The Full Moon Party

Ko Phangan, Thailand
Every full moon, the island of Ko Phangan hosts a beach party. It’s not just any beach party; it goes all night long only when the moon is full. As curious young travelers, Brad and I felt that we should experience this festival. The morning of, we booked tickets on a speedboat to the island that they said was 20 minutes away. Around 9:30pm we were picked up by a van that escorted us to the dock. (This is where I will interject on behalf of anyone who hasn’t traveled or been a part of the backpacker community. It is very easy to meet people from all over the world when you are all over the world. I do it every time I go somewhere. Americans are sometimes the easiest to befriend because of all the commonalties. Instantly you have a rapport with them. Most others in the international community are the same way. Everyone just wants to travel, experience life, and meet people. It’s a great subculture in which to be a part. With that said…) Aboard the van were two Germans, an American couple from Washington, and a Swedish guy. The Germans were a bit quiet, but we hit it off instantly with the others.

At the dock there were loads of people waiting for the boat to take them over to the other island. We got lucky and were the last five to get aboard. It was a large speedboat, but was filled well beyond its recommended capacity. There were probably 25 or 30 people crammed on the boat and from where we were standing, several languages and accents could be heard. The gulf waters were choppy, making for an interesting ride as the hull of the boat pounded rhythmically on the waves beneath. Off in the distance I saw some lightning flash behind a cloud. Moments later, and only halfway to the island, the rain began pelting us.

The boat rounded the corner of Ko Phangan and lights appeared just before the music. The beach looked like a boardwalk. All the beachfront bars were lit up as music pulsated clear out to us in the boat. With the rain still coming down, we disembarked into the shallow water and waded to shore. The clouds covered the moon and thousands of people covered the beach. We took shelter beneath the roof of a restaurant and joked around with the Americans and the Swede.

After a half hour or so the rain stopped and we ventured back out to the beach. Maybe I’ll start by describing the patrons of this party. I would estimate that over 90 percent were Caucasians from North America, Europe, or Australia. Within that 90 percent was a tremendous cross section of human beings. There were the dread-locked, the punks, preppies, skaters, strung out and everything in between. Being that this was more of a rave than anything else, I would venture to say that a good majority of the people were on something. They danced indiscreetly and indiscriminately. They twirled flashing glow sticks and painted their bodies with paint that illuminated in the black lights. Some danced, others chilled in the bars, some in chairs, and on towels on the beach. While others were passed out on the shoreline as people passed by without noticing or caring.

Bar after bar lined the entire the beach. Each had its own theme and accompanying music. And the music was loud. Subwoofers shook your body as you walked by. One bar would be playing hard rock like the Foo Fighters or Nirvana, the next would be playing Bob Marley reggae, and still the next would be Jamiriquai (that’s techno-ish). The bars weren’t large enough to accommodate all the dancers so they spilled out into the sand where it was cooler anyhow. We mingled with our new friends and met others from England and Scotland.

The full moon moved across the sky as the night wore on.

Around 4:00am we decided to think about heading back to Ko Samui. To ensure our return ticket, we were given a laminated card with a company logo on it and were expected to remember what our boat looked like. Then we were to show the card to the driver and head back. Well, all the boats looked alike and there were lots of them. We spent the next hour and a half wading out up to our thighs asking each boat driver if we had the right boat. Eventually we gave up and paid a few extra baht to board someone else’s boat. As the first ones aboard, we had to wait until the boat was filled before they would leave.

The sky was turning amber and by the time we left it was daylight. Speeding away from the beach soaking wet, I looked back to see that nothing had changed on shore. People were still dancing and the music was still playing.

Since it was a different boat escorting us back to the island, they dropped us off at a different pier so we had to get a taxi back to our resort. Some taxi drivers approached us and we quickly found out that they were motorcycle taxis and not cars. Normally this might have been discouraging, but at that stage, we didn’t much care. We hopped aboard two motorcycles and the drivers sped off. It was around 7:00am and the little town was mostly still sleeping. The wind in the face was refreshing and brought with it the faint smell of curry and thoughts of food. But those thoughts were quickly replaced with thoughts of sleep as we zipped through the narrow streets leading back to our resort. Finally, we made it home. And went straight to bed.