Year Of The Dragon On Lonely Beach

Chinese new years looked to be a big deal. There were posters and pamphlets being handed out every were for the dragon party at the beach in front of our huts. The Dirt Squirrels and had a bus booked for the morning and decided it prudent to just stay up all night. Drinking at the Siam Hut I ran into a Danish, German and British posse I had met the night before. They introduce introduced us to some other people and soon we had a proper crew. We sat on the Thai pillows on the floor around miniature tables and talked. Tyler and Damian were not drinking and hadn't for a few nights. I was starting to get concerned. The music pounded on from the beach DJ stage but the showing was poor. Around 2 am the music stopped. Our crew rolled out looking for the mythical "other party." We got to the Lonely Beach strip and soon found out that there was no other party. defeated we headed back to the beach huts.

Almost home I had an idea. "All travelers must stop", I bellowed into the night. Our strung out line of disappointed friends stopped and from the side of the road turned to me. I prepared to myself for the epic speech I felt brewing inside. "This is a convenience store." I shouted. "They sell liquor. We party on the beach!" I was for at least a slow clap and though it never came the idea was well received. So organized our liquid picnic with cups, 2 6 of shitty Thai rum, mix and some magnums of Shinga beer.

We found a table under a light on the beach that promised to aid us mission. Drinks were poured and I started I started the toasts. "To the lost, the wayward, we intrepid travelers. The best fucking people on earth." That one did better then a slow clap. We took to swimming and the Alberta girl to her credit went in the buff. Just out of the water we barely had time to take a drink when it it started to spit rain. I had enough time to run to my hut and put away the camera gear before the sky opened up and poured rain. I got back to the beach where they had found beach umbrellas behind a tree. We huddled under the umbrellas cursing our bad luck. Finally one of the guys said "fuck it" and ran off diving into the ocean. Everyone followed. We laughed and splashed, and made noise for the sake of making noise. I pioneered the much needed emergency float system, periodically running drills by shouting "float" and then laughing as 80 toes bobbed to the surface. A silence eventually took the group as we watched, listened and felt the rain splash into the ocean. "Is this actually happening?" asked one of the girls. The group smiled and nodded agreement with the sentiment.

I tend to travel and live on the ridiculous side, with no belief in or want for perfect, but I think that night with two Dirt Squirrels, a pack international randoms, little plastic cups and shitty Thai Rum, that we came pretty damn close.