NYE on Koh Phagnan, or: the most ridiculous night of my life

I know I titled one previous post "the craziest night of my life", but NYE surpassed the November full moon party in sheer hours spent awake and partying by a full day.

Before I launch into the description, which will surely make my parents cringe, I just want to give a shout out to the amazing 40 bhat feta cheese sandwiches which I lived on for all 5 days while I was there, or at least at the times when I remembered that red bull is not a substitute for food. Across from chicken corner, amazing. Loves.

NYE Rampage:

7 PM: buy many tubs of body paint and paintbrushes, eat feta cheese sandwiches / spend a few hours pre-gaming and turning my arm into a masterpiece. (there are black lights everywhere, so the paint lights up like crazy)

9pm: Make beeline for kate moss fuck bucket and begin to consume massive amounts of alcohol.

I introduced everyone to jello shots

1 am: first trip to mellow mountain

2 am: second trip to mellow mountain, have lost everyone but V now

4 am: miraculously find Adam, go with him to laugh at all the people having sex on the beach in plain sight of everyone then go play dress up in the 'costumes' that he brought from home -seriously, he brought a sailor costume, some wigs, some other shit..ridiculous. Find an awesome platinum wig that I proceeded to wear for the rest of the night and became completely unrecognizable. Then I went and bounced off the walls in the hall for a bit until I woke kelly and mazz / rest of hotel up who din't even recognize me.

6 am: sunrise, huge storm blows in off the water and everyone is dancing in torrential downpour to hardcore techno... coolest thing ever. Our group is now only the survivors: Adam, Richard, V, two crazy singapore dudes and me.

7 am: 7-11 opens, begin drinking beers again

9 am: make new friends bc al the rest of my crew are passed out or too drunk to move, go on exohdus to find the afterparty but first find Rob and yell at him for five minutes about how all aussies are pussies because he won't come with me and keep drinking.

10 am: after party up in the jungle, best part of the night- goes till noon (called back yard). This is only the real party champions. Make friends with a bunch of guys who are 6 year NYE veterens here and who are all either tripping or rolling, go to a reggae bar with them when the party is over, visit mellow mountain a few more times and just chill. Finaly at -

6 pm realize that simo has been frantiacaly calling and texting me for the past 9 hours and I'm the only one with a key to the room.

Arrive home 7pm, realize that coops has gashed his foot open and is in the hospital with no money to pay for his stitches and I have the key and his wallet is in the room. Oops, I guess I wasn't the most responsible one like I thought.

11pm: go out for farewell beers at the beach.

12 am: pass out.


woke up keen to flee the island the next day, but no such luck.....

I'll include the ferry debacle in the Koh Tao post...

Justification for going home for xmas

I said that I was not going home for xmas... but my desire for in-n-out overcame my desire to lounge on a beach in thailand. I'm kidding, I'm not completely heartless, seeing my family is really my number one reason for coming home. Here are some others in no particular order:

1. In-n-out
2. Blackbird Toast / Soup
3. Clean ocean air
4. The water
5. Mattress that is not a box spring (it actually bruises my ribs, no joke)
6. FRIENDS
7. Jalepeno Poppers from San Carlos
8. Ferry
9. Double Tall Nonfat Latte w Irish Cream
10. Gordo & Slink
11. Seattle / Browers Fries
12. Ovens / Dishwashers / Driers
13. T&C lunch breaks with the dancers that turn into all day and night adventures
14. The Pub
15. Hot tubbing with Gardiner & Anna
16. Having a selection of non-asian men to choose from at midnight on New Years Eve.

I am very excited for all of the above.

Right now my plan is: Thailand 18-23, stopover in Seoul for 10 hours (i'm really excited to explore), Seatown 24-30, SF 31-4. If you are going to be in any of those places any of those times lets get loooosthee.. I need to stop talking like an aussie. I think their slang might be better than ours though - Especially the blanket kangaroo noise of Yeeeeooooooww, which can be used in every situation; there is also an accompanying dance.

Fun site of the day: Getmooh.com
this site is awesome, I am going to use it next time i need to get off work early or something... ooops sorry Ray, but adam has burned down our apt, I have to go.

Other useful knowledge of the day, more for people from BI since we all actually do outdoorsy things, between campaigning for Obama and shopping at Whole Foods: The Ten Essentials. I've heard many different lists over the years, but I did some digging around today and this is I think the most pertinent to the PNW. I think you many be able to substitute sunscreen for space blanket since we have no sun, unless you are going snow climbing, then its pretty important and you should also bring an ice axe.

Ten Essentials:

1. Water / Treatment device (there is always so much water around that a treatment device is probably the best call)
2. Map
3. Compass
4. First aid kit
5. Knife w multiple functions / blades (preferably one with a corkscrew for opening your end of hike wine and beer)
6. Light / extra batteries
7. Fire starter / matches
8. Extra clothes, especialy a hat and gloves / Space blanket
9. Sun protection
10. RAIN GEAR / poncho / tarp

I've already told Nat that we are hiking in the snow to the hot springs out on the olympic peninsula..... i'm pretty stoked, but I think it will be a hike on which all the ten essentials are actually essential since A. we have bad luck, B. people from Seattle are not used to the snow and anything could go wrong, and C. it is winter in WA, you never know, I don't really want to die. We are also going to bring the 11th essential: beer since it will be cold out... forget the fire.