Blog of Matt Allison
Have decided that I want to see what the world has to offer me.
hello world. smile
Have decided that I want to see what the world has to offer me.
hello world. smile
Every month, for those that dont know, there is whats known as the full moon party on Koh Phangan. This started as a going away birthday for someone in the 70’s and for some reason it has been celebrated every month since. Its become quite a tourist thing but having been in Thailand several times, I have missed it every time due to location elsewhere.
An average of 30,000 people descend on the island to party under the moon every month, though this month due to it having just passed peak european holiday season the average number was meant to be 8,000 people.
From Koh Chang a boat and bus ride to Bangkok with a 20 minute breather in Bangkok before taking another bus that evening straight down to Surat Thani to arrive in the morning of the 21st, before another boat to Phangan meaning a 28 hour stint of travel.
Arriving at Tongsala, the main port and town, a taxi took us across the island to Haad Rin, two beaches of sunset and sunrise around the town. The sunrise side housing the full moon party and sunset being a 10 minute walk outside meant a more sensible option with issues of theft and noise being factors.
Managed to find a moderately priced bungalow at Sun Beach for 400, which was a 5 minute walk down the beach to the pier and quite close to Corals, which houses pool parties every evening.
Having been on KC it was a nice change to go to somewhere busy, though i was suprised at the number of israelis there, literally it was possible to trip over from the number on the beach. Without stereotyping the majority are out there as sex tourists so it was a mild hinderance when out with female friends, but not a problem in the long run.
The two nights leading to the full moon have several main parties on the western side of the island but due to the location and days of arrival, these were missed in favour of staying local and checking out sunrise beach. The actual day of the party was spent mainly at Same Same which had a live band that played pop music and classics for the majority, but when everyone cut to the beach they finished their set with several metal covers which made a nice change from the pitbull remixes and rnb that seem to be the mainstay of the beach.
Apparently there is an entry fee of 100 baht which also gives you a wristband, though this seemed to be avoided - not intentionally - and instead the remainder of the night till around 5am was spent down on the beach. There seems to be 3 main areas down the beach at drop in, sunrise and around the mushroom mountain area.
On the 25th everyone went their seperate ways and I went to sort a visa extension in Burma again.
