Thailands islands, beaches and The FULL MOON PARTY!! Part 3!

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Ko Pha-Ngan and the Full Moon

You might well ask, what is a Full Moon party?! Well its certainly not a Traditional Thai celebration - nor is it an astrological celebration of the phases of the moon.

Instead it began around 1987, the year of our birth, when a group of travellers liked the way the moon illuminated the beach at Haad Rin on the island of Ko Pha-Ngan. So the small group of 30 or travellers throught hey, lets have a disco on the beach...... and the rest as they say is history... Each full moon attracts up to 30,000 revelers on the beach.

The Full Moon party also gives us a chance to link up again with the group of 5 we met in Ko Lanta.

But with this being Thailand, unlike it's neighbour Malaysia, getting to Ko Pha-Ngan isnt easy, an almost intollerable journey where we have to deal with some of the most vile people we have met on this Trip! It's not a word we would use lightly either.... You see we've become acustomed to some of the commission based practices these canny people involve themselves in - but this one really did take the Biscuit!

........ After a painful night for Chris and Fay, both feeling slighty unwell (the only solace taken from that night is that Norwich beat Leeds! enough said on that subject!), we head off to Ko Pha-ngan, Ko Samui's fun loving next door neighbour for the Full Moon Party! (Just in case we have confused you too much we are now leaving Phuket)!

The Journey involves a 5 hour bus journey and a 7 hour overnight boat to the island - at least it should do! We've become fans of the idea of spending the night travelling, leaves the days free and saves some money. However, not this time!

After finally arriving in Surat Thani we are unceramonally plonked at the company office of the outfit we booked out boat ticket with. Some very dismissive and aggressive men tell us our boat is not running, fortunately these people know of a place we can stay! (shock horror) Before we can speak to them we are whisked away to a hotel charging 10 pound a night for the room! Knowing full well that theres probably commission in this somewhere (the boat guy is waiting outside!) we seek to know the truth about the non running night-boat which we should be on! We ask around, and everybody tells us its running!!

These people do really know how to extract money from you.... We head back to the company who strangely enough dont want to talk to us! Instead they shout and curse..... We give up and head back to the hotel. And wait for the morning ferry.

Ko Pha-Ngan, Booms Cafe and The Full Moon

When we finally arrive, after 25 hours of travelling and waiting, we find another beautiful island. We arrive at Booms Cafe and our faith in the friendly Thai people is instantly restored when we meet Nok, the lovely lady proprietor of our home for the next three nights. She's immensely friendly, warm hearted and as our friend Ash says "shes like your mum."

Booms Cafe is an assortment of concrete and bamboo bungalows, we have a bamboo one as its only 4 pound each a night. The walk to the beach is about two metres from our bed! The only downside to our little hidaway is a multitude of bugs, many mosquitos form an orderly line to kiss us while we are sleeping, and even more while we are fully awake! But the beach is beautiful and the place is friendly and relaxed!

A nice chilled out mood fills the air around Booms, something far removed from the atmosphere of Full Moon night....

March 30th, the day of the Full Moon, starts much like any other, Chris and Fay take a stroll along the beaches... All empty.. All beautiful.. and then we relax, and try not to over exert ourselves before the big night.

The Full Moon party itself is located on a long sandy beach in Haad Rin, two kilometres from Booms but even from here we can feel the atmosphere building as dusk decends into night. The Full Moon finally visable after an uncharacteristically overcast day. The anticipation grows as the two of us get ready, Ashley (who's going to his 3rd full moon party) seems unfased by the build up - and is probably wondering why us Full Moon virgins are almost giddy about a party on the beach!

We head into Haad Rin, with Ash, Rachael, Jemma, Chris and Nikki, and go to "Warm up Bar" where Ash is Djing before he head to the beach. After a few drinks the body paints come out and we festoon ourselves in Pinks, Oranges and of course YELLOW and GREEN paints! (This isnt some silly idea we spontaneously decided to do, everyone does it, so we all look daft together!). After Ash finished at warm up bar we head to the beach. Our first sight of the beach left us startled a huge throng of people jumping around, crammed in close together......

The place was heaving.... well until you move slightly away from the first few bars. Reports of 30,000 attending the party seem to be way off the mark (granted this is a quiet month), instead around 10,000 people are hear dancing, drinking, throwing up and going to the toilet in the sea!!! Its all good fun, especially for us sensible bunch, merry enough to have a good jump around, and as chris' mum might say "have a boogie!" Whilst sober enough not to be sitting on the stretch of beach reserved for those to sick to move!!

It was all good fun, we're just glad that we're not around to see the beach the next day!

We leave the quiet serenity of Booms cafe two days later, and leave behind Chris and Nikki, who are now house hunting! (The lucky buggers have 11 more months in Thailand!!). Before we ramble on too much, we'll leave you with our photo's, next we're off Chiang Mai.... and things are going to get very busy, there's so much to do...... but we have soo little time..... Thats next but for now enjoy our pictures..

Love Fay and Chris x

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