trippin' in Ko-Pha-Ngan

They charge 3 bahts per minute for Internet access on this island, well, at least at this cafe. The dollar about now is yielding 32.15 bahts, so even then, this is expensive, which is why I'll keep it short and Thai chili sauce sweet: I'm hurting today. Last night I drunk a "mushroom shake" (as in, yes, the poisonous kind that you ingest and then trip from; it wasn't that strong, unfortunately) with the travel mates I have stumbled into on this beautiful island (rode around much of it on scooters yesterday; this is quite a splendid land), Matt from Toronto and Wim from Santiago, Chile/Britain (it's a complicated truth). Afterward, I went out and drunk my tail off to cheap buckets of vodka-red bull & whiskey-cokes until, I'm not sure. I am hurtin' as in:

1) I lost my sandals on the beach from last night (yet to be replaced; I'm kind of sad because I have been everywhere with those sandals; they had sentimental value for me; plus they served their purpose very well)
2) my iPod shuffle (named Travelin' Bud), after tumbling and giggling and making out in the ocean with a young Thai woman (I'm not sure if I asked her name), is fried. I'm about to charge it to see if it magically blooms again.
3) I lost my voice recorder, and most importantly, the recording of that cheesy lounge singer belting out Lionel Ritchie's "Hello". It maybe in the ocean, maybe buried in the sand, or maybe in someone's possession at this moment; I'm not sure, sadly.
4) from the early morning tumbling (I remember at least twice trying to give her a piggy-back ride and failing miserably, though we both thought the fall was ha-haa), my right calf is quite tender to the point of being a lil' gimpy, and the left side of my body is in a lil' pain. The bottoms of my feet hurt from the early morning walk back home to my hillside bungalow (overlooking the ocean, facing west, so we saw the sun set while tripping on mushrooms, seeing these bat-like birds flying and diving and zipping around us; it was quite glorious) without sandals.

I need to find out what time the sun rises here, because that's the time I stumbled home (yes, home), alone. She ditched me after wandering around lost (I kept pointing and saying, "My bungalow is just over there! Believe me!"), but not before being flashed by this flat-chested Thai girl, presumably a friend of hers, when she rolled up on a scooter. : (

Ko-Pha-Ngan is famous for its partying, usually ever revolving (because time is a figment and there is no beginning and no end, remember) around the moon's cycles. Tonight, the 1st of August, is the "Black Moon Party". Last night, with its fire games (full, full details later when it's less costly; the drunken and drugged revelers were playing fire jump rope, with a huge, scorching rope about 20 feet long; I did not partake), was a "warm-up" (there are actual signs, posting the warm-up parties throughout the island). Tonight maybe epic, maybe glorious with my buds, who I'm so grateful to have met; we're all coyotes, traveling alone. I evaded a hangover but hope to not overdo it tonight. Memories, good and bad, and love, is why I stick around and what I wake up for. I at least know that I shouldn't pack any electronics tonight! Learned that lesson quickly! I kind of can't, now that I've fried or lost my inventory (unless I brought my electric shaver! But, even here, I don't think anyone would get positively kinked out by that).

Let's cross our fingers and hope my iPod shuffle, my one constant companion, will come alive. From there, onward we go. Let this experiment continue.