On The Brink Of A Full Moon...

So, what have we been up to since our diving experience? Pretty much using as little energy as possible, by lazing on beaches and getting exceedingly burnt. Happy days! Actually, that's not strictly true- we did hire a quad bike (ATV) one day to explore the southern beaches at Chaalok Bay, and ended up staying there for a few nights, just for a change of scenery. This was no mean feat, seeing as the most commonly heard phrase on Ko Tao is not 'Well, I did my PADI at...', but 'Yeah, I did that when I fell off my motorbike...'. Hence why we went for the quad- ever so slightly safer...
   However, as cool as it was cruising around on one of those 4-wheelers, the main highlight of Ko Tao was probably meeting our waiter friend, Jali. Every time he saw us on the sand from his beach-side restaurant, he shouted an increased amount of spicy he wanted to offer in Patrick's laab (similar to the Laotian 'laap' I described before). The first time I went in, I jokingly said that I wanted the laab '80% spicy'. The next time I went in, he said with a smile: '200% spicy for you'. Next time he saw us on the beach, '300% spicy'. He was so funny we had to return to the restaurant, where he made us try 3 raw green chillis...bloody hell. Of course, he kept assuring us that this was nothing, positively mild to him...in his village, they'd often just mash up raw chillis and put them into a curry. My mouth was on fire for the rest of the night, so what would be more appropriate than going to the next bar to watch Jali perform several fire tricks...jumping over an aflame hurdle, throwing fire sticks in the air, jumping over a fiery skipping rope...ah, he was a very funny guy!
   We arrived into Ko Pha-ngan yesterday, on a boat over-subscribed about twice over...an hour and a half journey took about three hours, as the poor little ferry tried to cope with the ultimate pests: booze-sucking backpackers (and yes, that probably includes us a little bit...). Anyway, the blood of werewolves is tingling, the atmosphere's changing, the moon is oh-so-nearly a perfect sphere...that's right, folks, it's nearly a full moon. And that means only one thing on Ko Pha-ngan...the notorious Full Moon Party, the craziest beach party in the world. Apparently in high season, there can be as many as 50,000 backpackers...just mind-blowing. We've gotta check out this craziness for ourselves...but we're VERY much looking forward to chilling with Colleen and Bob for a while from the 22nd onwards!
  Proong nee jer gun ('see you tomorrow' in Thai)...let the games begin...