More Bang for your Bucket

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After Kuala Lumpur, we headed to Phuket (Thailand) to meet two of my friends from Toronto, Deb and Susan. We spent two days catching up on a beach in an area of Phuket that was hit quite hard by the tsunami last year and is still in the midst of reconstruction. Following a little catch up time we headed east to Koh Phangan: the site of the famous (infamous) Full Moon Party. Tara decided that heading up north was more her style and so she carried on up to Bangkok.

Koh Phangan is a cute little jungle island of 168 km2. It has beautiful beaches with clear, warm water. Haad Rin is the beach where the Full Moon Party is held and between 8000 -15 000 tourists are drawn to the event. The next few days contained many elements of what is one of my favorite events...the gong show. If you know all the characters involved you will probably quite accurately predict the proceedings and for those who don't, let's just say it was an “entertaining” time. The tone was set upon arrival. In the first ten minutes we managed to break our room key off in the lock, fall through the deck (rotten wood) and then lock the only spare key in our room. The owners must have assumed we were on drugs since we were laughing hysterically by this point, loudly displaying our intellectual capacity.

When we first reached Haad Rin we thought the party looked quite tame, until someone pointed us towards the ocean. There were at least 12 bars on the beach all pumping out insanely loud music so as to obliterate all the surrounding music. Party-goers simply had to pick the spot that suited their tastes. After choosing our bar of choice, we soon discovered the prophetic "bucket" that we had been told party life in Thailand is known for. For those of you who haven't been to Thailand: these are literally children's plastic sand buckets filled with the beverage of your choice (at an insanely cheap price = recipe for disaster) and a handful of straws.

In short, the party was great - I felt like I was 17 again. People had come from all over the world to attend the event and there was great energy. The days were spent recovering on the beach and eating...Thai food is wonderful!

After the pandemonium of Koh Phangan, we all decided to head to Chiang Mai (a city in northern Thailand). Tara was already there so Deb and Susan flew and I took my dreaded night bus. Fortunately, Thailand's buses are a dream in contrast to India's so I felt like a queen and was even able to fall asleep at one point!

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Photos

Lovely Beach
Beach in front of our home in Koh Phangan.

We love a beach!
Susan, Deb, and I in Koh Phangan.

Comments

[Ryan S]

Ahh... to be young single and in a foreign country.

[Stan Dunscombe]

I just want to say that I think your journals are GREAT and I think you girls should write a book about your travels, when you return home. By the way I hope the sand wasn't too hot, while you where on the beach. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Regards Stan

[Lizzie]

Not what I heard
Your description of the full moon party is too funny. Tom's been avoiding sharing too much of these stories for a couple of years...a "cultural event"... Glad you had fun!