October 14th - 17th 2008
We arrived on the island of Ko Phangan, a short ferry away from Ko Tao, on the day of a Full Moon Party. The parties are quite legendary on the island, often attracting thousands of people who need no other excuse than "it's that time of the month" for a good time. Although worried about our stamina, for we are no longer the spring chickens of the ball, we were of course curious to see what made the moon over Phangan so spectacular and the party so wild. We stepped off the boat in full acknowledgement that there would, once again, be little sleeping going on in paradise.
Not having done an "all-nighter" in a while, Robbie and I decided we should buy a cheap bottle of vodka and a number of bottles of a local energy drink as a mixer to get us going. Armed with our own concoction in plastic bottles, in true budget style, we set off in a pick-up truck to Haad Rin beach around 9pm, along with our beach hut neighbours, Malte and Barbara from Germany.
After lining our stomachs with baked potatoes (you can take the man out of Ireland ...), we headed for the beach where all the action seemed to be. One of the first things we noticed was the abundance of alcohol stalls selling so-called "buckets". Similar to the buckets you normally get with a spade at the seaside, these plastic containers contained a bottle of a local spirit with 2 mixers and were being sold for 150-300 Baht (approximately $ US 5-10). This came to explain the state of a lot of people come the early hours of the morning.
The beach was buzzing with people from all over the world, dancing in the sand to a mixture of trance, pop, reggae, drum and base and techno music. We made our way from one beach bar/dance zone to the next, admiring jugglers and fire artists as we went and lifting our heads from time to time to see fireworks randomly go off. The feeling that we were pretty much at the heart of the backpacking route in Thailand was confirmed when we stumbled across a number of people we had met on various bus journeys/in hostels during the last few weeks travelling. I personally hit a low point at sometime around 4am so took my place along with other stragglers on the sand. I must have drifted off a little as my next recollection was of the sun coming up over the water, revealing the party in its barest of forms - some people still happily dancing away, others crashed out in unflattering positions, and a lot of empty buckets, glass bottles and lost flip flops. Pleased that I still had my possessions with me, I left the scene at around 8am (after another quick dance) although it was 11am by the time I got back to our beach hut on the north side of the island (got stuck at a pharmacy for a while, long story, nothing to do with buying medicine).
In a nutshell, the rest of the time on Ko Phangan was spent recovering. Far from the craziness of Haad Rin, our beach in the north, with its white sand, palm trees, warm water and good restaurant had everything we needed. After a couple of days' recuperation, it was time to pack and move on again before the commotion of the approaching Half Moon Party got started. I've heard there are also Black Moon and Blue Moon parties on Ko Phangan so I think the island is continually preparing for, putting on or clearing up after some moon event. The poor locals!
