me, abina and 10,000 other party-goers

last week the lovely abina - who i worked with at iin, lived with for a few months, have spent the last 2 new years with in her hometown in vermont and is just about the smartest 24 year old woman you'll ever meet - came to meet me in koh samui. we planned to go to the full-moon party together and see what the eastern islands of thailand had to offer. it's been fun to have a friend who has known me for more than 3 hours.

we had many adventures, including: 3 thai massages, drinking a smidge too much with strangers from all corners of the world, being the only diners at a romantic restaurant who were not on their honeymoon, a heat-induced 4am panic attack in a beach bungalow, being minorly molested by a man running a temple with a mummified monk, and renting a car and getting through the day without getting lost (thanks to her map-reading skills) and not killing any thai motorbike drivers (thanks to my driving skills).

that first photo was in our favorite hotel, where we stayed during the full-moon party. the view was a little ridiculous. we couldn't stop looking at it. one night i just stared out the windows for 2 hours straight. the photo was taken at 9am after the big party - where literally 10,000 twenty-somethings congregate on the beach, dance to last year's music and drink hard liquor out of buckets. i didn't really want to be awake at that time, but we had a boat to catch.





a celebretory moment on the beach with some bubbly. drinking to abina's graduation, my trip and a bunch of other stuff that is nonsense to everyone but the two of us.

that deck was the spot where we had our fancy dinner. the setting was a little out of control. ah... thailand. i'm going to miss it. i'm at the airport in bangkok right now waiting another hour before i board my flight to dubai.