Thailand - Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui

So all along our trip we've been hearing about the Full Moon party in Ko Pha Ngan (sounds like Ko pin yang).


View Krabi to Ko Pha Ngan in a larger map

Thousands of travelers flock to a 1/2 mile beach on the night of every full moon for a HUGE party. We had been meeting fun and friendly visitors on our travels so we were excited to meet a whole slew of new friends in one go. Plus, in our travel book it was listed as one of the must-see things in Thailand. So we made it part of our frequently changing itinerary.


We also heard that it is difficult to find accommodation starting a few days before the full moon and that many of the places don't take reservations. So we decided to get there about a week early to ensure we got a place to stay. Success! We got a cheap, basic bungalow on the North end of the beach where the party is held every month.

The beach is definitely geared towards the party crowd. We got there in the evening and we could already hear the thump of a strange bass line somewhere on the beach. Then we noticed that it wasn't one strange bass line. It was a bass line coming from each of the bars along the beach. Whaddaya like? We got it. Techno, house, pop remixes, reggae, more reggae, heavy techno, etc. The jumbled bass lines sounded like shoes in a tumble dryer. At least we could shut it out when we went to bed.

Or not.

The room wasn't very sound-proof so we enjoyed a variety of songs all night, every night. The only peace we got was when the bars were beginning to close at around 8 am. I invested in earplugs and Celia bought speakers for her iPod to drown out the music with something that we chose ourselves... This was the entire week.

Monsoon season reminded us of it's presence every afternoon around 2 pm. The dark clouds would roll in with the wind and we'd have a downpour for a few minutes and be left with with overcast skies for the rest of the day.

With thousands of kids on their summer holidays and coming as part of a package tour, they would party it up but didn't usually stray too far from their own groups of about 10. We found it difficult to meet people because of the amount of A) people they were with or B) alcohol they'd consumed.

The beaches were beautiful and we visited a few different places in the daytime on our trusty rented motorbike. On the day of the full moon, August 6th, we decided to see the next island over, Ko Samui, just to get a break from the craziness before the real craziness began. We rented a motorbike and visited a few beaches on the island and found it to be a really nice place. It isn't a big island and you can ride a motorbike around it in less than a day. But I misjudged both the distance and the amount of fuel in our tank so one thing led to another and we ended up missing our boat (the last boat) back to Ko Pha Ngan! We were going to miss the entire reason that we stayed for the entire week, enduring the pounding in our brains and the not-so-friendly tourists.

Luckily, the ferry company added an extra run on the night of the full moon, so we made it back by about 1030 pm when the party was already in full-swing.

The beach was PACKED with people. Visitors from all over the island and the surrounding islands had shown up and the party organizers were ready for them. There were police to ensure a safe party, hawkers selling anything from glow-in-the-dark paint tattoos to buckets of cocktails, and a couple medical tents (which included sleeping areas for those who were too exhausted/inebriated to party any further) to treat those who may have cut themselves on broken glass or perhaps burned.

Yes burned. There was fire everywhere! Tiki torches, batons, those hippie things that you toss around on two sticks, and poi balls all ablaze and spinning sometimes with little control. And just in case you forgot where you were there was this:


OH! And to top it all off, there were two guys stood on boxes 6 feet high and strung between them was a jump rope about 20 feet long. It too was on fire and people were jumping in it! It was ok when they were jumping well but then someone else would run and jump in and if they weren't quite right they'd catch a foot or leg or any other body part in the firey chain from hell and it would trip everyone else up and they'd all scatter, trying not to get burned. I must admit it was fun and a bit scary to watch.

So the party made up for the week of being there but if someone wanted my advice... stay in Ko Samui and just go to Ko Pha Ngan for the party.