So the journey started today. I arrived at the Bangkok airport on time and ran smack into Carlee. She had had a ridiculous amount of drama with her plane ticket, so I had been petrified we wouldn't make it to Bangkok at the same time. Sidenote, all travelers should know this. Say if you're ever traveling to Thailand, or, really, anywhere that doesn't require a visa beforehand, and you bought a roundtrip flight ticket more than the 30 days allowed in the country when you cross over the border, and the ticket appears to be longer than this - don't let America give you trouble. For example, in Thailand, you technically have 30 days in the country, without a visa, if you arrive by plane. Americans don't need a visa, and we get stamped upon arrival. However, the Delta Airlines told Carlee she couldn't board her plane because it LOOKED LIKE she was staying in Thailand for two months straight, when really, she was traveling to three other countries in that amount of time. In summary, she missed her first flight, and only by pure luck was she able to meet me in Bangkok on time. Also in summary, the gate attendant was wrong, and as long as you leave and cross the border and come back in, you fly in and fly out of Thailand in any amount of time you want. (As Americans, we have 15 days when we cross a land border - which is exactly what we wanted to do at the end of our trip before we flew home). FYI. However, we made it there, somehow, with about five hours to spare before we flew down to Koh Samui for the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan.

It's important to explain that, for two really smart girls, we choose not to plan anything, and this got us into hot if not boiling water at a few times during our trip, which I'll get into later. To start, we booked nothing for our stay on an island in which 20,000 to 30,000 beach bums would be partying for three straight days leading up to the epitome of all beach parties in the world: the largest and most famous; the. Full Moon Party.

We flew into an open air airport, meaning there were no walls, and really no security. Once we got our bags.. we took a ferry over to Koh Phangan. So, we wandered around aimlessly with our 25 lb packs in the blazing Thailand sun, hoping we'd find a hostel that hadn't sold out. Plenty of people don't plan, but if I were to ever go back to the FMP, for the pure sake of not wandering in the sun, I would've booked a place. Finally, we stumbled upon Mem's Place, a small , reasonably priced hostel that included breakfast. At about 450 baht ... Or 15 dollars a night, it was more than we'd pay for a place anywhere else in SE Asia, for even three nights combined ...but we were near exhaustion and sweating, so we settled on it.

The first day was really chill, we spent it near the beach .. And since no real people were there yet, we grabbed some cheap dinner and slept early, about 830, cause Carlee was seriously jet lagged. I also was exhausted.

The next day ... We did some hiking to a waterfall, which ended up being less than rewarding. There was supposed to be this beautiful waterfall, which in the middle of what seems to be monsoon season, you'd think there wouldn't be a problem. However, it was completely dried up, so what we saw was less a waterfall and more a ledge of rocks. From a distance. All the same, we got to climb a short hike to a pretty awesome look out. So we took our compulsory 15 artsy pictures, and made our way back down. Upon making our way back down to the bottom, we realized we were starving. The "included breakfast" at our hostel left a little to be desired, so we stopped at a little roadside stand, and ordered some stir fried chicken and rice. In the hopes of saving money, we split an order that cost 30 baht, which is about $1, so we each paid 50 cents for a delicious lunch, served to us by a monkey man. Yes he had a monkey on a leash and had people pay to take pictures with it. Nice man, but we were on a budget. Also next to the picnic table we ate at was an elephant riding experience, which essentially had a park bench strapped to an elephant by a rope tying under the elephant's chin, and under its tail. Thailand safety standards - gotta love them. Again, we were waiting to attack this venture in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, so we passed on this as well. As we had naively passed on renting motorbikes, which we'd find out later were clearly the most budget-friendly option of transportation, we'd taken a 150 baht taxi to get to this hike. Since there were none to be found to take us back, we began walking. On a 90 degree day that felt like 100, this was easier said than done. However, there was a homemade ice cream shop we wanted to check out, and it looked like it was only about 1km to walk there, so we figured we'd nail down some way back to town after we got our frozen treat fix. As we walked, we seemed to get further and further, and yet, no ice cream. We stopped at a gas station, and, as we'd come to do countless times throughout our trip, half mimed, half spoke key words trying to demonstrate that we wanted ice cream. A nice man who worked at a petrol stand mimed back to keep going straight. Walking along the main road, about five minutes later, this man stopped by us in his pick up truck, telling us he'd give us a ride. We'd only been in the country for a day and a half, and already we were familiar with taxi driver's ability to take you anywhere, and charge you as much as they wanted, assuming you didn't know any better. We politely declined and kept walking. But he was insistent, repeating "No pay, no pay!" Free ride? Sure! So we hopped in the back and he dropped us by a sign clearly indicating "Koh Phangan Homemade Ice Cream, the letters crafted handily out of spray painted pieces of rope. We walked in, and I tried a jackfruit flavor, which just happened to be the best flavor I ever tasted. A mix of citrusy and cinnamon, I almost bought three more. Damn you budget. Again without transportation, we left down the road once more, now a long way from town, and looking for a taxi. What we had yet to learn was that taxis were always there, by the dozen when they were the last thing you wanted, (with constant shrieks of "Lady, you want motobike? Lady, you want tuk tuk?") but never there when you needed them. So we walked 15 minutes down the road, searching for a taxi, when we stopped at the gas station, to discuss our next move. At this moment, none other than the monkey man drove up in his motorbike, with a side cart designed for carrying bottles attached to him. He drove past us in the parking lot onto the road, looked back, and gestured for us to hop on. Looking at it, it hardly looked like it could carry two girls, let alone the empty bottles that were already in it, so we hesitated, asking, or rather playing a short game of charades, asking if he really wanted us to board his ramshackle vehicle. Confirming he did, we jumped on, and he proceeded to give us a free ride back into town. This certainly gave us a great start on this island, and we spent the rest of the day checking out shops, looking for Full Moon Party attire, which proved easier to find than ever. That night, we hung out at our hostel, and drank with the other backpackers. We met this awesome group of English girls, as well as guys, who we played drinking games with all night. Carlee was still a little jet lagged, so she was looking to go to bed to hopefully catch up once and for all. Everyone else was going to the Jungle Party, which, yeah, exactly what it sounds like, was a party in the middle of the Thai jungle. No question, I jumped on the pickup truck/supposed taxi that picked us up around 12:30, and made my way there with the others from our hostel. We listened to music, watched fire dancers, and drank vodka and rum from glasses (wait did I say glasses? I meant sand buckets) until the early hours of the morning. When we finally stumbled back to our hotel at 5 a.m. , I figured I should probably get to sleep, as the full moon party was the next day, and ... since I didn't plan on sleeping that night either, bed would be a good idea.