thursday

Thursday night at the hostel in Byron Bay with the prospect of 0415 bus ride, my choice was either go to bed around 2000h or stay up. I was leaning towards the former when (over all you can eat meat for $10 weekly BBQ) I got chatting with an Australian who had no beer - I gave him a couple of my VB (having purchased extra specifically for the purposes of sharing with the people who failed to bring their own - that worked well at BBQ on New Year's Eve in Melbourne 2y ago...). He wanted to go to 'Cheeky Monkeys', the main backpacker bar/club in Byron Bay as they were holding their weekly wet tshirt contest that day. So along we went. Free admission before 22h for backpackers (which consists of uttering the name of the hostel you are staying in to the bouncer). Tried a bunch of different beers on tap, first in glasses and then by the pitcher. Eventually the wet tshirt contest started and was jolly good fun - girls from the backpacker audience had been taken back and primed with champage then fitted out with special skimpy shirts. There was big, there was small, there were twins! The only disappointment was the token australian who had not taken off her bra :-(
Midnight rolled round and there was much dancing. I was wearing the shitty flip flops I got for 8元 in Shanghai - these finally gave up the ghost when forced to choose between sticking to the beer covered floor or remaining attached to my feet. I had to keep attempting to wear them, though, as the bouncers shouted at me whenever I took them off (at one point this triggered a drunk pretty blonde to tell me how beautiful I was - at least I think she was pretty, but I was drunk too... it didn't fix my shoes though).
0300 or so, the place closed, I walked out, threw the flipflops into nearest rubbish bin, and headed to Byron Coffee Co which was still open selling snacks - I stocked up on coffee and blue Powerade (blue drinks being the universal cure for alcohol), grabbed my bag from hostel and headed to bus stop.