I've successfully checked off the last on my shopping list, now I'm just having fun. The diving course was a whole lot of fun, but since it sounds like everybody an their mother has done the same thing, I won't bore you with brutal details of the pretty things I saw since half of you already saw the same thing. I did get to swim with a school of Barracudas, that was pretty neat...

Anyway, yesterday I came further down the Gulf of Thailand to Ko Pangan, the island that is best known for its Full Moon Party, where way too many people crowd along one beach to drink and fuck to some of the worst Techno in the world. My friend Mark met me off the pier, one of the Dutch guys who had acompannied me on my 10-day motorcycle trip about 2 months ago. My last chore, by the way, was to retrieve $75 I lent him when we parted. Check. I took his advice and rented a "real" motorbike, which is basically the same 125cc bike I had earlier, except this time with an actual clutch and dirtbike tires. At first I thought it was just for fun, but then I followed him on the 20 minute ride to the bungalow he had reserved for me.

The roads here are fucked. Fucked. I mean, the best case scenario is a 2-lane pothole road with washed out dirt patches interspersed. The northern Thai roads look like 280 by comparison. I live about 15km away from the parties, and the last 2km is not just dirt road, but washed out dirt road with rivlets and gaping holes,rocks, and mud patches scattered about. This virtually guarantees that I'll be staying up every night past sunrise, since it's way too hazardous to try traversing as drink as I will be during the night. About half of the people out here have some sort of Thailand Tatoo, or at least recent bandage, so it's no longer a question of IF I fall down as WHEN, and how bad. This way I won't be surprised when I do, just pissed off the morning after. None of the injuries out here are serious, since they all happen on a rediculous dirt road that anybody with half a brain would recognize is a tactical impossibility of crossing going any faster than 5mph, so whatever scrape I have will be on ankle, shin, knee, elbow, or (worst comes to worst) forehead since I'll only be going fast enough to make a nice mark. Place your bets, guys.


I missed the Full Moon party, so instead I made sure to get here just in time for the BlackMoon party, a much smaller event on a smaller beach which goes from 10 last night to 10 tonight. Right now (10:30AM) I'm having breakfast in the 2-hour break while the party switches beaches to keep going for another 12 hours.

The party wasn't that big, but of all things it looked exactly like one of the 2:00 or 10:00 clubs at Burning Man, except transported to a beach in Thailand and the people weren't dressed nearly as cool. The party went on long into the sunlit hours of sleep deprivation like in the desert (this time the Red Bull had real speed in it, making it easier), but my Burning Man conditioning made me feel anxious to move on to the party next door as soon as I got bored, and I was a bit dissappointed to realize there was no other party next door. I guess it was cool, but I've been spoiled by going to the Best Party in the World for the past 5 years, and it's really unfair that I have to frame this place by those memories. At least, for the first time since I left San Francisco, most of the people here last night have either heard of or have been to Black Rock City themselves.

Anyway, my coffee is finisihed and I have another 12 hours of party to go. Last night I took the advice of my friend and went to sleep at 8 to wake up at 3, in time to get to the party by 4 and have enough sleep to keep going all day. So we'll see, maybe I haven't given this the chance it diserves. Time to shake my head out of this daze, pack up and head out. Fuck, it's a hard life out here.