Full-Moon Party Madness!

Ok, first of all, MOM, stop reading right now. This journal entry is not for you. Please go the next journal entry.

For everyone else, well, here's what happened. The four of us started drinking at the hut before going to the party, we shared in some buckets. About 10:00, I think, we headed for the beach and bars.

WOW, there's a lot of people there. I figure over 5000 people, but that's a very rough estimate, considering the size of the beach and everyone packed into the bars. There could have easily been thousands more. The dance bars have HUGE sound systems, with popular DJ's spinning song after song after song of dance, hip-hop, techno, rave, house, etc., etc., etc. Buckets of alcohol are for sale EVERYWHERE, even the convenience stores and street vendors. And the Thai prostitutes are out in full force!

I must say at this point that I don't remember that much from the night. I was fine when I got there. Court and Uta took of dancing right away, Ben and I hung out for a bit, then I lost him. Here are some tidbits from what I remember (MOM, if you're reading this, STOP!) These tidbits aren't necessarily in the correct order of how they happened. I do have some big memory holes from the night (as do Court and Uta).

Earlier on, when I was still with Ben, we were walking around, and there was a Thai prostitute dancing by herself. So I went up and put my arm around her and started dancing close with her. At this point, I didn't know she was a prostitute, just a Thai girl. She puts her arm around me, I remember looking back at Ben and he's still standing there waiting for me, I turn back to her and tell her I have to go now. She tells me not to go, she wants me to stay with her, then she grabs my crotch and starts rubbing, trying to turn me on. I then push her away a little, and tell her I have to go meet my friend, who's waiting for me, and turn to point to Ben, and he's gone. So I point to someone else in the crowd, and ditch her.

One thing I decided to do when I got to the bar was get in as many pictures with strangers as I could. If I saw someone taking a picture, I'd run in and get myself in the picture. I can't even begin to imagine how many people will get their pictures developed and have this strange guy standing there too. I always asked if I could be in the picture, and everyone was very obliging, always letting me stand in with them. Except one group of girls, who didn't want me in the picture.

At the beach, Paradise Bungalows, which hosted the first full-moon party on the island in 1989 has a big sign, and I remember a bunch of Japanese girls getting their picture taking with the picture, and I ran up and asked if I could be in, and they're like, sure, c'mon.

Earlier on in the night, there was a big rain storm too, that came all of a sudden. Everyone ran for cover. I stood under a beach mat with a bunch of other people, then decided it's only rain, and walked around in it. Needless to say, I wasn't the only one walking around in the rain.

I did go to get another bucket at one point, and bought some glitter paint as well. (Not sure why, seemed like a good idea at the time.)

The don't remember much after getting the second bucket. I kind of wonder if I didn't get drugged, by someone dropping something into my alcohol. I've never had this sort of memory loss before.

I ran into Ben about 1:30, I think, and he said he was heading back to the hut.

I do remember not feeling well, and going up to the washrooms in the Cactus Club, and
I sat down in the shower room, and closed the door. I'm not sure, but I may have passed out there for a while. I remember sitting on the floor, and "waking up" by someone saying to me, "Hey, buddy, are you all right? You ok, dude????". I got up at the point, mumbled something like, "Ya, I'm doing fine", and stumbled back downstairs to the bar.

At another point, I remember thinking about Kristin Cleniuk, and I decided that it'd be a good idea to send her an e-mail right away, telling her how much I'm having, and that we'll have to go to one of these when she comes to Australia and Thailand later this year. I found an internet, went in, and spent 21 minutes trying to log in to my e-mail account. I was getting so frustrated, because I couldn't type properly, and kept mistyping my username or password. I was persistent, though, I wanted to bad to send her an e-mail, I kept trying for 21 minutes. I remember that I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my fingers, it can't be that hard logging in to my e-mail. Anyway, after 21 minutes, I got very frustrated, paid my bill, and left.

As I mentioned, I had a disposbale camera with me. I did take some pictures, and I remember late in the night, looking at the camera, and there were only about 5 pictures left. Where did all the pictures go? I don't remember taking that many pictures. I remember thinking how interesting it will be to get the camera developed and see all these mysterious pictures. I kept running into Yaneev, the Israeli guy we ran into in Vietnam a few times.

I remember finding Uta at one point. She was making out with her German guy friend she had met a few days earlier, and I took a picture of her and I and of her and her friend.

I went into one of the bars, and who did I see??? Courtney was up on stage dancing. I couldn't believe I actually ran into her. I climbed up there with her, and danced with her, and I remember taking one or two pictures with her. I'm not sure how long I danced with her for, though, but I left at one point.

I should also mention that the ocean at these parties is one big garbage dump and toilet. Guys are peeing in it all night long. I do remember standing in the ocean, perhaps shin high, and I wasn't feeling well again, and I had my hands on my knees, and I was spitting into the ocean, trying not to be sick. Then some guy pushed me from behind, trying to make me fall into the water. My flip-flops came off, but I kept my balance, and rounded up my flip-flops, and went back to the beach.

I do know at one point, I did throw up somewhere, but I don't know where.

So, at about 3:00AM (give or take an hour), decided to head back to the hut. Our hut is about a 20 minute walk from the beach, through the townsite, then along the rocky shoreline. Along the way is a hammock hanging in a tree, and I remember going to sleep in the hammock for a while (going to sleep, passing out, your choice). I awoke, and it was about 4:00, I think, and continued onto the hut, and found Ben laying in bed, awake. I used the washroom, then decided I wanted to see the end of the full-moon party, so started walking back to the beach.

As I was walking through the town, I ran into Uta and Court. They were heading back to the hut. Court had a new pair of flip-flops she "purchased" at the full-moon party (i.e. found them on the beach, and picked them up). We sat on some steps for a while, talking and laughing about everything that happened, then made our way back to the hut, and went to bed about 4:30.

Some other things:
- Court's top was on inside out at the end of the night, and she doesn't remember why
- Uta has a picture of her and her German guy friend kissing, with a big python wrapped around their bodies.


As for the pictures from the disposable camera, you'll have to read another journal entry to see what surprised they contained!

That's the full-moon prarty night.

We actually got up kind of early, about 10:00, I think. We are all very, very tired, but it's too hot to sleep. And we're all very dehydrated, and my stomach is not accepting much of anything, including water. Uta remebers almost nothing. Court is having recollection problems as well. We sat around and talked about what we remember, and all laughed really good.

We all went to town and had lunch and watched "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days". I took both disposable camera's (the full-moon party one and the one from our scuba diving in Vietnam) to get developed. We got back to the hut about 4:00, and tried to sleep for a while.

Later in the evening, Court, Ben and Uta started drinking at the bungalows again, they want to party again tonight. I'm still trying to drink water.

Court lit her poi's on fire for the first time tonight.

About 10:00, we headed back to town with Greg from South Africa. I had some supper in town, then we headed to the beach bars. Absolutely nothing happening, everything is dead, just a few people out partying and dancing. We hung around for a little while and danced. Uta cut her toe on a piece of glass. I bought a copy of the full-moon party VideoCD from last night as well!

We got home about midnight, and the five of us sat on our verandah and chatted until shortly after 1:00AM.