The light of the full moon - P.A.R.T.Y

Welcome to Koh Phangan, welcome to party central.

The first night:

In the jungle, the mighty jungle... the lion is definitely not sleeping tonight!

Fancy a pre-party before the main one? Well you have come to the right place. In Koh Phangan there seems to be a pre-party almost every night!

Waterfall party? ...check...
Blue moon party? ...you bet...
Half moon party? ...yup...
Some other party? ... absolutely!

My visit happens to coincide with the Jungle party, which as it sounds is a party under the canopy of trees - pretty cool, but how many times can I say 'party' in this post!? Probably a few more times.

After spending some time at the hostel meeting and greeting the various reprobates (people) who have descended on the island for the carnage, we bundle into a taxi on our way to the jungle. As we near the entrance to the forest, the bass reverberates under our feet. The music is heavy; trance and drum & bass, there are psychedelic colours everywhere, the trees are decorated with illuminated paraphernalia and the DJ booth is made to look like a massive golden lion - it all looks pretty awesome. People are in the distance dancing the night away - a few already look worse for wear. One guy is attempting to climb a tree, amusingly to little success.

We stay for a few hours and I lose my fellow roomies amongst the crowds and darkness. I chat to various others and by about 4.00 AM feel I have had a good primer before tomorrow. I jump on a moped taxi to get back and the guy takes me to the wrong accommodation as it has a similar name. Before he can disappear and leave me stranded at admittedly a very fancy hotel, I hop back on and eventually arrive at the right place. The driver says "Mai Pen Rai" (no worries) and heads off to pick up more stragglers from the jungle.

The second night:

The the full moon cometh. The reason we're all packed on this part of the island and why prices have been hiked up for a couple of days.

History lesson - in about the late 80s it's said that a small group of travellers head to a picturesque, but fairly nondescript beach in Haad Rin, Koh Phangan. They play music, drink, smoke questionable substances and dance the night away under the light of the full moon until the sun rises. The following month they return with more and word spreads of a monthly gathering that all are welcome at. And so began the origin of the now legendary Koh Phangan full moon party, the backpackers rite of passage in Thailand and often attracting over 20,000 party seekers every month.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I'm sitting in my hostel having my face and arms painted in various neon colours, tunes are blasting, people are merry from booze and the night is getting started. One guy has covered himself in so much orange paint, he will probably be mistaken for a radioactive version of the actual fruit. We head to another hostel for various boozy games and a chance to meet other revelers before the taxi driver squashes us in to make our way to the beach.

We arrive and you can hear it a mile away, loads of stalls are set up on the walk down selling the ludicrously strong sprit buckets, we share a first bucket and it may as well all be alcohol with a couple of shots of mixer thrown in for a laugh! As we grimace, the Thai servers chuckle. We finish one on the way down and buy another which seems ever so slightly more tasty to take to the beach.

There are tons of bars, each with their own music blaring out, and you're free to move between them on the sands as you see fit, picking up drinks on the way through. Some are more mello, others are like a rave, and a few cater to commercial genres - it's a great mix. There's a bar at the bottom of the beach where you can look out over and see all the shenanigans below and there's also a place called the reggae bar which ironically didn't play a single (or even close to) reggae tune! Instead choosing to blast out trance music - call me petty, but the name seemed a little off here.

I wisely skipped the fire rope, opting to view from a safe distance. It's a ridiculously stupid (albeit intriguing to watch) idea, where you attempt to jump a massive rope that is on FIRE! It's doused in petrol and set alight - and you try not to get hit in the process while it's swung around - madness! Once again, health and safety is well and truly out the window here and a number of people are always burnt attempting this. The combination of drunkenness and fire is probably not the best! 'Stay in school kids' 🤓

The night continues and you dance on the sands and you dance some more. The crowds are lit up in luminous colours. Regardless of age, class or race everyone dances together and problems are momentarily paused. It's pretty epic, the buckets continue to flow and the music continues to blare.

As the night draws to a close and the cracks of sunlight begin to appear, the massive crowds slowly start to disperse. The music is still blaring and the hardcore are still out in force dancing like loons on the beach or messing around in the sea, and now in the light of the sun looking a little bit ridiculous.

Thai volunteers are busy cleaning around the ravers - some who are chatting, sleeping or passed out, some licking their fire wounds and others contemplating their very existence, having probably sampled the more nefarious goods on offer. In a few hours the beach will be like new again, friends and families will come to enjoy, and remarkably they'll be little to no evidence of the craziness that went on just hours before.

It's around 8.00 AM, I have made it the night, I've lost a couple of people but managed to stick with a few others. As we make our way to the taxi's vying for business, the moon is still visible and full. The sun starts to shine brighter and hotter and the journey back to bed is welcome.

Next month the moon will once again complete the cycle to reach it's full state and the revelries will begin again... I survived one and I think one is enough! 🌘🌗🌖🌕Read more