Hitting a clinic when you’re in a foreign country - good times.

We did end up finding a nice place in Kuta. We also found plenty of bars to party in.  Kuta was exactly what Alex and I had needed before parting ways.  She was going to head of to Java, an island that was sure to be cheaper and would get her closer to her ultimate destination of Bangkok and I was due to start my Advanced Open Water diving course.

Scuba diving: reason for the ear problems.

After our fun night out, I took stock of my health because it had been 2 weeks since I’d dove in Thailand but my ears were still feeling weird.  I knew I was going to be going even deeper with the advanced course and didn’t know if it was advisable to go with my ears feeling off.  I had finished my antibiotics and was continuing to use my medicated ear drops, but I still didn’t feel right.

I decided to suck it up and to just go visit a clinic.  I got a recommendation for a clinic that catered to ex-pats, hired a taxi, and got there around noon.  I was informed upon my arrival that the consultation would be $60 and that any medication would obviously be extra.  $60 isn’t normally a big deal, but at this point, I’ve been used to spending $30 - $40 a day max on everything from food and drinks to housing and long taxi rides.  

I was brought to an examination room where I met Dr. Dina.  I told her my history about the issues I’d had in Thailand before she started my examination.  After looking in my ears and asking me to make them pop while she was taking a look, she announced that my ear drums weren’t protruding like they would be if I was on the verge of a burst ear drum, but on the contrary, were bowing in.  After initially thinking that wasn’t terrible news, she then told me that diving would be a bad idea.  Negative pressure in my ears would definitely make it uncomfortable to dive and it was possible that I would get in the water and wouldn’t be able to equalize at all.  I’d then have to abort the course which would mess up all of my timing while in Bali.

I left both upset and with a receipt for the $113 I’d just paid for my consultation and 3 medications.  Dr. Dina told me I could try to dive in 5 or more days but not before.  I went back to the guesthouse and told Alex not to plan anything for us that day because I had some serious planning to do -- not only did I have to get out of the diving course without being charged, I also had to plan where to go next and how to reschedule everything for the short amount of time that I had left.

I'm terrible at blogging! :)

Hello everyone!

Sure, I'm almost done with my trip but that doesn't mean I can't continue to post past-written blog entries!  It might actually keep me from being depressed when I get home, so if you're interested to hear what happened to me from Bali to Australia to New Zealand to San Francisco to Mexico to Austin to DC (and the new plans I have for my future), keep on reading!  I'll continue to post the original date that I wrote the entry so there's at least a time reference included.

Love,
Your favorite lazy blogger

I love Alex

Written October 2

I have neglected to mention that while I was in Thailand diving, Alex, a friend who I’d met in Peru emailed me to tell me that she was going to be in Bali at the same time as I was.  Nothing had come to fruition though and when I landed in Bali, it hadn’t sounded like we were going to be in the same places at the same time.  I had given in to the fact that I would have to start from scratch when finding friends.

Our balcony in Padangbai.

However, that next day, after I met with the woman from AquaMarine Diving and had checked my email again, I had a message from Alex.  She told me where she was staying and that she was leaving on a one day/one night trip that morning but that she could meet me back at her guesthouse after she was done.  

The thought of having someone to hang out with and in a room that wasn’t filled with mold made me weak in the knees.  I had the owner of the cafe call a taxi for me and half an hour later, I was on my way to another area in Bali: Sanur.  

When I got there, I found the guesthouse within a few minutes and met the owner.  I was given the option of having a room with a fan or a room with air conditioning and I opted for the air con.  I felt like I deserved it after the previous night.  

The room was great -- large, clean, no mold and no mosquitoes in the bathroom, with furniture, and a stones throw from the beach.  I threw my stuff down, cranked the air, and took a nap.  When I woke, I explored the beach and went to bed early so I wouldn’t be tired in the morning when Alex arrived back.

Alex in the Blue Lagoon.

