The Morning After

The vague, stuporous idiot grin belies a long, painful day coming on with sunrise of the morning after the full moon.

Kids These Days

As we've seen from previous photos, there are always party casualties. Doc in the box to the rescue! Of course, not everyone takes his recovery seriously. Note the IV bag and the the smoke. What you can't see is that he's shoeless. I know this because he wheeled his IV cart outside the clinic to have a smoke. He sent out for a pair of slippahs while he loitered outside pumping fluid into his veins and nicotine into his lungs. Which reminds me, there's a booming market in mismatched flip flops the day after the party and on subsequent days. Kids wander the streets with woven baskets full of recently collected lost shoes.

Fire Down Below

Not all of the fire folk are professionals. There is quite a bit of amateur fire dabbling at the Full Moon Party. I need hardly go into the details of what happens when a bunch of drunks who've been up for a couple of days voluntarily get into close proximity with flaming arches, jump ropes, spinning hoops, balls, and the like. Kind of like a train wreck, in that you can't help but watch. And photograph. For the observant amongst you, the lady in the foreground with the fantastic legs? Not a lady.

Proximally Advantageous

Fire dancing is all the rage at the beach. The Thai guys are incredible; they are, for all intents, professional fire dancers, with all the skill, poise, and confidence around flaming objects that this entails. Still, note the green cross of the medical clinic in the background. Just in case.

Crowd Control

And, as long as you're going to be in a big crowd, try to, well, you know.

Abunoriginal

Most folks at the Full Moon Party wind up painted like day glow aboriginals. Might as well go all in and do it up right.

Bin Laden Lives!

And he's serving drinks on a beach in Thailand! Not strictly in keeping with the teachings of the Koran, but he seemed to be having a good time.