So, the day of the Full Moon Party- where to even begin? I actually woke up around 9am - running on about 4 hrs of sleep (from the Jungle Experience Party the night before) , ready to go. We ate breakfast and decided, hey, we can rent motorbikes for 7 dollars a day. Should we do it? Answer: Hell yeah.

So a man in a pickup came to pick us up at Mem's Place, a woman who quickly cemented her role in our lives as our Thai mother, if our mothers liked to serve mushroom, ahem, yes mushroom, pizzas, and big buckets of alcohol. While we didn't partake in the pizzas, as we were off motorbiking for the day, we heard from the other tenants that this was one of the unlisted items on the hostel menu. Anyway, so we jumped into the pickup truck, and he took us to his hole in the wall shop, where we signed our rights away to sue in case of accidental death or dismemberment, and agreed to pay in case of damage - which seemed like an all too possible reality. But we were in Thailand, so how could we not take a motorcycle for a spin? So nothing like throwing us into it, the woman quickly showed us how to brake, and turn the thing on, and sent us down the main road of the island, which involved heavy traffic and more than one lane of traffic hurtling down the road, in, well, each lane. Motorbikes passed motorbikes within the lane, and definitely without a doubt passed most cars in either lane, weaving delicately between rows of traffic. Since I'd rode on the back of my guy friend's bike in Korea, that was the most experience we had between the two of us. I hesitantly agreed to take the bike down the road until we got back to the road our hostel was on, where my bike was waiting, and where easy access to the back roads was nearby. Rather than bobbing and weaving, we stayed in the shoulder, traveling at a cool 20mph, slowing down at any sign of gravel, and pretty much shrieking the whole ride back. An eternity, (about 10 minutes) later, we arrived at our hostel to pick up my bike, and we started down the back roads. Again, after taking our posed pictures, we started exploring the roads to the island, with no real plan in mind or place to arrive, and no real idea how we'd ever find our way back. Still, we rode for 4 hours, getting a look at the hidden villages and restaurants spread across the island, which was surprisingly bigger than we'd thought. We made our way up to Haad Salad, a beautiful beach town on the Northwest side of the island. We found a cute shopping district, and bought a few things, and slowly and leisurely made our way back, purely guessing. The nice thing about getting lost on an island, you can always find your way back by sticking close to the sea. If nothing else, you'll eventually make your way back to familiarity. The rest of the day involved relaxing around the hostel with our new friends, and Mem offered an all inclusive BBQ (I use the term loosely - we ARE in Asia) dinner, as well as taxi service to and from the party, for about 350 baht - so we of course signed up. We had a delicious dinner, followed by a painting party of our whole bodies for the party (we went a little, ok a lot, overboard) and again partook in plenty of drinking games preparing for our night on the beach. At around 12:30, we jumped in a cab for a night we'd never forget. The party was unlike any other. We arrived and bought the last drink we'd need for the night: one last bucket. As aforementioned, this is actually a sandbucket. Like the one you brought to the beach as a child. The only difference is the contents, usually a mixture of alcohol, juice, and energy drink which also seemed to have questionable ingredients, but we chose not to ask questions. We also heard kids would come around and put drugs into your bucket, so we started the night holding them high above our heads, just in case. The night was filled with dancing, as well as the not so customary jumping through hula hoops drenched in gasoline and lit on fire (sorry mom). But this went by without incident, and we partied and danced around the island til the sun rose at around 7 in the morning. The party didn't stop here. We continued to roam around until well past 8 a.m., watching the dancing and the music continue well into the morning, with no signs of stopping. It was around this time that we realized, we had no idea where to get our taxi back to our hostel. Carlee and I had long since lost the rest of our group, and had no idea how to get home. Because we often found ourselves in this position, we weren't too worried, as taxi drivers often found you before you found them, and eventually made it home before 9 o clock in the morning, half covered in paint, and extremely ready for a quick nap before our 11 a.m. ferry back to the mainland to the town of Surat Thani. So that's exactly what we did.