Full Moon Party

Wednesday 5th August 2009
Day 39

I'm writing this from a desert island an hour of the west coast of Sumatra deep into the Indian Ocean where we are standed Hanks-style on Pagang Island.

Our next door neighbour, Sydneysider Derek, had snorkelled yesterday and was positively bursting with joy at the end of the day after he head out to the islands with a guy called Carlos who seemed to call the Bungus shots.

Carlos can only be described as 'a character'. Long black hair, Bob Marley Tshirt and tales of playing his guitar into the night....the guy had a presence but certainly had a shiftiness in his eye too. We shared the snorkelling trip with five Swiss and after a tour of the bay anchored next to a beautiful white sandy beack with turqouise clear water. Derek hadn't exaggerated either - the snorkelling was fantastic!

After generous servings of fruit and biscuits the day turned a little pear-shaped as within the space of around five minutes the weather turned from scorching clear blue skies to ferocious winds. This had Carols, who had donned some kind of jungle underwear and crown, discarding the leaf costume and running around frantically in his jocks. "I have never seen....I have never seen," he kept saying which put us somewhat on edge.

After a while, the wind hadn't subdued so, with the help of a local fisherman, we boarded his more powerful boat which took us to the sheltered Pagang Island. Once here it became pretty obvious we were here for the night which suited us down to the ground.

The night was a full moon and with a fire blazing and the staff banging out tunes on their guitars it made for a very pleasant evening.