4-20-15Afternoon 1:00pm- We discover that the driver we arranged to have pick us up for a discounted price straight to our next hotel for the full moon has sent someone else and he won't honor the discount-after much bargaining we concede to just pay the price after he breaks out the “rates” board.

2:00pm- After a very bumpy ride essentially in the back of a pick-up truck with bench seats put in the back, we arrive at our "beach bungalows." To say they are rustic is an understatement, the single sheet on the spring bed is covered in sand and what I can only deduce as lizard droppings. But indeed there is a view of the beach. You get what you pay for.

2:20pm- I sit down on the no flush toilet to pee and kindly ask Jeremy to pass me the toilet paper, and he lifts the trash can so I can have somewhere to put said toilet paper because our bungalow has no flush toilets; a very large spider a little smaller than the size of my palm scurries across the bathroom floor as I fly off the toilet with my pants still down. Jeremy asks me where the spider went and all I could repeat was the Little Miss Muffett rhyme while trying to get my hands to stop shaking. Welcome home for the next few nights…

2:40pm- Despite the beach views we discover that we are far from the main road as well as civilization and will need to rent a moped to get anywhere. 3:00pm- After slightly panicking on both our parts about the fact that we already paid up front for three nights we go back to the lady at reception and concoct a story about possibly leaving a day early to see if we could get our money back. She reports that she could give us half the amount we paid for the last night, $8…… we resolve to find a different place to stay for our last evening and eat the $8. I smile and thank her as a cockroach runs over my big toe. 3:20pm- After one of the hottest walks we've had so far on the islands we drop our laundry off at the first place we find- they speak absolutely zero English; in fact, the owner doesn't seem to speak at all. We communicate using a sign on the wall, a calculator and a calendar- hopefully we'll pick up our stuff the next day. 4:00pm- After lunch we pick up a moped and head straight to Thong Sala (the main pier) to book our ferry and bus ride off the island. On the way we stop at a guest house Jeremy found on booking.com that has air conditioning and less sinister looking photos than our current establishment. After exchanging some info written on a restaurant menu ordering pad, we agree that we'll be back Friday to stay with them.

Evening 5:00pm- We decide that it would be a good idea to check out the beach the full moon party takes place on, Haad Rin despite an old man’s unsolicited advice at the lunch table that the road there can be treacherous. We decide to go anyways. Imagine a roller coaster at your favorite theme park and then convert those images into a small island road. I grip tightly to my husband’s (who has just ridden a moped for the first time a short three weeks ago) waist and hang on for my dear life. If I were the praying type, I would do it now. 5:30pm- We arrive at Haad Rin and its already a scene, we can only imagine how packed it will be tomorrow night. Jeremy realizes he doesn't know where the moped key is, neither of us have it. We've been told about how bad theft is on the island during full moon party time and I try and stay calm where he walks back to where it was parked. Thankfully it's still in the moped itself and it hasn't been stolen, the key or bike. After a quick look down the beach we decide to head back before sunset, the hills don't bode well for us in low light. 6:30pm- We arrive back at our bungalow and decide to take a walk on the beach. Jeremy asks me to grab the key and lock the door and so I do. I don't realize that I've grabbed the moped key and the bungalow one is still in inside. After getting an extra from reception I decide to have another go at a pee before our walk. The spider is back and he is bigger than I originally thought and brown and quite hairy, his eight legs are all intact, I jump off the toilet yet again this time grabbing the key with me and locking our scary, hairy friend in the bathroom.

7:00pm- We return from our walk almost being chased by a pack of wild beach dogs and Jeremy resolves to go into the bathroom and face the beast head on. 7:05pm- Several minutes pass and I hear two large slaps of a Chaco shoe and then the shower goes on. There is no war cry and I’m a bit concerned. I sit on the bench outside and think to myself how I may be safer sleeping in my sleep sac in the hammock, outside on the porch instead. 7:09pm- The beast has been slain! We take off our clothes to shower and Jeremy identifies several of what he calls "maggots" on our bed, I discourage him from being on the bed naked and we both enter the bathroom to try and cleanse ourselves a bit without encountering any other insects. 7:25pm- We leave our bungalow and head to Thong Sala to grab some dinner, our bungalow owners pack of dogs seem quite growly and territorial I can only hope they don't attack us when we arrive home later in the evening.

