In the last exciting installment of: why I am a buffoon, I described how I slept through the half moon party. Well I refused to have it be a thing that I would leave Ko Phagnan without experiencing some sort of [phase of moon] party. The full moon party was in just under 2 weeks time, so I decided that in the name of science I would bear the unwanted task of being on sunny Ko Phagnan till then.
One thing that had been plaguing the island were endless power cuts. The day after the half moon there was another one of these - except this time it did not seem like it would ever end! I met up with Jack and his friend and we decided to see if the power cuts were only affecting First Villas by taking a trip to Had Rin beach (where the full moon party would be). We were joined by my other neighbors: a brother sister pair from California.
We grabbed a taxi and headed out. Once there we quickly discovered that they too had no power either. Well we decided to make the most of our visit, and made our way to a bar to drank a million Changs in the rain and gloom. The power never did come back on so eventually we drunkenly got a taxi back in pitch blackness.
A few days later Jack and his friend headed off to Ko Phi Phi. Almost as soon as they had departed the monsoon hit with a fury that lasted for days. That meant that for pretty much the remainder of my stay my intended activities were hampered somewhat. Well: I say activities, although this might be a bit of a grand description for my designs on sitting around on the beach. Anyway instead of that I spend most of my time in shelter reading, drinking and chilling. I did take the odd trip to the nearest town to explore and get drenched.
On one occasion in the interest of keeping active I visited a gym. I managed to track one down in a nearby town with help from the couple who ran first villas. It turned out that this gyms primary function was for Mai Thai boxing training, so the equipment all flanked a boxing ring where people were practicing sparring. I huffed and puffed on equipment near the edge and attempted to look rough and like I belonged there.
Eventually the night of the full moon dawned. I had obviously vowed to not miss it come hell or high water. So I had booked a taxi ages in advance and was ready waiting a good 20 minutes before it was due. A pickup containing some other revelers duly arrived and we were on our way over the hills to Had Rin! We made good time and I found a transformed place from the one I had visited some days ago, being as it was, stuffed with 20,000 luminous party goers all going for it on a one mile stretch of beach.
I felt conspicuously sober, so grabbed the first bucket of booze I could find, and headed into the throng. It was good fun chatting to strangers and checking out the different djs dotted about the place. After a while I plopped down onto the beach and got talking to a group of English folk: Paul, Rita, Jane and Simon*. We quickly found out that we were all from the same town! What are the chances, dear reader?
I can't remember who suggested it but we all agreed to drink shots from Mellow Mountain. Things went a bit sideways after that. Everyone in unison felt compelled to have a lie down on the beach. I spent some time enjoying looking at the various vast epic vistas i could see playing out on the clouds above me.
Various party-goers did pop over to chat to us on our backs staring in amazement at the sky, curious as to what the big deal was. One of the only such chat I remember is one girl, dressed in loomy clothes and body paint. She asked how I was, I told her I was fine, and decided to pay the best compliment I could manage, so I said that she was colourful.
One inkling of sense beamed through the fog of my inebriation. It alerted me to the fact that these gigantic clouds that we were staring at might have some water in them. As I shared my epiphany with the others it started to absolutely chuck it down. Back to Mushroom Mountain we hurriedly went for shelter, finally making it with only minor injuries.
From then on I don't really remember anything. I am fairly sure that at one point me and one of the group may have found out how to end global conflict... or was it the cure starvation? I'm not sure. I could have sworn that I had written it on my hand, but when I checked the next day there was only a smiley face drawn there.
I finally got back to First Villas with about 5 hours to pack everything and have a snooze before my onward ferry. Timing the ferry ticket for the day after the full moon party probably slightly foolish in hindsight. Not only because I was quite hung over and bleary, but also that half of the tourists on the island had the same idea, which I realised at the ferry port which was bursting at the seams when I got there.
The ferry to Surat Thani was massively full. Still the buses to Bangkok were comfortable and I caught up on some sleep. I was headed for Cambodia!
