LIVING it up and SURVIVING The Full Moon Party

Yes, THE FULL MOON PARTY. I had been hearing about this infamous rave-like scene since I was in college and it had always been on my bucket list and you know, why wouldn’t it be? A white sanded beach, palm trees behind you, set in beautiful and exotic Thailand crowded with 30,000 people partying, drinking and dancing until the sun rises, some stay out till noon the next day.

It was an experience I was concerned I might be too old for, though my definition of old is stretching and shrinking like a spring board as we travel around with these newly 21 year olds  and hard core 60 year olds but we had an awesome crew with us that we met on Ko Tao and well, the drinking/dancing spirit here is universal.

WARNING: The following are details of a once in a lifetime experience that probably has no business being on the internet. Parents, family and upstanding citizen friends, please refrain from making judgement calls. I promise we are smart, responsible, good people.

And here we go….
We arrived in the idyllic Ko Phangan from Ko Tao on a packed ferry that took about 3 hours. You could feel anticipation in the air. There was an energy of people ready to experience what they had been looking forward to for awhile, not knowing exactly how it was going to go down, us included.
When we arrived we took a filled bus of 10 others to Haad Rin to sunrise beach. In the bus there were four 20 year olds from the UK talking about their last full moon party experience, divulging all of their crazy stories and ridiculousness, whoa…get ready Jami.

Upon arrival: the calm before the storm

The only time we saw the beach during daylight

My confession: here’s the deal, I knew it was going to be cheesy. I knew I was going to meet people in disgusting states and that it would be obnoxiously youthful kids doing shameless things, in a foreign country where we are representing the human race or the this generation poorly…But truth is: I didn’t care. I was ready to set my judgement aside and just go with it.

So that said, Aaron and I decided to go all out, cause this would likely be our first and last full moon party. We booked a hostel where our room consisted of 16 other beds, by far the biggest dorm we had ever stayed at. We arrived two nights before the big night, as there were parties that lead up to the event. Some think they are actually better than the big night.

Our first night we decided to forgo, the “Waterfall Party” as we heard it wasn’t worth going. We headed to the beach and had a fun night, experiencing our first of MANY buckets over the course of the following days. We also watched the fire dancers provoking bar patrons to jump the fiery rope or twirl a fire baton. BAD idea? Um, yes.

Starting the night

Shady characters

Flaming jump rope

First buckets!

Speaking of bad ideas…the island was full of people making bad ideas. The island is rampant with all kinds of drugs and homemade alcohol. And people tend to be living in party mode where their conscience sort of checks out. The next day, it rained, all day. We headed to a cafe where there were comfy couch set ups and movies playing all day. We would watch people come in, it seemed like every fourth person had some kind of crazy injury: broken legs, burned chests, bruised up and down, bandaged up (though to be fair, it could be the fresh tattoo they got while wasted the night before), etc. I was like, “is this whole island injured?”

That night the rain lifted, at least momentarily, for us to meet up with our friends and go to the Jungle Party. The Jungle Party is what you would expect, up in the jungle. To get there you pile into a long tuk tuk and you hold on for dear life. You may have had a bucket or beer in your hand when you got in, by the time you reached the top it is likely all over you. The roads are bad, the drivers drive at ridiculous speeds in order to go up and down to make as much money as possible and take no responsibility for their passengers. While scary it was great fun.
We entered, grabbed some more buckets and danced with 10,000 other people in the middle of the jungle with a DJ above us and speakers surrounding us. At one point it started to pour down rain. The DJ booth was quickly tarpped, people took of their wet clothes and the dancing resumed. We partied well into the early hours and jumped into the terrifying tuk tuk back home.

Yay! Kayla and Leah (and Daniel)

Holding on! Crazy Tuk Tuk ride.

Entering the party

The girls

The crew!

Starting to rain, getting wet

Shirts coming off

Again, the next day was all rain. Hung over we headed back to the cafe and watched a bunch of movies till in the middle of the day, we decided to treat our beaten up bodies with a proper Thai massage. We got a 1.5 hour massage that was amazing for a splurge of $8! After that it was time to prep for the big night. We picked up our neon t-shirts, bought some face paint and ate a large dinner.

Back at the hostel we got ready. It was a little like prom. Everyone is getting ready together. Some groups had matching neon outfits and our hostel mates needed assistance with paint or hair fixing or something. Everyone was into it. And the all the prep was a huge highlight of my night.

Neon face painting

I turned into the resident artist

Putting on tiger face

Ready

In front of our hostel, drinks, neon paint and head gear

We met up with our friends and made our way to the beach. As we walked the rain started to pour, which got a bit frantic at first, everyone ducking for shelter under the few bars that lined the beach,. Most people just continued their partying on the beach. It was a pretty crazy scene. Tens of thousands of neon dressed and painted covered hedonists seeking the night of their lives. And it was unforgettable. The evening/morning was filled with meeting happy and excited people, dancing and abandoning any care in the world. There were platforms in the sand where people were dancing, people were swimming in the warm tropical water and there was loads of activities from fire jumping to water slides. It was excellent! This night would in no doubt go down as a night of infamy in our memories and we are so happy we did it.

The beach, pure chaos.

We danced until the sun rose and Aaron literally had to pull me away. At 7am we were picked up by a van that would take us to a ferry to a bus to another ferry to our final island Ko Phi Phi (PP). Along this long travel day it was like a death pool of neon. Everyone was tired, sick and not in the mood for the long ride. But once arriving in KPP we knew it was worth it.