Of Buckets and Full Moon
I lie lazily in the hammock, barely awake. A gentle breeze blows off the aqua blue bay making the humid heat just a little bit more bearable. Another rough day in South-East Asia.
I am back on the Thai island of Koh Pha Ngan. I have relaxed alone on this island for a couple of days having left Steve and Gareth on Koh Tao, another island popular with scuba divers.
I will remember our last days in Bangkok for nothing else but the World Cup football match between England and Denmark. It was like being at the game itself. We stayed clear of Gulliver’s Travelers Tavern and instead found a big screen in a restaurant not far off Khao San Road. But I think every English expat in Bangkok had the same idea. The place was packed to the rafters, standing room only, with loutish fans spilling out onto the street. Everyone was singing English football songs and man, some of the lyrics can be very insulting. No wonder soccer fans have such an awful reputation in the U.K. So the whole game was spent listening to insults being sung about everyone not wearing an England shirt. Fortunately England were good enough for 45 minutes to score 3 goals and win the game. Otherwise there would have been a riot.
We left Bangkok on June 17 on an overnight bus to Chumphom where we were swiftly transferred onto the ferry to take us to Koh Tao. Cool waiting around for a change. Except the high speed ferry boat had a problem with its engines and subsequently could not chug along very fast at all. Hence the reason we were leaving the mainland earlier than scheduled. Eventually we made it into Mea Had, the island’s main boat harbor.
I was returning to Crystal Dive Resort. Steve and Gareth were going to obtain their PADI dive qualification and I would use the time to relax and do a few fun dives. It was good to see some of the old faces I had met on my last visit to the island a month ago.
Apart from diving not very much else happens on Koh Tao. One day S&G and myself went to Rocky Bay to do some snorkeling. S&G started their dive course whilst I went on some good dives out to South-West pinnacles and White Rock, two dive sites I had not yet visited. There was some concern about what would happen Friday 21 June, when England was due to play Brazil in their World Cup quarter final match. Apparently, Julie the receptionist at the dive center would not allow S&G the time off from their course to watch the game. Strewth! It was like being back at school again. I told them to cut class and sod the consequences. They needn’t have worried, at 12 noon the entire fleet of diving boats rushed back into harbor and the entire population of the island crammed themselves into the many pubs and bars. Nobody did any diving that afternoon, what did Julie know? By the way, England lost the game 1-2 to Brazil, but you probably already knew that.
Next day I was nursing a sore head. Why? I have no idea, it’s not like I gave a damn about the soccer game but, as you all know me too well, I don’t need much encouragement to go drinking with friends. There is a rumor that I did slightly punch the air when Michael Owen scored his goal to take England into a 1-0 lead, but I have know knowledge or recollection of doing anything of the sort.
I made my way alone across the sea to Koh Pha Ngan. I even got sea sick during the journey. Now I never get sea sick so I put it down the quantity of alcohol consumed the previous day. S&G were going to finish their diving course and I was going on ahead to scout out some accommodation.
The main town on Koh Pha-Ngan is Thong Sala. The place was teeming with tourists and travelers. Because of my prior knowledge of the island I got straight off the boat, ignoring the many touts and taxi drivers and headed for a motorbike hire shop. This was going to be easier than lugging my pack in the heat from guest house to bungalow in the hope of finding a spare room. As it turned out I found a cheap and basic bamboo hut on Leena Beach which is about 15 minutes from the main beach of Hat Rin.
Hat Rin or Sunrise Beach has changed a lot in the last three years but still seems to maintain it’s off the beaten track “travelers” feel. Despite rampant development and a huge increase in package holiday makers over from Europe for a two week vacation, life here follows the same routine;
Repeat this process for as many days as your planned stay in Hat Rin.
Eventually the day arrived. Our main reason for coming to Koh Pha-Ngan was to finally attend the infamous Full Moon Party. Ravers from around the globe have been gathering for the monthly party for at least the last 10 years now and the crowd shows no sign of retreat. This is my third visit to Koh Pha Ngan but this will be the first time I am here for “the Party”.
During Monday, 24 June, around 5000 partygoers descended onto Hat Rin beach. This figure can rise to as many as 8000 during peak season. The party is split among the several beachfront venues. Some of the few I can remember are the funky, psychedelic Paradise bungalows with fluorescent paint and lighting. Drop In, which play good dance tunes. There’s Hard House and Trance at the Vinyl Club, they had set up the two biggest towers of speakers I have ever seen. Mainstream hits and well known dance tunes are played at the Cactus Club which has many tables and chairs set out on the beach for the punters. Techno fans can hang out at Tommy’s Resort. Visiting DJ’s come from Europe, Israel, or other parts of Asia and can be notoriously fickle so no one place is the “in” party venue.
The party started early even though it went on the whole night and well into the next day. Forget about sleeping on this night. We held back a bit preferring first to watch movies and grabbing a bite to eat. Eventually around 11pm we made our way down to the beach where we were greeted with the most incredible scene. Loud music hit us from all directions, dancers and groovers were spilling out of the open air dance halls onto the beach.
The drink of choice is the “bucket”. This is a child’s sand bucket filled with ice into which is poured a half jack – that’s about half a bottle – of Sam Song Thai whiskey. This is wickedly strong stuff, it says 80% proof on the label but I can see it being that strong, and doesn’t taste half bad. Added to the mixture is a can of Coke, a can of Red Bull and half a dozen straws used to drink the concoction. Don’t try and drink one of these deadly cocktails on your own, you won’t last two hours.
So, armed with our buckets we found other friends on the beach. Our preferred venue, and for the majority of other full mooners was the Cactus Club although I did wander up and down the beach to check out the others. I drank copious amounts of alcohol, got myself a hoarse voice by singing along loudly to popular songs and danced the night away. Some people did their thing in the shallow breakers of the beach but I was put off this when around 2 am a chorus line of lads – well mostly lads – were spotted releasing excess bodily fluids into the Gulf of Thailand. Yes and the moon did make an appearance and shone full for most of the night.
I also did have to catnap on the chairs a couple of times between 2am and 6am just so I could be up for the sunrise. The sunrise itself was shielded by cloud but it was great to be awake and still going at it strongly by the time it got light. In the daylight the Day-Glo paint people had smeared on their bodies seemed to fade without the fluorescent light needed to make it shine. Despite this, instead of the party now winding down with tired ravers things seemed to pick up. With the music being cranked up again new buckets and a few beers were acquired. At this stage I even got the urge to do a bit of podium dancing. Gareth says one moment I was standing next to him on the beach next thing I had disappeared only to be spotted atop a raised bar counter over looking the beach. He says it was a “legend” thing to do but looking back on it, it was pretty stupid.
Around 10am I decided enough was enough and I made my way wearily over the hill to the quiet Leena beach resort where I soon crash out in my hut. The Full Moon party was great, a “must do” for anyone into clubbing and dancing. Well worth the effort of traveling to get there and putting up with the crowds.
Around 1pm it got too hot in my hut. I wandered back to Hat Rin beach where most venues had packed up. There were still some nutters raving away on the sand in front of the Vinyl Club which continued to pump out its hard house techno music. Some people just don’t know when they have had enough of a good thing.
We spent another week on Koh Pha-Ngan winding down, following the old routine. Next for us is an overnight boat back to Surat Thani and over to the west coast and on to Krabi.
