Ko Pha-Ngan, December 31st, 2009/January 1st, 2010

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Ko Pha-Ngan, December 31st, 2009/January 1st, 2010

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a night!!

Ko Pha-Ngan is an island about 15 kms from Ko Samui, and it’s literally famous for its ability to PARTY!!
Arrangements were made with our hotel for pick up and drop off, but things went seriously off course. When we booked, we were told that we would be taken over by speed boat at 10:00pm. We weren’t told that we would have to wait in a crazy line up until about 11:00pm! They literally herded everyone over like cattle!! Too many drunken people and not enough speed boats, made for some great chit chat in the line-up. It was quite the laugh I must say! Everyone was waiting by the shore for the speed boats, and of course everyone gets restless and anxious. Every time a boat came in for pick up, people would run out into the sea and rush the boat to try and be the next ones on. So in other words, if you weren’t WET, you weren’t trying hard enough, which essentially means you’re not getting on!! When we get on, we got on with wet asses, but it was all good. It’s not like we were dressed up or anything. The vibe going over in the boat, and overall was good. Everyone was happy and in a great mood, despite all the setbacks!!

The story with the full moon party goes something like this:

Back in 1987-88 two travelers, Swedish I think, decided to throw a party during a full moon! Needless to say it was a hit. It quickly became a traditional thing, attracting party goers form all over the world. It’s become so popular and in demand that they now even have half moon, quarter moon, almost full moon parties, etc… It’s classified as the biggest beach party in the world!! This year the full moon just happened to fall on the 31st of December, so this was a little bit of a bigger deal than usual! Word on the street was that the beach had about 55,000 people on it that night!

Once we got off the speed boats, they continued to herd us. We stopped off for the traditional Ko Pha-Ngan drink, “A Bucket”, mixes vary!! You get a mickey of whiskey (or whatever your choice might be), a small bottle of red bull (I skipped that, bad memories from Rimini, lol), and coke (mix)!! They serve that to us in a bucket, your job is to then pour it all in, mix together, and CONSUME. All in all, I got a giant Rye and Coke. We then continued down the narrow streets on our way to beach! Just imagine being in a packed night club that you could barley move in! That’s what it was like. Slowly making our way, gently pushing and shoving, and trying not to spill anything on yourself, or anyone else for that matter. We finally made it the beach area at about 11:45pm, and we continued to push our way towards the water. It was a little less populated down that way, so it gave us some breathing room. The site was pretty remarkable!!! I mean it was just people from one end of the beach to another. Several Dj’s along the way spinning different tunes, catering to everyone’s preference, so u get to choose your own party atmosphere. Techno, Trance, House, Rap, etc….

No countdown at midnight, just some serious fireworks!! I felt like I was at Benson and Hedges Symphony of Fire, and they were letting them go off on both ends. It was very well done!!

The name of the beach we were on was Haad Rin (something like that), and when you stand on this beach during the full moon, it’s right above your head!!! Thus, Full Moon Party!!! I don’t think I’ve ever felt so close to the moon in my entire life. There’s also talk that if you watch the sunset on Haad Rin, and once the sun sets, you can go over a little mountain to the other side of the beach, and you’ll still get another 30 minutes of sunset viewing. Seems like Ko Pha-Ngan is geographically located in a really neat spot!

Anyways, back to the bash. After we rang in the New Year, did the macho man hug thing, it was off into the herd again! As we were making our way through, we accidentally got split up. I was leading the charge and when I looked behind me, no site of Nelson or Mike, so instead of panicking, I decided to have another bucket, and push deeper into the pile, lol!! I wasn’t born during the original Woodstock, but I would strongly assume that this party had some serious similarities!!! Modern day hippie Vibe!! People everywhere, in their own little world, people sleeping on the ground, people passing out, people rushing other people for first aid, and last but not least, people just hanging around and having a normal fun time!! When I say people, I should really be saying young adults. Young 20’s seemed like the dominant age group.

I hung with the crowd for a couple of hours knowing in the back of my mind that getting back over to Samui would be even a bigger mission than getting off, so I did one last lap of the beach hoping to find the boys. No luck. It was then off to the dock to see what madness awaited me!! Madness indeed!!! We were all given color coded passes to get to and from the island, and at the dock, no one knew where to line up, or which boat was taking who. Not to mention, about thousands of people trying to get on whatever boat any which way they could. I knew I wasn’t going to be making it off this way, and I wasn’t about to sit and wait!! I say a lady with a taxi sign, so I ran towards her, asked how much, and aboard I went. My commute back to Samui was on board a long tail boat, with about 9 people, mostly French, 2 Brits, and one German girl (21 years old) who was convinced that something bad was going to happen, and that we would all drown! I think she had about 3 lifejackets all to herself. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride in the world, and it did take a little longer than the speed boat, but we made it across safe and sound.

Another wrench!! This boat took us to another dock on the other side, not the one that we all left from, so instead of taking our pre-arranged shuttle back to the hotel, we had to find a taxi in middle of nowhere. After some haggling, I ended up sharing a cabby with the German girl, and a huge Norwegian guy, who was very cheap. This guy expected the cab ride to be practically free on New Year’s Eve. He obviously doesn’t get out much. As this was all happening, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with the other guys?? Were they still on the island, off the island, how would they get home!!

When I finally got dropped off at my hotel, it was about 4 in the morning. I knew that the hotel next door was having a gala on the beach so I decided to venture over there for a late night cocktail. The party was practically over, but the gentleman was nice enough to still sell me a beer. I decided to walk along the beach for a while, just taking in the view, and enjoying the breeze, it was a beautiful night. I was lucky enough to find a vendor on the beach selling “Lucky Balloons” so I bought one. A lucky balloon is almost like a miniature hot air balloon. You light it up; wait a bit until it fills up, then you make your wish and watch it float away. It’s a really beautiful thing to see, especially when many people are doing it at the same time. It’s like watching a bunch of little flames float away.

I walked some more and ran into 2 girls on the beach who were just chilling and watching the view. They were both living in Hong Kong, but one was from Italy, and the other from France. They both worked in the garment industry. We hung out together and chatted until we were joined by a Norwegian couple who were also just cruising the beach and taking in the scenery. Eventually, somehow, someway, we ended up with a bottle of champagne, 6 glasses, and an ice bucket. We sipped on champagne, watched the sun come up, and exchanged stories. That went on till about 7am, and we then decided to break for the night!! Really nice people!!

I made back to the hotel, and the boys were both in bed sound asleep.

That was New Year’s Eve!!

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