End of the Islands - The Full Moon Party

Fresh off our diving certifications, we took the ferry south to the island of Ko Samui. Ko Samui is a less developed version of Phuket, but still way more developed tahn the typical backpacker destination. There are many tourists here of all shapes and sizes. There are more families and older couples, perhaps due to the abundance of midrange-to-luxury accomodations. The, or maybe it's all the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Subways squeezed together. We were able to find a decently priced guesthouse called Embassy that was great. We met up with our friend Ash, from Tufts who currently lives in Hong Kong, and two of his friends. The nightlife in Samui is strong - lots of beach bars and clubs. Turns out our hostel was next to a great, 24 hour thai food place - great for the late night pad thai cravings.

Ash was staying at a really nice hotel on the beach, so the next day we went over there to relax by the pool and rest up for he full moon party.

The party takes place on an island called Koh Phangnan, which is sandwiched in between Ko Tao and Ko Saui. During the night of the party, speedboats are run constantly from Samui to Phangnan, so we hopped on one at night, and set off to the party spot.

Arriving in Ko Phangnan was something like stepping into a hedonistic/bohemian/teenage wasted-land. Locals were selling 'buckets'of drinks being gulpd down by the masses. Some people were shirtless and most had neon paint splattered over themselves in trippy-hippy patterns or slogans. We decided to blend right in and got neon-ed up (In case your were wondering - at the advice of many people, I did not take a camera with me and currently have no pictures of this madness - maybe that is for the best, however, Ash's friend brought her's and is going to give them to me next week, so I'll post a couple then). We entered the beach and were greeted by thousands of people on the sand, up on platforms, on roofs, dancing to blaring techno music. There were fire jugglers and torches all over the place. It had a kind of tribal feel to it.

We stayed out until sunrise (the place was still packed by then), and took a longtail boat back to Samui around 7am for some much needed zzzzzs. We relaxed by the pool later that day, and stayed one more night (only thing notable here was getting locked out my hostel, having to track down a place to sleep at 3am - it all worked out fine though. That, and Corey and I have finally come down with a bit of stomach problems). Today, we sadly leave Thailand and head to Cambodia to see, among other things, Angkor Wat. More later!

written by  bhkann on July 11, 2009 from Ko Samui, Thailand
from the travel blog: Ben's SE Asia Voyage
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