Full Moon Party and Bangkok

---

A lot of the other exchange students here at our school had been telling me about a Full Moon party in Koh Phangnan, Thailand that was supposed to be an unreal experience. Unfortunately for us we happened to make it there on a weekend where the weather was bad but fortunately for us, no one else from our school made the same mistake so nobody we would ever have to speak to again saw us in the state we were in. But before we get to the party, I'll do a brief rundown of the trip.

I went to Thailand with Matt, the same guy I had gone to China with, and Ronan, a really good-natured French guy who had me thoroughly entertained the entire weekend. We left Thursday night from Hong Kong for Bangkok and stayed in a hotel near the airport since we had an early flight to Koh Samui (an island about a half hour ferry ride from Koh Phangnan where the party was). After a delayed plane flight due to Ronan confusing the entire on-flight staff by specifying a child's meal when he booked his ticket, we were greated upon arrival in Koh Samui with wet conditions and little sun. This was unfortunate because our hotel was located on Chaweng Beach, listed as one of the nicest beaches in Southeast Asia. Here is a link to what the beach is supposed to look like (http://www.samui-holidays.com/beaches/chaweng.htm) and I'll attach a photo of what it actually looked like when we went during the beginning of wet season. Most people would probably stay indoors on such a wet day but since we knew the next day was going to be a write-off due to the after-effects of the party that night, we decided to make the most of it. Being young morons, we decided the best thing to do when the streets were covered with pools of water up to your knees would be to rent mo-peds and tour the island. It was actually a great time. We went to a crocodile farm and saw a cobra show and an alligator show and also got to mingle with some of the rambunctious monkeys they had caged up. Ronan was like a kid, playing tug of war with angry caged apes and spitting on the crocodiles in the pit. So hilarious. Then we went and saw the Big Buddha and Big Vishnu which is basically what the name suggests and finally took the bikes back home. It was a miracle we made it out without a scratch. Great times though.

FULL MOON
We organized all our transportation for the party and headed out for a refined dinner. Pretty ironic that we started off such a night with an expensive, civilized meal at a delicious Italian restaurant. In anticipation of the night, we probably got a little too much of a head start while waiting in the lobby for our transportation. Once we were on the speedboat and the island was in sight, we could hardly tell if it was our hearts beating or the trance music coming from the beach as we just could not wait to go and see what all the fuss was about. All of Thailand is dirt cheap, which makes exhibiting moderation while drinking an almost impossible task. The main cause of the damage where these buckets that street vendors sold that basically had a flask of vodka and two red bulls. Add ice, and..... you get the picture. The party was so unbelievable though. People packed the inside of beach-side bars and by midnight thousands of people had spilled out onto the beach dancing away, sipping buckets.

We made our way to a group of people huddled around a blaze of light to find professional fire twirlers, spinning sticks and twirling string with fire at the end. We sat in awe for literally two hours and then Matt decided to give it a shot. At first he stood out in pretty stark contrast to the amazing professionals behind him but within minutes he'd gotten the hang of it. Ronan and I got the crowd into it and he was actually throwing it up in the air and catching it looking like he belonged there! It was probably after this point that we had that umpteenth bucket because our shirts came off and we danced up a blurry storm until dawn. God knows how we were able to stick together throughout the night and catch the last speedboat home at 7AM but we did both of these things (and also managed to keep from getting sick on the bumpy boat ride home). Like I said, the next day was a write off but in all the party was well worth it. It's obviously hard to say why, you just need to go. If you're ever in Southeast Asia at the time of a full moon I would highly recommend it, although it's a little troubling to think of such a spectacular natural surrounding littered with trash and unconscious tourists the next morning. The Thai government is trying to outlaw the full moon festivals, with tens of deaths each year and rampant druge use, but the island has only expanded the ceremonies with doing half-moon and no-moon festivals too! One of the best parties I've been to in my life, which is saying something coming from USC.









BANGKOK

On Sunday we made our way to Bangkok and checked into a hostel in the Khao San Road area (basically a backpacker's paradise with cheap street markets and buzzing nightlife). I hesitate to write about this day because it was only on our plane flight home the next day that we found out we had been completely DUPED by our tuk tuk driver but here goes...

