat out of Had Rin the day after. Everyone seemed to have the same idea, get the hell out of there to never come back. Except Tom, Richard and Becky / walking advertisement for why drugs are bad (2,3,4) . They informed us they had been in Thailand for around 8 months and this was one of the best of the five full moon parties they had been to. Becky then passed out (drooling) for the remainder of our thoroughly uncomfortable journey. And remained passed out (drooling) when we arrived. And remained passed out (drooling) while people shook, pinched, tossed water and generally tried to revive her. We both shared a terrible moment when it looked like this girl was in fact dead. She was not, and was dragged (and I do mean dragged) back to her bungalow. We saw them two nights later, Tom was in a leopard print thong playing with hippie drug twirlers on fire. Drugs are bad.
The next four nights we spent on the lovely Thong Nai Pan beach relaxing. One day we went swimming. One day we played volleyball. That was about the extent of it. You know when you are paying two people $5 to slather you in pounds of fresh aloe vera then literally stand there and fan you, that you are onto something.
Now we're on Koh Tao sitting out the typhoon (probaly accumulated bad karma from the outright rejection of all that buddha held dear a few days earlier) that is swirling around the Phillipines. While we'd love to do an overnight diving trip to Ang Thong Marine Park (think: The Beach) or a deep sea fishing expedition, instead we are stuck deciding whether to drink our cases of beer at the pool or the beach and what type of massage to get. Tough life.
Cheerio
Steve + British Eddie
PS> We get four years of decent baskeball, Ludicris and Richard Lagos and 2006 gets a championship and The Stones?
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Very funny that you, Gore, are on a vacation with either somebody who is A) never sober enough to type or B) lacks the skill to type or C) is a cardboard cutout of Ed Bailey. Serious question tho; I'm going to be landing in Nadi, Fiji in a week on a 5-day layover, as per your and Heinz's reccommendations (two people not to listen to in most cases, but still), and was wondering what pearls of wisdome you might have for exploring fiji. Holler at me. My email's still ahj2@duke.edu. Cheers.
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