What an exhausting month and a half we've had. I'll start with a recap of my trip down south in Late February.
My buddy Nick came to visit Thailand for two weeks and we had a blast with him. I met him in Chiang Mai and then he spent 4 days with us in Chiang Rai. He was interested in going south to see the Thai Islands during his trip, so we planned to go to the infamous Full Moon Party on the island of Koh Phangan!
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| Relaxing on the train |
The trek south took a while because we decided to go the budget route. While flying would have been much easier, I'm glad we got to experience train travel in this country. It was a 13 hour overnight train from Bangkok to the southern city of Surat Thani. Clearly, the train had seen better days. I'm guessing it was made in the 70's. We each had a lower berth in the bunk-bed style Fan sleeper cabin that we shared with two guys from Korea. I had to book weeks in advance because the train fills up quickly especially for the popular route right before the party. Not the best nights' sleep I've ever had but we were able to have a private bed (which is infinitely better than an overnight bus). After arriving at 6AM, we were transferred to a bus to the pier and a ferry to the island itself. After an exhausting 23 hours of travel, we were finally there and cold beer never tasted so good!
What a beautiful place! Koh Phangan is in the gulf of Thailand right off the coast of the more popular island Koh Samui. It is universally known as the place of the original Full Moon Party and has become famous all over the world for this as well as scenes from the movie 'The Beach'. Despite the great influx of foreigners who flooded the island during the 4-5 days around the party, the island still had a rugged, off-the-beaten-path feel to it once outside the party zone (Haad Rin Beach).
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| Our Own Beach |
We stayed at these awesome little bungalows in Koh Phangan. It only had about 15 bungalows but it had it's own private beach! The bungalows themselves were pretty basic but for the location and price, it was perfect for us. We met fellow travelers and hung out on the beach. It was one of those places that you really don't need to leave to enjoy yourself. I would have been perfectly content lying around on beach hammocks all trip, but we wanted to explore the island as well as experience the world famous nightlife.
We rented a motorbike and then proceeded to get in a crash. Without getting into too many details, I should have driven the thing. We got a little cut up (more roadrash) but nothing too serious thankfully. Just a slight damper to our epic trip. The Canadian girls who we had met at our bungalows suggested we check out Bottle Beach on the northern side of the island so we headed that way. This beach was so secluded that you can't even get there on land. We had to take a long-tailed boat around the jagged sea-side rocks and lush jungles above. It was beautiful & straight out of Jurassic Park. A nice little paradise. After a few hours hangin beachside, we were ready to head to the main event.
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| Bottle Beach! |
The Full Moon party started in 1985 as a small get-together among 20-30 friends on the beach of Haad Rin town (Southern Most Point of the island). Through word of mouth, it slowly grew into one of the biggest parties in the world. There were 30,000 people there!!! The party happens every month during the full moon so if you want to experience it for yourself, you will have ample opportunity. This party put to shame all parties I've ever been to. It was like a strange dream. Thousands of dancing crazy neon party-goers, fire jumping ropes, endless buckets of alcohol/red bull concoctions and bone shaking techno beats all along this beautiful stretch of beach. One strange dream indeed. We got painted and neon'd up and partook in the craziness. When in Rome right??
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| Ready to Roll |
After a few buckets and hours wandering the beach raving among the hoardes, we were tuckered out. As the night wore on, things got stranger and stranger. People passed out everywhere right on the beach! Trash all over the place. So many crazies under the influence of many different things. It felt almost like a war-zone. We posted up at this reggae bar & people watched for a few hours. We also met some interesting people from all over the world. At about 4AM, I noticed a guy stumbling around and he looked really familiar. I realized he was staying at our bungalows so I called him over. To put it mildly, he was not in good shape. I was so surprised he was still able to stand. I think he may have had a bad drug or a bad drink. It's easy to have a pill slipped into your bucket. We helped him get into a cab and thankfully he was able to make it back safely. We had heard about the many dangers of the party and let me assure you, they definitely are real. At about 5:30AM we had enough and headed back to our room. We wanted to stay up for the sunrise, but were just too exhausted.
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| So crazy!!!! |
It was such a crazy fun night. I'm so glad we could experience it (and survive it!). Although for me, It's one of those things I don't want to do again. One and done, check it off the bucket list and move on. The island itself however is well worth going to. It's a beautiful place that often gets overlooked just because of the craziness that ensues during the night. It has so much to offer other than that.
After 20 more hours of traveling, we were back in Bangkok for more craziness that I'll save for a future blog post :) Until next time...
