The Rest of Day 28 - Morning of 29th

The rest of Day 28 - camera and full moon party! :

ok so remember how i got saltwater and/or sand in our camera and then i got it fixed really cheaply and it worked again?

then remember how we got to ko pha ngan and immediately dropped the dang thing on the tile floor cracking it open a bit?

and remember how i said we'd need to be really careful with it after that?

well let me tell you a story:

so yesterday after i got off the internet in the early afternoon jens and i had lunch- pad thai and flat noodles, it was good.

hung out in hammocks, read, showered, etc.

then i came back to the internet to add pictures to facebook off of the photo cd i had made of the pics we took the first part of the trip. i added them and the power went out so i had to restart the computer. then i captioned about NINETY of them and the power went out again! i had to restart this computer again but 2-3 other computers kept working after the power went out so i figured i'd better change computers, which i did. i didn't start captioning pics again cuz i didn't feel like it. i just went through and rotated all the pictures that needed it and THEN the power went out AGAIN! the computer stayed on but the power didn't come back on so the lady said i needed to get off the computer. so! so much for captioning those photos yesterday.

the sun had gone down at that point so it was really dark. jens was at the bungalow so i decided to meet him out there. he actually met me on the pathway there because the power had gone out and he was wondering about me. so we went back to the bungalow and just hung out on the porch waiting for the power to come back. he said the sunset that evening had been really beautiful so he had taken some pictures for me (which was sweet :o).

side note: i brought a flashlight for this kind of thing (power going out) and it was working previously but all of the sudden it didn't work anymore when we needed it! lol

so we're hanging out and some people start setting off fireworks on the beach just a few meters away from us. the first one went off great and it was so loud it scared me and made me scream lol well the 2nd one they set off didn't fly up! it just exploded on the ground which made both me and jens scream lol thank goodness no one was hurt. so the guy goes further down the beach to get away from the group of people he was with and sets off another one like right in front of our bungalow! i braced myself thinking- who knows if that one will work but jens stood right up at the edge of the porch thinking- well i want to be able to see it when it flies up and explodes lol well that one went off on the ground too! again- thankfully no one was hurt. it started to rain and i was fed up with the firework nonsense at that point so i went inside lol jens followed me and we just hung out in the dark in our bungalow wondering how the full-moon party would be if it was pouring down rain!

we were scheduled to take a truck taxi to the party at 8:30pm so at about 8:25pm we started to gather our things to go to the cafe and catch the taxi. jens was in the bathroom and i was looking for the camera. i couldn't find it so i yelled to jens- where's the camera? he didn't answer (even though i knew he could hear me), which gave me a sinking feeling. i asked- you didn't leave it on the porch after taking sunset pictures did you??? again no answer which REALLY made me panic. i went to the back porch and found exactly what i thought i would find- the digital, non-waterproof camera with it's big crack in the top of it sitting on the balcony railing...in the POURING down rain!!!!!!!!!

i took it inside and even though it was off the screen was backlit (you know like when you leave your computer on but it goes into power save or sleep mode and the screen is black but there's still light coming from it?) i turned it off and on and it didn't change and the zoom lense didn't come out like it normally does.

i wanted to cry but i was so incredibly baffled i couldn't lol i just kind of laughed and yelled and cursed a lot.

we had to leave like RIGHT THEN so i had no time to really process what happened. i just took the battery and memory card out and laid it all out to dry on the counter. i wasn't optimistic.

we ran and caught the truck taxi with 5 other people from our bungalows - 2 australian girls and 3 norweigan guys.

*before i go into the full moon party i'll go ahead and tell you that this morning the camera STILL didn't work so we have to buy a new one while we're in bangkok. i'm more baffled than pissed. it's like the universe was out to get my camera lol first the saltwater, then the drop and then the RAIN! i mean good grief! every time i've said- man i really wish my camera was waterproof, jens has said well it looks like it is to a certain extent! i mean we've gotten water on it a few times and it's never ruined it! well i'm just glad it was jens who left it out in the rain and not me because it might have looked like i was saying- SEE! it's not really waterproof! lol

but you better believe i'm getting a waterproof one this time! shatterproof too if they have it! i need some kind of industrial bullet-proof camera lol it just sucks i have to get one in asia and not the states because most of the time, even if the camera is MADE in the asian country in which you are buying it it's more expensive than buying that same camera in the states. i have no idea why.

another sucky thing is i will have no digital camera until we get to bangkok. that means 3-4 more days on koh pha ngan with no digital camera (and last night it meant no digital camera at the full moon party so sorry guys! there won't be pics up of that for a looong time! i bought a dinky disposable one and i dunno how the pics will come out but if they're any good i'll scan them in in the states (in like 5-6 months lol).

