Full Moon Party: perfect way to recover, right?

Written September 25

So, I had just failed at doing something that I had dreamt of doing for a long time, and I was heading to a massive party on another island?  As I got on the boat with my friends, yes, I realized that going to a party that was really all about getting wasted with 30,000 of your closest friends on a beach was probably not the best way for me to get better, but I felt like it was something I had to experience so I made a deal with myself: I could go to the party, but I would limit my alcohol intake and I would not stay up past 3am.  Doable.

Terry and I playing in the sand.

The scuba gang in addition to an English friend I'd met in Boliva and had met back up with all arrived at the site of the Full Moon Party the afternoon before the party was to start.  Because most of us were planning on partying all night and not going to bed, all but one of us hadn’t made plans for a hostel.  I just figured I would stash the little backpack I had brought in Stanja’s room and would just sleep on the beach amongst the passed out drunken party-goers.  

We all ate lunch together around 1pm and then decided to chill on the beach for the afternoon.  Somehow we got separated and I ended up on the beach with the friend I had reunited with from Bolivia, Phil, and Terry, the English guy who had been in my diving class. The three of us had a hilarious afternoon on the beach just laughing and playing games like “Would You Rather” until the sun started to get low on the horizon and we knew we needed to start getting ready.

Getting painted...

After a quick dinner, we used Stanja’s hostel as a home base to get ready.  Terry said he was exhausted and needed a nap, so he gave in and paid for a bed at the hostel.  I had purchased some neon paints for us to paint on each other in Full Moon Party tradition, and we all got to painting ourselves.  I ended up with one blue Avatar ear while I put hand prints on pretty much everyone.  

I had been emailing with two friends who I’d met in India all day about getting together, and the plan was to meet up at a designated spot at 10:00pm.  She said if she didn’t make it at 10pm, that she would make sure to be there at 11pm for sure.  

As the group was getting ready to leave, I looked down at my watch to see that it was 9:57pm.  I freaked out and worried that I’d miss my friends, and yelled at the group to meet me at the same meeting place at 10:30pm.  The all agreed that they’d be there.

I ran to the spot and looked around.  The beach was already getting crazy with drink stands set-up where before there had been nothing.  I stood next to the sign that we had agreed to meet at and 5 minutes into my wait, realized that they weren’t going to make the 10pm time.  I wasn’t worried... They had said if they couldn’t make it they would meet me at 11pm instead.  

Now I just had to wait for the other guys.  It was only a few minutes after I’d left them, so I ran back to the hostel to see if I caught them, but they had already left.  I went up to Terry’s bed and tried waking him up by telling him that he was going to miss out on the party, but I couldn’t get him up.  Man down.

I decided to just go back to the meeting spot to wait for the group.  I was early, but decided I’d just have a drink and would watch the crowd start to build.  At 10:30pm, I started looking around for the group.  At 10:40, I started getting a little annoyed that they weren’t there.  At 10:50, I realized that they probably had been too drunk to fully comprehend what I had said about meeting me when I had run off, and decided I would just wait the 10 more minutes to meet up with the India friends and would just spend the night with them.

At 11pm, I anxiously waited for them but 10 minutes later, they still hadn’t showed.  Then, just as I was about to hang my head and mope, the sky opened up and the rain started to come down in buckets.  Perfect...

I found some shelter and kept my eye on the meeting point but finally realized that nobody was going to show up.  I had two options: stay out and party by myself at on a crazy beach or go back to the hostel and either try to convince Terry to come out with me or just go to sleep.

I turned around and went back to the hostel again hoping I’d be able to get Terry up.  I crawled into his bed and gently shook him and said, “Friend, you are missing the best party I have ever been to” which was a blatant lie, but I knew I had to lay it on thick.  He opened his eyes and basically said that he was too exhausted, that getting sleep was worth missing the party.  

The bucket stands at the Full Moon party.  

:(

Sadly, this blog entry doesn’t have some funny turn of events.  I didn’t end up going back out, I didn’t end up finding my friends (either set of them), and I didn’t end up sleeping on the beach.  What I actually did was crawl into a bed at the hostel, paint and all, and sleep.  

Frankly, looking back a few days later, I know that this was for the best.  If I had stayed out that night, it would have been almost impossible for me to get better and even have a chance of finishing my dives.  

So, for now I can say that I have gotten ready for a full moon party and that I’ve seen one for 30 minutes, but have not really had the full moon experience.  No worries, I can always come back to Thailand to try it again.  Next time, though, I’m hooking all of my friends together with rope so we can’t get separated.