Koh Phangan – Full Moon Par-tay!!!

The spirit of Koh Phangan of course lies in the wonders of the Full Moon Party – a gratuitous night of dancing on the beach, drinking buckets of dubious alcohol and generally having an awesome night of fun. There is, however, also an incredibly beautiful island to discover in the light of day.

We made our home in Haad Yao, a stunning stretch of beach that captured our hearts. Our first night's accommodation was nothing special, purely functional while we dumped our bags to look

for somewhere better, and when we found it, it was most definitely worth the wait. For the rest of our time in Koh Phangan our home was an amazing little hut right on the beach, with a beautiful garden of flowers, rows of tall palm trees and an awesome view of the sea. We had our own balcony with table, chairs and our favourite of all things – a hammock!

On our first night, we had enjoyed dinner in a lovely little restaurant on the beach inches from the sea, however after sampling the food made by our guesthouse, we were soon living the high life and ordering dinner to be sent to our room so that we could eat on our private balcony overlooking the beach!

When the day of the Full Moon came, we sunned ourselves on the glorious beach and then set about getting ready for the big night, with Tiger beer for Sup and Red Bull for me as a starting point. A long and bumpy taxi van ride then took us to the infamous beach on Hat Rin and we were greeted with a massive row of colourful stalls selling body paint, neon t-shirts and shorts, and above all buckets! Well, it would have been rude not to indulge in local custom so we got our hands on a rum, coke and red bull combo and went off to blend in with the thousands of happy faces dancing on the sand. One bucket quickly turned into two, and then three, and I just managed to drag Sup away from a potential bucket number four with the promise of pizza to ensure that we would be able to actually find our way back home.

We had a lot of fun on the beach, there was definitely more commercial dance and chart music than underground to our surprise. The drum and bass tent, however, was pretty lively and we spent most of our time there until I demanded that we dance to some of my tunes for a while and pulled Sup through the crowds. It was here I found the fire slide...what a crazy idea, to climb up army style netting and slide through fire into a crowd of drunken tourists while tipsy – it was too good to be true and before Sup could say a word, I was already on my way! He got a photo of the slide itself, but I shot down so fast there was no time to capture me in action! After noticing that I had my eye on the flaming fire hoop, I was soon dragged back through the crowd before I got any more ideas, which on reflection was undoubtedly a very good move.

Following the loony antics Full Moon Party, we slowed our pace for the next few days and relaxed on the beach, sometimes with new found friends. Thailand seems to have so many friendly dogs full of character, and one cheeky guy took a shine to me and took Sup's place on his sunbathing towel next to me when he got up to take a photo!

Once we were fully recovered we rented a moped for the last time so that we could see a bit more of the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, so often missed in the shadow of the Full Moon frenzy. Once again, the views did not disappoint and the journey was wonderfully smooth compared with the drama of Koh Tao. It was fantastic to be able to enjoy both the hedonistic spirit of the Full Moon Party and the chilled out paradise of the rest of the island and we both felt it was the perfect place to end our Thai island adventures.

On our last night, we soaked up every last second of the brilliantly colourful beach sunset, although after far too much time paying attention to the sky I started to demand Sup's attention back onto me and rightly so!

The islands of Thailand will always be special to us and the experiences unforgettable. We emerged from our wonderful month by the sea a confident rock climber and diver, masters of the moped, fully fledged members of the Full Moon Party crew and above all, engaged! With so many wonderful memories behind us, we couldn't wait to see what else South East Asia had in store for us!

written by

SupandNic on September 24, 2010 from Ko Phangan, Thailand

from the travel blog: Sup and Nic's World Tour!

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