Well, we survived the Full Moon Party. Apologies for not posting sooner, but it took us a few days to recover. All in all, it was an amazing night--definitely one of the best parties I've ever had the pleasure of attending.For those of you who are not familiar with it, the Full Moon Party is a monthly all-night dance rager (from 10:00 p.m. until 10:00 a.m.) on the island of Koh Phangan. It began over a decade ago and now attracts between 8,000 and 30,000 partygoers each month. Its popularity has spawned the Half Moon Party, which takes place in the jungle instead of the beach, and also a Black Moon Party, which is a big, crazy trance-music fest, from what I understand. Full Moon remains the largest and most popular of these events, attracting deejays from all over the world and featuring multiple dance areas along the beach of Hat Rin and inside the many bars that line it.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me start from the very beginning: We arrived on Koh Phangan after two flights, a loooong layover in Bangkok, and our multiple attempts to hustle multiple planeloads of other travelers into taking a speedboat with us at nearly midnight from Koh Samui (the island we flew to, Koh Phangan has no airport) to Koh Phangan, where the party is. We managed to negotiate the price down and although we didn't get a full boat of 10 passengers, we did pretty well for ourselves, acquiring seven people total (four others.) Our motley crew of late-night seamen included an Israeli (of course...more on them later), a British guy who sails ships to Antarctica, a dude from Singapore, and a girl from Northern Ireland who has been working at DisneyWorld for the past year.
Once on Koh Phangan, we arrived at the hotel we had booked only to find it completely desolate. There was a big sign on the reception door exclaiming a penalty of 5,000 baht (approximately USD $150) for waking up the staff at night. That seemed both excessive and unnecessarily unwelcoming. Although called the Beer Bungalow, (something that had caused me to gasp in horror a few weeks earlier) it certainly did not appear to live up to its name as a haven of fun and debauchery. It was also decidedly further away from the party beach than expected. We left in search of a new place to stay, which on Koh Phangan the night before a full moon, is no easy task.
Thankfully, we managed to find one room at one hotel and a second at another just up the street, both no more than a 10 minute walk from Sunrise Beach, site of the world-famous Full Moon Party. We knew this would come in handy at 6:00 a.m. when we were done partying and ready to crash. Sneaky and I bunked up and Fritz and Antarctica Dude (who was not staying for the party, but instead heading to a yoga resort on the north side of the island) took the room at the Crazy Israeli Trance Dance Party Resort (again, more on that later.)
After checking in at our respective lodgings, we decided to immediately find some fun. At this point, however, Sneaky and I realized we had no way of contacting Fritz; We had both left our hotel room sans mobile telephone (they were dead anyway) and we weren't even sure that Fritz had his on him.
Wandering around town in search of a snack, a drink, and Fritz, we were perplexed by the fact that the place seemed completely empty. We spent a good 20-30 minutes trying to understand where the hell everyone was. We wandered into the "town" part of Hat Rin, a maze of narrow streets, no cars, hardly any mopeds even--just falafel stand after banana pancake stand after falafel stand, interspersed with bars airing episodes of Friends or Family Guy on large televisions.
Finally, we found the beach and it suddenly made sense why all the bungalows and hotels we passed were empty: EVERYONE--thousands of people--were partying right on the beach. And not just some random beach, but one of the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen (even at nearly 2:00 a.m., we were able to decipher that.) We grabbed buckets, the drink of choice in Hat Rin. For those of you unaware of the bucket phenomenon, there are collapsible tables all over the backpacker areas of Thailand, where drinks are sold in beach pails. Basically, you choose a fifth of Thai whiskey or vodka and a mixer or two, like Coca-Cola or Red Bull. My favorite combo is the Smirnoff/Schwepps Lemon Soda/pineapple juice bucket.
Buckets in hand, we hit the party. We eventually (and thankfully) ran into Fritz inside a bar beach called Cactus. As I said to Sneaky, "They are playing Madonna's Like a Prayer. If Fritz is anywhere on this beach, he will be here within minutes." And I was correct. And there was much laughter and rejoicing.