At 9am, there was a knock on my door and a loud “Helllloooo!” and I knew it was her.  Yay!!  I opened the door and we hugged and commented how weird it was that we last saw eachother in Peru almost 6 months prior.  We chilled out in my room for a bit and discussed the plan for the next few days: Alex had already been in Bali for a week and she was on a strict budget.  She had planned on leaving Bali soon because of the cost until I arrived but would now stay for a bit longer if she and I were going to split the cost of a room.  She had picked out an area in east Bali that wasn’t a typical backpacker stop and we decided we’d go there that afternoon.  

Alex is the perfect person to travel with because a) she’s traveled a lot b) she doesn’t freak out when she gets lost and c) she seems to make friends with local helpful people wherever she goes.  So in true Alex fashion, within half an hour of leaving my room to go find us a taxi ride to our next destination, she returned to tell me that she’d found her “taxi driver friend” who was going to give us a discounted ride.  Score.

Around 2pm, Alex and I arrived in Padangbai, a small town in east Bali that had sounded interesting in our guide book.  We checked out a few guesthouses and decided on one that had offered us the top floor suite that had a king size bed, tv and DVD player, air conditioning, private balcony, beautiful bathroom, and breakfast at a rate of 200,000 Rupiah ($20) a night!  We wandered around town and quickly realized that this “town” was really just 2 small streets and that we had grossly overestimated the amount of time that we would want to spend there.  We attempted to find a bar to go to at night, but found that most people were in bed by 10pm in Padangbai and we ended up on our private balcony with the guesthouse owner drinking Arak, the local alcohol of Bali and eating special Balinese peanuts.

Tossing popcorn in the air b/c we were bored.

The next day, we decided to snorkel at the Blue Lagoon which was a 5 minute walk from our guesthouse.  The water was crystal clear blue waters with coral and volcanic rock down below.  On the rocks were black crabs shimmering in the sunlight which freaked me out because at first I thought the rocks were just shining until I saw things moving about.  Gross.

That night was again unsuccessful in finding anything to do, so we decided that the next day we would rent motorbikes for the day and then would leave the following morning.  

We woke up the next day, had our free breakfasts and set on our way into east Bali with a basic map and a few places we hoped we could find.  Our first stop was the first major town where we hoped the ATMs worked because the one in Padangbai had been broken and we were low on cash.  We started out riding on local roads, moved on to busier roads, and eventually graduated to Bali’s version of a highway.  I felt like a badass... except I was on a scooter with a bright blue helmet and I’m pretty sure I didn’t look as cool as I felt.

Mmmm, ice cream from the ice cream motorbike guy.

We found the next town after about 30 minutes of riding, stocked up on 1.5 million Rupiah each and decided to find a black sand beach for our next destination.  We got there in a surprisingly short period of time and parked our hotrods to take some photos.  Things we noticed: 1. Black sand is indeed much hotter than white sand 2. Black sand isn’t quite as impressive as it sounds 3. Black sand seems to stick to you much more than white sand (not really, it just ends up being more obvious when it’s all over you because of the contrast between my pasty paleness and it.)

We got lost and found this.

Next up was a marathon ride through pretty much any major town in east Bali.  At one point, Alex’s bike fell over, something that would end up costing her 500,000 Rp the following day.  We happened upon a small village where we ran into a Balinese ice cream man -- a guy on a motorbike with a cooler strapped to the back and a small speaker playing a loop of ice cream truck music.  Struck by how hilarious it was, we stopped and ordered a cone each and apparently 2 Western chicks on motorbikes aren’t a regular occurrence there because by the time we’d ordered and received our cones, we had a crowd of people looking at us.  

We continued on and found an amazing hotel that was surrounded by rice fields and had a view of the volcano.  From there, we backtracked and got back on a main road that eventually took us back to Padangbai.  The day had only solidified my opinion that taking a day to explore off of the beaten path in a new place is always a good idea.  If you can do that via motorbike, even better.

The owners checking us out.

The next day we had to leave though... Padangbai was boring.  Besides, I knew I’d have to go back again because the boats to the Gili islands all took off from there.  So with a fond farewell, a hefty bill, and an additional 500,000  charge for Alex to pay thanks to the busted bike seat, we had a new taxi driver “friend” take us to the area in Bali where we knew we could find something to do at night -- back to Kuta, the dirty place I had been to when I’d first arrived to the island.  With fingers crossed that we could find a hotel that this time was not moldy and mosquito infested, we were off!

Welcome to Bali: You're going to get malaria

Written September 30th

The rest of my journey to Bali actually went off without a hitch.  It was long, but along the way, I purchased a Bali and Lombok Lonely Planet and began researching places to stay and things to do.  I used my laptop to email various guesthouses and finally found one that was both available and had vacancy.

When I arrived in Denpasar at 11:30pm, I gathered my checked luggage as quickly as possible and found a taxi to bring me to Kuta, the area in Bali that seemed the most lively according to my book.  I hoped if I went there, I would meet people quickly.  My taxi driver informed me once we started moving that the road I needed to get to was closed at night, so I would have to walk down the street to get to it.  I asked if it would be safe to do that at midnight with all of my stuff on me, and he assured me it would be fine.

20 minutes later, he stopped the taxi and helped me put all of my stuff on again.  At this point, my back and shoulders were killing me and I promised my aching body that this was the last time I’d carry anything heavy for a while.  I started down the road and passed grimy bar after grimy bar filled with surfers.  After walking for about 10 minutes, I figured I’d missed the guesthouse so I stopped in a convenience store hoping for help.  The guy at the counter pointed me further down the road, so I continued on, but 5 minutes later, I was still convinced I had gone too far.  I stopped again, this time at a bar, and asked the hostess where my guesthouse was.  She told me that it was in the other direction, so I turned back around.

A statue in Kuta.  

At this point it was almost 12:30am and I was exhausted.  All I wanted was a bathroom for a shower and a bed to pass out on.  I got misdirected a grand total of 4 times until two people exited a bar after seeing me pass the bar several times.  They finally put me straight and I found the guesthouse with in a few minutes.

When I arrived, there were men sitting in the front of the building and to the right of it where there was another guesthouse.  They asked me if I needed a place to stay and I responded that I had a reservation for this one already.  One of the men said that there were no rooms available.  Tired and not in the mood to take any crap, I looked at him and said, “Liar.”  I continued to walk up to the check-in desk and found the desk person to show me to my room.

He walked up to the second floor and opened the door to my room for me.  

Now, before I continue, I am going to quote directly from the Lonely Planet guide so you know why I had picked this place.

“The grounds at this 44-room hotel are large and open, with palms providing some shade.  Three- story blocks overlook the pool area, and the plethora of patios encourages a lively social scene (except at mid-day when many guests are passed out on loungers.)  Better rooms have tubs and air con.”

Pool.  Patio.  Large. Social.  It had sounded perfect.  When we arrived at my door though, I saw that there had previously been a hole punched in the door that been badly covered up with a surfing sticker.  Once inside, the room smelled badly of mold which wasn’t surprising because the while walls were stained with black from all of the mold, as were the white curtains around the door and windows.  The room WAS large, that wasn’t a lie, but it had no furniture in it aside from the bed and one night table, and it felt like a jail cell.  I threw my stuff on the bed and went to check out the bathroom.  

When I entered, I was greeted by no less than 20+ blood-thirsty mosquitoes.  Instead of hitting the shower like I so desperately needed to do, I did an abrupt 180 and slammed the door shut.  