ANYWAY!

full moon party:
the taxi ride was HORRENDOUS! first off all, for some reason, we decided not to eat dinner at the bungalow. i think it was because we thought there'd be better food at the party. but for me that mean eating lunch at 1pm, yogurt at like 4pm and then nothing til we got to the party at 10pm, which if you know me is WAY too long for me to wait to eat! granted we were leaving at 8:30pm and i didn't think it'd take long to get there so i wasn't worried at first. but we got in the truck and waited like 30 mins. for the norwegian guys to show up!

i already thought these guys were big jerks because twice i'd seen them go by our bungalow out to the beach and yell "where are the f***ing females?!!" and once one of them argued with his mom in front of our bungalow for like 10 mins. straight lol

so when they hopped in the truck with drinks already in hand i was not thrilled lol turns out they're alright though. i assume they're younger than us since they're here with their parents and they act like high schoolers. they were very pumped for the party and were yelling out of the truck to everyone we passed- "WOOO PARTY! CHEERS! HOW YA DOIN'?" lol it was pretty funny. they made a ton of american culture references and it was really interesting to realize how little i knew about norway and how much MORE they knew about my country. you would have thought they were american if not for their accent lol they also did an impersonation of steve erwin for the ozzy girls lol

anyway as i said the taxi ride was horrendous - i was STARVING, i started feeling depressed about the camera and it was the bumpiest automobile ride i had ever been on! it was almost as bad as that boat ride we took to koh pha ngan! so i was feeling pretty sick soon into the journey. we went up hills so steep i thought we might all fly out the back of the truck bed and the guy went entirely too fast! he drove like it was a matter of life and death that we get there ASAP! thankfully we made it ok.

we all went our separate ways when we got there and jens and i headed straight for some food. we went to a bar owned by a german/thai couple and got german sausage, fried potatoes, a baked potato and salad. it was really good! we had to sit at the bar because all the other tables were full- including a table of insanely loud ozzies drinking something even the bartender thought was gross lol it looked like swamp water :oP sitting at the bar gave us a front row view of what it's like to work there though. the thai wife of the german guy seemed pretty annoyed at the loud people and the german guy kept speaking german exactly the way i always imagine germans speaking german- yelling things like AUFENBLATSENKRANSESHTOLENBLARF!!! lol it was great.

then we went down the PAAARTAAAAY! it was HUGE! the beach, haad rin, is HUGE! maybe a kilometer long and really wide. the tide was way out so the beach was about 30 meters wide. they had stalls set up all along the beach selling "buckets". a bucket comes filled with 200ml of hard alcohol (like rum, vodka, etc.), a can of soft drink, juice or tea, and a little bottle of red bull. jens immediately wanted one but i was worried lol jens has a pretty low tolerance and i wasn't sure if he could drink an entire bucket without puking. even if he could i was worried he'd want a 2nd one! lol we walked down some more and we saw a stand selling magner's cider! which i love so i got some and a little while later i gave in and let jens get a bucket because that's pretty much all there was. he got rum, coke, red bull and lime. they put it in a little plastic bucket like kids play with on the beach and gave him like 5 straws. he said it tasted like pure sugar.

we walked around and here's what we saw: huge elephant "lanterns", lots of stations where you could get something painted on you in florescent paint which would glow under the blacklights, fire dancers, tall tables and bleachers with people dancing on them, tons of bucket stalls, lots of glowing things for sale (we bought flashing devils horns for the both of us lol), a huge slide that didn't go all the way to the ground- you slide down and then fly off onto some cusions lol (jens did it and said it was fun- it looked like everyone was hurting themselves though- one guy flew off into the crowd! lol), a huge fire jump rope they were letting drunk tourists jump in which i thought was pretty stupid (jens wanted to do it but i wouldn't let him- sorry! i don't need a burned husband for the rest of vacation!), a huge scaffolding with letters spelling out "the original full moon party, paradise bungalows, 2010" which were set on fire (this party started to make me think of burning man), lots of painted people with crazy get-ups on dancing, running, screaming, yelling, drinking, jumping, etc.

