The Sleeper Train and the Full Moon Party [Bangkok, Thailand]

Today we're leaving Bangkok.
We started out our day going to Chinatown! Trying to enjoy the last bits of Bangkok before we move along.
Here is my shrimp and lemongrass salad! A LOT of onions. I do like onions, but I didn't want my breath to smell XD

The alleyways were extremely crowded and narrow! Also, there were mopeds going through these alleyways which made it so hard to breathe! I wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to drop my camera. Also, it was unbearably hot. (Motorcycle smoke probably added to the heat.)

It's a hot dog in a pancake-waffle type thing! This must be a Thai corndog, haha!
We got Thai ice tea and boba! It was even with crushed ice! So nice and cooling on such a hot day.


Beautiful park!Monitor lizard! Just chilling. He was randomly swimming around. I guess they are wild here?

So, where are we going after Bangkok? We're going to hit up a beach island, Koh Phangan!

I didn't know it, but Thailand is actually pretty big. Going south would take hours driving or a couple hours by plane. But in Thailand, there is another alternative!
The sleeper train!

Yes, it is a train you can sleep on! Our train departs around 7pm and we'll wake up around 8am at our destination!

Before we left, we got some food at the train station!

Really cheap pad thai!



I got this one to go, for when I would be undoubtedly hungry on our train ride. Seafood in spicy basil leaves!

At the train station, we experienced this weird thing. At 6 o clock (I don't know if it's every day, or Wednesdays, or if it was a holiday, or if it's just the train station) they played some song, I assume the Thai anthem, and everyone just froze. Everyone just stood where they were at and listened to the song. When the song ended, everyone went about their daily business.
A tourist information lady saw us and told us to stop when the music started playing; we were really confused.

On the train! When we first got on, there was seating. We're having fun already!
Then a guy came by to set up the beds!
Courtney is doing homework!

Victor is playing with his computer. John and I chilled on my bed and chatted all night. It was pretty fun! We talked about school and careers and tech and our parents and parenting.

Then it got late and everyone went to bed!

It was kinda hard to sleep because there was a lot of rolling.

When I woke up , we were in a totally different area!

It was beautiful! It was such a big contrast to the gray city! I felt like everything was over saturated with color. The greens were so green and the blues were so blue! The clouds were so white and fluffy!

The ocean is so beautiful!

When we got there, we were starving! This is my tom kha kai! Coconut milk soup =)
When we got to the hotel, it was nearly nightfall. I was hankering for some dessert and got one of these creme filled donuts. BEST donut I've ever had!

Tonight, the real fun begins.

The reason we came to Koh Phangan was for the infamous Full Moon Party.
It's a HUGE party on the beach every month, basically for tourists.
The reputation for these things are pretty crazy.
Apparently there are a lot of people doing harder drugs. Also, weed shakes. We did see a guy who was definitely ON something, having a ball eating sand on the beach.
Drugs are definitely illegal. I've heard a lot of stories of people selling you drugs just to report you to the police seconds later. Part of some big scam!

ANYWAYS. around 10pm, we prepare to leave our place for the Full Moon Party. Hopefully we will all be safe!
We were going to get to the full moon party by water taxi! Our hostel arranged a boat for everyone staying there to get to the party. It was a forty five minute boat ride at night. It was BEAUTIFUL.
The boat ride was so fun!
The night sky was dark and you could see stars! The ocean waves were dark and foamy. And the island to our right was dark and foresty. The moon was so bright! The air was so clean with the ocean spray in the air!

The boat dropped us off on the beach in the water! I got kinda wet, haha.

the big thing here are bucket drinks! It's actually really funny to be walking around with a pail of liquor. Actually, it's pretty smart, because there's no broken glass! Plus it's cute and reusable and cost only 200 baht!

We had a blast! The music was really good! I loved it! I had a great time! with such good music, I had an awesome time dancing.

There were people spinning fire poi and stuff. There was also the fire rope - a jump rope on FIRE, with drunk people jumping over it, haha.

Then it started to rain! It was fun at first, dancing in the rain. It was pouring, we were dancing on the beach, YAY! But then it REALLY started to pour like crazy and we sought shelter.
We got all gross and sandy, dirty and wet.

At that point, I was ready to go home. It was about 2:30am. It was a little early, but the next boat wasn't leaving until 5am, which is way too late!

So I went home earlier with John and Saad; everyone else stayed.

The boat ride back was nice and relaxing. But I couldn't wait to get out of my sandy wet clothes and get to BED.

My bed was full of dried up bug carcasses =( Also it was extremely hot. Not a very comfortable stay.

I must have been still kinda messed up, because something really funny happened over night.

I woke up in the middle of the night, REALLY needing to use the bathroom.
Oh, did I mention that there is no electricity at night? I brought my phone up to the loft where my bed was to use as a flashlight, but somehow I completely forgot about it when I woke up.
So I woke up in the middle of the night in complete darkness, needing to pee really bad, and PROBABLY not in the right state of mind.
I wanted to get down the stairs but couldn't find the ladder.
At this point, I started to panic. I felt like i was in a dream-like nightmare state and I started to get hysteric.
I started to cry out "Help! I can't get down! Somebody help me!" Somehow, I also thought that everyone was home. So I was wondering why, out of all the people in the room, no one woke up to help me. In actuality, only John was in the room. "Why won't anyone help me!" I think i began to sob, or cry or something.
Eventually I woke up poor John, who gave me a flashlight. When the light turned on, I think I became conscious and finally realized what was going on, somewhat. Actually, I was no where near the ladder, no where near where I thought I was.
It wasn't until the morning that I remembered that whole thing and just started CRACKING up. I dont' think anything like that has happened to me before. XD