I momentarily considered leaving to find a new place, but it was almost 1am and I had been traveling for over a day.  I couldn’t will myself to pick up the backpack again.  So, reluctantly, I got my sleep sack out, slathered my face in mosquito repellent, and crawled in.  I slept with my whole body cocooned in the sleep sack with only my eyes, nose, and mouth exposed to the disgusting smelly room.  As I tried to fall asleep, I thought “Please God, don’t let me get malaria or dengue fever my first night in Bali.”

I woke the next morning and entered the first internet cafe I saw.  I emailed the dive shop that had been recommended to me and asked if I could come into the shop to talk about diving.  I just needed something to do to get me out of the filth that I had been surrounded by the night before.  I quickly got a response that yes, I could come into the shop, and marched back to my room.  I packed up my sleep sack and mosquito spray and hoped I could find a shower ASAP.

Jumping off a train with 50lbs strapped to you: getting to Bali

 Written on September 29th

The original plan for Koh Tao and the Thai islands had already been messed up because of the scuba certification fiasco, but after I had rescheduled the course, I really thought I had it all lined up to get back to Bangkok at the time I had intended.

The plan had been to leave the afternoon that I got certified with Terry.  Except when I came back from my last dives, Terry informed me that all of the train tickets had sold out and he hadn’t been able to book me on it with him.  Bummed about the news, I had to purchase a train ticket for the following night in addition to booking myself in a room at Ban’s for one more night.  I said goodbye to Terry so he could catch his boat off of the island and wondered how I would spend my night with no friends left.

The last night in Koh Tao, I took some of the most amazing sunset photos I have not only taken but that I’ve ever seen.  Stunning doesn’t even begin to cover the scene that was laid out before me on the beach.  It looked and felt like paradise.  

Ah, the sunset in Koh Tao!

The next morning, I took a long shower and mentally prepared myself for the journey to Bangkok and beyond. I had to catch a taxi at 2pm which would bring me to the boat that left at 2:30pm which would then bring me to a bus that would pick us up and drop us off at the train station for our 8:44pm journey.  (Deep breath...) THEN, I would sleep on the train until we arrived in Bangkok at 6:05am and would have to kill 8 hours until I got on my first flight at 2:10pm.  That flight would be from Bangkok to Jakarta and I would have a layover there for 3 hours before I got on my last flight to Denpasar, Bali.  At that point, I would catch a taxi to a place I had yet to pick out, and if I was lucky, I’d arrive at a place to crash at 12am.  All of that for a total of 34 hours... I made sure it was an extra good shower!

I packed, checked out, and waited for my taxi at 2pm.  When it arrived, a few other people and I piled in and I began my exciting 34 hour journey.  Once at the pier, we were given colored stickers that denoted who was going where and on which mode of transportation, boat/bus, boat/train, boat only, etc.  It was very sophisticated.

I spent the 2.5 hour boat ride back to the mainland on the deck of the boat listening to my ipod.  As we got closer and closer to our destination and the music was striking a chord with me, I felt like I had figured my life out and knew what I was going to do with my life when I returned home.  (FYI this happens to me approximately once a week, sometimes more, and it is always aided by music.  Also, a day or so after these incredible outpouring idea sessions, my ideas no longer sound genius when I think about them.  Ah well.)

Psyched that I had finally had a breakthrough, I collected my things when we arrived to the next port and boarded the bus that was waiting for us.  Our bus ride was only for 20 minutes before we arrived at the train station and I saw that we had 2 hours to kill.

Luckily, at this point I started to snap out of the dreamland I had been in and realized I had left out some necessary planning for my trip, like how I was going to get from the train station to the airport or where I was going to stay once I landed in Bali the next day.  I found a restaurant that had free wifi and got to work.  I was online for about 15 minutes when the signal cut out and I was left wondering where I would stay in Bali.  I figured I could just take a taxi to the airport in Bangkok so I didn’t worry about that part.

On the boat back to the main land.

When we boarded the train, I found my compartment that had already been converted to full bed and climbed in.  As I feel asleep, I hoped I would sleep sound and wouldn’t get attacked by cockroaches.  

