Full Moon over the Thai Islands (Ko Samui, Ko Pha-Ngan)
This is it! I’m back in the United States. I can’t believe it. But it the meantime, I’m going to be chugging out these blog posts, before I forget all of the crazy memories that the trip has given me. You can read my other posts here.
A pretty laid-out route exploring the Thai islands involves starting in Ko Samui (the largest Thai island, and most developed), heading over to Ko Pha-Ngan (you might know it for it’s infamous full moon party), and then hopping up to Ko Tao to learn to scuba dive. So that’s what did. We caught a flight to Ko Samui and were on our way.
Ko Samui
I found Ko Samui to be a bit sterile for the Thai Islands, and I think the primary reason is that it’s the only island with an airport, so resort-seeking tourists can get there quite easily. There were tons of resorts, luxury hotels, and fancy restaurants on the island, and the backpacker frontier that it once was has long vanished. Thankfully most of the development was in the northeastern quadrant of the island surrounding the airport, so we spent our time in the east, south and western parts of the island, exploring places by motorbike, and even a couple deserted islands nearby.
Thankfully, our hostel, and the Irish owner was super helpful in giving us the rundown of the island (what spots to go to, what to avoid, etc.), and we took his suggestion to check out the neighboring islands of Ko Tan and Ko Mat Sum. The two islands are adjacent, and about 30 minutes by long-tailed boat. We hired one of the boats, and set off to check out the snorkeling in Ko Tan.
In short, it was magnificent. The lack of development and tourists made for some massive schools of fish, colorful corals, and even a lurking big crab down below. At points we were swimming with the fish in their giant schools, always within a couple inches, but always able to swim away would we try to touch them. Smart, clever creatures. There were only a couple other boats there, and we mostly had the place at our leisure.
We then headed to the strange island of Ko Mat Sum. While it was not as fun, per se as Ko Tan, it made up for it with the rampant wild pig population, one of whom was lounging around in the beachside restaurant there. We did what most everybody did, and posed with the pigs as they bathed in the ocean and went about our days. That was about the only thing to do on the island, so we headed back for the evening.
We also went to a couple other pagodas, and while there isn’t much to say, one was beachfront, a stunning bright gold with ornate dragons guarding the entrance.
Ko Pha Ngan
Our trip to Ko Pha Ngan was a happy accident, as it timed up with the infamous monthly full moon festival on the beach. We have had a series of happy accidents throughout the trip, including ending up in Japan without realizing it was cherry blossom season on Mt. Fuji, and later on, ending up in Asia’s largest gay pride parade in Taipei, with an estimated 200,000 people attending the festivities.
But as for this happy accident, it was a ton of fun. We stayed at the incredible Roadtrip Pha-Ngan hostel, and made tons of friends. We soon found out that the day before the full moon party was a techno jungle party. So of course we went — everybody had a ton of fun, even throughout the 3am rainstorm.
Taking it easy to save our energy for the main event, we didn’t do much the following day, but by evening all of our hostel was out and about, doing face painting, chatting, and enjoying the infamous buckets that go hand-in-hand with the party. I took inspiration to paint my own shirt, as I did not want to pay for a lousy tourist shirt with horrid branding (Full Moon Party) all over it. We ended up painting it on the street, splattering various acrylic paints and giving it an abstract glow-y feel.
As for the party itself, it was wild. (Though thankfully, it was one of the tamer parties, as it was low season. Think 8,000 people instead of 50,000 people). We spent the first hours in awe of the fire limbo and massive fire jump-rope. The two Thai jump-rope swingers felt out of a night-time Mad Max, coupled with the reveling party goers and various people who would jump in, only to get burned when somebody fell. It was madness. This rope was 20 feet long, 3 inches thick, and doused in a hearty dose of gasoline every 5 minutes. You could feel the heat as it made it on our side of the circle. People would always jump into the fray unannounced, and at times there were (briefly) 5 or 6 people all jumping over this spinning rope of fire. At this point, pictures (and video) will show it best.
We soon wandered to one of the many music stages/bars dotting the Haad Rin beach, though for many of them, the music was horrendous. Lots of Top 40 mixed with terrible EDM drops, and that doesn’t even begin to describe the monstrosity we heard: Oasis’ Wonderwall mixed with Queen’s We Will Rock You. At that point, I put all of my energy into getting our group to go to literally any other stage, and after about 20 minutes I succeeded.
Let me paint the scene, before I go on. There’s people everywhere (almost all young western backpackers everywhere), all converging on about a 1/2 mile of beach that is lined with massive party bars with deafening soundsystems. Sprinkled in between are many vendors selling buckets, and on the main road behind the beach, schwarma vendors. The full moon is bright and an oasis of calm, and in quieter sections between stages, you can even take a tranquil moment and listen to the waves go by.
There were maybe 10 or 12 stages. Half played pop/EDM, there was a tech house stage, hard trance stage, Drum and Bass Stage, but none of them really caught my interest. I was looking for something that reminded me of my times at the Miami venues Treehouse and Trade, but nothing was scratching that immersive house itch. At some point well into the night, we decided to get schwarma and head back. And lo and behold, on the walk to the main road, we found it. It was a perfect blend of enveloping, hypnotic house & techno, with about 20 people, and a amiable DJ who looked to be of Scottish origin. I was so happy to have found it! I mustered some energy, and we enjoyed it for a short while before we Lena and I promptly passed out back at the hostel after some late night eats. The rest of our friends, being distinctly cooler than us, made it until sunrise, as it’s quite popular to do. Even though I didn’t make it, I have not a single regret for the night. A great time all around.
We stayed one more night, and enjoyed talking about what everyone ended up doing for the full-moon, and parted ways, us heading to Ko Tao to learn to scuba. A wonderful memory, one that will be a hallmark of our great Asian adventure.
I’ll cover Ko Tao (and scuba!) in my next post. Cheers!