We stayed out until about 5:00 a.m. before we decided to call it a night; After all, this was really just the warm-up for the real thing.
After sleeping most of the day, enjoying a restorative mango shake and some omelets, we prepped for FMP night with foot massages. That was where we learned that the Thai massage place would be open all night during the party. Fabulous. We knew we'd be back.
I got all dolled up in a new dress that I would not mind tossing if it got covered in day-glo body paint (that stuff does NOT come out) and my requisite hippie headscarf. We sat around in one of the Family Guy bars, enjoying delicious pad thai, buckets, and a few beers. We watched at least four episodes, including the one where Peter goes back in time and ends up married to Molly Ringwald and they spoof Back to the Future. Hilarious. [NB: the very fact that there are all these bars in Backpacker Land that show Family Guy all day and all night makes me want to write an episode of Family Guy where the Griffins end up in a bar in Thailand, watching Family Guy. It's very existential, I realize. Try not to let that blow your mind right now.]
We hit the beach a little past 11:00 p.m. and it was already bumpin'. There was a giant fire jump rope which none of us had the cojones to try out, and they were just beginning to illuminate the huge fire sign that read: FULL MOON PARTY, HAADRIN, KOH PHANGAN
On the whole, I was pretty surprised to find that the atmosphere was significantly more chill that
I had expected. There wasn't (or rather, I did not notice) any overt or out-in-the-open drug use, and I didn't really feel uncomfortable or unsafe at any point. Mostly, it was just a bunch of body-painted hippies and pseudo-hippies from all over the world (well, mostly Israel), drinking and dancing like maniacs. I have to think there was a non-insignificant number of people people doing cocaine or ecstasy, but I chose to fuel my all-night rave dancing with banana honey pancakes. I had three over the course of the night (OK, one with Nutella instead of honey.)
Generally, the scene was a lot less seedy than I had expected, which was definitely a good thing. It could be that the twin factors of it being low season for tourism and the middle of a worldwide economic recession made for a more tame party with fewer revelers, but I didn't find anything disappointing about it.
We took a break around 3:15 a.m. for a second round of hour-long foot massages, and it was just what we needed to get back out there and dance like the champs that we are. I definitely passed out in that chair, but once she did the Thai massage stretching and gave my spine a few good cracks, I was ready to dance until dawn!
We lost Fritz close to 5:00 a.m., when he took off for some Dr. Falafel and his bed. I am pretty sure he was picking tahini out of his chest hair the next day. Meanwhile, I was being accosted by a very annoying Israeli kid who took forever to shake off. I finally managed to bolt and used it as an excuse to grab another banana pancake, since Sneaky was busy chatting up a British girl.
We stayed until 6:30 a.m., watching the sun rise over the ocean. The beach is certainly called Sunrise Beach with good reason--it's a spectacular spot from which to watch the dawn break.
I had originally thought that the Full Moon Party would be something I'd only ever do once; Much like Preakness, the most fun I'd never want to have again. I would definitely come back another time, but I'd probably want to see what the Half Moon Party in the jungle in like. Maybe I'll just have to stick around here on Koh Phangan for about two weeks... :)
After checking in at our respective lodgings, we decided to immediately find some fun. At this point, however, Sneaky and I realized we had no way of contacting Fritz; We had both left our hotel room sans mobile telephone (they were dead anyway) and we weren't even sure that Fritz had his on him.
Wandering around town in search of a snack, a drink, and Fritz, we were perplexed by the fact that the place seemed completely empty. We spent a good 20-30 minutes trying to understand where the hell everyone was. We wandered into the "town" part of Hat Rin, a maze of narrow streets, no cars, hardly any mopeds even--just falafel stand after banana pancake stand after falafel stand, interspersed with bars airing episodes of Friends or Family Guy on large televisions.