I woke up an hour later, luckily not because of cockroaches, but because my next door bunk neighbor was snoring louder than I have ever heard a person snore.  Had I had something to throw at him, I would have, but all I had was my flip flop (didn’t want to lose it), my full large water bottle (too heavy, I might knock him unconscious), and my backpack which now weighed at least 15lbs (I’d kill him for sure if it hit his head.)  I managed to find a pair of earplugs I had yet to use on my trip and finally fell back asleep 20 or so minutes later.

I woke to one of the train workers slamming open my curtain and telling me I had to get up so he could convert my bed back to a normal seat.  I sat up and realized I had slept through the conversion of all of the other seats.  Everyone starred at me as I tried to gather my stuff together as quickly as possible. 

Within a few minutes, we were pulling into the main station in Bangkok.  I got my backpacks on, exited, and as I walked, decided I’d just go straight to the airport to wait out the 8 hours before my first flight instead of hanging around downtown with all of my stuff.  When I got to the information desk and inquired about where to get a taxi to the airport, I was pointed in a direction that seemed wrong, but followed anyway.  I had been told to go into the main large waiting area of the station and when I got in, a young Thai woman holding train schedules came up to me and asked where I was off to. I told her that I needed to get to the airport and she explained that I could just take the commuter train for 15 Baht (35 cents.)  She told me a taxi would be something like 400 Baht ($10.)  Sure, I’ll take the train!

I waited around for about half an hour and walked to my new train.  When I boarded, I looked at my ticket and saw that I only had to go one stop.  Once at that station, I would switch to the sky train that linked directly to the airport.  No problem.  But just to make sure I had read the ticket correctly, I asked a train attendant if the airport stop was only one stop away and he confirmed that it was.

We left on time and a few minutes after the train had started, it slowed to stop.  I looked around wondering if this was my stop, but it didn’t look like a stop at all.  Was I just at the end of the train and couldn’t see the stop well?  But where was the platform?  Panicked, I looked around and asked a rider if this was the first stop but he looked back at me blankly, clearly not speaking English.  A second later, a young Thai man turned around and told me that this wasn’t it, but the next stop would be mine.

So I relaxed a little and sat back in my seat again.  A few minutes later, the train started to slow again and the same young Thai man turned around and said, “This is it!”  I stood up and started the process of putting my big backpack on my back, then my small backpack on my front, and finally putting my purse over one shoulder and my shopping bag in my other hand.  I started walking towards the door and the train began to move forward.  

SHIT!  I looked out and it didn’t look like we were at a station at all.  There was no platform and the train was headed towards a street intersection and there were cars stopped so the train could pass.  The train started to go faster and I turned around from the door, freaking out, and yelled “Is this it???”  My helpful Thai guy wasn’t in eyeshot and I turned back around and looked out.

It was now or never.  I could stay on the train or I could jump off.  I chose the latter.

That’s right.  I jumped off a moving train with two backpacks, a purse, and a shopping bag.  Oh, and I was wearing flip flops.  

What the hell was I thinking?  I guess I wasn’t thinking at all, which was why I did it.  The fact that I managed to land on my feet and that I didn’t fall is just short of miraculous.  The morning Thai commuters stopped walking and looked at my like I was certifiably insane.  I tried walking it off like I hadn’t just jumped from a moving vehicle, and even if I had, who cared!

As I walked to the sky train, I realized both the stupidity of my actions in addition to the pain in my right ankle.  Who knows what I had done... probably rolled on it.  I found the train to the airport and sat down inside among all of the other people headed out of Bangkok.  

I sat there and asked myself that if I was jumping off of trains only 17 hours into my super awesome journey to Bali, what would happen at hour 34?

