Distraction Time!

KPN Thailand.

I went with Raq to Ko Phan Gnan in Thailand as we wanted to check out the full moon party. I had heard so many things about the FMP that thought it would be a good idea to check it out. So we got to KPN at about 9pm at night. Because it was the FMP period we pre booked our hotel. It was lovely. It had an infinity pool looking out over the sea and we had air conditioning. Yay! The first day we were there we decided to have  a pool day and chill out. I had not been anywhere with a pool yet on the trip so I quite fancied a day chilling and reading in the sun. My way of sun bathing is to do it in the water. I had been mega careful about my back and shoulders and was so paranoid about them being burnt that I always wore a t-shirt. Even in the pool. I remember being in India and getting my shoulders burnt and carrying a back pack was awful.

So I sat in the childrens bit of the pool for the whole day reading. We were quite lucky most the time there were very few people around and so we had to the pool to ourselves. It was lush. At about 6ish Raq went up to the room and I was not that long behind her. When I got back to the room she was lying like a star fish on the bed. A star fish that resembled a mozzie ridden lobster. The night before she had been brutally attacked. We counted 48 bites just on her legs. Me...0! Ha! For some reason I just don't get bitten. It was then I realised my legs were also rather burnt. That night we were both feeling rather fragile from too much sun. Raq is a red-head so has very very fair skin. Between us we pretty much had a whole burnt body. Her arms, my legs and her mozzie bites. We took it in turns putting a wet towel in the fridge and having a wet cold towel draped over us. Great tip...if you are badly sunburnt wet a towel and put it in the fridge. It feels amazing!

The next day was the night of the FMP. We decided rather than going on a boat trip that we had planned it would be sensible for us to stay out of the sun. So we had a DVD day in the room. Lush.

FMP. We got our hotel to take us to the FMP in their kind of taxi, kind of pick up truck. Thai style! Bumpy roads, and a lot of people crammed in. A scary experience. Up and down hills, round corners in the middle of the road praying nothing is coming towards you. You can see a steep drop into nothing at the side of you and you are just hoping that you don't go over as you'll probably never be found, and you'll have to live with the snakes and lizards and possibly eat each other!

The atmosphere at the FMP was great. We did get there quite early in terms of partying but there were people at it. The music wasn't really my scene at all but the atmosphere was brilliant. It was just like being at a festival but with fire performers, and fire skipping ropes. We got a couple of buckets in and sat and had those and just watched the world go by. Raq decided she was going to have her tarot read. I took photos while she was having it done and watched. She said it was just the same as what people had told her in the past so it was either true or they all tell you the same thing. So I decided to have mine done. MISTAKE!

She kept saying how unhappy I was. OK I am but I wasn't showing signs at the time. She said I will marry and have kids but I will still be unhappy. I will divorce and meet someone much younger than me. But even with a toy boy I will still not be happy! So you can imagine that put me in a good mood. As the night drew on the atmosphere changed. It became a bit more tense like. People were just off their heads on pills or what ever. People were laughing at them but they could have been injured. There were people being pulled out of the sea unconcious as they had decided in their drunken, drugged up state to go for a swim. It was kinda freaky and kinda sinister.

We decided to go find a 7/11 and get some water. We walked through the back streets and there was this really good reggae band that had just set up outside their tattoo shop. We must have been there ages. Raq started to feel really ill and went off to be sick. She is a very sicky person. We weren't drunk at all. I think the amalgamation of previous days drinking, the heat, our sunburn and dodgy water just got to her. So off she went to be sick up the side street. Come 4.20am we decided to call it a night. So we just had to hunt for transport back to the hotel. On the other side of the island. It was a nightmare getting back.

We were rammed in to one of the pick up truck taxi's and it was scary. We were literally holding on for our life's. And then all of a sudden he stopped in the middle of no where and said we wait here. After an hour and watching the sun come up from a piece of waste land in the middle of no where and many people jumping between taxi's we were on our way again. It was really frustrating as my idea was when I was in party party mood to watch the sun come up and go with our hotel's bus back to the hotel. As it happened because we were sat on the waste land for so long we ended up getting back to the hotel at the same time as the hotel's own transport and we watched the sun come up from a piece of waste land.

All in all I was disappointed with the FMP. Maybe I am getting too old for it all. I don't like that kind of music anyway. But I think it was the sinister side of it which put me off. I am glad I did it though. I have been there and brought the wrist band!