the not so glamourous side: people peeing in the ocean (including a group of girls who all decided to pee in one big group where everyone could see them???), a guy puking a waterfall of vomit into the ocean, lots of plastic bottles and straws being swept out to sea (which pissed me off the most!!!!), people generally being really stupid!

i'd say that if you go, don't bother walking along the water or looking towards the water- you just don't wanna know what's out there lol

all along the beach they have different djs playing at different restaurant/bungalows. there must have been at least 5 different ones. they were just far enough away from each other that you couldn't hear one over the other. they mainly played dance/house/trance music (i think- i don't really know the difference between all those) and honestly the music was pretty boring. i don't like listening to one beat over and over with no words in the song :o/ eeeeeevery once in a while they'd play a song with words or some of a song with words mixed into the dance beat and i liked that more. there were tons of people dancing at each "dj station" and i saw a lot of really bad dancers lol it was fun to just sit and watch people make complete fools of themselves dancing lol we danced at a few places but more ironically than seriously lol

jens finished his bucket and said he didn't feel tipsy at all! he said he wanted another one but i was like no way! he had told me earlier he'd only get one and NOT to let him get another one no matter what! so i didn't. he said he never did feel very drunk though and i wonder if the red bull counteracted the effects of the rum that much or if the guy didn't actually put that entire bottle of rum in the drink...we didn't actually see him make it so who knows.

i got another cider and we walked to the other end of the beach where they were setting up another huge scaffolding with a "fire sign". immediately after they were done all these crazy people climbed up to the top of it and were dancing around! it was about 25 ft. high! of course jens wanted to climb up too and at that point i had had to talk him out of the fire jump rope like 3 times so i was like ok whatever- go climp up onto a big fire ladder with 20 drunk people jiggling it all around lol he did it, climbed to the top, i took a picture and he came down unscathed. thank goodness!

at that point we had pretty much seen all there was to see. we danced some more, took a picture of some girls who found a big wheelbarrow and were pushing people around in it and then we left!

it was only about 1am but honestly- the only thing for us to do for the rest of the night would have been to get really drunk and do something stupid or get robbed, ya know? lol so we decided it was ok to leave. we had drank, we had bought glowy things, we had danced, jens had done the slide and climbed the fire ladder, we had seen people doing crazy things, etc. the only things we didn't do were get painted and do the fire jump rope. i'd say it was a pretty good night! :o)

we got in a truck taxi with 4 ozzy girls (2 of them bartenders) and made the long journey home. it didn't seem as bad this time- probably because i wasn't starving to death lol

we got home and went to sleep and slept well! the end!

Morning of 29th

we got up around 9:30am, hung out at the bungalow a bit, saw some ducks randomly on the beach eating things out of the waves as they washed up lol

went to breakfast and ran into those norwegian guys. we asked them how the rest of their night was and one guy said- well it was going good until i was beat down and robbed!!! we were like what??? omg! he said yeah i was just walking along and this guy came up, beat me and stole my wallet! we felt so bad for him! :o(

that kind of thing happens at the full moon parties all the time though which is a good reason not to bring your whole wallet and to stay with your people the whole time AND not to get so drunk that you're not paying attention. jens and i just brought enough cash for the night in our pockets and pretty much nothing else except tissues and bug repellent. digital cameras are probably another thing people like to steal but we just had that disposable one so that wasn't a problem either. we didn't even wear our wedding rings to s.e. asia at all - partly so as not to lose them and partly so we're not showing off any kind of wealth. so take that advice if you ever come here or to any full moon parties!

so there ya go! we survived our first (and probably last) full moon party!

jens said even though he barely got tipsy last night he still had a bit of a hangover this morning lol so weird!

now we're just internetting, jens is captioning our photos i added yesterday and i dunno what we're gonna do for the rest of the day. we'll see!

until next time!