Full Moon Party

I am long overdue for posting a blog. I attribute this to 1) laziness and 2) my new philosophy of saying yes, which I will write a more thoughtful (this ones for you Kelly!) blog about later.

            As for now, a much needed post on recent events. 

FULL MOON PARTY

            For those of you that do not know, Koh Phangan is known for beach parties of all kinds: Jungle Party, Half Moon Party, Sramanora Waterfall Party, Shiva Moon Party, Secret Garden Party, Eden Party and so, so many more. However, the island is known for its Full Moon Party, which happens once a month during the full moon. 20,000-30,000 people show up to participate in the most hedonistic event I have ever witnessed. People literally fly in from all over the world to drink their brains out, dance violently to electronic music, trash Haad Rin beach and then leave when the party ends at noon the next day. It’s insane. I’ve never seen Koh Phangan as busy as it was the day of the party. Even our hotel, which is usually deserted, was filled with what appeared to be hundreds of MTV spring-break goers.

           

           

            Naturally, Kelly and I had to see the mayhem. We drove down to Haad Rin early (around 5 pm) to avoid traffic, especially taxi drivers looking to make massive amounts of money by shuttling as many people as possible to and from the beach. We parked our motorbike near sunset beach, the area farthest from the party and walked around, watching the chaos begin. People arrived in swarms from taxis, motorbikes and ferry wearing bright, neon colored clothing and carrying nothing but bottles of hard liquor and Chang (Thailands most popular beer). The streets of Haad Rin were lined with stands selling buckets (quite literally buckets), filled with miniature bottles of hard liquor, a red bull and one other mixer such as coke, mango juice, pinapple juice, etc., and stereotypical drunk food choices, namely pizza, pasta, mystery meats on sticks and donuts. Kelly and I opted instead for Indian food at a restaurant highly recommended in Lonely Planet’s Thailand travel book. When we finally made it to the Haad Rin beach, we were greeted, almost instantly, by an Australian frat boy who insisted on covering our faces with bright orange neon paint. If we didn’t fit in before that point, we most certainly did afterwards.            

            And then the party began. We had agreed to meet some of our other friends at Dive-In Bar around 10 pm, so we headed over there first, dancing on wooden picnic tables to America’s top 40, looking for familiar faces. Luckily, we found our friend Alanna who looked far more put together than we did. We failed, however, to meet up with Melanie and Maurice, the couple we met at Daruma Eco-Farm from Switzerland. Days later we found out that they had, in fact, been to the party.......for about 5 minutes. Not really their scene. With Alanna on board, we figured it was time to buy our own buckets from the lady at the stall who had called us her “special friends.” And we must have been, because she gave us our buckets at a much cheaper price than anywhere else we could find. And we were off. We let Alanna pick the DJ this time (“Call Me Maybe hadn’t really resonated with her earlier) and had an awesome time raging to electro-funk on a 4-foot platform with 400 of our closest friends for the night. The two highlights of that scene: Alanna making out with some hunk from down under and the small asian woman who pulled me aside to say, “you have a very beautiful face,” before trying to mack on me.

            We eventually met up with Jeremy, another volunteer here, and headed over to Mellow Mountain, a bar on the northern-most side of the beach. This particular bar is known for its “Mushroom Shakes,” which Alanna and Jeremy decided to try out before the bar was shut down by local authorities. Good timing on their part. Kelly and I opted out of the psycodelic, but from Jeremy’s perspective, everything, especially Kelly’s face, looked like an animated cartoon. Apparently it was better than TV.

            We ended our night around 5 am where we walked back over to sunset beach to watch the sunrise and go for a swim. Neither of which I participated in. Instead I attempted to steal a water raft from a near-by bungalow and when that failed, I was so tired that I decided to nap on the lawn of the bungalow directly next door.

            When I woke up, the sun was nearly up. Our group headed back over to Haad Rin and watched the party close out from an upstairs bar.

            All in all, this was potentially one of the sadder events I have witnessed. Thousands of people committing shameless acts and consuming to no end. I think the term “wild excess” sums it up pretty well. But what is most sad is the fact that this is what the Koh Phangan locals know of Westerners. This is their impression of us. No wonder none of them want to engage with us in a friendly manner. We disgust them. We show up with the expectation of drinking as much liquor as we can stomach to trash a beach and forget it happened 24 hours later. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s just too easy not to worry about it. And of course, once we return home we automatically become civilized human beings again; we would certainly never engage in those sorts of behaviors back home. Truly fascinating how we quickly we forget. 

            That being said, I had a great time at the party. I always do. And I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Would I do it again? No. But I appreciated the experience. I really did.

-Sparx