So finally after three months in South East Asia the full moon party was upon me. Leaving the enchanting island of Ko Tao I headed over to the lawless isle of Koh Phangan on the 4th March 2012 to begin preparations for what has to be one of the most notorious parties on the planet. Catching the boat over at 9am we arrived in Koh Phangan around midday and began the hunt for what I feared could be an impossible task: a cheap place to stay before and during the full moon party, a time of the month when accommodation prices predictably skyrocket. Getting off the ferry with my new Germans chums, Anselm and Daniel, I randomly bumped into a lad named Mike Ruf who I had orginally met in the party city of Vietnam, Nha Trang. Sharing a pickup over to Haad Rin after paying an exorbitant fare to the Songthaew driver, Mike said that he had booked his accommodation already at a hostel on Haad Rin and with no other ideas of where to stay, we decided to tag along to see if there were any dorms available as apparently the island fills up pretty quickly prior to the party. We had however made a conscious effort to arrive on the island early to give ourselves the best possible opportunity of finding a decent place to stay that was close enough to the sunrise beach where the party rages every month. Walking along the street towards Mike's hostel we were approached by a taxi driver who said that there were 500baht rooms going at Coral Bungalows which was about a fifteen minute walk to Haad Rin Nok - the sunrise beach party - the only problem we had was that there were three of us and the rooms at Coral only held two. Looking around me I spotted an unmistakably British chap and on a complete whim I approached him to ask whether he had found anywhere to stay and if he hadn't, whether he would consider checking out these bungalows with us so we could get two in each room. The lads name was Adam and as I would soon find out, he was a complete legend who would later become my partner in crime on that most reckless of islands as Daniel and Anselm, for some incomprehensible reason I don't remember, would be leaving for Phuket before the full moon party hit. Adam said he was travelling solo and like us had rocked up without a plan of where to stay and said that the Coral Bungalow plan sounded as good as any. I could tell in the first five minutes of speaking to him that we would get on and like I had done with the German lads, we clicked instantly and so after bidding farewell to Mike in the face of a better offer, we all dived in the pickup and headed over to Coral Bungalows eager to snap up these super cheap rooms. When we got there the price had changed slightly although not drastically and we ended up bagging two rooms for 600baht a night per room. The best thing was that it was a flat rate and would apparently not increase in price the closer it got to the party night. A fact I double checked with reception as when I had been checking the internet on Ko Tao I had seen that many hostels on Koh Phangan offered cheap rooms until the 6th after which the price doubled until the party ended on the 9th. Our stay at Coral Bungalows, the home of the world famous 'Original Koh Phangan Pool Party', turned out to be a predictably loose five days resulting in a lot of whisky buckets being sunk and heaps of reckless behaviour. Set around a sparking pool that glistened under a glorious sun during the day, Coral Bungalows played host to a series of riotous pool parties that preceded the full moon party for three crazy nights and drew crowds from all around the island to party into the early hours in and out of it's pool. A brief and nasty case of 'man flu' unfortunately crippled me for my first couple of nights at Coral but thankfully soon cleared up allowing me to catch a few of the illicit pool parties and by the time the 8th rolled round I was fighting fit and ready for whatever the full moon night could throw at me, which turned out to a great deal. During the day of the FMP I strolled down to town to get some supplies for the night that lay ahead, most notably: a neon full moon t-shirt, fluorescent face paint and some garish bright yellow wrist bands. When in Thailand eh.... Stopping by 7/11 to pick up some beers early evening, I headed back to the room and along with Adam we got suited and booted for the night ahead covering oursleves with the neon paint and putting on the ridiculous full moon attire. Around 11pm we strolled down to Haad Rin Nok tense with anticipation of what lay ahead and entered the beautiful golden scar of sunrise beach which under cover of darkness had turned into a heaving mass of uncontrollable anarchy.
Looking around me, the beach was on fire.
Thousands of people lined the beach wielding buckets of whisky, each as drunk as the next on the insanely tangible energy that erupted from those golden sands. Faced by such a vibrant spectacle was a moment that took my breath away and I was instantly swept away by the thunderous excitement that poured across the beach; a euphoric tornado that only relented and dropped me back to planet earth around 8am the following morning. Wandering through the crowds and avoiding the water that had unpleasantly been turned into a public urinal, I came across a gigantic billboard-style sign that had been erected on the sand which read, 'FULL MOON PARTY, HAAD RIN, KOH PHANGAN'; each word written in flaming gasoline that raged in the midnight air. Looking around, flashes of light filled my vision as fire spinners danced within the intensity of their own flames to crowds of awed onlookers while in front of the main bars, interactive fire demonstrations had been set up designed to test how brave/idiotic people can get after a few buckets. For example, fire skipping was a huge rope which had been doused in kerosene and lit with the scratch of a match luring curious and inebriated drinkers to it's fascinating glow. Two Thai lads had each climbed on top of a table and had proceeded to swing the flaming rope around and around in slow thunderous rotations which flicked strokes of fire out at the crowd like a dragon that had just broken free of it's shackles. I watched as testosterone-pumping lads ran up and started to skip over the flaming rope which gradually increased in speed until they were finally caught out and given a nasty burn to their legs, or in one poor lads case, the John Thomas. Other fascinating pyromaniac games filled the beach although each and every one of them resulted in the same intoxicated yelps of pain from over-confident drunken athletes.
In terms of the music on offer, the host of clubs that lined the beach catered for all tastes with Drop In Club playing Hip Hop and RnB, Zoom Bar and Vinyl Club blasting Techno and Psy-Trance, Cactus repeating all the 'Everyday I'm Shufflin' Commercial Pop tunes, Orchid smashing out hard core DnB and mellow mountain - my favourite - playing some really good tech-house and is where I spent the majority of the night as raving at it's peak gave unparalleled views of the party on the beach. In short, everything was on offer to all musical tastes which surely makes it one of the most inviting and all encompassing parties on the planet. Around midnight the heavens opened, flooding the beach with monsoon rains that slammed into the sand, ploughing it up like gun-fire, however it did little to reduce the energy of the party and if anything made it all seem even more epic. It did however persist so along with Adam we beat a hasty retreat up to mellow mountain which was under cover and thankfully also played the best music. The next couple of hours are hazy and faded away into an obscurity born by multiple buckets, an encounter with a Swedish girl and an endless amount of dancing. At 6am I finally emerged from my dancing stupor on the balcony of mellow mountain to find that the rain had long since relented in it's attack on the beach and that the sun was starting to gather it's force on the horizon. Heading back down to the beach with Adam, we sat and watched as the sun appeared above the Gulf of Thailand like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a party that was still in full swing. As the first golden rays hit Haad Rin Nok a euphoric uproar surged from the sandy dance floor and shifted the party into a completely different setting; the warm spears of light giving new life to those still standing. Wading into the water we swam resplendent in the warm glow of a new day while the party continued on around us; the water rippling and undulating from the bass that was kicked out by the proud speakers which had tore the place to shreds throughout the course of the night. My recollection ends here and I think we got back to Coral bungalows around 8.30am as we had to check out of the room for 11am and I was due to catch a mini bus down to the pier for midday as I needed to get back up to Bangkok to catch my flight over to Sydney early on the 11th....What followed, unsurprisingly, was one of the worst days in living memory but it was worth every second.
The Full Moon Party. Definitely lived upto the hype.
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| For obvious reason I didn't bring my camera with me on the actual night but I hope my words paint the picture. Here, courtesy of the internet is the flaming full moon inscription. Check out the second part two of this post for my snapshots of Koh Phangan. |
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| Adam and Me. Full Moon preparations. |
