Ko Pha Ngan - Full Moon Party

Location: Pai, North Thailand
Weather: Warm

I headed north and got a bus to Suratani and a car ferry to the island of Ko Samui. This is a big island and a top holiday destination for package tourists. I spent 2 days here, hired a motorbike and drove the 50km's around the island. I didn't find it particularly interesting and the bungalow was no way as good as the one on Ko Lanta.

Anyways, I was headed to island Ko Phang Nga, so I got the very rough 45minute ferry - I'm amazed nobody was chucking up on this voyage, the swell was very large. The reason to go to Ko Phang Nga was to meet up with my friends Dominic and Troy(from Melbourne) for the Full Moon Party. Upon landing I expected tons of guesthouses to be begging for clients, but there was literally nobody about, except idiots in tour agencies saying "oh no, everywhere is full". So I took a random bus up to Haad Thong Noi in the north east of the island. The bus cost 150Bart, took 1 hour, was up the worst, most hilly road un-sealed I've ever seen and I had to pay 400Bart to stay in a bungalow that had a manually flushing bog, Internet access was also the most expensive I've seen in Thailand. The beach outside was nice enough, very quiet and sandy.
But this was way too far away from the full moon party, which was an hour south in Haad Rin. So, the next day I took the bus back. I spent about 45mins wandering aimlessly lugging my heavy backpack in the intense heat, looking for a bungalow to stay in and got tired of repeatedly hearing "sorry we full for party"...until I met two young English girls - Gabby and Alex - at last somebody with beauty and brains, so I got on a bus with them. We went up a hill to a place called The Natural Home - that had a stunning view of Haad Rin beach. As it happened, Gabby & Alex got the last room, but this drunken Nepal dude called Ram who was some kind of advisor to the staff made it so that I could sleep in the storeroom! after they put a padlock on the door and a mattress on the floor it wasn't great, but once I'd blasted the mosquitos with my bugspray it was at least sleepable! Even better Haad Rin beach was only a 10min walk away!
I found Ko Phang Nga a great place, a great party atmosphere on the beach at night, the restaurants had pretty good food and they showed top movies as well - I saw Napolean Dynamite, Old School, Ray, Around the World in 80 Days and the Aviator (yes, all highly illegal cinema copies, but who cares, this is Thailand, right) whilst enjoying bbq'd fish and other delicious food.

For the Full Moon Party (on the 24th) I met up with Dominic and Troy and that was cool. But I guess the other 3-8000 people that joined us on the beach made it even cooler! yes, people boated in from Ko Samui, Ko Tao and from everywhere else on the island and around. I had a great time, got totally smashed on 'buckets' - basically for about 2 quid they put a bottle of Thai Whiskey + a can of Sprite and a can of Redbull in a bucket and you drink the mix through a straw. All the bars along the beach had awesome sound systems and music playing. Met many random people throughout the night and ended up jumping around in the ocean as the sun rose before going to bed around 9am.

I spent a couple more days on Ko Phangan to recover, after 2 nights I moved out of my store room to a bamboo bungalow on the beach, this was ok the first night, cos I went out partying until day light, but the 2nd night I tried to go to bed early, but you cannot get any sleep when it sounds like you've got a ghettoblaster next door thanks to the bars on the beach being so loud.

By JamesReed on 09.03.05 @ 01:39 PM GMT