Full Moonin' it up

I decided to come to Koh Pha-Ngan a couple of days before the actual full moon to secure some decent accomodation, but even now I have trouble finding anything fairly priced. The prices are going through the roof and are rising every day closer to the full moon party, the monthly boiling point of Koh Pha-Ngan. More than a 1000 Baht for a shack with airco is the norm, where the same room in any other place and date would set you back 500 Baht, tops. After some hunting I do find a decent priced room, with airco and a proper bathroom. A flushing toilet and hot water, yeah! It's a huge change from the mosquito infested shack on 'Tao and extremely close to the beach as well. Couldn't be better. After a siesta, a beautysleep and a pre party nap I'm ready to down partying, hardcore.

Koh Pha-Ngan is the place to be in Thailand south of Bangkok when the moon reaches her complete state, and the days leading up to that.

Everyone on the backpacker trail either has been to the full moon party, is going, or is not a real backpacker. Picture a beach, huge soundsystems thumping beats, endless stalls that sell alscohol buckets with names like the real fuck bucket and Get FUCKED up!, thousands and thousands of partygoers, a small army of fire artists and an area to crash in if you're down and out. Could it get any better?

The Thai on Koh Pha-Ngan are pretty obsesses with fire. Fireshows here, a hoop on fire there, put a sign on fire or fire up a skipping rope; it's all good. Especially the skipping rope is hilarious; it's alright as long as you're on your own or with just the two of you, but the better you do, the more confident the others get. They're timing their jump-in and drunk people are not good at timing.

Many a drunken traveller pays for their bad timing with a lash of the rope on their bare ankles and the smell of burned hair is not uncommon, too. Make sure you know when to quit, because sooner or later some idiot is going to mess up.

I'm partying every night hardcore, either with randoms I meet on the beach or with Niv, who's come down with Zohar to Pha-Ngan as well. It's great to have a place to close to the beach; easy peasy to go up and down to drop your camera, change your shirt, get some money or my glasses or just rest for a moment. The Euro08 is great as well; party at 11 for three hours, watch the game for two and chill out for a bit, then hit the beach again for some more dancing barefoot on the cool beach. There's plenty to do on the beach other than dancing. Chairs allow you to relax for a bit, and there's plenty of Thai kids to play games with you, for a fee.

It costs a hundred Baht to play a game of 4-on-a-row with one of the youngsters, and you'd better not underestimate them! It's great fun, but also a bit disturbing to see them walking on the beach at 2am still.. Any way, Koh Pha-Ngan was made for me.

Except that I over do it. I party too much and on the 18th, the actual date of the full moon I'm completely emtpy. I'm waiting for Vietnam mate Leigh to arrive as I saved him a spot in my room but he doesn't make it in time. I stumble back to bed and stay there for the rest of the day. I don't feel like partying at all that night, but I do go down to the beach to say hi to some people. If you're not in the party mindset Koh Pha-Ngan is relentless and won't work for you. It doesn't bother me that I'm not partying at the party, as I had four awesome nights already.

Still feeling crank I board the taxi the next day for the journey to Phuket. A taxi, a ferry, two bumpy buses and 11 hours later I finally arrive. The travel messed me up completely, and I'm down for five straight days. I had an amazing time on Koh Pha-Ngan though and I'm pretty sure I'll come back for some more parties whenever I'm in the region. Koh Pha-Ngan is the place to be.

 

We are the children of the night
And fight for the future of our nation
Let's come together and unite
Nothing's gonna stop us now!

Let the fire burn inside
Nobody can stop this generation
'Cause we're the children of the night
Don't ever let them put you down!

Get up! Get up! Get up!
Don't ever let them put you down
Come along and join the scene
Live your life like a rave machine

Get up! Get up! Get up!
Now is the time to change
There is now time to waste
Don't ever let them put you down
Come along and join the scene
Live your life like a rave machine

Charlie Lownoise and Mental Theo - Children of the Night