So we arrive in Koh Phangan June 15th, the date written on the half moon party website when we left, the date that we planned our whole trip around. And on the taxi ride to our "lodge" we see about 20 signs saying "Half Moon Party - June 14." Anna and I were devastated. Nearly in tears. Seriously.
But do you think that got in the way of us having an epic night? Nope. Instead we heard about this party called "The original koh phangan pool party." The flyer reads "swimming pool open all night long," "guaranteed all night party, we dont stop until you drop," "for your safety and security - this party is for westerners and foreigners only" (discrimination much?)
So we get there and there are bucket specials (obviously) - 1 bucket, 140 baht (about 4 dollars) for about 5 drinks worth. Anna and I finish two each while watching fire dancers - most of which are Thai, but then this white girl comes out and starts playing with this fire like they were those ribbon dancers we played with in the third grade - and she was actually pretty good!
The rest of the night is slightly blurry. But important things to recount:
1) I meet a British Boy named Ben. And by boy, Anna and I later calculated that, having worked at goldman for 10 years, could have been no younger than 32. In my defense, he tried to convince me he started at 16, and the buckets at that point had made me quite gullible.
2)Anna kisses an Australian. She has now completed her kissing of boys from the six habitable continents. Congratulations Anna.
3) British boy gets in fist fight with his British friend - I have to hold him back.
3) British boy does a flip into the pool, and splits his eyebrow open. I become a nurse and am apparently okay with blood after a few drinks (Maybe I should go to med school and just drink through it?)
4) We danced on a party platform in the middle of the ocean. I didn't fall.
5) Our bungalow was located on this really creepy secluded part of the island so anna and I decided before we got there that we were going to try to not go back until it was daylight again. We were succesful and basically stayed in the pool until the sky lightened. Then british boy and I watched the sunrise on the beach - it was pretty - I much prefer staying awake until the sunrise than waking up for it!
6) Meanwhile, during the sunrise, Anna has decided to go "late night" or more appropriately "early morning" with some Australian boys (they were actually our age...) and one ends up being a Chippendale! She has his business card.
7) Our night ends with having to find our way back to the lodge before Bryant leaves for Koh Tao at 7:30. So our only option was to get motorcycle taxis back. It was actually beautiful riding along the coast, but scary as hell, and I will never do so again. We only agreed because we were stranded, it was light out, and there were no other cars on the road. We arrived back around 6:45, soaking from head to toe (note to self - take towel to pool party in future) and my purse and its contents were also somehow soaked.
Today consisted of switching islands to the less-of-a-shit-hole Koh Samui and then napping off our hangovers. All in all, we are now slightly okay with missing the half moon party (a lot of the pool party goers did too) and are now excited for lounging on the beach the rest of the week!
