Full Moon Party

Our last night in Bangkok we went to Patpong which was an experience. We went to see one of the infamous ping pong 'shows' which was very interesting.

Bottle Beach

Wednesday 8th October

Left Bangkok on an overnight bus. I was amazed when I got on the bus at how nice it was, I thought I was dreaming. The seats reclined until they were almost horizontal, I even managed to get an okay sleep. Arrived in Surat Thani at about 7.00am and waited about an hour for another bus to take us out to the ferry port where we got a boat to Ko Phangan. We then had to get a bus to the top of the island and a water taxi around to Bottle Beach where we were reunited with Mascha - yippee!! Bottle Beach was amazing, it was my first Thai beach and I can honestly say it was like paradise - I was just waiting for the bounty man to come wandering along the beach. We spent our days swimming, sunbathing, playing beach volley ball and frisbee.

Full Moon

Friday 10th October - FULL MOON PARTY (hereafter referred to as FMP)

We spent the day on the beach and then this evening we caught a speedboat down to Haad Rin where the FMP takes place. It was a lovely ride round the coast of Ko Phangan with the moon lighting everything up. We eventually rounded a corner and there was Haad Rin Beach. A bay full of bright lights, thumping music and fire dancers. As we got closer we could hear the music and boy was it loud. The boat raced right up onto the beach, along with loads of other boats and we all poured out. The beach was packed with people and pubs. We headed up off the beach to a little pub on the cliffside for a quick drink before we headed back onto the beach and found a spot to sit. We had 2 buckets (the kind you use for building sand castles) full of Thai whisky, red bull and coke, between 5 of us and then another 2. The night kind of went downhill from here. We lost Adam so Mascha and Hamish went to find him and never came back. I found Cybil and then fell asleep and it was about 3 hours later that Mascha and Adam tripped over me lying on the beach, how they managed it with 5000 people about I'll never know, but I was glad to see them. Adam then disappeared to try and find Hamish and never came back. Cybil caught the 3am boat back to Bottle Beach and Mascha and I fell asleep. I had a bit of a surreal experience at one point and I'm not sure if I dreamt it or it really happened. I'm sure it did happen. I was lying half asleep on the beach when YMCA started to play. I really wanted to get up and dance but I was too tired. The next thing I knew there was a young man standing at my feet, he pulled me up and we danced to YMCA. When the song finished he disappeared into the crowds and I lay back down on the beach. Eventually Mascha and I decided to get up, by this time it was about 5am. We danced a bit and then moved further along the beach where it was quieter. We lay back down and went to sleep again. A thai guy came along to ask if we were okay, we think he was trying to steal Mascha's purse so we got up and walked up to a pub overlooking the beach. Mascha once again went to sleep, but I ended up chatting with a group of people from Ireland. At about 6.30am we went to catch our boat back to Bottle Beach where we bumped into Adam and Hamish who had also spent most of the night sleeping. Being back on Bottle Beach was bliss - no loud music, no crowds of people, no rubbish floating in the water. Most people who experience a FMP say it was okay but they wouldn't do it again. I have to agree with this.

View from our Bungalow on Bottle Beach

We spent the rest of the day sleeping, eating and lying on the beach.