Sleepaboard in Maya Bay

 

The Beach. It’s a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio about...well I’m not quite sure because I haven’t watched the movie to be honest. However that is beside the point. The beach features one of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand, Maya Bay. This of course attracts heaps of tourists every day, almost to the point of not being able to even see the beach. It used to be possible to avoid the crowd by camping there overnight, but that has since been made illegal. Many people opt to hire an early morning boat to get there for the sunrise and beat the mass of tourists. That is the third best option for visiting this slice of paradise. The first and second are hosted by Maya Bay Tours. The second best option is their Plankton Tour where you arrive at the end of the tourist rush, stay for dinner and have a swim with the bioluminescent plankton. That tours big brother is the best option for experiencing all that Maya Bay has to offer. The Maya Bay Sleepaboard was one of the major highlights of my month in Thailand.

 

We left Koh Phi Phi at around 3pm. We didn’t go straight to Maya Bay though. They took us to a snorkel spot and set us on our way for a good while. The water was a tad bit cloudy, but the underwater life was beautiful as always.

 

From there they drove us around the back of the bay where there was a lookout that looked quite like a pirate’s nest. When we did reach the beach there were still a good amount of tourists around. The leaders told us to take a look around the island for some time while the day trippers cleared out. There is actually much more to the island than the beach. The walk to the other side of the island to the pirate’s look out nest is through tropical forest landscape. Granted it wasn’t as dense as some of the other walks I’ve been on in the forest, but it was beautiful none the less.

 

The lookout point was nice. Nothing to write home about, but

interesting and worth the look. On the way back I took a different path to the beach and was rewarded with interesting looking plant life that had descriptions on boards nearby.

 

The sunset was one of the most beautiful ones I saw while I was in Thailand. A group of us ended up working our way through the water to a small cave of sorts to get the best view. We all got

so many beautiful pictures as we stood there and watched as day turned slowly into night. While we enjoyed this time, our feet did not. The waves were rolling up rocks that occasionally ran into our feet.

 

 

First dinner was delicious! We had a decently spicy curry with rice. Most of the group decided to get the one free bucket that is included in the trip. I stuck with water since I can’t handle spicy to save my life. Though after dinner I joined in the fun. We all walked around talking. Getting to know each other.

 

Not long after dinner our leader gathered us around in a rather

large circle to play King’s Cup. Most interesting game of King’s I’ve ever played. Note to self, 22 people is too many for a round of King’s. It was still a blast though! Waterfalls were very confusing, but that just meant we got to drink more. After this one of the girls brought out her hula hoop and another a set of poi. The two of them gave quite the show. What was even better though were the people who gave poi a try for the first time. There are few things funnier than people flailing their arms and then whacking themselves in the head with poi balls. As I mentioned before, one free bucket was included in the tour. Each bucket after was 250 baht. I was running low on cash, but luckily they didn’t skimp on the alcohol so I managed to get by.

 

While we were all being entertained our hosts had been preparing dinner number two. For me this was the better of the two simply because it wasn’t spicy so I could thoroughly enjoy it. We feasted of BBQ meat, garlic bread and a vegetable mix. We returned to our mats and continued socializing. The entertainment resumed not long after.

 

If you have seen Life of Pi I’m sure you have an image in your head about what these bioluminescent plankton are going to look like. Every movement of your hand is going to light up the water in a beautiful neon color. Just as the rest of his story was a tall tale, so is the depiction of that experience. This is not to say that the plankton aren’t cool, especially when you use a mask to look under the water. A better description of what you will see with the plankton is that they look like shooting stars in the water. If you make fast movements you will see little glowing sparks.

 

The rest of our nighttime, that turned into morning hours was spent doing anything we liked. Some continued playing with the poi. Others picked up new drinking games. One of which was Animals, one of the easiest drinking games I have played. One by one, and couple by couple the group slowly dwindled as everyone took their mats, pillows and blankets to find a place on the beach to sleep. Usually the tour doesn’t get to sleep on the beach, but occasionally when the water is rough the coast guard allows the company to have its guest sleep in the shore.

 

6am wakeup call was far from pleasant. The rising sun however was quite nice to wake up to. We all packed up our stuff and spent the rest of our time relaxing on the still empty beach. Most of us dozing off, although one guy got in a swim. Before we left we took their token jumping picture. Well, we took about 12 jumping pictures so everyone could get one on their cameras and phones.

 

Breakfast was served on the boat; scrambled eggs, toast and fruit. Simply, delicious and perfect for a morning after drinking. We arrived back at the dock right on time and said our farewells.

 

It was such an amazing experience! Having a beach all to ourselves with just 20 people is not something you find often in such a touristy area. The people were great. The food was delicious. Our guides were a ton of fun. Overall one of the best experiences I have had in my travels thus far!

Things to Have in Your Vacation First Aid Supplies

I’ve been told by several people that you should treat every cut, no matter how small, as if it a major wound. When a friend cut his toe on a rock after jumping off a waterfall near Pai, we spent a good 10 – 15 minutes cleaning and bandaging it. We used up most of my mini travel kit. When we got back to the hostel we redid it the whole process. This time in a cleaner, drier environment. He continued to care for it like this and his foot healed up well without issue. 

