As we stumbled into the sunlight the next morning, we realized that the big day had finally arrived. Steve, Marko, and Mikey came up with an ambitious plan to not rent a hotel room for the evening, as they had each only brought a small bag, and then catch the earliest ferry off the island at around 5am. We spent the majority of the day lounging on the beach going for an occasional dip in the ocean, we felt we would need all our energy for that evening.
When the time came to head off to Hat Rin we rallied together, hopped in a tuk tuk and were on our way. During the ride I was shown an extremely entertaining game called ‘the dog game’ which consists of sticking your head out of the side of the tuk tuk barking at dogs. If the dog barks back you get a point if not it’s the next person’s turn. I don’t think anyone actually got any points but we did get a lot of strange looks.
Based on the previous night we decided to change our game plan and head straight to the beach. We realized right away we had made the right decision. We paid a small fee at the beach entrance to help with clean-up etc. and as we made our way towards the sand we were surrounding by people selling a huge assortment of items. The drinks to be had were the popular buckets made from Sangsom, a brand of Thai whiskey, or a variety of western alcohols such as Smirnoff or Gordons mixed with Redbull and Coke. These buckets are the kind usually used as children’s sand toys, served with a straw, and best shared with friends.
It was sensory overload with each beach-side hotel and 
bar blasting its own competing sound and vendors selling everything from neon body paint to glow in the dark devil horns. We wandered the length of the beach trying to take it all in and came across a giant flaming skipping rope. I had been warned ahead of time to avoid this at all costs but I could definitely see the appeal. Steve and Marko both decided to give it a go and big surprise; they both got burnt. Marko got by with just a slight burn on his arm but Steve managed to get it full in the neck. Luckily there was a beachside first aid station; he got it dressed and was back in business in no time.
After bopping around to the beat, various drunken antics, and one too many buckets, we realized that it was time to call it a night. Unfortunately we were a hotel room short and quickly realized that the island was at maximum capacity. Our attempts to secure a room were unsuccessful; each hotel was either full, or would take one look at our group and suddenly become “full”. Eventually we found a tuk tuk driver who had a friend who had a room and by that point we were desperate. Wasn’t exactly high quality accomodation but they only need a place to pass out for a couple of hours until their ferry. All in it was a successful full moon; no one was seriously injured, robbed, or drugged, and we all managed to get off the island eventually.