Finally, we found the beach and it suddenly made sense why all the bungalows and hotels we passed were empty: EVERYONE--thousands of people--were partying right on the beach. And not just some random beach, but one of the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen (even at nearly 2:00 a.m., we were able to decipher that.) We grabbed buckets, the drink of choice in Hat Rin. For those of you unaware of the bucket phenomenon, there are collapsible tables all over the backpacker areas of Thailand, where drinks are sold in beach pails. Basically, you choose a fifth of Thai whiskey or vodka and a mixer or two, like Coca-Cola or Red Bull. My favorite combo is the Smirnoff/Schwepps Lemon Soda/pineapple juice bucket.
Buckets in hand, we hit the party. We eventually (and thankfully) ran into Fritz inside a bar beach called Cactus. As I said to Sneaky, "They are playing Madonna's Like a Prayer. If Fritz is anywhere on this beach, he will be here within minutes." And I was correct. And there was much laughter and rejoicing.
We stayed out until about 5:00 a.m. before we decided to call it a night; After all, this was really just the warm-up for the real thing.
After sleeping most of the day, enjoying a restorative mango shake and some omelets, we prepped for FMP night with foot massages. That was where we learned that the Thai massage place would be open all night during the party. Fabulous. We knew we'd be back.
I got all dolled up in a new dress that I would not mind tossing if it got covered in day-glo body paint (that stuff does NOT come out) and my requisite hippie headscarf. We sat around in one of the Family Guy bars, enjoying delicious pad thai, buckets, and a few beers. We watched at least four episodes, including the one where Peter goes back in time and ends up married to Molly Ringwald and they spoof Back to the Future. Hilarious. [NB: the very fact that there are all these bars in Backpacker Land that show Family Guy all day and all night makes me want to write an episode of Family Guy where the Griffins end up in a bar in Thailand, watching Family Guy. It's very existential, I realize. Try not to let that blow your mind right now.]
We hit the beach a little past 11:00 p.m. and it was already bumpin'. There was a giant fire jump rope which none of us had the cojones to try out, and they were just beginning to illuminate the huge fire sign that read: FULL MOON PARTY, HAADRIN, KOH PHANGANOn the whole, I was pretty surprised to find that the atmosphere was significantly more chill that
I had expected. There wasn't (or rather, I did not notice) any overt or out-in-the-open drug use, and I didn't really feel uncomfortable or unsafe at any point. Mostly, it was just a bunch of body-painted hippies and pseudo-hippies from all over the world (well, mostly Israel), drinking and dancing like maniacs. I have to think there was a non-insignificant number of people people doing cocaine or ecstasy, but I chose to fuel my all-night rave dancing with banana honey pancakes. I had three over the course of the night (OK, one with Nutella instead of honey.)Generally, the scene was a lot less seedy than I had expected, which was definitely a good thing. It could be that the twin factors of it being low season for tourism and the middle of a worldwide economic recession made for a more tame party with fewer revelers, but I didn't find anything disappointing about it.
We took a break around 3:15 a.m. for a second round of hour-long foot massages, and it was just what we needed to get back out there and dance like the champs that we are. I definitely passed out in that chair, but once she did the Thai massage stretching and gave my spine a few good cracks, I was ready to dance until dawn!
We lost Fritz close to 5:00 a.m., when he took off for some Dr. Falafel and his bed. I am pretty sure he was picking tahini out of his chest hair the next day. Meanwhile, I was being accosted by a very annoying Israeli kid who took forever to shake off. I finally managed to bolt and used it as an excuse to grab another banana pancake, since Sneaky was busy chatting up a British girl.
We stayed until 6:30 a.m., watching the sun rise over the ocean. The beach is certainly called Sunrise Beach with good reason--it's a spectacular spot from which to watch the dawn break.
I had originally thought that the Full Moon Party would be something I'd only ever do once; Much like Preakness, the most fun I'd never want to have again. I would definitely come back another time, but I'd probably want to see what the Half Moon Party in the jungle in like. Maybe I'll just have to stick around here on Koh Phangan for about two weeks... :)
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