half moon party

let's start with the obligatory beach shot, shall we? ;-)

hat rin - sunrise beach

the weather has been flip-flopping for days now on koh phangan. one moment you're on the beach getting nice and crispy in the brutal sun, the next you're running for cover as all of a sudden you find yourself pelted by raindrops the size of marbles. it does have its upsides though, as this particular thunderstorm, brewing on the horizon...

...gave me this rather nice shot, and then caused a power blackout on the island, which meant i enjoyed a candlelight dinner! okay, it was vegetable pad thai, again, and i was dining alone, but i had a candle on my table, so it counts.

went diving again yesterday. we took a boat out to sail rock, a limestone pinnacle rising out of the gulf halfway between koh tao and koh phangan. the visibility wasn't great, but we did get to do a lovely swimthrough - swimming into a tunnel at around 20m depth, and then up through a chimney, emerging at around 9m. smashing stuff.

later on, the swedish couple i'd been diving with joined me for a few drinks on the beach, and we decided to take the plunge: the half moon party! twice a month, a few thousand people make their way into the jungle for a psychedelic rave. many actually say it is better than the full moon party. as i've only been to the half moon party, i'm not really qualified to judge, but i will say that it was a whole lot of fun.

basically it was a clearing in the jungle with a massive sound system, some pretty good deejays and lots of blacklight.

of course we weren't prepared for the blacklight, so were not wearing white. so unprofessional of us. but thankfully the party organisation catered for people in exactly this predicament: neon bodypaint!

superman vs the dragon master

anyway, ended up hanging off the back of a pickup truck full of partygoers in various states of enlightenment at 6am, bouncing back through the jungle at full tilt, heading for the safety of my cabin on rin beach.

oh, and i finally got one: