9 May

First things first, we're leaving tomorrow and we have washing to do, we sort out the clothes and hand them in along with the keys for the scooter. Back at the bungalow I finish off the last few pages of my book before starting with the inevitable, recording our expenses from hardcopy to digital. Tonight is Full Moon Party and we have decided to take it easy during the day knowing that it was going to be a late night.

We spent the day lazing in the bungalow, during the afternoon a heavy downpour occurred and we wondered whether it would continue into the night dampening the evenings festivities. It did not, as the rain ended at 19h00 and that was the last of it. We ate dinner at our accommodation before heading to Haad Rin with a Sonkra (100 Baht per person) where we met up with Luke from Simple Life and paid for the rescue divers course also buying a re-usable underwater camera, costing only R250 it's a small price to pay taking into account the memories that we capture on film.

The Full Moon Party is a highlight for most Europeans who literally fly to Thailand to attend it. Its big, really big, 15 000 people on the beach, every 20m is a new club opening up to the beach with speakers positioned in front each club. One would think that with every club playing different songs of different genres from rock, punk, alternative, club, RnB to the pulsating Techno, they would overlap so much it would sound chaotic. Strangely enough wherever you stand the music you hear is the club in front of you and you become aware of other music as you trek from one side of the beach to the other. Another characteristic of the Full Moon Party is that drinks are sold in buckets, the buckets are a little smaller than that you would give a child to play with at the beach to build sandcastles with. You buy a bucket with a half jack of vodka, whiskey or Songs am (thai whiskey), a tin of coke or other soft drink and their version of red bull, which tastes a bit like medicine. Everyone walks around with them, we even saw one person walking around with one that could contain at least 10 L!

On our ride over we met up with two woman, Genevieve from New Zealand and Nina who was Thai but grew up in France. We decided to stick together for the evening - the more the merrier. We met up with them again after our visit to Luke at Cactus bar. Nina was quite informative during the evening regarding Thai cultures. One of the things we had noticed earlier is that many of the girls cover themselves completely from the sun, she informed us that the whiter you are, the richer you are considered to be, and that many use whitening creams. Another thing we picked up very early in Thailand is that every foreigner who isn't accompanied by a white girlfriend has a Thai girl by his side. Lets just say its for the pleasure of her company for around R100 a day although you have to pay for her accommodation, food and drink…

During the rest of the evening we sipped on our 3 buckets, having been warned by Richard that after one night out he had trouble sleeping for two days due to the local red bull. We spent most of our time at Cactus bar with their mixture of Rock and Pop, while occasionally veering off to another club with either club or trance. Along the way meeting a man who dropped a 2 m long albino python on my shoulders while another later put an iguana on my head, both wanting a substantial fee for a photo with their pets - I did not give in.

Another characteristic of Full Moon Parties are the glow in the dark tattoos and this time we gave in. Leanne got one on the length of her arm while I got a large Chinese dragon over the whole of my back. Leanne also got a flower necklace from a completely drugged out 10 year old, who would occasionally come and hug me in an attempt to get me to also buy one. Shocking to see!

All along the beach people wade around in the water, some in their au naturale state (butt naked), but nowhere will you see anyone who is not either carrying a bucket or a beer! The bathrooms are in all the clubs and have a fee to enter with long queues while most men head for the water. Fire breathers and throwers put on shows and anyone who wants to try can grab a stick with both ends burning and try their luck, we heard about various people subsequent to the party who jumped through burning hoops but with less than the required accuracy.

We held out until 04h00 after which we decided we weren't young enough for this any more… got a marsbar and chips for that last bit of energy and the first taxi back home. Arriving at 04h30 we took a shower to wash off our tattoos and crashed into bed for a 2 hour sleep!