'Guys... what colour is neon??', Full Moon Party, Thailand
- ereed231
- Oct 13, 2015
- 4 min read
We were all a little anxious and subdued on our way to Koh Phangan. This is legendary island of the Full Moon Party. Tens of thousands of people come here once a month with the full expectation of having one of the greatest nights of their lives at the world's biggest beach party.
It has a horrible reputation for drugs, violence, sexual assault, spiked drinks and well, I'd just read a lot of horror stories. There was a reason I was trying to avoid this my whole way around Asia. I wasn't sure why I was so apprehensive - it wasn't as if you step off the boat and you're accosted by rave music with pills immediately shoved down your throat but in my head I irrationally feared something to that effect.
When we arrived at our resort, Coral Bungalows, I think we all relaxed a little.
The resort was massive and our bungalow was far away from the bar and pool and no where near the beach party itself. Here I met the much raved about Harry and Lucy, George and Jordi's friends from along the way. The bungalow across from us coincidentally housed Martha and Beth our Koh Rong buddies, it was great to see them again and it was starting to feel like a Christmas gathering, especially since we were expecting Joe, Charly and Tom at any moment.
Fair play to the boys, this group they'd collected had me in stitches most of the time, we had such a laugh and it was mostly due to the fact that none of us took Full Moon seriously at all, in fact we fully enjoyed mocking the scene around us. Spice boys to loose girls.
We partied in style. For the first night, our self imposed theme was tie-dye (very popular amongst backpackers this side if the world so incredibly easy to come by) the garish the better. We set off for the Jungle Party, it's quite literally a rave in a jungle. Flashing lights were hung up on the trees around us, there were fire dancers everywhere and everyone seemed to be off their faces, buzzing to the repetitve beat. Not a big fan of the music, Lucy and I created our own fun by running around playing dares and taking the piss out of everything and everyone. Love this girl :)
The following night we prepared for the big one, again in style - our theme this time was the most amount of neon you can fit on your body. From headbands, flowers, paints, shorts everything. We spent a couple of hours earlier that day searching for the perfect get up - Joe struggled as he stood staring at an array of Full Moon outfits in one shop and said 'so what colour is neon exactly?'. That's why we love you man!
Not one for turning to the dark side, the night was actually insane. Just the fact that there are SO many people on the beach is overwhelming. Each month there's between 10 and 30,000. It's louder and crazier than I thought possible. But it can also be anything you wanted from the night. I loved the fact that each bar played massively different music, pop, rock, dance, trance anything that you preferred you'd find it. If you didn't want to take drugs, they were easily avoided and if you didn't want to get into the thick of it, bumping bodies with sweaty strangers, you could take a step towards the water where the crowds thinned out. In front of the bars would be the dozens of small stalls offering free hugs and selling buckets, a potent and dangerous cocktail in a bucket that could hold a few pints.
Unfortunately we lost Harry, Joe and Charly almost immediately and even though we had our tallest man, Tom, on the case, we searched but it was impossible in such a throng. Keeping an eye out for the rest if the night, we danced, played dares, drank buckets (safely) and built sand castles with our buckets, naturally. A game that didn't get old was offering around a bucket full if sand with a straw in it asking anyone if they'd like a sip. It was worrying 1) how many people put the straw to their mouths before realising it was, in fact, sand and 2) how many were accepting 'drinks' from us, absolutel strangers! That's how the bad shit happens people!
We watched a dangerous drunk game of limbo where the bar was on fire, then turned around to watch the sun come up over the water. it was a surreal feeling, as if lights in the club were being gradually faded up at the end of the night. You truly see how much of a state everyone is in, how much of a state you're in. Neon paint is just on every part of your body, clothes hanging off, stumbling a little and wanting to punch the person who is shouting 'After party!! After party this way!' It was half 6 in the morning!
Our final burst of energy was spent on running around climbing on couples in little embraces on the sand scattered everywhere. We would join them in either side like the annoying drunks we were and hug. This would quickly turn into a pile on.
One of the boys equated the passed out bodies on the beach in the morning to the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. I've not seen the movie but I can imagine it's pretty accurate. The day after...
I guess I should thank the boys, under any other circumstances I would never have gone to this party and without this group of people I never would have had the most awesome few days, we had the best time. You meet a lot of people travelling and you make a lot of promises to meet up again but with this lot I've no doubt, I know I'll be seeing them in the UK real soon. Christmas reunion 2015 baby!
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