Kho Phangan Full Moon Party
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
56
81
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Ko Phangan,
Ko Phangan,
Thailand
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The next day we dragged our lazy asses out of bed at 7:45 a.m. and jumped in Neil's truck to go diving on Sail Rock. Our morning started off a bit slow considering the speedboat they owned was in the dry dock with a crack and the speedboat they found as a replacement was no speedboat at all, but after unloading a few people, tanks and weight belts we were finally light enough to travel slightly over crawling speed and made it out to Sail Rock. The first dive was definitely my favorite. We flipped out to the eastern pinnacle where we spotted a school of fish probably a million large. The massive unit went on forever while we all tried desperately to engulf ourselves in the middle of it with no luck, although we came close. Before that, we swam down through a chimney with eels peering out from holes in the coral and spotted a few triggerfish hiding in the rocks below. The water was remarkably clear and unbelievable warm. I would have to say that this is by far the best diving I have done as an adult. The second dive was equally enjoyable which put us all in a state of high for the rest of the day.
One of the more popular ways to see the island of Phangan is by scooter. I have heard many horror stories about riding scooters in Thailand and know of even more horror stories about Amy riding scooters in any land, but the boys were not letting up. Sorry Mom, but I feel victim to peer pressure. These excitingly cheap little motorbikes were available almost anywhere for the equivalent of $6 for 24hours. We put down JT's passport as collateral and picked out our weapons. Mine, of course, was pink. We started our engines and I headed straight for the gutter across the dirt path. Ok, Amy, remember, hand brakes not foot brakes. After this lovely display the bike renter wanted more passports as collateral, but we assured her I was just goofing off and slowly inched our way out of sight.
Phi Phi's roads are fairly flat with few potholes, but none of that really matters when its torrentially down pouring in your face. We had maybe 2 minutes of rain free riding and then we had to pull over under a locals roof for a good 15 minutes before the rain stopped. This happened to us again a few km down the road and then a bit more rain rained on our scooter parade, but we soon sped out into the sun and entered the town of Hat Rinn. This surprisingly large town was littered with westerners drinking, eating, sun tanning, shopping and just plain vacationing. Many of the sunbathers were topless which focused our entire lunch conversation on boobs, but I suppose that's what I get for traveling with 3 boys. After lunch we walked the town a bit and then took off again on our scooters for some lazy beach time. On the way back towards our hotel we completely lost sight of JT and had to send out a 3-scooter search party that failed miserably. We finally gave up and headed back to the hotel to find JT lounging on his porch singing to his iPod. And here we were about to have someone check with the hospital. Crisis averted. Time to start preparing for the Full Moon Party.
We booked a taxi with Matt and Kelly, a couple Brits we meet on our beach. Hat Rinn was covered with people when we got there and lined with mini stalls all selling Fuck Buckets. Fuck Buckets are little buckets they fill with a small bottle of liquor, concentrated Red Bull and coke or sprite. Some were rather disgusting, but others were quite good. We started meandering up and down the beach to get our bearings. Each bar was blasting music and had either some type of seating area out on the beach along with fire dancers and huge lite up signs spelling out "The Original Full Moon Party" and "Welcome to Thailand 2008." At one point, we noticed ropes of fire flying through the air that turned out to be gigantic jump ropes for those brave enough to give it a whirl. Most of the intoxicated adventurers ended up with burning ropes around their ankles. Not exactly a sport for the pissed.
As time moved on, everything started to become blurry and surreal. Could this have been the booze? Definitely. Around 3 in the morning we strolled up to a hillside bar advertising mushrooms shakes and met a pair of Aussies who were without a doubt having a psychedelic time. Adrian and Andre turned out to be the life of the party and stuck by us until the break of dawn. By 7 in the morning everyone looked like they could use a long hot shower and possibly some sleep so we hired the first taxi we found and saddled up for the long ride home. A big thumbs-up to the Full Moon Party from all of us. A two-day recovery period was in dire need.
