Koh Pha-Ngan - Party Central

Trip Start Dec 28, 2005

Trip End Sep 01, 2006

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Flag of Thailand Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand
Monday, January 16, 2006

We stepped off the boat to a swarm of taxi-drivers desperate for you to choose them and handfuls of flyers being thrusted at us. Huge groups of people were being horded into group taxis going in various directions around the island - we managed to get in one to Had Rin (the place of the Full Moon Party) and off we were whisked with a bunch of Canadian guys - lots of "awesome", "right on" and "totally rad"!!

The hostels seemed pretty full while lots of red-faced, worried looking travellers stumbled along with their backpacks. Got turned down at one, then thought we were in luck with another place until we saw where we would be sleeping - no way!! We followed the guy up this muddy hill whilst acquiring a new set of bites until we came to our "bungalow". Lonely Planet describes it as rickety, which suggests charming - I would describe it as an actual hell hole

Doing a flaming limbo - ahhh

! It was falling apart, dirty sheets, swarms of bugs and basically no security - I'm not even gonna start on the toilets. Needless to say we turned the room down, swearing we would sleep on the beach if necessary! Luckily, a girl we met in Bangkok (Olivia) saved us by bagging us and the Canadians rooms at her hostel - phew!

Koh Pha-Ngan was fun, put simply. It's not especially beautiful - although the people are - every one was actually perfect (grr) - but it is pretty; it's main angle is that it is so alive. Along the beach are a bunch of bars, which play loud music for people to dance on the beach to at night. Every night there are people entertaining with fire - on our first night out, I hoppped a line of fire and shimmied under a flaming limbo stick!! We usually ate at Mr K's (v yum) and danced at Cactus - although we did enjoy wandering from place to place, or song to song. We took a boat trip on one of the days - did some snorkelling (my first time - was pretty good fun although the mask was frustrating because it kept letting in water), had a power shower under a beautiful waterfall and went to a secluded beach - unfortunately I got sunburnt despite my screening efforts, so now I am covering myself in a bucket of sunscreen during the day and a bucket of after sun in the evening - great!? Besides that, most of our time was spent doing more shopping and swimming/sun-bathing

Ladder of fire with a random girl

.

The main event was, of course, the Full Moon Party. We lasted 'til 8.30am - not bad going!! We actually had breakfast before going to bed - bizarre! However, I'm afraid to say there are no huge stories really - it was just an excellent night where nothing went wrong. We drunk Red Bull mixes from buckets, danced more than we've ever danced before, met a million people, danced on the sand with our hands waving to the full moon to a mix of pop, rnb, chart, dance, trance, rave stuff, drum n bass - you name it. When the sun came up it was very surreal and not so fun - we had planned to stay up longer, but if we had we would have seen it falling apart because people were getting more aggressive/careless/sick! Plus the beach was a mess. It was very impressive how quickly it was cleaned - by the following afternoon it was as though the party had never happened! In general, it is an incredible night, the atmosphere is so friendly (until 8.30 in the morning) and I would definitely say everyone should try and experience it at some point!

Left the island to head for a more peaceful island (Koh Tao) on the 16th...