Why Am I Rasta Man?: Full Moon Party

Perhaps you’ve heard of the legendary Full Moon Parties that occur in the Gulf of Thailand on the humble island Koh Phangan. I honestly cannot believe that these parties occur every single month, it was a blowout party of which the likes are unheard of worldwide (so I’m told by my travelling companions). About ten thousand farang show up from their backpacking adventures to this island, just north of the more recognized island Koh Samui. Due to a Buddhist holiday this past week, I had about six days to take the most amazing vacation ever! Ruby (<---check out her blog) and I took at a ten hour bus down the peninsula of Thailand to Chomporn where we then took a six hour ferry to Koh Phangan. While looking for a place to stay, a nice looking Thai boy drives by on a motorcycle: “Need bungalow?” Me: “sure, why not!”. I hop of his motorcycle and he takes me through the mountainous terrain to Hillside House on Baan Kai which is a set of beautiful wooden bungalows away from the crazy partiers up on the side of a mountain. The people who own the bungalows have a beautiful art studio on the mountain where they paint colorful Bob Marley and Jim Morrison all day. We spent a lot of time hanging out with them and drinking with them to their amazing selection of music. I spent the entire trip getting to know the island Thais who are so much more Rastafarian than Asian.
The first day, Ruby and I swam in the hot Gulf water and slept on the beach. By night we drank 40 baht Chang beer while challenging each other to a very creatively stimulating game of Scrabble (thanks to Linda for the going away travel game that has proved perfect). After a slow night, Ruby and I returned to our 400 baht-a-night bungalow with an incredible view and gigantic living space (that’s about six dollars a person per night).
Day two, Ruby and I seize the day and try to locate Kao Ra, the largest mountain on the island. We found our way to the center of the island via two taxis, then we hiked several kilometers to the largest waterfall on the island "Paeng Noi" which was not very intimidating. From there, it was all mountainous terrain to Kao Ra and we trekked for several hours uphill. Unfortunately we ended up losing the trail, but we ended up finding a lone Thai man with a shack on the top of a mountain with a little self-sustaining coconut grove. We also came across a very Twilight Zone-Outer Limits moment when suddenly in the jungle there was a cement factory-empty rooms with dogs chained up everywhere. Either way, we ended up walking several kilometers back into town with Chang in hand to make the heat bearable. We spent the rest of the day swimming, napping on a concrete slab near the water, and eating some delicious Thai food near the pier. I bought a really neat sarong and we ran into two friends from KMUTT, Joel and George who we thought were on Samui. That night we ended up running into our motorcycle friend from the day before, Karn. Karn was the sweetest guy, about 28 and he hooked us up with Muay Thai Boxing tickets which we spent the night watching while eating peanuts and watching a guy’s face bleed. Very raw.
Day three, we decided to check out a day-long boat adventure called the Reggae Magic Boat Cruise. The boat cruise was a traditional Thai longboat that went in tandem with the Snoop Dogg Boat Cruise which was just hilarious. I’m thinking about shooting an email to Snoop and telling him I loved his trip that I’m SURE he knows exists. The boat took us around an entire half of the island to beaches such as Bottle Beach and to an amazing waterfall where I climbed through this really cool creep cave. A spliff on a boat in Asia is not what I was planning. We watched the sun set over the island and spent the evening back at our artsy bungalow with music and our friends Joel and George. We played cards and our artists only charged us 30 baht per beer because they loved us (that’s less than a dollar). Joel and George stayed over with us which was quite silly and funny.
Day four, Ruby and I went to the beach Haad Rin for the day, laying out, reading, swimming, eating, sleeping, and I got a very amazing Thai massage. I can’t wait to get another one now! Full body hour-long massage for 6 dollars. Unreal. On the beach we met a cool Thai man named Bao that played Frisbee with us and just chatted with us for a while. That night, most of the UNC crew came to our island from neighboring Koh Tao and Krabi (where they filmed the movie “The Beach”), and the Full Moon Party was underway. Starting the night with a very western burrito, Ruby and I were pals all night in the giant crowd. Everyone drinks the very naughtily-named “Fuck Buckets” which was mixed drinks that you guy on the beach that are served in buckets. I may have partaken. Black lights and rave music and fire dancing and fluorescent body painting fought furiously against each other for attention among the crowds. Our friend Karn painted us for free (I got a KILLER scorpion on my back that will only live on in memory as a camera at this occasion would have ended up swimming with the fishes). After dancing and drinking, we ended up hanging out with Karn a lot and I spent several hours in very engaging conversation with a Danish boy that who was equally obsessed with Saturday Night Live! He was a doll, he’s working on his Master’s Thesis in Electrical Engineering in Denmark. He also loves John Belushi. Watching the sun rise is actually an experience I had never had before, and what a location for my first time. I went home to my bungalow to sleep from 9am to 10am, then the trek home of 16+ hours was so worth it.
Conclusion: Longest blog entry yet by far, but for the best adventure. I don’t know if I’ll be going back to that island, but our friend Karn will likely visit us in Bangkok before we leave. Most memorable night ever. You can’t see me, but I’m grinning ear to ear.