To say that Koh Phangan was fun, is an understatement. It was the funnest, craziest and most filled with partying week of my life. And I took breaks.
We arrived on the fourteenth of February. Valentine's Day. It was the Monday before the Saturday night of Full Moon. We walked the streets of Haad Rin that first night to find somewhere to eat dinner. We ate in a beautiful Italian Restaurant, MonnaLisa, that was topped eventually, but was one of our favourite meals of Koh Phangan. So nice that we returned on our final night.
We finished dinner at about eleven pm and the streets were desolate, isolated and sad looking. "Monday mustn't be a big night in Koh Phangan", we mused as we strolled around as new-to-Thailand-travellers. We decided to make our way to the beach to see what it was like at night time. "Quiet because it's Monday" we thought, perhaps with a few groups of stoners smoking and singing hippy songs.
We could not have been more wrong. As we walked down towards the beach, down the alley towards Cactus, we could feel the ground vibrate. It slowly grew up through our legs, our bellies, our minds. And once we reached the beach, that vibration of music and good feeling had reached our hearts. We were enthralled and encased by the power of the party. We had never experienced anything like it before.
The beach was dotted with masses of people, drinking from buckets and dancing like lunatics. We were in Party Heaven. A place none of us had realised we craved. A place I never thought I would actually enjoy. But I certainly did.
Above is a picture of our Koh Phangan rings, donated by a lovely Bucket Stall owner whose name I don't remember. She was nice though.
After an unforgettable night of dancing and making new friends, the two most memorable being those two boys from Fiji whose names I don't remember, we arrived home from the beach at 6.30am. I was greeted by a text message from my sister asking if she could call me, because she had news. Her boyfriend, now fiancé, had proposed to her on V-Day. Cue me bawling my eyes out in the Gulf of Thailand with happiness and being embarrassingly told by my sister to hang up.
And so the tone of the week was set. With the surprise arrival of another friend the next day (that I had co-planned) we, of course, ventured to the beach that night too, this time more aware of what to expect. And so followed a week of partying. We stayed out most nights until dawn, stayed in bed until 11.30am, had breakfast (included in our room rate and I proudly only missed it once!) then returned to bed until skype o'clock (3pm) most days. On the two days after I skipped the night-time beach, I took strolls after breakfast, got a facial massage, occasionally lay on the beach (completely shaded, of course, and covered in factor fifty).
We stayed in a fine ol' resort that did the job in a bungalow pee-break distance away from the beach. Our favourite staff member was a beautiful Thai girl called Pancake. I think she will forever stay in my mind as the epitome of Thai Beauty. I hope her life turns out well.
Full Moon Night finally arrived. The night after the real Full Moon because of a Buddhist Holiday on which we lost power for three hours. It was a little worrying, as we hadn't yet eaten dinner, and a little scary because we were on an island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand.
It was everything we expected. Our Beach was taken over by tens of thousands of travellers, who arrived from Koh Tao and Koh Samui for the night, or ventured from the far side of Koh Phangan for the festivities. We donned our bright colours and glow paint and partied with the masses. I bailed earlier than the rest as the crowd was too much for me but I saw from the video played around the streets the next day that the party didn't even stop when the sun came up. 9am and the party was still throbbing at Drop In, the favoured techno haunt.
In all, it was a week I will never forget and a place I will never return to. I may explore the other side of Koh Phangan in the future but, for me, Haad Rin was a one stop shop and one that doesn't need to be revisited.
In short, I've done Full Moon, and I liked it.
We arrived on the fourteenth of February. Valentine's Day. It was the Monday before the Saturday night of Full Moon. We walked the streets of Haad Rin that first night to find somewhere to eat dinner. We ate in a beautiful Italian Restaurant, MonnaLisa, that was topped eventually, but was one of our favourite meals of Koh Phangan. So nice that we returned on our final night.
We finished dinner at about eleven pm and the streets were desolate, isolated and sad looking. "Monday mustn't be a big night in Koh Phangan", we mused as we strolled around as new-to-Thailand-travellers. We decided to make our way to the beach to see what it was like at night time. "Quiet because it's Monday" we thought, perhaps with a few groups of stoners smoking and singing hippy songs.
We could not have been more wrong. As we walked down towards the beach, down the alley towards Cactus, we could feel the ground vibrate. It slowly grew up through our legs, our bellies, our minds. And once we reached the beach, that vibration of music and good feeling had reached our hearts. We were enthralled and encased by the power of the party. We had never experienced anything like it before.
The beach was dotted with masses of people, drinking from buckets and dancing like lunatics. We were in Party Heaven. A place none of us had realised we craved. A place I never thought I would actually enjoy. But I certainly did.
After an unforgettable night of dancing and making new friends, the two most memorable being those two boys from Fiji whose names I don't remember, we arrived home from the beach at 6.30am. I was greeted by a text message from my sister asking if she could call me, because she had news. Her boyfriend, now fiancé, had proposed to her on V-Day. Cue me bawling my eyes out in the Gulf of Thailand with happiness and being embarrassingly told by my sister to hang up.
And so the tone of the week was set. With the surprise arrival of another friend the next day (that I had co-planned) we, of course, ventured to the beach that night too, this time more aware of what to expect. And so followed a week of partying. We stayed out most nights until dawn, stayed in bed until 11.30am, had breakfast (included in our room rate and I proudly only missed it once!) then returned to bed until skype o'clock (3pm) most days. On the two days after I skipped the night-time beach, I took strolls after breakfast, got a facial massage, occasionally lay on the beach (completely shaded, of course, and covered in factor fifty).
We stayed in a fine ol' resort that did the job in a bungalow pee-break distance away from the beach. Our favourite staff member was a beautiful Thai girl called Pancake. I think she will forever stay in my mind as the epitome of Thai Beauty. I hope her life turns out well.
Full Moon Night finally arrived. The night after the real Full Moon because of a Buddhist Holiday on which we lost power for three hours. It was a little worrying, as we hadn't yet eaten dinner, and a little scary because we were on an island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand.
It was everything we expected. Our Beach was taken over by tens of thousands of travellers, who arrived from Koh Tao and Koh Samui for the night, or ventured from the far side of Koh Phangan for the festivities. We donned our bright colours and glow paint and partied with the masses. I bailed earlier than the rest as the crowd was too much for me but I saw from the video played around the streets the next day that the party didn't even stop when the sun came up. 9am and the party was still throbbing at Drop In, the favoured techno haunt.
In all, it was a week I will never forget and a place I will never return to. I may explore the other side of Koh Phangan in the future but, for me, Haad Rin was a one stop shop and one that doesn't need to be revisited.
In short, I've done Full Moon, and I liked it.