We had planned on seeing the main sights of Bangkok, the Grand Palace and some of the temples in the area around it, but our tuk tuk driver told us they were closed. It's hard to explain how we fell for such an elaborate con but trust me there were multiple parties involved in this so you would have done the same if you'd never been to Bangkok. First we asked him to take us somewhere to eat, so he took us to his brother's street-side grill which was actually pretty good. Then he told us that the sights we wanted to see were closed because of ceremonies for the king's birthday. Not only did more than one source agree with him on this but it also was the king's birthday and the Thais LOOOOVVVVEEE their king so this seemed reasonable to us. Instead he took us to three different temples of Buddha, which were nice but not the nicest/biggest things to see in Bangkok. Interspersed through these stops were stops at shops where he told us to look around. Our guidebook had warned us of these drivers taking you shopping but given the elaborate story and the fact that we only had to peek inside for him to get a stamp that gave him free gas (looking back on it I don't know how we believed this ridiculous crap) we allowed him to take us to a couple places before putting our foot down.

After that stressful experience we decided to split up and spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in the street bazaar in the area our hostel was located. I was able to secure a lot of Christmas presents and if you make it to Bangkok you really can't leave without shopping. The entire experience is enjoyable from the beautiful Thai women waving you over to the art of negotiation, and you can really get good value. Some of the best local food in the city is right there on the street and we had more than our fair share of Pad Thai (fried, flat vermicelli noodle with seafood/pork/chicken and spices, lime, peanut...). Amazingly delicious but so overwhelming on the taste buds that after a weekend of it you can't do it anymore.

Sunday night, we went to a Muy Thai boxing event. Basically a mix between Ultimate Fighting and regular boxing, where more legs are used (and especially knees to the side that came so close to the groin it was painful to watch). We paid the extra 3 dollars US to sit ringside and get the full experience. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. These kids were so young and SOOOOOO into it, understandably so because they were making income for their family and because there's obviously a hell of a lot of training that they go through to get to the point where they can compete. Most of the boxers were about 12-16 yrs old we guessed and about 100 lbs. Their family/entorouge stood behind their corner of the ring and screamed with every knee their fighter threw. Between rounds the kid would come back and divert his attention between different trainers, family members, and fans scattered around their periphery screaming advice/commands at them. The main event featured the heaviest two fighters (126 lbs each) going at it for all of 30 seconds. I honestly should have seen this coming but I was too busy getting my camera ready I missed it. The guy in the blue corner came out for the warmup looking no different than somebody you'd pass in the street and then the guy in our corner (the red corner) came out ripped and tatooed up like he came straight from hell. He was INTENSEr than Chris Roby and Matt Summers combined. He knocked the guy out cold with his third punch and all us VIPs (tourists) got to go get our photo taken with him.

After the fight we made a spur of the moment decision to go to a ping pong show. Yeah. Not really appropriate to go into detail here. One night in Bangkok right?

We woke up early Monday morning to go see the Floating Market about an hour outside the city before our flight. It was great. Lots of boats through canals selling everything from food (coconuts, bananas, papayas, and of course pad thai) to touristy trinkets that we had seen our fill of in the street markets in the city. We got on a boat for about $5 US per person and toured the canals for about an hour and a half. The entire experience was a very visual one, with all the colors of the market mingling with the unique faces of the authentic Thais and the morning light coming into the canals. We did some shopping here as well and took loads of photos. Very peaceful ending to an exhausting trip.

All in all we'd done Bangkok-->KohSamui-->Koh Phangnan(Full Moon Party)-->Koh Samui-->Bangkok all in four days, four nights with about 22 hours of sleep total. The Thai people may not have been as kind as we had originally expected but its unfair to generalize our unfortunate and foolish situation in Bangkok. I definitely recommend you insist on being taken where you want to go REGARDLESS of what the tuk-tuk drivers, or anyone else for that matter, tell you because you never know just how elaborate of a scheme you can find yourself caught up in. We saw a lot of cool things though and I'm putting Thai women up there with the ranks of Croatians, Argentinians and Dutch... a very beautiful mix of all the Asian features. We had an amazing trip and I would go back next month for the next party if there weren't so many other places I want to see! I will post again soon as I'm headed to the Phillippines on Friday and we're looking at doing an eco-tourism trekking trip through Laos sometime this month!

---

Photos

Alligator Show
Showing us his four and a half fingers before putting his entire arm in the croc's mouth

Doggie Dog
A friend we made in the streets of Koh Phangnan

Koh Samui on a rainy day
still paradise after such a long night