8:07pm- Decide to have a "treat yo-self" dinner at what seems to be a popular Mexican restaurant run by a guy from Chicago! At dinner we discuss trying to find a hostel. Never again will we book a place for three nights in advance. 8:45pm- I use the Mexican restaurant’s toilet and besides a rogue mosquito it's quite nice and it has a shower head, I briefly consider bringing my travel towel to rinse off here the next day before the full moon party instead of showering in our bungalow. 9:30pm- We have a drink at slumber party hostel making us only further regret our bungalow, we should have just been sucking it up the next few days and sleeping in twin beds next to strangers in air conditioning, over going back to our hell hole. 10:30pm- We pick up beers at 7-11 and head back to our bungalow. We each drink one beer and split a Xanax. 11:45pm- The dogs outside are howling up a storm, we see that our neighbor bungalow is actually feeding them.

4-21-16Morning 2:30am- We are both still awake, the fan is blowing our sleep sacs around and we are both so paranoid that the little tickles are from unseen insects. Every time a stray stand of hair blows on my face I freak out. I get out of bed and hunt down the head band I have. 4:00am- We are both still awake, despite it being so hot we move the fan down to the end of the bed so it doesn't blow on our sleep sacs so much hoping this allows us some sleep. We can’t open up the windows for a breeze and risk letting mosquitos inside. 10:30am- We have made it through the night! Our bungalow is an oven and we retreat to the porch for some fresh air. 11:30am- We pick up our laundry- great success the woman still doesn't speak, we communicate with smiles and thumbs up signs! 11:48am- We return to our bungalow and immediately put our clean laundry into their respective places and reseal our bags.

Afternoon 12:15pm- We load up our bag with towels and sunscreen for a day of resort crashing and hop on the moped, we stop for lunch at a place Jeremy saw was popular the night before. 1:30pm- After looking on trip advisor for the nicest resorts we settle on the Milky Bay as it has a nice pool with what looks like chairs in the shade. I could seriously use a place to nap.

4:00pm- We start up a conversation with some New Zealanders at the resort and agree upon meeting up tonight to pre-game together before the party. This resort pool is super nice and I treat myself to an iced coffee.

Evening 6:00pm- We pick up a few beers from 7-11 and head back to our bungalow to don our full moon party attire, shower as very quickly as possible and pick a place to eat dinner. 7:30pm- We settle on a place recommended by the New Zealanders near their resort for dinner. We wait almost 40 minutes for our food before we finally ask the restaurant what's going on, their swamped with the full moon crowd and haven't even started cooking our order yet, we decide to just pay for our drinks and leave. 8:30pm- We go right next door and settle on eating a burger which arrives within five minutes. It was a great choice as our host makes homemade flower headbands for the party and we join a French trio to paint ourselves in all sorts of day glo colors! We are getting excited to get in the spirit of things after all our mishaps.

9:30pm- We grab our new French friends and head back to the Milky Bay to find our New Zealander friends, but they aren't at the bar we agreed upon so with our new friends, we grab a bucket at a hostel nearby before getting a tuk tuk to the party.

11:30pm- We arrive at the party and are confronted with booths filled with people willing to paint you up with gorgeous day glo paint designs, stalls upon stalls of buckets (beach pails filled with usually Songsom Thai whiskey, Thai red bull and coke or other concoctions of your choosing) and stumble upon an area set up for people to nap in while their friends continue to party.

4-22-16

Morning

12:00am- We spot people who are jumping over a flaming jump rope- this place is insane!

1:30am- We spot a bar our Mexican restaurant owning Chicago friend recommended and chat up with the bartenders, they have a pretty good DJ so we stick around for a bit and use the bathroom several times. 3:00am- We have been dancing for almost three hours now and have consumed red bull in college quantities. Sometimes I feel ourselves getting simultaneously younger and older at the same time on this trip, this is one of those moments. 3:30am- We briefly consider calling it a night but the thought of our bungalow spurs us on towards morning!

4:30am- We find a DJ we really like and stay at this part of the beach for the rest of the morning. 6:00am- The sky turns a light shade of pink and then suddenly dawn is upon us and we are so proud of ourselves! Neither of us has pulled an all-nighter in years and the sunrise over the beach is an awesome sight to see.

6:15am- It's time to take a tuk tuk back to our bungalow and get a few hours of rest before we abandon it for the place we found the day before 6:45am- We arrive back at our bungalow, shimmy into our sleep sacs and pass out for a few hours. 10:00am- We check out, we've survived the full moon party and the bungalow!!