* These names are completely made up. At this point I had drunk about 3 bucketfuls of drink, and so I had absolutely no idea what their names were.
One thing that had been plaguing the island were endless power cuts. The day after the half moon there was another one of these - except this time it did not seem like it would ever end! I met up with Jack and his friend and we decided to see if the power cuts were only affecting First Villas by taking a trip to Had Rin beach (where the full moon party would be). We were joined by my other neighbors: a brother sister pair from California.
We grabbed a taxi and headed out. Once there we quickly discovered that they too had no power either. Well we decided to make the most of our visit, and made our way to a bar to drank a million Changs in the rain and gloom. The power never did come back on so eventually we drunkenly got a taxi back in pitch blackness.
A few days later Jack and his friend headed off to Ko Phi Phi. Almost as soon as they had departed the monsoon hit with a fury that lasted for days. That meant that for pretty much the remainder of my stay my intended activities were hampered somewhat. Well: I say activities, although this might be a bit of a grand description for my designs on sitting around on the beach. Anyway instead of that I spend most of my time in shelter reading, drinking and chilling. I did take the odd trip to the nearest town to explore and get drenched.
On one occasion in the interest of keeping active I visited a gym. I managed to track one down in a nearby town with help from the couple who ran first villas. It turned out that this gyms primary function was for Mai Thai boxing training, so the equipment all flanked a boxing ring where people were practicing sparring. I huffed and puffed on equipment near the edge and attempted to look rough and like I belonged there.
Eventually the night of the full moon dawned. I had obviously vowed to not miss it come hell or high water. So I had booked a taxi ages in advance and was ready waiting a good 20 minutes before it was due. A pickup containing some other revelers duly arrived and we were on our way over the hills to Had Rin! We made good time and I found a transformed place from the one I had visited some days ago, being as it was, stuffed with 20,000 luminous party goers all going for it on a one mile stretch of beach.
 |
| It wasn't only this picture that got blurry |
I felt conspicuously sober, so grabbed the first bucket of booze I could find, and headed into the throng. It was good fun chatting to strangers and checking out the different djs dotted about the place. After a while I plopped down onto the beach and got talking to a group of English folk: Paul, Rita, Jane and Simon*. We quickly found out that we were all from the same town! What are the chances, dear reader?
I can't remember who suggested it but we all agreed to drink shots from Mellow Mountain. Things went a bit sideways after that. Everyone in unison felt compelled to have a lie down on the beach. I spent some time enjoying looking at the various vast epic vistas i could see playing out on the clouds above me.
Various party-goers did pop over to chat to us on our backs staring in amazement at the sky, curious as to what the big deal was. One of the only such chat I remember is one girl, dressed in loomy clothes and body paint. She asked how I was, I told her I was fine, and decided to pay the best compliment I could manage, so I said that she was colourful.
One inkling of sense beamed through the fog of my inebriation. It alerted me to the fact that these gigantic clouds that we were staring at might have some water in them. As I shared my epiphany with the others it started to absolutely chuck it down. Back to Mushroom Mountain we hurriedly went for shelter, finally making it with only minor injuries.
From then on I don't really remember anything. I am fairly sure that at one point me and one of the group may have found out how to end global conflict... or was it the cure starvation? I'm not sure. I could have sworn that I had written it on my hand, but when I checked the next day there was only a smiley face drawn there.
I finally got back to First Villas with about 5 hours to pack everything and have a snooze before my onward ferry. Timing the ferry ticket for the day after the full moon party probably slightly foolish in hindsight. Not only because I was quite hung over and bleary, but also that half of the tourists on the island had the same idea, which I realised at the ferry port which was bursting at the seams when I got there.
The ferry to Surat Thani was massively full. Still the buses to Bangkok were comfortable and I caught up on some sleep. I was headed for Cambodia!
* These names are completely made up. At this point I had drunk about 3 bucketfuls of drink, and so I had absolutely no idea what their names were.
