Koh Phangan was our final stop in Thailand, a few days spare to tan (yeh I said tan) before the legendary Full Moon Party.

We spent our first night at the resort under the stars/coconut trees/beach bure bar, watching orange lightening storms over Koh Samui and generally basking in utter smugness about where we were. The following day we decided to ditch the slow paced Island life we had become accustomed to and I dragged Alice out in some kayaks (crrrrazy behaviour I know). We went for a gentle paddle approximately 300metres down the shallow coast line before deciding we’d seen enough endless sandy beaches, coral and turquoise water (boring eh?) and turned back to regain our energy with a cocktail and garlic bread. Tough morning that was…

I could individually describe each of our days and nights on Koh Phangan leading up to the full moon party but that could quickly become dull as we really did make ourselves very comfortable on those beach bar beds and other than the occasional 3 foot crawl (why do people need to stand so much anyway) over to the sea view hammocks or short stroll to Ibs and Toms pool there is very little else to say :P… I will briefly mention the hotel staff, I mean seriously the only smile I got was when I had to explain that the man who came to fix our toilet took away our shower, and the woman thought we were having a language barrier issue because it seemed so puzzling… Asking for a menu, or another drink or shock horror to pay our bill received a look so dirty you’d think I drowned their new born puppy. Tom tried to complement them on a lovely meal and the waitress blinked at him and walked away…

As for the full moon party… The evening started with said short walk down the beach to Ibs and Toms resort. Well it should have been short but we sort of took our time a little to enjoy the surreal thunder and lightening storm and the Thai equivalent of “drizzle” which is just occasional huge drops of warm rain, perfectly bearable given the 23 years of experience with falling sky water that good old England prepped us with… Until, naturally, it turned into a full blown tropical storm, no amount of english blood can quite prepare you for a downpour like that, we had no choice but to take shelter in a random resorts beach bar, backing onto their pool which contained a small number of scouse “lads” having it large to an overly enthusiastic DJ playing to the perhaps 10 people, including us, present. They suggested we stay but luckily the rain stopped before we had to awkwardly explain our disinterest in whatever they were up to.

The good things about pre-drinking were; a pretty sweet spot on the beach with swing seats, the continuing awesome lightening stretching the entire length of Koh Samui in front of us, an actual burger and of course the great company (cheeeeeeeese). The less good things were; our solid but flailing effort to get drunk with some questionably cheap vodka and pomegranate juice (not as nice as it sounds FYI), my inability to play a round of fives/drink with the correct hand in Ring of Fire and the hideously winding, hilly roads the go-go really went-went for it on, on route to Hadrin.

However there was certainly a treat or two waiting for us on arrival.

Imagine every club you have ever been in, but open air and stretched all along one beach front, intermittent 7/11’s to give each one a little bit of space for the competing music to blend over, and then many, many brightly dressed up and painted people, raving and making the standard side ways crab walk through the stubborn crowd from place to place. This is the blank canvas of the full moon party.

As you venture down toward the shoreline you will understand why I refer to the above as “blank” … Boys, once again you irritate me with your ability to pee standing up, no paying for squatting toilets for you, you can pee in the sea without losing any dignity, even when theres a line up of about ten of you, you just give each other this annoying little nod like “yeh we’re all peeing” grrr. I hope your ankles get infections from how grim that water is because urinating certainly wasn’t the only action we witnessed in the sea that night, you hilariously filthy people, I get it, who isn’t turned on by vodka-bucket-breath and sea water the consistency and temperature of, well, pretty much whatever the dozens of you are leaking into it!! Then theres the drunk/otherwise-inebriated individuals who have lost everyone they came with and are desperately try to make new best friends, lying on the sand, gripping it (as much as you can grip sand) because their heads are so barely screwed on that they believe they may at any moment fall off the face of the planet. People completely lose themselves at this party, and being relatively sober we had the best time people watching as well as joining Alice in her excellent impersonations of the rave dancers, classy moves guys and cheers to the lazy DJ at Sunrise bar who really knew his crowd, or at least how far gone they were because he did simply repeat the same 2minute mix over and over for half an hour and they loved it – no need to try harder then mate?

Unfortunately I think the fact that it was off-peak season hindered the party’s atmosphere a bit… We had heard loads about other entertainment thats meant to go on like fire shows and things you can get involved with but this just seemed to be one big rave on a beach, no added extras… Great fun don’t get me wrong, I’d go again and consider braving life as one of the extremely messy but as Jade said the longgggg journey back to Bangkok was looming over us the following day and so on a slight anti-climax we left early (well it was 3am, so we did okay) and after a brush with a lairy Irish girl, who I can’t imagine made it home in one piece, we arrived back to CoCo Gardens sober enough to shower away the UV paint.

Just a quick side note, r.e. our coach journey to Bangkok, in the post about our previous HORRIFIC sleeper bus experience I referred to some “swankier” coaches that cater for the south, we happily boarded one of these, thank goodness. No suspicious stops every 20 minutes to let the engine cool, no wooden plank hand break or angry police inspections andddd some pretty decent coach stops including a very colourful midnight food market where a thai lady made it very clear that she had Pad Thai available at her stand, no meat, no spicy. Pretty sure these were the only english words in her vocabulary. “I have Pad Thai, no meat, no spicy, I have Pad Thai, no meat no spicy, I have Pad Thai, no meat, no spicy. Etc” We did not eat her Pad Thai, soz.

This pretty much signalled the end of our time in Thailand. It would have been easy to skip our boat/coach north and spend months down on these islands, hopping to each and every one and I would definitely consider doing this, holiday style, in the future. Bangkok is hideous but Chang Mai was a highlight for me and if I return to Thailand I would like to spend time in that area of the north and venture to Chang Rai and Pai as well. But for now its bye bye Thailand, stock check on the Imodium and aftersun and onto Vietnam where we ditch the hotels and private bures and go full swing backpacking, starting in The Central Backpackers Hostel, Han Oi. I’ve heard good things so expect some probably heavily censored posts in the near future 😉

p.s in all of Thailand I have yet to find a Green Curry that in any way competes with the Thai Palace in Paignton… I’m not even disappointed as this will be my first stop on arrival home 🙂

Rose x