After our downtime in Krabi we travelled to the otherside of Thailand in preparation for the Full Moon Party on Ko Phangan. Unfortunately we arrived in Surat Thani too late for the last boat out, but we did find the late night, and very slow, cargo ship that regularly takes stowaways overnight. At 11 p.m. that night we headed out on a small ship filled with various cargo below us. Our beds consisted of a small plastic-coated mattress with a rock for a pillow. Of the 100 or so beds in two lines on the floor, only about a dozen were full.
We were supposed to arrive at about 7 a.m., but instead arrived in the dark at 5 a.m. After some haggling, and walking, we got a tuk-tuk to take us to Hat Rin for 150 baht. The road there was full of curves and hills, and it was obvious why there are so many accidents there every year. We kept preparing or an accident, but made it safely into town shortly after. Unfortunately nothing was really open, and we had no idea where anything was. The driver took us to a couple places, including the popular Drop In Resort, but they were all too expensive for us. Eventually he just dropped us off at the 7-11 outside of the small town when he was able to pick up another fare. Luckily the first place we found was the Thai Dee Garden Resort, a small set of bungalows just outside of town with wifi and rooms for 300 baht. We were satisfied enough to call it home for the next week or so.
The first two days there were a complete write-off. We hadn’t had free wifi in so long that we took full advantage of it; after those two days though we stopped spending time on our computers during the day. We also found that 7-11 was a blessing, as the town had basically no cheap street food. We got into the habit of eating cups of noodles for most meals, which I balanced out with hard-boiled eggs and fruit juice, both from 7-11; by the end though I was joining Alex for regular meals in the town.
Ko Phangan is kind of like a small Kho Phi Phi. It has a dense, but much smaller, core of shops and hotels. It has a much nicer beach though, with perfect water and sand, and the party is always on the beach. Unfortunately for us though the party didn’t start right away. There was an election in Thailand on the 18th, so from the 16th to the 18th no one was allowed to sell liquor, which closed down all the bars. The half-moon party in the jungle of Ban Thai was post-poned until the 19th, only four days before the Full Moon. The entrance fee for that was 500 baht though, not including the 450 baht for transportation there and back, so we just stayed on the beach.
The first couple night after the election were pretty low-key; things didn’t start to get too crowded until a few days before the full moon, which was on the 23rd. There was always an abundance of things to see and do on the beach though, which all included fire. They had the usual local fire dancers, which really are amazing, but they also had a couple things for the tourists. They had fire limbo, fire skipping rope, and a hoop for people to jump through that was also on fire. It was pretty entertaining to watch drunk people try and do the skipping rope especially, as almost all of them ended up getting hit by it. We even saw one guy light on fire which was awesome.
One of the nights we went down the road to Coral Bungalows, which had nightly pool parties, including free transport there which consisted of constant tuk-tuks driving up and down the road picking people up. It wasn’t too busy but we had a great time with a few Irish girls we met. The Aussies there were off the wall and were constantly grabbing random girls and throwing them in the pool.
A couple nights before the full moon our friends Jon and Claar from Sihanoukville arrived and got bungalows at Thai Dee which was wicked. One of the best things about South East Asia is that you inevitably bump into people that you’ve seen before. Claar also came with her friend Suzanne whom she had met at The Rock in Kho Phi Phi and was from White Rock. There was another bungalow with five people in it who had all met on the ride in. One guy, Larant, had just graduated from UConn. He was sweet and reminded me a lot of Asher Roth. Everyone in that bungalow was constantly drinking day and night. Including the full moon we drank five nights in a row, which was more than enough. We also met a couple of Dutch girls a couple nights before the full moon as well, so we had a good crew going into it.
A couple of nights before the full moon Suzanne had left to go to Ko Samui to see a British named Chris that she had met a few weeks before in Vietnam. We almost didn’t think she was going to come back for the full moon, but at ten that night she rolled in with Chris and ten other British guys. They were all good guys that we ended up having a great time with.
When we got down to the beach we saw a number of newly erected structures. There was a massive raised dance floor that we spent a lot of time on, as well as a huge iron bar structure that had the words ‘Full Moon’ blazing on fire. People were climbing all over this thing, many to the top which was about 40 feet high; I went about halfway up myself. Part way through the night while Alex was climbing up a girl fell from the top all the way to the bottom. After that the structure just emptied of people.
The night was a blur for me. I remember jumping off the stage to talk to the two Dutch girls, which Alex somehow found on the other side of the beach, but after that I just remember Jon waking me up at 4 in the morning from this fenced off sleeping area in the middle of the beach. I walked around with him for a few minutes before losing him and heading back to the sleeping area. He ended up picking me up again at 7 a.m. and we went back to the bungalows.
Standing on the stage it was amazing to see the mass of people along the beach. There were around 8,000-10,000 people there that night. In peak season it grows to about 30,000. Even with only a third of that there were parts of the beach that were so packed full of dancing people that you couldn’t even move. It will probably be the biggest party I go to until I someday make my way to Oktoberfest or Mardi Gras.
Steeves