Scuba Part III: I'm going to be broke soon

Written September 27th

After the full moon debacle, I had to return to Koh Tao to finish my Open Water certification.  I left Koh Pangan the morning after the party with all of the paint successfully being washed off of my skin but with my dress still splattered in it.  Thanks to my restful evening, I had high hopes for finishing my course. 

Terry has a lamp growing out of his head and I have ears.

When I got back to Ban’s that afternoon, I learned that I would definitely have to pay for my room while I finished the course.  There was no way to schmooze my way out of it and I grumbled to myself as I was brought to my new room.  It was the lowest grade room they had there and I was bummed when I saw the busted screens on the windows and the school of ants that had congregated in the corner.  I said a quick prayer that I would be able to finish my dives so this return to Koh Tao wouldn’t be in vain.  

The next morning, I met my new instructor, May, and my only other classmate, Ben.  Because of the Full Moon Party, many people had opted to wait to get certified until afterwards, so Ben had had the luck of getting 1 on 1 instruction from May for the past 2 days.

She had been told all about my issues by Mario, so as I packed my equipment into a bag, she and I discussed how we would descend slowly and that we would be sure to get me through the necessary 3 dives so I could leave with a certification.  

Once we were on the boat, it was actually really nice to go back over all of the things I had learned a few days before with Mario.  This time around, I was completely comfortable with everything that we were doing so I could concentrate entirely on getting to the necessary depth while equalizing my ears.

After May and Ben did Dive #1, the one that I had already done prior in the week, I got all of my equipment on to join them for Dive #2.  We entered the water and I took a deep breath and told myself to stay relaxed and to not get frustrated if it took me a while to get down.  May had Ben wait at the surface for a few minutes while she and I descended slowly.  I would go down 4 meters and would have to come up 2 to equalize again, and would try 4 more meters down again.  This continued until miraculously we reached 15 meters and I was okay!  

42 minutes later, we came up and I had successfully demonstrated all of my skills under water.  My nose was bleeding which apparently wasn’t a big deal, but it freaked me out a little.  My ears were blocked a bit, but I was incredibly happy that I’d actually done the dive, so I tried not to focus on that.

We ended for the day and I promised May I would get some ear drops and decongestant that she’d recommended I buy and had a lazy evening.  I upgraded to a better room so I wouldn’t have to share a room with 1,600 ants again and took what I felt was a much deserved nap.  Luckily that night, Terry was still around at Ban’s for one last night, so we had dinner and went to a bar for one drink before I crawled in bed at 11pm.  

The next morning, May checked on how I was feeling and I lied by saying that I felt fine.  In reality, my ears were messed up and slightly blocked but I stubbornly wanted to finish the damn course.  Only two more dives left...

I had convinced May on the way over to the main boat that we should do the rest of all of the required skills on Dive #3.  This way, if I had an issue getting down for Dive #4, I would have already done my skills to get the certification.  We entered the water, I took forever to equalize again, managed to get down, and finished the dive with May and Ben after 50 minutes.  Again my nose was bleeding when I surfaced and I got a reverse block, something that May had never seen happen to a student.  Basically it meant that on the way up, I got the same stabbing pain that I had gotten before when going down.  At that point I didn’t care: I had one more dive left.

Coming back on land after my last dive!!

Dive #4: my ears were super blocked.  I don’t know how I got down, but I did, and we didn’t have any skills to do except basic navigation and we did it at much less depth to accommodate my ears.  We surfaced, I spit my regulator out, and screamed a big “YAY!!!”  Pretty much everyone on the boat at that point had known about my ear issues, so I was welcomed back onto the boat by applause.  Okay, I felt a little lame that I was getting claps for doing a dive, but I was so psyched -- I did it (and hadn’t busted my eardrums!)

When we got back on land, May filled out all of the necessary paperwork to give me so I would be a certified scuba diver up to 18 meters.  She shook my hand and with paperwork in hand, I went off to email everyone who had been keeping tabs on my progress.  

Now the question was, when and where would I get my Advanced Open Water certification??

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.