Now, here is the token horror story. I met a girl on Koh Phangan who, on a previous visit, got a small piece of glass in the bottom of her foot while on the beach during Full Moon Festival. She didn’t take care of it quite as diligently and ended up spending 3 weeks in the hospital on Koh Samui because it got infected. Even after that she still had to go back on a regular basis to have it drained. 

Having a well-stocked first aid kit is always good to have on hand. Now I’m not suggesting you go buy one of the big red first aid bags from your local outdoor store. It’s quite easy to make your own. In addition to bandaging material, keeping some basic medications from home will save you a good amount of trouble if problems arise. I recommend having a smaller travel kit to carry with you and a reserve that stays in your pack.

o   Band-aids: Pack mostly your standard size, but include a few other smaller and larger types.

o   Alcohol pads / Antibiotic ointment

o   Ibuprofen: Don’t take this on an empty stomach.

o   Acetopminaphen: It is really important that you don’t take this before, after or during drinking. It gets processed through the liver, same as alcohol.

o   Sudafed / Tums

o   Dramamine: Between the bus and boat rides I used more than enough to justify having it on hand.

o   Antihistamine pills / Antihistamine cream

o   Pawpaw: If you can get it.

Although not technically first aid, here are some other useful things to always bring on a trip

o   2 Small locks: You will need these for lockers at the hostels.

o   Ziplocs / Garbage bags: I keep a few sizes of Ziplocs with me on trips. The uses are endless

o   Basic sewing kit / Safety pins

o   Duct tape

o   Carabineers

Surviving EDC Las Vegas

When I first attended EDC in 2009 it was still at the USC Coliseum in Los Angeles, tickets were $75 and the drive to get there was a mere 4 hours for me. These days EDC is all over the world. Las Vegas tickets now boasting almost $400! Not to mention that while I did make the 8 hour drive to EDC Las Vegas 2011, I flew home and came to the conclusion that the extra money was well worth it. Especially when Southwest has pretty reasonable prices if you book in advance. Needless to say, not only did the EDC experience change quite a bit when it moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, but so did the prepping.

A couple of things to really know about EDC Las Vegas.

It is #*%@-ing crowded!

Even though I’m sure you already know that over 100,000 people attend EDC each day. Until you have been to an event with that capacity you really can’t fully fathom what it is like. At music festivals your concept of personal space needs to not exist. While some people will very impolitely move you out of their way so they can get through the crowd, a good amount of people will politely try to move around you. One way or another just let it go. If they are being polite it's nice to just let them by. You need to remember that you are doing exactly the same thing when you move through the crowd. However, this does not mean you need to let people try to herd you out of your dancing spot. People will try to push your personal bubble, which shouldn't exist at festivals anyways, to get you to move. Stand your ground and let them bump into you, eventually they will give up. If they don’t, don’t be afraid to nicely comment on their behavior. Sometimes people are oblivious to their surroundings. Other times though, when it is on purpose, most people will stop once confronted. Whatever you do, don’t make a scene of it. Worst comes to worst just find a new spot, don’t let a negative person affect your experience.


If I didn’t know better I would tell you the free water they provide is actually recycled toilet water.

In 2011 I could not figure out for the life of me why I kept feeling sick, blamed it mostly on my partying. Fast forward to 2012…the first night I had the same problem, the second night I didn’t, third night as soon as we got there I didn’t feel well again. What was the difference between the nights? The only water my friends brought me the second night was bottled water, the other nights we had the free water. I immediately switched back to bottled water and I was fine again. EDC 2013, I forgot to warn my friends who had never been about my water theory ahead of time and  I didn’t see them until the second day. Unfortunate for them since they had been feeling sick the first night. As soon as they switched to bottled water they felt much better. This being said, make sure you budget and bring enough cash to be able to buy bottled water. It’s not going to be cheap, but it’s well worth not feeling like crap for the whole event


You are only going to eat one meal a day.

I don’t mean this as a recommendation, but as a fact. You will only have time to eat one meal a day outside of the event. They do sell pretty decent food at the event and I personally love getting ice cream during the rave. Even if you don’t feel like eating anything, you need to. Make sure your one meal counts! Having a salad and some bread isn’t going to help; get some carbs in your body, trust me you are going to burn it all off anyways. We brought Costco muffins with us in 2012, best decision we made!

Make sure to explore.

Yes you came to dance to the music, but Insomniac puts together so many other things that it is definitely worth your while to wander around and see what’s out there. I recommend getting there early so you don’t miss your favorite artist, plus it’s a lot less crowded and easier to move around.
 

It is tiring. 

Three days of hardcore partying is enough to run down even the most seasoned raver. Keep this in mind when you make plans to go hard the first night. Pace yourself so that you can actually enjoy all three nights. As for sleep, in 2012 my friends and I slept 3 hours each day so that we could spend the rest of our time exploring and going to the pool parties. It was one of my favorite years! However, we didn’t go home until Tuesday. Monday we slept for almost 18 hours straight. I highly, highly recommend giving yourself all of Monday to recover from such an epic weekend.




