Six Sh*te shirts, three third degree burns, too many Thai buckets, one party in the jungle, one full moon and some unforgettable experiences… Thailand’s most famous party!
We arrived in Koh Pha Ngan a few days before July’s Full Moon party, and our friend Laura joined us, making us a party of six.
Laura is from America but had studied in Edinburgh in our first year at uni, and was currently teaching in Ayutthayah, so it was really great to see her again.
The six of us piled in to our idyllic three bed bungalow at Hacienda Resort, which was not so idyllic when we woke up in a mess of sweaty, hungover limbs each day.
There was a hammock outside our room, so we lounged on the patio area every night before we went out, sipping Changs and watching little geckos chase each other around the porch.
Hacienda had a pool that led on to the beach, a fishing boat a little way out in the sea, a fantastic waiter called Jackie Chan, and a resident 6 year old Thai girl who took great delight in sneaking up on unsuspecting backpackers with creepy crawlies she had found on the beach. She would squeal ‘Oh my Gaaaad’ (the only English she knew), when we screamed and ran away.
Image: @CaoilfhionnRose
I would love to have seen Koh Pha Ngan thirty years ago, before the Full Moon Party made its way on to every backpacker’s itinerary. The first Full Moon Party took place at a wooden disco hut not far from the crescent shaped Haad Rin beach in 1985, when a handful of travellers gathered to celebrate the magnificence of the moon over the island.
Today, 10,000 to 30,000 people come to the island from all over the globe, and the steep, winding streets are lined with shops selling souvenir t shirts, and we got the modern experience of the famous night.
Sh*te Shirt Night
On our first night in Pha Ngan, we got a taste of Thai etiquette when we went for dinner and they brought us each dish as and when it was ready, whether it was a starter or a main.
The Sunderland boys are fond of organised mayhem so after dinner we paired up and went off to buy our partner ‘Sh*te Shirts’. I think I got the worst…
Kitted out, we made our way down to the beach that would transform as the Full Moon came around. It was already blanketed with backpackers, so we bought 150 Baht (£2) vodka Redbull buckets from a shack bar.
Back at the pool, we went swimming in the sea by moonlight.
Jungle Party
The waiter at Hacienda sold us tickets to the Jungle Party, one of the many themed parties leading up to the big event on Koh Pha Ngan, where they also celebrate the half moon (any excuse to party).
We met up with some Welsh lads that the Sunderland boys had met in Bangkok, and piled in to a truck to get there.
On arrival we were stamped by a crazy man who enjoyed jabbing at us with his inky pen a little too much, bought our buckets, and got UV body paints.
Then we started a dance-off in the crowd. C and I won…
Things escalated quickly when C and Dan acquired a bottle of Thai vodka. Let’s just say I can’t really handle Thai spirits, and the rocket fuel energy drink mixers certainly don’t help. Tom was flagging too so he volunteered to take me home. Fantastic idea. Ignoring the taxi trucks, he put me on the back of a scooter with a Thai man and held me up as we sped through the jungle towards Hacienda. I can never imagine doing that in the UK.
Full Moon Party
We had sweated our hangovers off in the pool and now the night we had come to Pha Ngan for was upon us.
As our truck rolled down to the beach, we were hit with pumping beats and throngs of people. We daubed ourselves with UV paint that locals were selling outside shops, donned the obligatory fluorescent vests and joined the party.
I felt like I couldn’t open my eyes wide enough to take it all in.
It took ages to battle our way down to the sand, but the scene that unfolded in front of us encapsulated the backpacking experience. Hoards of tanned, sexy people dancing their heads off in the light of the full moon, the sounds of the summer penetrating the warm night and the beach bars spilling revellers out onto the sand and the haphazard stages that had been erected on wooden planks.
We danced to We Found Love and the rest of the night was set to a soundtrack of trance, reggae, dance, techno and drum and bass.
There was a designated sleeping area for those who needed a disco nap. Health and safety definitely hasn’t sucked the fun out of Thailand yet.
danced until the night turned to day, and watching the sun rise over Haad Rin bay while it was crawling with people was a sight I will never forget.
Another adventure ticked off my Bucket List!
The wait for the ferry away from this mental place was excruciating in the heat, as we headed to Bangkok via Surat Thani, which took around 11 hours thanks to the Thai approach to travel.
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