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Published: September 10th 2007
Fire juggling
This guy's got skills!Everyone knows you can't do SE Asia without getting your arse down to Ko Pha Ngan and rocking out on the beach till the sun comes up, so after Myanmar it was back to Bangok and straight down to the islands via bus, ferry and tuk tuk. It's pretty obvious there's a big party in the hood when people are already cracking their first beer at the ferry terminal at 6.45 in the morning...
Arrived on the island midday and went straight to the resort (Lai Som) that we'd been talked into staying at. The tout on the mainland had shown us glossy pictures of white sand and beautiful coral, and while it wasn't exactly like the pics, at 200 baht (about $7), it was good enough. Plus by chance a fellow party-going friend from Sapporo (Helen) and her buds were also staying at the same resort, so we knew we'd made the right choice.
24 hours later (and with reality rapidly slipping away), we found ourselves in the back of an overcrowded tuk tuk packed to the brim with fellow
farangs and skinny Thai teenage chix racing towards the party. 12.35am we arrive, stumble onto the beach and
have our first look at the madness: A one kilometre stretch of sand filled with thousands of people in all states of sobriety, mega boats and ferries anchored in the sea, neon lighting in every direction (including up 40m high trees) and damn loud beats. Even though I'm writing this over two months later, that initial image is there for life. Pure craziness!
Took a walk down the beach to survey what was on offer, but soon returned to the psyc. trance area where we had started. Easy decision really because it was no way near as crowded as some of the other areas (funky house, drum'n'bass) and also because the DJ was throwing down some real nice toonz. This, along with fire trix, cool decorations and a 60 something partially bald hippy lady making love to the speaker, ensured we were in for one of those nites...
The morning soon dawned and decisions had to be made: Back to the resort for a sleep or continue boogying @ the day party? Back to Lai Som for a sleep it was, but only to give us enough energy to hit up the party at Ban Tai that nite.
Full Moon madness
Good hard psyc trance beats... You could easily tell those who had napped and come out again from those who hadn't. But kudos to the true hardcore that didn't stop at all!
This cycle of partying @ nite and sleeping during the day was occasionally interrupted by swimming, beach exploration, hiking and herbal saunas over the ensuing days. A bit of bad luck did come our way when Kako slipped while coming out of the sauna (requiring 4 stiches in her finger), but that didn't stop her nor the rest of us enjoying the best party of the lot, the Half Moon Party. The much smaller crowd getting down to some solid beats in the jungle had a real friendly vibe, and this was definitely our favourite party.
Still wanting to explore more of Thaialnd, we said adios to our new amigos and headed across the peninsular to the limestone beaches of Krabi and Ao Nang. While the rock formations were pretty awesome (similar to Yangshuo in many ways), the south west monsoon was in full swing meaning choppy oceans and far from crystal clear waters. That would have to wait until the Perhentians...
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