The speedway is not a hop, skip and a jump away.

You will have to take a motorized vehicle to the event. If you plan on driving yourself…do not, I repeat do not take the freeway! I’ll repeat it again just to make sure you realize how important this is…do not take the freeway. You will not get out of the event for hours. Instead, take N Las Vegas Blvd all the way out to the back of the venue. There is a smaller parking lot back there that you can only access from the south. If you go farther north on the freeway and try to double back cops, yes cops, will turn you around. Take the extra time getting there to save yourself hours of hassle trying to get back to your hotel after a night of partying. The shuttle is a nice option if your group doesn’t want to rent a car. It takes a good amount of time on your way back, but still not nearly as long as trying to get out of the main parking lot. I know this from first-hand experience.


Be nice to the security guards.

They have the power to make or break your experience. A little extra kindness will get you a long way; they may even let you take in the candy in your bag you forgot to hide. Remember that they are there to help. At the end of the first night in 2011 security guards were moving around taking binkies from girls. Most of them were pretty upset. That is until I pointed out that security wasn't doing this to be mean, they were doing it because it is considered drug paraphernalia which gives the cops reason to hassle you. While I am not very trusting of cops overall, not all of them are bad. Although Nevada has one of the strictest drug laws, Las Vegas cops are used to ridiculousness, so as long as you are not blatantly causing trouble they will leave you alone. To be honest some of them cops I think actually enjoy working at the event, I’ve seen more than a few taking videos of the artist sets and even pictures with ravers.

Some of my thoughts on rave attire…

One of the most fun things about music festivals is picking out and making costumes! I personally make just about all of my own outfits, even sell some custom pieces to friends. For better and worse, just about anything goes when it comes to what people will wear to raves. The list of possibilities of what to wear is endless and entirely up to your  person preference. For ideas I’d recommend Pintrest for DIY outfits or Etsy for handmade outfits, you can even get ones custom to your style. Kromatik Armor is one of my favorite custom made rave wear.
What I do want to talk about is things to consider when picking out an outfit.

It gets cold!

Las Vegas is in the desert, this means that it is unbearably hot during the day and freezing at night. Although you may look good showing a lot of skin, be ready for a lot of goosebumps along with that.


It gets hot!
When you are in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people dancing the night away you are going to get warm, fast. You are going to sweat, a lot. Girls, you need to take this into consideration when spending hours on your hair and make-up. I guarantee that you will end up with your hair up in a messy bun and your make up all over your face. Waterproof does not mean sweat-proof.

People are going to stare.

Festivals are one of my favorite places to people watch. Not because I’m judging, but because is amazing to see all the things people come up with! Speaking of which, while at a rave keep your judgments to yourself. PLUR is what rave culture is based on so please help keep it alive. Also, if you like someone’s outfit go tell them! Most people work really hard on what they are wearing and love getting compliments.

Comments on body parts can be a bit more awkward though. If someone comes up and respectfully compliments you on your body just graciously accept it. Derogatory comments of course are a whole other story though. It’s a bit weird at first to be openly complimented, but why are you showing it off if not for people to admire? Serious though girls, if you are wearing pasties and a thong, neither you nor your boyfriend have any right to get mad when someone is staring or even says something, as long as it is respectful and polite. However, some people have no concept of respect and take it past staring and move onto touching. I’m hoping this is common sense, but people shouldn’t touch without asking. If they do, yes call them out on it. But boys, don’t pick a fight. Getting kicked out isn’t worth it.


Things are going to break.

The more extravagant your outfit, the more pieces it has, the more likely it is to get ruined. Like I said it’s crowded at EDC which means you are going to get bumped, a lot. Your outfit could snag on anything from another person’s costume to the fence you were leaning on to even another piece of your outfit. Let it go and don’t let it ruin your night if it does.

Have fun with it!

Wear what makes you happy, even if it is a bit out there. Music festivals are one of the few times that you can so freely express yourself.

Las Vegas is a whole other world 

compared to most cities.

There are a couple of general aspects of this crazy city to consider during EDC.

The strip is long!

When we stayed at The Luxor we spent far too much of our time just getting to the other hotels that hosted the pool parties. Make sure to get a hotel in the middle if you are planning on attending the day events.

 
The food is expensive and not good at all.

Our solution in 2012 was to bring some food and keep it in the fridge. Of course The Luxor wouldn’t give us a fridge so our premade pasta was only good for a single dinner. What I did find to be the perfect food to bring was Costco muffins! They are moist and delicious, the perfect rave snack before our 3 hours of sleep.




 
Over the years I have had the most amazing times at EDC, both Los Angeles and Las Vegas alike. I have since stopped attending, mostly because I feel there are so many more festivals I want to experience and places I want to go. Unfortunately I have a limited amount of time and money to do all of it. However, I really hope this will help make the EDC Las Vegas experience that much better!