Full Moon Party & The Thai Islands - Round 1!

The Legend...

I mean, how could we not go to this?? After my little tour through Laos, my buddy Huy met me back in Thailand and this was how we intended to kick things off.

Based on the research we did prior to arrival, it seemed like all the hostels on the island of Koh Phangan during the full moon party had a minimum stay of 5 nights. Ehh...we weren't willing to budget that much time there, or in any one spot for that matter, so we opted to stay on the neighboring island of Koh Samui, and take a boat over on the night of the party. Koh Samui was kinda cool in itself, although surprisingly commercialized. I mean, there was a McDonalds and Burger King across the street from each other. Wtf? Not really the scene we were looking for, but then again we were in the heart of the touristy area known as Chewang, so we rented some scooters and explored the other parts of the island.

At $5/day for the rentals, it was a fun way to kill some time, and we were able to see some really nice areas. We hit up some remote beaches, ate cheap local food, and even found a cool waterfall with a couple little jumps. And most importantly, we came away unscathed, unlike so many other tourists we saw wrapped in gauze from a nasty scooter wreck.

The night of the party we hitched a ride to the docks where our speedboat awaited. We opted for the "VIP" tickets which were like $5 more and allowed us the skip the massive line and get on the next available boat. They opened the velvet ropes for us and we piled in, making lighthearted small talk with the other partygoers. However talk ceased and the mood quickly changed to a more serious tone when the boat took off, everyone clinging to whatever they could, holding on for dear life. No joke. This guy was pushing it full throttle as we screamed across the ocean, banking against waves and I swear we went full airborn a couple of times. It was nuts. Thank goodness we were all wearing life jackets, because we had heard that these boats sometimes crash or flip and now I could see exactly why. After about a half hour of skipping across the water, we pulled into the docks of Koh Phangan.

Happy to be back on solid ground, we stepped into the crowded streets. The area of the island known as Han Rin consisted of a maze of streets lined with hostels, bars, and restaurants, finally giving way to Had Rin Beach, better known as "Full Moon Beach". The streets were buzzing, packed with people from all over the world, ready to make this an epic night. Apparently neon was the color to wear, as everyone was decked out head to toe, as well as covered in body paint, glowing under the blacklights. Little paint stations were everywhere, where you could sit down and get various desings painted on your body.

 

Also lining the streets were infamous bucket stands, the drink of choice at these events. Picture a little bucket that you would use to play in the sand as a kid, filled with various types of cheap booze and energy drink. A dangerous concoction.

We noticed a lot of these bucket stands were also selling the body paint, so we grabbed a couple buckets and a few different colors and went to work.

We were even nice enough to help some other people out with theirs ;)

 

We had a great time cruising the streets, popping into the little bars, meeting and talking smack to random people from around the world, which was a party in itself. But the beach was where the real action was, so a little before midnight we made our way there.

With a big bright full moon casting an omonous glow on the beach and the thousands of people inhabiting it that evening, we entered into the swarm. Simply put, it was madness. And there was fire. A lot of fire. Fire limbo, fire hoops, and of course, the most menacing of all, the infamous fire jumprope.

There were about a dozen big bars along the beach, each blaring their own brand of exotic techno. This was not one cohesive event. But rather a bunch of individual parties bleeding and melding into one another to form the fabric of this monstrosity. We looked on for a moment from the fringes, wide eyed and a bit hesitant, but we slowly moved into the mass and were completely absorbed in. Into the raw energy of 20,000+ people letting loose on some remote beach halfway across the world. It was unlike anything else I've ever experienced. Needless to say, the night was a bit of a blur, and I didnt take very many photos. Probably a good thing.

Sun rising over Full Moon Beach

As we slowly made our way back to the docks, squinting into the morning light, we promised ourselves that we would do this again. We would be back!

Not surprisingly, we slept pretty much the entire next day and then decided to roll to the small island of Koh Tao, a chill little scuba / snorkeling mecca. We bid our farewells to Penzi, the nicest little lady who ran the guest house we stayed at in Koh Samui, and were on our way.

Arriving into Koh Tao

 

We linked up with two realy cool Dutch girls that we met at the guesthouse in Koh Samui, and hung with them for the next couple days. I knew they were good company when one of them mentioned she would soon be starting with PwC out of the Amsterdam office :)

Koh Toa was exactly what we needed at that point. It was the smallest of the island chain including Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, and had a super laid back vibe. There was zero commercialization on the island, consisting almost exclusively of cool little bars, guest houses and dive shops. Exactly what I pictured Thai island life to be. That night we rolled out to the little island bars and plopped down on the bean bag chairs neatly lining the beach, just feet away from the water. Mohito in hand, chill house music playing, and water gently lapping against the shore just a few feet in front of us, it was perfection.

Random stray dog footrest

 

The next day we booked a half day snorkeling boat trip which was fantastic. Some of the best I've ever done, only rivaled by Maui. The volume of fish and spectrum of colors was top notch. Why hadn't we discovered this place sooner??

Descending into massive school of fish

 

If we didn't have our flight tickets booked for Vietnam, it's very likely that we would have stayed another week. These islands were amazing. But, it was time to move on, and like I said before, we'd be back.

And as it turns out, Round 2 came sooner than expected :)

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy